Try Innoweave’s New Social Innovation Micro-Tools
August 19, 2014
Considering working with Innoweave to help enhance your impact? Need a quick assessment of how a new social innovation could advance your mission? Innoweave has been compiling and adapting new micro-tools, developed by world leading organizations including Nesta, Rockefeller Foundation, and IDEO. Try them out and see how they can help you foster social innovation.
The new Innoweave Social Innovation Micro-tools are easy, brief team exercises that can help organization leaders better understand the key elements involved in taking on a new social innovation. Using these micro-tools allows teams to explore different issues which impact their organization, and offer insight which supports application of social innovations that enhance impact.
These exercises are designed to help teams foster social innovation within their organizations, and contribute to their success as they work through Innoweave modules. All the micro-tools can be accessed through our Social Innovation Micro-tools site.
Here you’ll find the information on each of the available sets of micro-tools, and guidance on how to use them. Micro-tools have been created to help with developing a theory of change, understanding end users, target groups and potential customers, and developing business or engagement plans.
How can I use these to advance my mission?
These quick exercises can be used in many different ways – in almost any situation in which you feel they may add value to your work. The core purpose of the tools is to foster discussion among the leadership team, to help teams explore new concepts, or even just present different ways of thinking about a challenge.
1. Visit the Social Innovation Micro-tools site and select a micro-tool from the available list, based upon the accompanying descriptions of what you want to accomplish through the exercise.
For example, the Stakeholder Visualization micro-tool is used to gain perspective on how others may view your social challenge, or the intended impact you want to create.
2. Download the simple exercise from the website, read the guidance and instructions, and complete the one-page worksheet by answering each question contained within.
For this micro-tool, the questions lay out some of the issues you may want to consider to gain stakeholder insight, and looks at how stakeholders may react to some of your ideas.
3. Use the outcomes of the exercise as a discussion point among you team, as you consider working through an Innoweave module, or other impact-enhancing social innovation work.
If you like, some micro-tools have customized versions to fit with specific issues areas (e.g. stakeholder visualization for potential Social Enterprise customers and Constructive Engagement targets) to better hone your discussion.
What’s Next?
We will be adding new sets of micro-tools as we progress, and look forward to sharing them with you as well. As Innoweave continues to grow the available selection of micro-tools we will be looking to improve our supporting materials for them. If you have any thoughts or comments on the micro-tools, please feel free to share them with us at info@innoweave.ca.
Innoweave has worked to adapt the Social Innovation Micro-tool from the DIY Toolkit, put together by Nesta and the Rockefeller Foundation, to whom much credit and thanks is owed.