From the Margins to the Mainstream: how to create the conditions for new operating models to thrive
Some great research from nesta and Collaborate CIC into how innovative practices at the margins can be a catalyst for change in public services from the inside out. The self-assessment tool looks at eleven essential enablers of innovative practice and is a great tool for use in and beyond public services.
Innovation Maturity Model
Don’t be put off by the title; this is an accessible piece about why most innovation fails and how to think about innovation differently with some great frameworks to think with.
Start stopping faster
Since stopping things is so very hard, executives make starting them even harder, dampening innovation.
As organisations rebuild and recover flexibility is going to be a key survival characteristic. This short article offers some timely advice about how you can make it easier to stop doing work that is not delivering.
- Make more decisions reversible
- Make work more visible
- Overpower fear
Happy Birthday IVAR!
If you haven’t come across it before IVAR does a fantastic range of research across the wider non-profit sector. Today is IVAR’s 20th Birthday which is quite and achievement. Long may the work continue!
Welcome to the Institute for Voluntary Action Research – IVAR. We are an independent charity that works closely with people and organisations striving for social change. From the very small that directly support the most vulnerable in their local communities, to those that work nationally – across the voluntary, public and funding sectors.
The Myth of Transformative Art
Really interesting and thought provoking blog piece by Rosie Priest via Stephen Pritchard’s Colouring in Culture blog. I have to say it is something that has bothered me over the years too.
…the arts have been forced to create a narrative that their primary function is to change people’s lives, and this is just a lie. Or at least, for the majority of arts organisations this is a lie. I also don’t think it’s necessarily the organisations fault they have been forced to tell this lie. The nature of continuously shrinking funds means that the arts is being pitted against front–line services. For their survival, organisations are having to speak a language of front-line services – that they are impactful, that they are life changing, that they are “transformative”.
Touch Test
I’ve been following this project since it was first announced. Exploring the significance of ‘touch’ the project has taken on a new significance as a result of Covid-19. The results will be broadcast via the BBC on the 6th October.
Don’t underestimate the power of touch. It can convey emotion faster than words. It can affect how we feel, who we like and dislike, and even what we buy. In contemporary society some people feel starved of touch while others feel that we touch too often.
Funny Peculiar
Funny Peculiar is the latest lockdown production from Little Cog as part of their Staging Our Futures programme. It’s free to view, although I’m sure donations would be welcome. In a sequence of four original, cross-cutting, witty and wise monologues, broadcasting from their own homes during quarantine, four disabled women are myth-busters giving their all to expose the lie of vulnerability.
Performed by an incredible cast of actors: Liz Carr (from Silent Witness fame), Mandy Colleran (a comedian and activist), Bea Webster (Royal Shakespeare Company and The Playwright’s Studio of Scotland) and Little Cog’s very own Vici Wreford-Sinnott. With captioned, BSL and audio described versions.
Brooklyn Art Library sketchbooks
An amazing collection of sketchbooks to meander through over a wet weekend. You might even think about contributing!