Five ways to collaborate for change
www.nesta.org.uk/blog/five-ways-to-collaborate-for-change/
www.nesta.org.uk/blog/five-ways-to-collaborate-for-change/
Datasets, research reports and expert analysis are all important components of social innovation, accurately diagnosing a problem and developing evidence for effective intervention. But creating change relies on another vital ingredient - people coming together.
Building relationships allows us to exchange knowledge, create shared agendas, pool resources and collaborate to make a difference.
Every year Nesta invites leading thinkers, practitioners, policy experts, business leaders and academics to join us for one-on-one conversations on tackling some of the biggest challenges in our societies, bringing them together with Nesta’s multidisciplinary audience.
We've just announced our spring event series with experts in tech, policy and sustainability: review our lineup and register to attend.
Ahead of our upcoming series, here are five key insights that last year's speakers gave us about collaborating for change.
Nesta talks to... 2023 highlights
“We are big believers that you need all types of innovation to move forward. And sometimes these are going to be small steps and incremental change, bit by bit. And then there are times when actually you need to take these massive leaps.”
Tamara Carleton and Bill Cockayne
When it comes to problem solving we are often told to be pragmatic, to focus on what’s achievable. But experts in radical innovation Bill Cockayne and Tamara Carleton gave a Nesta audience different advice: sometimes if you want to create radical change you need to imagine the 'almost impossible'.
The authors of Building Moonshots: 50+ Ways to Turn Radical Ideas Into Reality explained how setting bold goals that might seem unachievable today inspire people to work towards them.
These ‘moonshots’ encourage collaboration and experimentation and inspire measurable missions that can contribute to societal progress.
This doesn’t mean ignoring the real difficulties involved but by believing change is possible and committing to the hard work required, we can inspire ambitious and talented people to come together and focus on what is needed to drive towards a radical, long term vision of the future.
Rather than just being a thought experiment, imagining a moonshot is a playful way of working towards a better future that, at the very moment, seems out of reach - whether it is electric aviation, planting trees on the moon or the life saving mission to cure cancer.
“What we're doing in local communities has a long lifespan. We've got a contribution to the circular economy, to connecting communities, to sharing. If child poverty magically ended tomorrow, we might continue to exist as parent-sharing networks, for example."
Sophie Livingstone
It's the power of local relationships that's key to how Little Village supports families with babies and under fives living in London, according to CEO Sophie Livingstone.
Love and solidarity are two of the organisation's values, both for the families they work with and their own network - which includes over a 1000 volunteers. The bank bank charity emphasises the importance of involving the entire community in its efforts - from the families themselves to volunteers and partners, such as children’s centres, food banks, midwives and more.
Sophie explained that the power of reciprocity, deep relationships and being part of an ecosystem, runs Little Village's work to create an alliance of baby banks and help people connect through re-use and the circular economy.
Acknowledging the importance of systemic change, Sophie explained the power of coming together to overcome what look like insurmountable obstacles and doing things differently. As a result, since its founding in 2016, Little Village has been able to support more than 24,000 children.
"Families need support in the early days so that they can develop bonds with their child in a way that is as stress-free as possible, because when we're focusing on our basic needs and our basic needs are not met, it's really hard for us to form those relationships with others...”
Abigail Miranda
Abigail Miranda, Head of Early Years and Prevention at the Anna Freud Centre, discussed the central importance of providing support from the earliest days of a child’s life, intervening early where there are relational challenges, preventing the escalation of mental health challenges later in life.
She discussed the role of 'mentalisation' - the ability to to think about our own emotions and feelings, and those of others - and the need to provide parents with the emotional space to provide enriching experiences for their children.
Stressing the importance of working within an ecosystemic model, supporting families, building social connections and breaking isolation, she highlighted the protective role that access to basic services (such as health visitors and midwifery) can play, particularly for disadvantaged families, offering social connections that are real relationships with real people.
“ if everybody … could go and check out FEAT, think about what the data means for them, and have a conversation with someone, particularly if you're in a local authority - that's a starting point, right? … It's helping to bring planners and public health colleagues together, hoping to maybe bring them together onto a shared agenda.”
Thomas Burgoine
Geographer Thomas Burgoine joined us to explore how people can come together to build healthier neighbourhoods through the Food Environment Assessment Tool (FEAT).
FEAT was created by Cambridge University in collaboration with Nesta's Healthy Life mission, and it allows public health and planning professionals to map, measure and monitor food retail access across all four nations of the UK.
Looking to understand how the food on offer in local neighbourhoods shapes our relationship with food and health behaviours, Tom discussed the evidence for links between the availability of unhealthy food and poor health, and how local authorities used the FEAT data to start conversations about food retail.
He highlighted the need for people to come together at a system level, for example taking a coordinated approach to takeaway planning permissions and outdoor junk food advertising, building links between planners, environmental health, public health and local authorities to shape healthier environments.
“There's often young people that are overlooked because they don't come from the right background or because they don't have the same opportunities as some people in society. We need to be speaking to all walks of life across the board to give them those opportunities so that we can fulfil our need to get more skilled people into the organisation to deliver on our net zero commitments.”
Sarah Harris
As the country pushes to reach net zero by 2050, the National Grid’s Sarah Harris set out the scale of the human and engineering challenge - building five times the amount of infrastructure than has been built in the last 30 years, and filling around 400,000 new jobs across the energy industry.
Recognising the impact of such huge change, and the need to gain public acceptance, Sarah discussed the Grid's desire to be a good neighbour, not just engaging with communities but working to create opportunities for them.
To meet the future demand for green skills - from planning, environmental, infrastructure, and supply chain to communications, services and even farming - she said the National Grid was using this opportunity to go into all communities and actively try and find underutilised talent, from young people who lacked qualifications to veterans to working mums.
In the new ‘Nesta talks to…’ series in spring 2024, join us to share insights and learning from the Future Generations Act in Wales, the power of collective decision making for public good, open digital infrastructure and green technologies.
