Kristin Wolff
Social Innovation Interests
I co-founded a “skunkworks” operation inside a non-profit organization and learned a bunch. Since then, I’ve studied and experimented with a variety of design and innovation methods, new kinds of on-and off-line organizing approaches and platforms, and embraced “the wiki way” and other open-source ways of learning, working, and generating value, collaboratively. Having worked for a number of thinktanks, I decided a year ago to re-join the gig-economy – combining work, business-ownership, and school once again. I’m now involved in a number of projects in which I’m quite deliberately trying to create room for “learning-and-leading-by-doing” in organizational contexts unaccustomed to this approach.
Better work, more engaging learning, and more prosperous communities – these things are why I wake up in the morning. Social innovation, maker-culture, and communication/storytelling (and the willingness to roll-up my sleeves at any minute) are increasingly the tools of my trade.
Social Innovation Experience
We (my WEadership partner Vinz Koller at SPR) and I are working toward a social innovation lab as a vehicle for leadership development and program/policy transformation. We’ve got a research base behind the concept of WEadership and several emerging projects that offer opportunities to test bits of the lab concept. We seek to use social innovation as a way to have a different conversation about jobs/work, learning, and prosperity in the future – across sectors (public, private, non-profit) and at multiple levels (local, regional, etc.) – that leads to different ideas, solutions, and better outcomes/impact. (The old conversations are clearly insufficient.)
We (Springboard Innovation where I serve as a board member and champion) are working on building community support for social innovation on two tracks: 1) within communities of people looking to solve common problems in new ways; and 2) by example – through a physical space called “Hatch” (emerging) that will serve as kind of social business incubator (and anchor our local eco-system).
Social Innovation Aspirations
I want to realize more innovative, effective, and collaborative approach to prosperity policy at some level – local, regional, etc. This means entities charged with responsibility for “jobs policy” (work, learning, entrepreneurship, economic development, urban planning, etc.) work in collaboration with partner organizations and with citizens and residents in their communities on better solutions to shared challenges.
Here’s what it might look like:
- “Can’t” is not a word used in the world of jobs policy.
- We no longer argue about who creates jobs and get on with paying people to deliver value, regardless of where they sit (or their level of seniority).
- Resources and programs are better suited to their purpose.
- Tools used outside of policy circles (social media, collaborative platforms, co-design, crowdsourcing) are perceived as familiar and valuable – and get used in policy-making and program development.
- A few tangible experiments are evident – badges (or other alternative currencies) are enabling a new kind of knowledge currency, for example; or Kickstarter (or alternatives) are viable options for funding projects that enable employment; or real efforts to seed, grow, and learn from networks that are solving long-standing problems; hackathons are everywhere – and delivering results, etc., etc., etc….
- Evidence of a cultural shift toward experimentation as norm is present in traditional institutions including government – and social innovation is recognized set of methodologies among funders and champions better community solutions.
- Evidence that we are taking globalization seriously – and learning from the southern hemisphere, not just the other way around – is present everywhere we look.
My Favourite Social Innovation (October 2011)
This month? Marcin Jakubowski’s Open Source Ecology Project/Global Village Construction Set. I can’t even count the number of things I love about it. Over time? Nearly everything Sara Horowitz tackles makes me want to cheer. She’s been my hero for over a decade. Recently named to Forbes’ (first) list of top social entrepreneurs, I’m linking you instead to this because the Forbes piece so barely scratches the surface…
My favorite long-standing social innovation is Code for America, effectively, a social innovation accelerator. Where have they been all our lives?
Other Interests
Linking Gov2.0, Social Innovation to specific policy issues, in particular, jobs (work, learning, prosperity).
Leadership 2.0 (we call it WEadership)
Networks (and how they enable us to meet community needs in new ways – alongside traditional institutions and in ways that help reimagine those institutions)
Entrepreneurship (as a practice in context, not just as a policy issue)
Art, film, design, narrative as approaches to storytelling and data visualization; the creative sector as a test-bed for alternatives to traditional jobs/work arrangements
Really big questions (like the role of government, what a prosperous economy looks like and how we seed it, what kinds of possibilities global connectedness enables) that provide space and context for experimentation
Contact Me
Skype: kristinwolff
FB: KristinWolff
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