Is Dudley ready to join the Global Jam community?

I had a brilliant weekend earlier this year taking part in a Global Jam.  Masters students Chris Saddler and Daniel Blyden decided to bring a Jam to Birmingham, and have since expertly planned and facilitated a number of successful jams – as chronicled on their Spaghetti Jams site

I’ll write more about my experience another time, the purpose of this post is to share a great video about Gov Jam, and let you know that there is a Global Sustainability Jam coming up on the weekend of 30 October – 1 November.  (You can sign up to get notified when registration opens for the Birmingham event.)

Below is a video of an interview with Adam Lawrence, co-founder of the Global Gov Jam. In the first 8 and half minutes he describes what a Jam is, what you could get out of taking part in one, and what the benefits are. He explains that:

“Jams don’t necessarily make innovations, they make innovators.”

He talks about ways in which a Gov Jam is motivating for citizens who get involved and find themselves working with people who work in the public sector who are really trying to help. That in turn motivates public sector officers, who find themselves being appreciated by citizens.  He thinks that ”jams are very interesting for people who have the brief to involve people in innovation and change” because while we have traditional consultation tools and meetings, it’s very different to sit down in a room and build things together. It’s when you discover if you’re both talking about the same thing or not.

Have a look at the first 8 minutes or so of this video and let me know your thoughts. Do you think public sector workers in Dudley should be learning about human-centred approach and design tools used in a Jam? Does this sound like a useful addition to the tactics currently used to involve people and communities in our borough? Would you like to take part in, and/or run a Jam?

A very short introduction to Collective Impact

Collective impact is the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem… Unlike most collaborations, collective impact initiatives involve a centralised infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants.(Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review article.)

Collective Impact feels really useful to explore, so we’ve added a Collective Impact page to the Great Resources area of this site. We’ve included the video below, which provides a nice introduction in under 2 minutes. Let us know what you think.

Be an opportunity maker

This 10 minute TED Talk by Kare Anderson offers a helpful perspective on collaboration. I’d love to know what you think.

Do you think you are an opportunity maker?
What has happened as a result?
Do you know an opportunity maker?
What have you learned from them?

Creative Diversity – uncovering your creative identity

Everyone is creative!

In our recent CoLab Exchange session we considered creativity and why understanding more about it is crucial to collaboration. We used ideas from a free 6 week online course called Creativity, Innovation and Change to promote discussion.

In an introduction to Creative Diversity in the course, Kathryn Jablokow says:

Creative diversity is one of the most powerful and practical tools I know to help you understand an appreciate how people think, act and make decisions differently. We have to learn to collaborate, we don’t do it naturally. The principles of creative diversity will help you work with others more smoothly and effectively and at the same time make sure your ideas are being heard.

In the video below Kathryn presents and busts myths about creativity, such as: only some people are creative and only certain kinds of ideas are creative. She introduces 4 principles of Creative Diversity:

• Creative Diversity Principle #1: All people are creative.
• Creative Diversity Principle #2: Creativity is diverse.
• Creative Diversity Principle #3: Creative diversity is described by four key variables (see below)
• Creative Diversity Principle #4: There is no ideal kind of creativity

The four key variables of creative diversity are:

• Creative level – your knowledge, skill and experience
• Creative style – how you prefer to approach change
• Motive – what motivates you to solve problems and bring about change
• Opportunity – which opportunities interest and inspire you most

Have a look at the video to prompt thinking about your personal ‘flavour’ of creativity, which will help you to develop your own creative profile. Let us know what you think about the ideas in the video by clicking ‘leave a comment’ above, or tweeting us @colabdudley.

Co-production – great 3 minute video

People who came to the CoLab Exchange sessions on Monday enjoyed this short video we showed to introduce what co-production is. Leave a reply below to let us know what you think – what stands out for you?

No more throw away people

Having shared some short thought-provoking extracts from Edgar Cahn’s book No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative this week in the lead up to our first CoLab Exchange sessions on Monday, what better to end the week with than this great video based on the thinking in the book? Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s well worth a watch to help you reflect on your current work or activity through a different lens.

Join us at one of our first CoLab Exchange sessions on Monday to explore co-production – details and registration here.

Related posts:
Co-production: the X-Factor
“Co” does not necessarily mean equal
Co-production: a construct, a process, and a set of standards
Core values of co-production

Core values of co-production

In yesterday’s post there was reference to four core values of co-production which Edgar Cahn describes in his book No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative. Here are this week’s final (edited) short extracts from the book, describing these core values.

Core value one: An asset perspective

The real wealth of this society is its people. Every human being can be a builder and contributor…

An asset perspective means more than simply inventorying people’s assets. It means those assets must be deployed in actual transactions, in exchanges based on mutuality.

People are assets. It’s about time we valued them for what they can do.

Core value two: Redefining work

Work must be redefined to include whatever it takes to rear healthy children, preserve families, make neighbourhoods safe and vibrant, care for the frail and vulnerable, redress injustice, and make democracy work…

This means acknowledging, recording and compensating the full range of socially useful contributions made by people. It means rethinking how one defines the labour force and how one defines work.

Core value three: Reciprocity

The impulse to give back is universal. Wherever possible, we must replace one-way acts of largesse in whatever form with two-way transactions. “You need me,” becomes “We need each other.”…

This means that professionals must stop congratulating themselves for their unilateral acts of charity, of service. Walking the talk means going the next step. It means embedding reciprocity in all transactions as a way of saying and meaning “We need each other.”

Stop creating dependencies; stop devaluing those whom you help while you profit from their troubles.

Core value four: Social capital

Humans require a social infrastructure as essential as roads, bridges, and utility lines. Social networks require ongoing investments of social capital generated by trust, reciprocity and civic engagement.

This means building an infrastructure of trust and reciprocity and engagement, often in situations where distrust and alienation hold sway.

You can join us on Monday to explore more about co-production in our first CoLab Exchange sessions.

Below is a video of Edgar Cahn giving a TEDx talk about the core economy – I love his analogy of a social Prius, and his final words which chime with our starting point for CoLab Dudley Borough: “We have true abundance.” (And look out for another video which will be posted on our blog tomorrow.)