Six reflections from my time at SIX

Time flies and I’ve already finished my two years at SIX. I entered this space keen to learn more about social innovation and how change could happen from different top down approaches. Prior to this, most of my work experiences were grassroots. So much frustration around the lack of systemic and financial support were shared and felt when I heard people’s struggles first hand. I thought the solutions lied in where the decision makers were. It’s been a privilege to be able to participate in conversations with various stakeholders across Europe over the last two years - colleagues representing government departments, the European commission, intermediaries, higher education research institutions and more. I learned a lot and would like to share them in six points:

1. Innovation requires curiosity and change requires passion

It's easy to fall into the routine of 9 to 6 and deliver the bare minimum. After many years at the same institution, it probably becomes confortable to simply continue the way that things have always been done. But innovation comes when one is curious and questioning. It takes curiosity to question if the status quo is truly effective and serving. It takes courage to voice up and propose smarter solutions. And it takes passion to develop and embed new systems in which there's time and space to explore and experiment with effective ways of better serving your community.

Many people don't think they can change the institution they work for. But the most brilliant and inspiring people I met are the ones who worked beyond what's expected of them and went out of their way to innovate. If you work in a system so well oiled and repetitive like a factory line, it takes creativity and some jelly to blob through loopholes and meander through rules. But the ones who succeed at that and fight for the innovation all the way are the ones who actually create those top down changes that civil society really needs. It's not always about the politicians, public servants have a lot more power than they let themselves believe.

2. Cross sector innovation requires us to create the conditions for intersections

Thinking out of the box isn't easy when your conferences and events are designed for you to meet the same people and repeat similar agendas. But cross sector innovation doesn't happen magically when time for meeting new people across sectors isn't designed into your working hours. And when you do get the mix in a room, the session has to be cleverly designed to serve everyone. There's no point bringing in the unusual suspects if they don't find the session relevant to them.

Results might not be immediate but impact is stronger and longer lasting when you have a tighter and more connected change ecosystem across sectors.

3. Invite practitioners to meetings and design sessions that are grounded in practice

When working on a top down, macro level, it's easy to get caught up in the academic rigour of theories and jargon when that's what research produces. But work that is serving people needs knowledge of the practice. There's only so much that one can come up through research and assumptions. Having those practitioners in the room tests your assumptions and gives you a reality check. When you are too many nodes away from the people whom the issues affect, it's so easy to forget what and who exactly you are working for. This type of work is grounded in service. The higher up your position, the more responsibility you have to use your power to serve. Never lose sight of who you are serving and what their challenges might be.

4. Expand your circle even if you don't really see the need to

The social impact space is not small but not too big either yet we could exist within our own circles not knowing what others in our ecosystem are doing. I didn't know that socially engaged art that I practise is considered a social innovation until my work with SIX. There are lots of interesting things happening and new ideas, innovations being created everyday. We work better when we know what's going on around so we could collaborate, save resources, learn from each other and not duplicate efforts.

However, as networks mature, it becomes increasingly difficult for newcomers or outsiders to enter. This thing called comfort zone is like a hot tub, you enter and don't want to get out. But only so many people can fit in one, unless you take the effort to constantly move around, try different pools and tubs that offer different temperatures and water. This takes conscious work, especially when you already have a solid network of powerful contacts. But the ones needing help and support are often not the ones already connected to where the power is. Access is not equal and information offers resources. Play your part in equalising that.

5. Generational shifts — the change that will come

The younger generations are growing up with influencer culture, smart home gadgets, robot waiters, ChatGPT and more. They are growing up with AI and probably learned coding in kindergarten. For Gen Alpha and some of Gen Z, the news they get and education they receive prepare them as the generation that will have to deal with the emergency of a collapsing ecosystem face on. Many of them will come with a strong understanding of climate and social justice issues. They will likely be impatient with long winded bureaucracy or the inertia to climate action. The world has never operated at such a fast pace as now. Impatience might not be a trait that younger folks need to grow out of. If anything, they are the ones who might use that to reinvent corporate culture, speed processes and design effective, horizontal communication. Create spaces for youths to innovate within the institution while providing adequate mentorship.

(We create job roles based on what we think the organisation needs but some skills that newcomers bring might be innovation that none of us would have thought of. Make space for unexpected innovation.)

6. Innovate the way you fund and update grant sizes

Practitioners in the impact space deserve to be better paid. Hard work and lots of emotional labour are needed where it’s closer to the communities but this group of practitioners are the least well funded and perhaps most overworked. (Also, practitioners don’t necessarily belong to an established organisation. Some might not want the added bureaucracy.) On top of that, inflation is high and grant sizes/ wages are not increasing. It shouldn’t have to be an either or choice between wanting to do good and wanting to have a healthy financial income to be able to afford providing for a family.

Some ideas off the top of my head:

Create experimentation funds for innovative projects that bring together stakeholders who’ve never worked together before.

There’s little to no funding for such cross sector projects that don’t fit into standard categories. These projects have huge potential for sustainable impact because these partnerships strengthen a scattered and disconnected ecosystem. Change one of your evaluation criteria to 'creating new partnerships' if you have to. Give experimental projects a running chance and be open to who can apply for it. Connectors who navigate different sectors best are not necessarily the type to be bogged down by formal structures of an organisation.

Update your grant size and be realistic with what you expect.

We’ve seen steep inflation as a result of covid and the war in Ukraine. If your grants are offered at the same size as pre-covid and you are expecting the same number of outputs, it’s time to re-evaluate. There will always be organisations and people applying for your grants but these individuals will be the ones subsidising the project and absorbing the cost. Do their mental health a favour and factor in inflation when deciding grant sizes.

Think long term. Offer follow up grants.

Impact goes way further when a successful project can continue and scale. Many funding don’t fund existing projects. They would much rather support something new. We lose a lot of potential impact when the momentum is broken and a successful project remains just once off.

Give out fellowships for practitioners to think and reflect.

We can keep doing and making but if we don’t set aside time to catch some rest, think and reflect, we could well be creating more noise in this world. Fellowships would support grassroots practitioners who don’t fit into most other funding categories (eg. Having to come from established organisations of a certain size). Supporting this group of people could give us more spontaneous and agile solutions, experimented in real time.

We live in a world with lots of problems to be solved and we are reminded of them on a daily basis. But we are not imagining enough what the change could be. We talk a lot about systems change but for that to happen, we are going to need to radically change the way we live and work. It might take an entirely different model to the 9 to 6 we are familiar with. It might mean earning and spending less. It might mean striving for an optimal rate of deflation and economic degrowth. It might mean 4 hours a day, 4 days work week and the rest of the time spent gardening and caring. We can't transition if we don't know what we are working towards.

This is why my next journey will bring me to a new continent down south where I'm hoping to work on a sensemaking project engaging youths and indigenous elders to imagine alternative sustainable lifestyles that we could build for the future. If you know anyone in New Zealand keen to explore this with me, do get in touch!