2. Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation
17 years muckin’ around
striving to steward a
creative culture and
system nudges in human
services
Consultant
Explorer
Ben Weinlick
thinkjarcollective.com
skillssociety.ca
@thinkjar_
@weinbenlick
3. Big questions that guide my explorations
How do we problem solve better?
How do we get to root causes and
design relevant solutions around that?
Fixed
it
5. Douglas Adams- Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Rules that describe our biases and reactions to the new…
1. Anything that exists when
you’re born is part of the
natural order
2. Anything invented from
when you are 15-35 is new
and exciting and you can
probably get a career in it
3. Anything invented after you
are 35 is against the natural
order of things
7. Humans get weird when
faced with uncertainty
Complexity and Overwhelm
People and organizations
are overwhelmed.The
overwhelm is marked by
increased complexity in
challenges, increased
uncertainty and ambiguity
As humans we're not great
at navigating uncertainty.
When life gets chaotic our
response is to control it
through power and/or by
insisting on an
oversimplified solution,
answer or tool.
8. Tools of InnovationCulture of Innovation
Must be some deep meaning as to why cosmic Grumpy Cat is at the centre of thisVenn Diagram
9. The tricky thing with most systems today
Innovation is
Emergence
Orientated
Performance
Outcome
Orientated
Mark Cabaj
Radical Middle
10. Here’s the
thing…
What happens when we
have to “know” results
and outcomes
before
we even start exploring a
complex problem we
need some creativity
around?
11. We create solutions, services, systems,
products, based mostly
on deep biased assumptions
12.
13. Looking
outside our silos in Community
and strengthening creative collaborations
Strengthening
Organizational capacity
through learning
Culture and Tools
Developing
Team creative
collaboration
Fostering relevant innovation and meaningful
solutions starts with mental models…
our own first
People’s
views,
patterns of
problem
solving
24. The unlikely place I checked out and have
been trying to connect with social service
design
25. Design is usually misunderstood
• Everything man made is
Designed
• When you try to solve a
problem you are
designing solutions
• Design is problem
solving
27
27. History of Design Thinking
Old Design Ethos Design Thinking Ethos
Human-Centered
28. Why I’m hopeful about Design Thinking
- People at the center
- Guided by empathy
- Disciplined collaborative
process
- True co-design
- Intersects disciplines
- Bias towards action…not
just talk
29. What is Human Centered- Design
Thinking Really?
…But usually not this linear in practice
-Stories
-Learn from people
by hanging out
with them
-What is really
needed?
-How might we?
-Divergence
-Wild ideas
-Choose a few
ideas to make
- Make ideas visual
or physical models
-Try prototype with
people
30. The usual way of leading change
People First!
The people that
need and use a
service
What could
trigger change?
What do people
really want?
Prototype and
Test programs
and new
services
Policy change/
champions at the
top support
Human Centered Design Thinking
Convene executives and
policy makers
Unleash on people
that use a service
Make new programs
interventions
31. System
change attempt to humanize
service
Capacity building
to use design thinking to
problem solve better and co-design with citizens
Design Thinking examples at three levels of scale
Individual service
level
32. “Every really creative person has
two noticeable characteristics.
First, there is no subject under the
sun in which he could not easily get
interested.
Second, they are an extensive
browser in all sorts of fields of
information.”
James Webb Young
See more at - thinkjarcollective.com
Support people to gather interesting information,
insights and stories… Creative collisions ensue!
2. Cultures of Innovation Innovation
Pattern
43. • Hitchhike on “log
notes” to design
behaviour that
focuses on strengths
and humanizes case
management
Riffing on this notion of Design
Behaviours to humanize case management
44.
45.
46. Support diverse backgrounds of teams
3. Innovative Cultures
Jonas Salk, developer of the
vaccine that eradicated polio,
made it a practice to
assemble men and women
from different domains in his
think tanks.
Invite people from other
domains and ask them how
they would solve your
problem.
www.thinkjarcollective.com
Innovation
Pattern
52. 54
a think tank
experience
that explores
creative ways to
support engaged
citizenship
to come up with ideas for cool roles, citizenship experiences
and community connections we need to know a bit about this
person and their unique gifts and interests. Make a list below that
summarizes what they like, what they have shown interest in or are
curious about. Here are some ideas to get you started:
list specific details; e.g. instead of simply saying “likes music”,
write “Sophia likes classical music”.
ask and explore questions; e.g. What kinds of things does
this person gravitate towards when they are out in the community?
Where would this person want to spend their days? What do they
love to do? What do you notice that they spend time and energy
on at home? What are they naturally really good at? What are
this person’s gifts that often people don’t notice?
Fill this out before coming
to an Action Lab experience!
A bit about:
work-sheet
62. “How might we tailor our services and programs to
help ethno-cultural groups realize their hopes and
visions for their community/ies?”
63. Value playfulness and not taking ourselves too seriously
But not forced cheesy play
5. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
64. “It is the mark of an
educated mind to be able to
entertain a thought without
accepting it”
Aristotle
Playing with ideas
65. Authentic expressions
Be yourself
Playfulness
Poking fun at yourself
Playing with ideas
Openness
Empathy
Receptivity
to
new
possibilities
Better collaboration
Better
problem solving
Play Trust
Better
Problem
Solving
66. Seeking Creative Collaborations | Building and Sharing Knowledge | Embracing Complexity 1SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2016Supporting Engaged Citizenship | Safeguarding Healthy Relationships6 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2016
The Top 10 Indicators
That Skills Is An Employer of Choice
I like that Skills actually supports the citizenship of the people we
support and doesn’t just say that they do - Adrian B.
It is not uncommon for an applicant to tell us that “they’ve heard that
Skills is a great company to work for” - Lizzamarie M. and Tracey W.
I have been with Skills since 2010 and the
people are the reason that I stay - Chris B.
When I tell people I work for Skills they say they’ve heard that it’s
supposed to be a great place to work and ask if we are hiring! - Juanita G.
Karen Huta
Senior Manager of Human Resources
10
6
4
28
9
5
3
17
67. Create environments that foster creative collisions and
collaborative problem solving
6. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
76. SDX is an Edmonton-
based Community of
Practice that convenes
individuals interested in
learning about Systemic
Design as a methodology
for addressing complex,
real world issues.
Together, we explore
systems thinking, design
thinking, and change lab
approaches.
With a bias towards
learning by doing, SDX
aims to be a watering hole
where multiple sectors can
come together, learn
together, and act together.
SDX is convened by the
Government of Alberta
CoLab and the Skills
Society Action Lab.
SDXSDXSystemicDesigneXchange
77. Keep asking, what do the people we serve really
need? Have we hung out with people in context to
learn?
7. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
80. But what about what this guy said?
“If I would have asked what
the people wanted they would
have said, faster horses”
Ford
81. Are we designing for meaning?
Is a service or program innovation of real value
for people’s lives?
Have we developed the service with the people
that will use it?
Is the service what people really want and
need?
What could really nudge systemic change?
What are we learning from what’s working and
not working?
Guiding questions we try to
keep in mind
82. Beware of over simplifying and hoping that Design
Thinking or a creative tool will easily solve all your
challenges…need culture!
83. • Open Data and then
designing around
insights
• Internal capacity building
to learn design thinking
processes and tools
• Methods used for better
citizen centered
engagement experiences
with Government
• Policy Labs
How is Design Thinking being explored in
the public sector these days?
UK
“Bringing new Policy
techniques to Gov’t
designing services
around
people’s experience”
85. Support looking in unexpected places for
practices and ideas that are outside one’s usual
silos
1. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
86. Support people to gather interesting information,
insights and stories
2. Innovation Cultures Innovation
Pattern
87. Support diverse experience and backgrounds in teams
3. Innovative Cultures
www.thinkjarcollective.com
Innovation
Pattern
88. Steward bottom up sense making, problem solving
and co-design
4. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
89. Value playfulness and not taking ourselves too seriously
But don’t force cheesy play
Set the stage for it to naturally emerge
5. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
90. Create environments that foster creative collisions and
collaborative problem solving
6. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern
Psst…
Doesn’t
have to be a
fancy lab
91. Keep asking, what do the people we serve really
need? Have we hung out with people in context to
learn?
Have we dug deeper than surveys?!
7. Innovative Cultures
Innovation
Pattern