tool kit amani

Designed by Made possible by

AMANI INSTITUE

The Amani Institute partners with leading NGOs, corporations and universities to prepare a new generation of

leaders tackling the world’s toughest problems. These issues call upon problem-solvers to submit their whole

being in the service of creating sustainable change. We develop individuals who have the knowledge, practical

skills, innovation ability, courage, and networks to take leadership roles in facing these challenges.

More information at: www.amaniinstitute.org

CISP

CISP's aims and objectives are related to the implementation of humanitarian, rehabilitation and development

projects in developing countries. In Italy and Europe CISP's work focuses mainly on awareness campaigns, train-

ing and information programs, the fight against social exclusion and racism, and educational campaigns on devel-

opment and intercultural realities. CISP aims at implementing the necessary conditions for development and

self-determination of people, at spreading and respecting human rights, and at satisfying people's basic needs.

More information at: www.cisp-som.org

The Organizations

The Process of Social Innovation how to create solutions for social change 03

The Inner Journey

of the Social Innovator

Step 5

Idea Networking

Step 6

Experimenting

Step 7

Impacting

Conclusion Outcomes and

moving forward

Step 1

Burning

Step 2

Sensing

Step 3

Questioning

Step 4

Associating

Idea Generation

The Amani Social Innovation

Framework

Introduction

05 07 09 13 19 23

28 32 36 39 42 46

Content


Introduction

The ASIF was explored at CISP

through 8 daylong sessions across

2014. Each day explored a specific

topic within the ASIF, with theory and

extensive practical exercises tailored

to the topic comprising the day.

The world is full of challenges. Chal-lenges that many organizations are working hard to solve. One of these organizations, doing great work in Somalia, is Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli, CISP, or the International Committee for the Development of Peoples. Given the high level of challenge inherent in CISP’s mission and daily work in Somalia, it is important for the CISP team to learn new ways of bringing creativity and energy to problem solving, thus building their skills for developing sustainable, culturally sensitive and integrated solutions.

Having this challenge in mind, CISP and Amani Institute partnered on a project to train the Regional Staff of CISP’s Horn of Africa team in social innovation, with a particular focus on both building skills as well as gener-ating new ideas for CISP’s work on reducing gender-based violence (GBV) in Somalia.

The purpose of this toolkit is to share the journey made by the CISP staff through the training, lay out how one can walk through a structured approach to generating a social inno-vation, with the CISP participants’ work serving as an illustration for how to do so.

The overall methodology of the train-ing was based on the Amani Social Innovation Framework (ASIF).

This framework applies structure to enable a team to build their collective capacity to design solutions to chal-lenges. Drawing from the study of innovation, utilizing methodologies made popular by the Design Thinking approach to problem solving, and adding best practices from the social sector, the ASIF guides participants through the process of creative prob-lem solving.


Introduction

Since one of the key elements of innovation is bringing together ideas and elements from different sources and applying them towards your challenge, the training program con-sciously sought to include perspec-tives and methodologies from other practitioners so that the CISP partici-pants would have a rich set of influ-ences to bring together.

As a result, the program included a diverse array of guest speakers. These were:- Sean Brooks, United States Depart-ment of State, an expert on Somalia- Muna Abdillahi, UNICEF, an expert on gender and Somalia - Michele Leone, IDRC an expert on donor funding and innovation - Shilpa Shah, Co-Founder of Inside Out Consultancy, who led a workshop on Idea Generation using the Disney

approach - Sitawa Namwalie, a poet and activ-ist, who led a session on art and crea-tivity.

We hope that readers will find this a useful tool in their own work going forward.

The Amani Institute


http://bit.ly/1DU3eWU

Click here to watch a video about the 7 steps of the ASIF


Framework

A NEW MINDSET

The great writer Marcel Proust once said, “The real act of discovering consists not in finding new lands, but seeing with new eyes”. This is the perfect approach for social innovation. Even if we are already familiar with the community in which we are working, or feel like we are very knowledgeable about the problem, we can adopt a new mindset and try to look at the situation differently. This is called having a “Beginner’s Mind” - it is central to innovation.

Social Innovation requires a new mindset and this is how the training began. A new mindset comes with a new way of seeing challenges and approaching them. We used a series of perception games to understand what a social innovation mindset is. Following is an example.

A lot of wonderful research has been done on frameworks for

social innovation. As we set up the Amani Institute, we

researched innovation frameworks that fit our experience and

observations over more than two decades of social entrepre-

neurship work all around the world. Eventually, we combined

elements of technological innovation thinking with design

thinking and best practices in social work to create the Amani

Social Innovation Framework, a structured 7-step approach to

generating new ideas for challenges that an organization or,

indeed, society is facing.



Framework

Solution (Turn the page upside down)

If you want to develop an innovator’s mindset, keep reading as we get to the ASIF!

TIP Doing perception games daily will

help you to develop your innovation mindset!

Resources Watch the Monkey Business Illusion

video by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons http://bit.ly/1lLV6z1

Here is an equation of Roman numerals, made with ten matches. It is incor-rect.

Can you correct the equation without touching the matches, adding new matches, or taking away any?


Burning

SELF-AWARENESS CLAY EXERCISE

One of the methodologies to develop self-awareness is the “Clay Exercise”. The CISP participants were divided in pairs and asked to tell their stories, life chal-lenges, strengths and future dreams to each other while playing with the clay. As your mind is trapped with the clay, you are able to share and unlock thoughts and feelings that would not come if you were fully aware of each of your words.

“Cutting a piece from the clay and playing with it made it easy to communicate and express ideas. You don’t have anything specific in mind as you mold the clay but because the hands are busy you find its easier to share” - CISP Participant

ST

EP

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Addressing a difficult challenge requires a good understanding of your own personal motivation for doing so. It requires an alignment of self and work, passion and purpose. We call this passion and purpose your “Burning”. The first step to understand your personal motivation is self-awareness.


To dig deeper into the burning we asked the participants to remember a moment in their professional life when they felt happy and fulfilled. While sharing this, people are able to realize their burning.

Here a quote from one of the participants from Somalia

“(I felt burning) in 2008 during the big drought. Most of the livestock had died. We were helping the community with livelihood creation. I wondered how helpful we actually were. Two years later I was in a remote area. We had a flat tire and a lady came to greet us. Her family had 22 goats, they were very happy and I was happy because I knew it was a result of the project two years ago.”

Burning

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EP

1Do you want to know how to convert that burning into action? Keep reading!

TIP If you haven’t done it recently, ask yourself what matters to you, what

are the injustices in the world that you

don’t want to exist anymore. What

makes you burn?

Resources Watch this TED talk by Jessica Jack-

ley from KIVA. Is she burning? http://bit.ly/1tAB1Dt


CISP PARTICIPANTS SHARING THEIR BURNINGS

Sensing

PROBLEM FINDING ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

But what do we want to ‘sense’? In the former chapter you discovered your burning as the participants in the

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Borrowing from design thinking, social innovation requires that we use all our senses to engage in “problem-finding.” This is a process of gathering as much information as possible about the challenge from as many available sources as possible, both online and in-person. Specifically, it means talking to different stakeholders about the problem, as well as talking with non-stakeholders to get an “outsider view”. In many cases, you may want to put yourself in a position to experience the challenge firsthand, which most of the participants in the workshop had done, simply through daily life in Somalia.


Sensing

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2

workshop did. That burning has the form of a challenge. In the case of the CISP staff the challenge they were burning to solve was Gender Based Violence (GVB) in Somalia.

In order to understand the challenge better, one good tool is Root Cause Analysis. Here is how it works.

First, write down your prob-lem statement. Done? Second, think about what causes this problem. What is the true reason we have this situation? What are the causes of the problem you are addressing? Good. Now, finally, think about all the consequences of this prob-lem. What are the negative and positive impacts this problem has? Think deeply about this. Go beyond the obvious issues and take

them to their logical conclu-sion.

It may be useful to approach this exercise conceptually by drawing a tree with the Problem as the Trunk of the tree, the Causes as the Roots of the tree, and the Consequences as the Branches.

The Root Cause Analysis is not the only way to under-stand a problem. Another popular method is the “Five Whys” exercise.

In this exercise, you state the problem and then ask “Why is this so?” five times to get to the true root of the prob-lem. It is important to com-plete this exercise 2-3 times so you can uncover several roots of the problem and not just the first set of roots.

Both of these approaches ultimately lead to a way of thinking and a critical mind-set for innovators of all kinds, whether a social or a busi-ness innovator. This is known as “Problem Finding” as opposed to Problem Solving.

Problem Finding is very important in innovation because it is often the case that the stated problem is not in fact the real problem that needs to be solved.

One of the most famous examples of this mindset comes from Henry Ford,

who invented the modern automobile.

He famously said, “If I had asked my

customers what they wanted, I would have

designed a faster horse”.


LEARNING FROM EXISTING RESEARCH

CONVERSATIONS WITH EXPERTS

LISTEN TO WHAT THE BENEFICIARIES REALLY SAY

WRITE DOWN THE BEHAVIORS OF

THE BENEFICIARY

ASK OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS: WHY?

WHAT? HOW?

LOOK FOR AND NOTE DOWN ALL THE DETAILS

- IDEAS, KEY WORDS, PASSION

OBSERVE THE BENEFICIARIES

Sensing

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THE DEEP DIVE

A Deep Dive starts with doing research using existing sources: online, in books, finding data on your problem. Next, begin talking to those you consider experts about your topic – people who have worked on this issue in this location or other locations. However, don’t forget to also talk to people on the “extremes". These are people who occupy totally different ends of the spec-trum of opinion on your problem. Next, start to talk to people directly affected by or involved in the problem – the clients or beneficiaries themselves. Start to understand what they are seeking and how they are suffering (if appropriate). Here it will be important to listen to what people actually say – what are the feel-ings and passions involved? What are they not saying?

The Root Cause Analysis helped us to map out the causes and consequences of the problem but there is still a lot more to discover. A good tool to see the different layers of the challenge is the Deep Dive. The CISP participants were asked to sense the challenge more, to go deeper. How did they do it? See this illustration of the deep dive.


TIP Sensing is an ongoing step. Keep

sensing during the planning, execu-tion and evaluation of your social

innovation! A good innovator never stops sensing.

ResourcesWatch David Kelley’s TED Talk about building your creative confidence to see an example of sensing directly

with the user. http://bit.ly/1fWl1G6

Sensing

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2

To get at this type of understanding, it is wise to ask “open-ended questions” such as questions that begin with “Why” or “How” or “What do you think about…” Avoid asking questions with Yes/No answers or answers with just one or two words. It will also be important to observe people. Do not talk to them, just observe them in action. Remember that actions speak much louder than words.

Don’t forget to document everything you are hearing

and seeing. Capture the details. Focus on emotions

expressed, both positive and negative. On ideas and

dreams and aspirations of people.

Do you want to know what to do with all the information found during the deep dive? Keep reading!


INSIGHTS BRAINSTORMING

Questioning

REFRAMINGHOW MIGHT WE? QUESTIONS

Often when we are given a problem to solve, it is not the true problem that needs to be solved. For innova-tion, we need to think deeper about what this true problem might be. Let’s now walk through how to go about reframing the problem you are out to solve.

First, a quick look at the relationship between Informa-tion, Insights and Ideas. It works in a triangle. Informa-tion leads to Insights, which lead to new Ideas. Let’s go through this systematically.

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One of the most distinguishing behaviors of innova-tors is asking the right questions—questions others are not asking. It isn’t easy to find the root of the problem (and you always wonder if you are really at the root), but asking questions and reframing the problem is a good way to look for alternatives.


Questioning

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You have gathered a lot of INFORMATION through the deep dive. In order to organize it we asked the participants to take a large stack of post-its (also known as sticky notes) and face a blank wall. Then they wrote down all the things that they have learned about the problem they were trying to solve.

For this exercise it is impor-tant to only use one post-it

for each fact or thought that you want to express.

Then you have to stick each post-it on the wall in front of you. Keep doing this until you have completed every-thing you want to include. You should have at least 60-75 post-its on the wall in front of you. This is now your Information Bank.

Then we move to generat-ing INSIGHTS from all this

Information. As you look at the post-its in front of you, you should start to see pat-terns emerging. Many of them probably relate to a similar theme. For instance, one theme could be related to true desires that people are afraid to articulate. Another could be around financial considerations. A third might revolve around the need for new skills. And so on.

Begin to cluster the post-its according to the various themes. You should have at least 3-5 different themes, with a handful (or more) of post-its under them.

The various themes point you towards your insights. An insight is defined by Merriam-Webster diction-ary as “the ability to under-

stand people and situations in a very clear way” or “an understanding of the true nature of something”.

Now look at your themes again and see if you can re-cast them as insights. For example, the insight for the theme around the need for new skills could be some-thing like: “There is a need for skill-building amongst community leaders for how to cope with rapid changes in society”.

Create an insight statement for each of your themes. Refine the statement so that it really feels like a new understanding of a part of the challenge.

Finally, we come up to the IDEAS level. Now that you have your insight state-

INFORMATION

INSIGHTS

IDEAS A solution generated from oneor more insights

Findings emerging from sensing


Questioning

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ments, consider each of them in turn. Also think back to your Root Cause Analysis and what that uncovered. What new understanding are you coming to about your problem? Think hard. What is truly at work here?

Re-write your new understanding as a Problem state-ment, starting with the words, “How Might We”?

Congratulations, you have just re-framed your prob-

lem. Now, we can start to move towards the Solution!

After these exercises, the participants of the CISP train-ing reframed the challenge of reducing GBV in Somalia to the following three ‘How Might We’ questions:

- How might we create more collaborative relation-ships between the two genders in a family? - How might we bring access to legal solutions for GBV in remote communities?- How can schools be examples of inclusivity for all children?

Do you want to know what to do with the reframed challenge? Keep reading!

TIPReframing the problem is a critical step! It is also not easy to do. We

recommend you do this with plenty of time and in a nice, creative, work-

space!

Resources Here is an interesting tool from

THNK.org to help you reframe your problem: http://reframe.thnk.org/


Associating

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ASSOCIATINGIDEA CASINO

Associating is a way to start thinking about creative solutions to solve your challenge. We are better able to associate when we interact in different spaces, do a variety of activities and talk with very diverse people. The more diverse set of things we have to associate with, the more we are going to be able to come up with new solutions for our reframed challenges.

A good exercise to train this cognitive skill is called The Idea Casino. In teams, the participants of the training picked one random word from each of the three columns below and had to come up with a solution for the challenge they were trying to solve.

This is the cognitive skill of bringing together differ-ent ideas from all the research and information gathered so far, in order to create new opportunities and leads, determine trends and patterns, and apply ideas from outside the sphere of the challenge.


Associating

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One of the teams picked the words ‘construction’, ‘recom-mend’ and ‘market’ and this is what they came with: “We thought of going to the market and constructing a space where everyone could share their ideas. A neutral zone where many people can come and get positive ideas about prevent-ing GBV. We would be there everyday, hear recommendations and the news would spread through gossip.”

Do you want to know how to keep coming up with innovative ideas? Keep reading the toolkit!

ELEMENTS OF NAIROBIAcacia TreesAccidentsBirdsCBD / downtownChaiChapatiClinicsConstructionCorruptionDiamond PlazaElephant OrphanageHospitalsHotelsKibandasKICCMallsMandaziMatatuMovies - pirated DVDsMuddy in the RainsPoliceRacecourseRainToy MarketTrafficUhuru Park

WAYS OF C REATING VALUEAccessAggregateBroadcastCaptureCollaborateCommunicateCreateDiscoverFindFollowInspireInstructMake TransparentMeasureMonitorMotivateOrganizePersonalizePlanPlayRecommendSearchShareVisualize

ENABLERS / CONNECTORS

Business modelDemandEntrepreneurshipFacebookFees for serviceGlobalMarketMentorsMission and visionOpen sourcePowerPriceRoot causeScaleSocial networkSupplyTwitterYouth


Associating

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IDEA GENERATIONHOW MIGHT WE? QUESTION

The idea is that you will come up with different ideas through the different stages. During the Dreamer phase, the participants of the work-shop came up with the most incredible and absurd ideas possible. This stage can also be called the “Why Not?” stage. As the Realist, the Dreamer’s ideas get re-examined and re-worked into something more practical. This stage can also be called the “How?” stage. Finally, during the Critic stage the participants try to destroy their ideas. The ones that sur-vived were the ones to move forward.

Now we narrow in on a single idea or two to prototype and receive feedback on. The draft ideas that the CISP teams came up with were as follows:

This session of the training was facilitated by Shilpa Shah, of Inside Out Consultancy. http://insideoutkenya.wordpress.com

There are many different methodologies to help us be more creative in coming up with useful solutions to our problem. The Disney methodology is one of them. According to Robert Dilts’ book, “Strategies of Genius, Volume One”, the film producer and innova-tor, Walt Disney used to think-up and refine ideas by breaking the process into three characters: The Dreamer, the Realist, and the Critic.


Do you want to know how to improve upon your initial solution? Keep reading!

Associating

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How might we create more

collaborative relationships

between the two genders in a

family?

A Board Game that can be

played at home with parents

and children to talk about GBV

in a fun and engaging way.

Use the Councils of Elders to

replace the court system in

communities where such law

does not exist, with the elders

receiving the necessary training.

A role-playing activity between

girls and boys in school, facili-

tated by teachers.

How might we bring access to

legal solutions for GBV in

remote communities?

How can schools be examples

of inclusivity for all children?

HOW MIGHT WE QUESTION DRAFT IDEA

TIPTry the three different roles next time

you are generating new ideas for a challenge! Do it with your team.

Resources Read Strategies of Genius, Volume

One by Robert Dilts


Idea networking

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IDEA NETWORKING AND RESOURCE NETWORKING

It is easy to confuse idea networking with resource net-working because of the similarity of their names how-ever they are very different. In the traditional or popular concept of networking, you are mainly looking to access resources: financial resources, human resources, etc. To do so, you would normally target people related to the problem you are solving – people with substantial resources, power or influence.

This involves sharing your idea widely, building a network around it – and not just brainstorming by yourself or only within your organization. Typically, we think of networking as something to do to gain additional resources for ourselves or our work, but with idea networking, the point is to share our draft ideas freely and see what other people think, to hunt for ideas that can combine with ours and improve upon it.


TIPDuring this session with CISP one of the main topics that came up was to idea network inside your own organi-

zation. Many times we don’t share enough with our colleagues or man-

agers. We encourage you to do it! Their perspectives will be useful.

Resources “Conclusion: The Fourth Quadrant”

from Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by

Steven Johnson.

Do you want to know how to be sure you are on the right track with your solution? Keep reading!

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When you are idea net-working your aim is not to look for resources, but to learn new things, gain new perspectives, and get inspired. During the idea networking process, you want to discuss your initial ideas to solve the problem and receive feedback.

For this to be successful you should talk with people who are not like you, that can contribute other points of view or ways of thinking.

You should discuss with experts and non-experts from very different fields and backgrounds.

Here are some of the tips we shared with the partici-pants on how to idea net-work:

Build a bridge to different groups to access different ideas

Attend events, happy hours, and conferences within different networks than yours

Talk with people who have a very different way of thinking than you - from diverse backgrounds, eth-nicities or religions. The most unexpected conver-sations can bring new, inter-esting insights.

When talking with people, let them do most of the talking. Be open to listen to different perspectives.

Sharing the

problem and

initial ideas with

very diverse

people will

provide you with

new insights and

perspectives that

you and the

stakeholders

were perhaps not

able to see.

Not all of the

conversations will

be useful, but

some of them will

provide you with

valuable new

insights to help

solve the prob-

lem you are

addressing.


GAINING NEW PERSPECTIVES

Experimenting

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BUILDING PROTOTYPES TESTING AN IDEA

By now the participants of the training had defined the problem, understood its root causes and conse-quences, reframed the problem and identified differ-ent potential solutions through the process of idea generation, associating and idea networking.

Before fully implementing the idea and committing resources, it was important to test the solution. What does this mean? Testing is an iterative process that provides you and your team with feedback from the beneficiaries and different stakeholders involved.

Also called “prototyping”, experimenting means testing your innovation in the real world, and getting feedback to refine and improve the concept. Although this is hard for many traditional practitioners to embrace, as the likelihood of failure and imperfection is high, it is also an important skill for innovators, who view failure as feedback. We have also learnt that if you don’t experiment early on, you may later lose more important things than time and money. In social innovation work, mistakes can cost lives.


1 TEN TOOLS FOR DESIGN THINKING, Darden Business Publishing, University of Virginia, UVA-BP-0550

The best way to test an idea is through the building of a prototype. A prototype can be a sketch, model, or a pilot. It is a way to convey an idea quickly. The purpose of prototyping is to create something quickly that can then be tested with benefi-ciaries. By making abstract new ideas tangible to poten-tial stakeholders and benefi-ciaries, you can better facili-tate meaningful conversa-tions and feedback about them.

The 3 teams from CISP tested their prototypes but before doing so they cre-ated a storyboard. The role of the storyboard is under-stand how the user will inter-act with our solution.

Here are some of the proto-typing principles we shared with the participants :1 Figure out the story that you want to tell. Start out simply. Visualize the con-cept in pictures, using as few words as possible. Add complexity, appropriately, as you go.2 Use an affordable loss calculation. What amount can you afford to lose to learn something new? (Prototypes should be low-cost!) 3 Show; don’t tell. Make the prototype feel real through imagery and artifacts. Work on bringing the concept to life for the observer. Focus on capturing details of how the concept will work and how the beneficiary or stakeholder will experience

it. Use stories, maps, images, and short videos to spark conversation with the observer. 4 Keep in mind the questions/assumptions that you are testing.5 Play with your prototype; don’t defend it.

TIPIterate! What does this means? After sharing the prototype with others you

will need to evaluate your solution again. Is your solution solving the prob-

lem as you planned? Is the solution solving part of the problem? How can your solution be better? What are the

things you need to change? What elements of the solution proved to be useful during the testing phase? What

assumptions were right and which ones were wrong? Once you have

answered all these questions you will build a new prototype incorporating all the changes. Then you will need to test

it again! This whole process is called iteration - building different prototypes and testing them many times until the

solution fits the needs of the beneficiar-ies and solves the problem.

ResourcesRead “Chapter 2: The Experimenter” from The Ten Faces of Innovation by

Thomas Kelley.

Do you want to know if your innovation is an innovation with impact? Keep reading the toolkit!

Experimenting

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1


THE EXPERIMENTERS

Impacting

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IMPACTING A GENUINE NEED

The innovation you are bringing to the world should have an impact, should be based on a genuine need. How can we be sure we are creating something that is making a difference? There are three important ques-tions that we asked the participants of the training to think about:

Social innovation doesn’t end with the manifestation of an idea; it needs to have impact. Every innovator knows that there are more challenges in executing an idea than in generating one. Impacting means refining the idea based on more user feedback, cre-ating a baseline and evaluation mechanism to respond to this feedback, and trying to scale what works.


Impacting

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What metrics will

you use and how

will you know you

have succeeded?

How will you have

changed the life

of a beneficiary

/customer in 1

year and in 5

years?

How would the

world look like if

your innovation

works at scale?

TIPSometimes we are so busy with daily tasks that we forget to take the bal-

cony view of our social innovation and see the bigger impact that it is having.

Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the social innovation from the balcony!

Resources Read How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurship and the

Power of New Ideas by David Born-stein. It has many wonderful stories of

social innovators across the world!


Inner journey

In order to connect the personal change we need to make in ourselves with the change in the world we would like to see, we need to understand why we do what we do and who we are.

Given the importance of one’s personal connection or inspiration when dealing with social innovation, one afternoon was set aside for a slightly deeper exploration of the CISP staff’s individual sense of alignment with the challenge and with their work at CISP itself.


Inner journey

To explore this further, the participants were asked to explain in writing what they do for a living and why to the following audiences:· Their parents · A child · A friend from a different culture· A potential beneficiary of their work · Their future self at the end of their life.

Here are some of the reflections of the participants:

“Explaining to my future self was hardest as it required going deep. It was very powerful going to that place because I imagined look-ing back on my life and asking what I had done with it.”

“Oftentimes we have a lot of reasons for why we do things. It is powerful to see what language and words I use when thinking. ”

“There are many things I could do out there. Telling myself ‘I want to do this’ instead of ‘I have to do this’ is very powerful because you take more responsibility, and you could do the work with more pleasure once you see you have a choice in what you do. Its like choosing to fast during Ramadhan.”

Similar to this, the participants continued onto exercises that explored their personal connection with the mission and vision of CISP, and then the strengths and weak-nesses in how they work together, particularly around styles of communication and how things are received and shared internally.

Problem focusing on one aspect only

(Personal development ´Junkies´ vs. burnt out activists) Opportunity

your personal change experience gives you more authenticity when creating change in the world.

INTEGRATION

Personal Change

Social Change


Outcomes and Moving Forward

The participants came up with three ideas during the social

innovation process. Here is a description of the ideas, as

explained by the participants:

1. How might we create more collaborative rela-tionships between the two genders in a family?

“We identified a problem with GBV in Somalia. During the sensing exer-cise we did interviews and research and found that conflict starts in the home. We thought play could help with this. At the dreamer phase we thought about poetry, storytelling, theatre, and incorporated all this into a

board game. The board game will be carefully designed to deal with GBV topics in a fun and engaging way. We hope the impact will be that boys and girls will play together and improve communication between genders. We hope to help people switch roles and play other people such as boys taking girls roles and children playing parents. By this we hope to create a mind shift that will replace a destructive cul-

OUTCOMESAND MOVING FORWARD



ture and allow better rela-tions between men and women. It will also create dialogue with parents. We hope to partner with other organizations such as UNICEF to help spread it to many people. We realize the game could cause conflict at home, however we see more potential for it to foster positive collaborations. We will do baseline and obser-vations to monitor our impact.”

2. How might we bring access to legal solutions for GBV in remote communi-ties?

“Five years ago while work-ing with CISP we realized there was no legal system to support victims of GBV. Thus, they refused to come to us for help since we

couldn’t do anything. The only help they had was the Council of Elders for solving conflict but the councils were not dealing with GBV situations. Our solution is to incorporate elders in our system. We will train them in mediation and empathetic communication skills, then they will be able to deal with GBV cases in communities where is no legal regulation about this topic”. This is a temporary solution until new laws are developed in these remotes areas of Somalia”.

3. How can schools be examples of inclusivity for all children?

“It all started when we iden-tified the issue about pro-tecting women and girls in Mogadishu. After a while we noticed girls in schools did

not feel confident enough to even go to the toilet or eat in front of boys. This was sur-prising. We went out there to sense and observe. We heard a story from a Somali girl who lived in Australia who complained she could not fully participate in school. We heard other stories from Galgayo about children – both girls and boys who were bullied in school. So we realized all children could face discrimi-nation in school based on gender, minority clans, and so on.

One of our own colleagues, Brianna, told us about an experiment that happened in the USA to raise aware-ness about discrimination. We called it blue eyes – brown eyes. We came up with up a game we called

Wethajir, which means cooperation. We would ask children in school to role-play for about a day to tackle discrimination. We want to promote inclusion and participation for all chil-dren in school. We talked to the coordinator of education in Somalia and she was happy with the idea. We also talked to people in Kenya who said they liked the game since it would help build a better nation. We hope the impact of Wethajir will help parents and teach-ers at school stop and ask themselves why some chil-dren are not eating or going to the toilet.”


In addition, the CISP staff agreed upon a

‘manifesto’ for their own work going forward, something they will

hold each other accountable for.


OUTCOME MANIFESTO

With regard to the different elements of the Amani Social Innovation Framework:

1. Prototyping and experimenting before launching a new program

2. Accepting Failure as part of the process

3. Using storyboards to help with the process and flow of a program

4. Idea-networking: Learn to give and receive feedback, specifically with non-experts

5. Creating an environment where people feel free to share their thoughts

6 Training other colleagues or beneficiaries to go through the process of Social Innovation

7. Identifying problems and sorting them into Dreamer, Realistic and Critic stages

8. Reframing challenges into positive thinking

9. Using the creativity button to trigger creative minds

10. Applying Deep Dive in their project implemen-tation


With regard to Idea-Networking at CISP in par-ticular (each of the following had an internal champion):

1. More personalized meetings e.g. on skype/phone/face to face when discussing ideas rather than email

2. Alternative facilitation of meetings. Each one has a chance to speak, express ideas and guide a meeting

3. Avoid meeting rooms: have informal setups (e.g. ideas are often exchanged at lunch) (to be com-bined with the above idea – i.e. the meeting facili-tator arranges appropriate meeting space)

4. Do training in the organization to practice receiv-ing and giving feedback when giving ideas

5. Thirty-minute rotational session for all staff on various issues to encourage bonding, build confi-dence, etc.


With regard to the Innovations coming from the workshop:

1. Implement the board game and Role Playing idea as part of another project

2. Research more about the media-tion center in Somalia to see if it is possible to include them in CISP pro-grams.


Conclusion

“Amani Institute gave us the opportunity to renew and refresh our passion, and find new ways of working together. And we really needed it.” – Rosaia Ruberto, Regional Coordinator, CISP

We hope that you enjoyed reading this toolkit on how to create a social innovation. Often, when people think about innovation, they imagine an entrepreneur founding a new organization. What we have tried to show here is that this is a process that can be applied just as much an existing organization. It may actually be even more fun and rewarding to work with your colleagues through such a process, than to start it from scratch yourself. Of course, what this requires is a visionary and committed Director or Manager, and CISP is blessed to have that encouragement coming from the top.

This toolkit was not designed to be simply read like a book, in isolation. It is meant to be a living document and a source of illustration for your own projects and ideas. As you read through these pages, we hope you allowed the intrepid regional staff of CISP – from Somalia, Kenya, Italy and other places – to lead you through the process and illustrate how they did it. But do not let that stop you from trying it out your-

self. Do apply the tips and methodologies you found in this toolkit. It will mean much more, and the exercises and overall process will become more clear and tangible – and fun.

We hope you give it a try! Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or would like to consider run-ning a similar program for your own team or organization.

We started off this toolkit with the words, ‘The world is full of challenges’. But the world is also full of people willing to dedi-cate their time, energy, passion and creativity to addressing these challenges. We need all the innovation we can get to help them make progress – and it is for them, and you, that this toolkit is ultimately designed and dedicated.

We wish you good luck and happy innovating!The Amani Institute

CONCLUSION


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tool kit amani

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