{"id":407,"date":"2015-01-19T10:26:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T10:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/?p=407"},"modified":"2015-01-19T10:26:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T10:26:31","slug":"guest-blog-claire-carpenter-managing-director-the-melting-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/2015\/01\/19\/guest-blog-claire-carpenter-managing-director-the-melting-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest blog: Claire Carpenter, Managing Director, The Melting Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the creation story behind every social innovation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social innovators are often the disrupters, the ones who swim against the tide and question the status quo. We may find them uncomfortable and challenging but these people are also inspiring, determined and resilient.<\/p>\n

Take the Social Innovator personality test. How many of these needed core skills and qualities do you have? Making connections, causing disruptions, having persistence and a critical mindset, clarity of vision, courage of your convictions, an ability to learn and reflect, to take risks and experiment, question results, have focus but also openness, and of course \u2013 the ability to \u201csell\u201d.<\/p>\n

During 2014 The Melting Pot<\/a> initiated a collaborative enquiry process into social innovation and how it might flourish in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Gatherings took place from Inverness to Edinburgh. Using \u2018The Art of Hosting\u2019 participatory processes, we dived into understanding the cultural conditions that help or hinder people, communities and organisations of all sizes who have a passion for creating solutions to our pressing eco-social challenges.<\/p>\n

You can read more about our findings here<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong>For fun, here are the recommendations turned on their head.<\/p>\n

How to kill social innovation in 5 easy steps!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First \u2013 spot those disrupters and put them down \u2013 go on, tell them their mad ideas won\u2019t work. These non-conformers who wish to do something different are a nuisance with their radical notions. Their dreams are too big, too complex. They don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing and it will certainly never make any money!<\/p>\n

Second \u2013 don\u2019t assist those disruptors, or offer them a chance to collaborate. Keep yourself to yourself. Don\u2019t move out of your comfort zone, talk to, or, help anyone! Don\u2019t go out of your way to make connections or introductions, you might catch something \u2013 like a scary new proposition…<\/p>\n

Third \u2013 seek out the answers to our societal problems from another place, somewhere like London, New York or Shanghai. Those disruptive ideas under your nose, on your doorstep, the ones that take account of the cultural fit can\u2019t be any good can they? And anyway, it\u2019s more fun to go on international jollies (sorry I mean learning journeys).<\/p>\n

Forth \u2013 never accept anyone else\u2019s wisdom, or seek to learn form them. What do they know anyway? There\u2019s no point taking time out of your busy schedule to reflect on your learning \u2013 you\u2019ve just got to keep doing \u2013 at all costs.<\/p>\n

Fifth \u2013 work from your bedroom, alone \u2013 you can\u2019t afford anywhere nice and professional to work anyway, not on what is invested into the social innovation pipeline. Yes we need jobs, but they can only<\/em> be produced form companies that focus on economic growth not social capital.<\/p>\n

Now forget all that. For social innovation to thrive in Scotland, we must create a culture to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Encourage \u2013 literally lend courage<\/span> and support to – those seeking to address inequality, those who are questioning the status quo, creating disruption and taking risks.<\/li>\n
  2. Foster connections<\/span>, creativity and the generation of ideas amongst innovators in all sectors.\u00a0 Enabling genuine participation and collaboration across sectors releases socially innovative ideas.<\/li>\n
  3. Cultivate local solutions where social innovators can work with communities<\/span> to define and co-design solutions within their community context.<\/li>\n
  4. Create safe places and spaces for learning<\/span>, reflection and sharing all the stories: the successes, the tricky moments, the failures, the highs the lows of experience.<\/li>\n
  5. Invest<\/span> in social innovation \u2013 provide the physical resources to enable social innovators to work with focus, purpose, determination and persistence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Melting Pot would like to thank the Scottish Government for commissioning this work, so that our policy makers can better harness our people\u2019s talents, energy and ideas to make Scotland flourish.<\/p>\n

    Find out more about The Melting Pot<\/a>, Scotland\u2019s Centre for Social Innovation, and our Social Innovation Incubation Award programme<\/a> (all disrupters PLEASE APPLY!).<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk\/how-can-we-put-social-innovation-work-people-scotland-collaborative-enquiry<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What\u2019s the creation story behind every social innovation? Social innovators are often the disrupters, the ones who swim against the tide and question the status quo. We may find them uncomfortable and challenging but these people are also inspiring, determined and resilient. Take the Social Innovator personality test. How many of these needed core skills … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Guest blog: Claire Carpenter, Managing Director, The Melting Pot”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5075,11606,11603,100,11608,11604,2847,11605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/innovate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}