True social innovation is a community act.

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Collaborating with key Impact Hub community members, we catalyzed the formation of The DC Social Innovation Labs Community of Practice. Through a continuing series of sold out events we've inspired a diverse and potent community of practitioners to work together to advance the Social Labs methodology; considered by many to be the leading-edge of deep social innovation. 

 

"Social Labs", or "Social Innovation Labs", is a social innovation methodology that is quickly being discovered and recognized as being at the bleeding edge of social change. As they are long-term, holistic, experimental/iterative and harness an ever-expanding and evolving social network of resources, they deliver deep and lasting impact and actual innovative results where so many social programs or charitable efforts only fall short. 

 

What 'social labs' does differently than other social change 'approaches' is to define the fundamental principle of social innovation as one of 'process' --  that which distinguishes social innovation, from other innovation, is 'how' it happens, and 'who' is involved, not just 'what' is being worked on. This framework is essentially 'content-agnostic', and 'process-specific'.  The solution(s) are viewed as an emergent property of the community-- emergent from within and at the community's edges.

 

I love the social labs methodology as it combines the best of innovation theory/practice and the best of community organizing/transformation strategies. This is why I've begun calling them "community innovation coalitions". This captures the elements that make this approach to innovation both so unique and so potent: they are long term susained efforts, by a roundly diverse and dedicated set of stakeholders, that bias towards acction, iterated towards sharper and deeper impact, and recycle learnings and accumulate and amplify shared capital.