The Social Ideas Podcast: ‘slow prototyping’ for systemic change

The Social Ideas Podcast

The Social Ideas podcast shares the impact of social innovation, its necessity and its capacity to challenge the status quo. Throughout this series, highly committed change makers in business, civil society, policy and academia will talk about their work, their ideas and their motivation to strive towards to a more equitable and sustainable world.

‘Slow prototyping’ for systemic change: techniques, tools and time in social innovation labs

There is no ‘I’ in team, or so the saying goes. More often used to describe the importance of sports teams working together the phrase emphasises the inherent potential for success if only ego can be put aside.

Collaboration is the mainstay of the search for novel solutions to our ever-increasing social problems. With that in mind it is no surprise then that social innovation labs exist; although relatively new, the aim of the labs is to problem-solve but rather than develop products or services, it is about the development of processes. This focus addresses the fact that time needs to be taken when seeking systems-level change.

Claudia Marcelloni is a Global Engagement Officer at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research; she is also a recent graduate of the Master of Studies in Social Innovation, a programme delivered by the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation.

Whilst working with scientists at CERN, Claudia found out the organisation has an innovation space. Intrigued by the drive to collaboratively and systemically solve social problems, she took the opportunity to focus her dissertation on the different methodologies used to achieve lasting and effective change.

‘Slow prototyping’ for systemic change: techniques, tools and time in social innovation labs

Claudia’s case study compares the collaborative processes of ‘social innovation labs’. It demonstrates the importance of taking a slower approach to collaboration when seeking systemic change, and offers examples of techniques.

https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/social-innovation/research/research-summaries/slow-prototyping-for-systemic-change/