Innovation Labs and Process

Traditional approaches to problem-solving are no longer sufficient to tackle complex challenges.

Defining Social Innovation Labs...

A social innovation lab is a process that is intended to support multi-stakeholder groups in addressing a complex social problem. - F. Westley, Professor of Social Innovation, WISIR

Social innovation labs are a new approach to address our most complex challenges. They are a strategy, a space and a practice. - Zaid Hassan, 10-by-10, author of Social Labs Revolution

Social innovation labs are small, specialized teams or units that support diverse stakeholders to address a complex social challenge collaboratively. - Joeri van den Steenhoven, Former Director, MaRS Solutions Lab

The features of social innovation labs influence how they bring about change, and their capacity for bringing about change.

The key qualities of a lab are that they:

  1. Are a separate team or unit with a mandate to bring about change

  2. Provide a safe and creative space to explore and experiment with new ideas

  3. View innovation as a discipline, and have the competency to manage the innovation process from problem analysis to market introduction

Examples and Resources

A set of practical tools to trigger and support social innovation is available in Nesta's Development, Impact & You Toolkit. You can watch a video about it here: http://diytoolkit.org/about/

Additional Resources

Duggan, K. Dahl, S. & Roberts, I. (2016). Designing for Public Services. Nesta, IDEO, Design for Europe.http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/introducing-designing-public-services-practical-guide

Eisenstadt, M. & Hassan, Z. (2016). The Social Labs Fieldbook: A Practical guide to solving our most complex challenges. http://social-labs.com/fieldbook/

Kieboom, M. (2014). Lab Matters: Challenging the practice of social innovation lab practices. Kennisland. https://www.kl.nl/publicaties/lab-matters-challenging-the-practice-of-social-innovation-laborat/

InWithForward. Compendium of Learning Materials. https://inwithforward.com/learning-2/

Papageorgiou, Kyriaki (2017). Labs for Social Innovation. ESADE Institute for Social Innovation. http://itemsweb.esade.edu/research/Labs-Social-Innovation-ESADE.pdf

Tiesinga, H. & Berkhout, R. (Eds.) (2014). Labcraft: How innovation labs cultivate change through innovation and collaboration. Labcraft Publishing.

The Innovation Lab Insight Center: Articles, case studies and resources and social innovation labs. (2014). The Bridgespan Group and The Rockefeller Foundation. http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Innovation-Labs-Insight-Center.aspx

Social Innovation Generation (SiG) Knowledge Hub: Learning Resources for Social Innovation. (2013). http://sigknowledgehub.com/

Westley, F. & Laban, S. (2014). Social Innovation Lab Guide. Waterloo Institute of Social Innovation and Resilience. https://uwaterloo.ca/waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/sites/ca.waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/files/uploads/files/10_silabguide_final.pdf

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