Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 6

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June 2016 // Canadian Government Executive / 13
Design
• Be a catalyst, not a bottleneck. Alberta
CoLab’s training program has reached
across government and supports emerg-
ing communities of practice. It publishes
on its projects and shares its toolkits, and
treats itself as a kind of grassroots demo-
cratic movement within government.
• Select projects based on potential to
reframe a problem. Consider whether
a project will add real value. Is it a stra-
tegic priority? Is there commitment to
implement? Are the client expectations
realistic? Can your contribution have a
positive impact? The unique value a so-
cial innovation lab offers is discontinu-
ous improvement, which creates a break
from the past by reframing—seeing a fa-
miliar challenge froma different perspec-
tive to discover the potential for positive
change. If a client already knows what
the problem is, their framing limits the
range of solutions they will consider. Un-
less they are open to reframing, rethink-
ing the problem itself, they will likely be
frustrated by a lab approach, and would
be better served by traditional facilita-
tion or good project management.
• Prototyping is just the end of the
beginning. After the first year Alberta
CoLab interviewed the first 40 clients
to learn how co-design inspired change.
Unfortunately, for most, the answer was
“not much.” They were very happy with
the quality of the ideas and prototypes
and were hopeful these would eventual-
ly be implemented. But they also noted
that once people left the lab and went
back to work, they found it difficult to
sustain creative momentum, and they
returned to business as usual. As a result
CoLab pivoted by taking fewer projects,
but those with a possible stewardship
role through to implementation.
• Find a rhythm. A traditional project
plan with phases and milestones is not
useful for the open-ended discovery
processes of a lab. Yet without some
kind of structure, it’s easy to lose mo-
mentum or become lost. The best proj-
ects create a rhythm, alternating move-
ment between open collaboration and
focused delivery.
• Be a good gardener. Most Alberta Co-
Lab participants arrive with very full
agendas, and are already 100% commit-
ted in their work. Even when enthu-
siastic in ideation, there is reluctance
to take on any additional work. If we
want our organizations to innovate, the
space must be created for new work to
grow. Projects on life support should
be pruned—perhaps not ended, but re-
duced in priority. This often means mak-
ing difficult decisions. The flip side of
pruning is to actively search for positive
deviance and help it to grow. When you
find something that’s already working,
you just need to turn up the good.
The Alberta CoLab has established itself in
record time as a beacon of fresh, innovative
thinking and remains the only institution of
its kind at the provincial level. There is no
doubt that its performance will be closely
watched as Canada’s sub-national level con-
template the state of their policy capacity.
Acknowledgements:
The photograph is by Alex Ryan, and the
diagrams in Figures 1 and 2 are by Eleanor
Joel.
Peter Jones is an associate profes-
sor at OCAD University in the MDes
Strategic Foresight and Innovation
program and guides research in the
Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab.ocadu.
ca). He is the lead chair for RSD5,
Relating Systems Thinking and Design,
hosted by OCADU Oct 13-15, 2016.