By Claire Buré, Senior Manager at the MaRS Solutions Lab.

If you ask ten random people on the street whether they would welcome, or perhaps even demand, rapid, transformative systems change, the vast majority would likely say yes. It’s not hard to understand why.

We are currently living in a moment in history that is accelerating the need for systems change. New and renewed commitments from organisations across all sectors are being made to take action on injustices that have long affected Black people, Indigenous people, members of the LGBTQ community and women disproportionately. Vulnerabilities are especially exposed in education, healthcare and food systems.

As changemakers, we are determined to make the world a better place, both as public sector innovators and across other sectors. As part of that change, MaRS Solutions Lab is pleased to share with you an open and shareable community resource: the Living Guide to Social Innovation Labs.

Seeing, doing, and being change

This guide is a living compilation of social innovation tools, templates, guidance and resources to help those who are looking for support to tackle the complex problems we are facing in our societies.

It’s intended for anyone looking for a set of social innovation tools, with a focus on the lab approach, as one of many ways to address complex problems. It’s a resource to guide those who want to achieve the breakthrough innovations we need to tackle the injustices on marginalised groups and live in a more sustainable world. And we need to do this together.

The materials available in this guide are sorted into three sections: Seeing, Doing, and Being.

“Seeing” illuminates the lenses and perspectives we use to understand a problem, for example, from the individual, community or systems lens. Here you will find resources about asking good challenging questions, systems thinking, design research and convening practice, as well as specific tools to surface the underlying paradoxes of a problem. For example, by asking “wicked questions” such as, “if so many people are working on this, why is it still a problem?”

“Doing” explores the ins and outs of coming up with new solutions and enabling them to make the most positive social impact. That is, the approaches in this section focus on co-creation of solutions, prototyping, scaling and measuring the change they bring about. This includes how to effectively bring together people who hold diverse perspectives to work together towards a mutually desired future.

Last, “Being” focuses on what it takes for a lab to exist and prosper, from taking an agile approach, developing a theory for change and building a business model, to resourcing talent and team. It also includes inclusion and equity practices to ensure that we are bringing about change in truly inclusive ways.

We are sharing these materials because we know that traditional approaches to problem solving are no longer sufficient. What’s unique about this resource is that it’s a living compilation: we are adding and updating material on an ongoing basis in both English and French. We invite you to share your tools, templates and examples with us by using the “share my content” (or “partager mon contenu”) tab.

Our heartfelt thanks to the Innoweave program of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation for helping us to put together this material and share it with you! — Claire Buré

Click here to explore the full Living Guide to Social Innovation Labs.

(Picture credit: Unsplash)