Social Innovation
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Approach
What do we work on?
What do we work on?
Why increase entrepreneurship and innovation skills?
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Entrepreneurship is for us a tool more than an end in itself: it drives empowerment, in altogether social, psychological and economic terms.
This leverage is stronger when entrepreneurship is created in reponse to a deep social or environmental need, in that the fulcrum is more stable: it does not depend on the whims of the market. The builders of tomorrow's solutions to neglected problems have a potentially massive market. In our experience, the combination of entrepreneurship with social innovation is the most efficient leverage for empowerment, be it individual or collective. |
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How do we catalyze social innovation and entrepreneurship?
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Our model for developing the capacity for innovation in people and organizations rests on four elements: culture, spaces, learning and outcome. Wow!Labs transmits tools for each of these, and helps to build them as permanent features of organizations and communities.
Capacities for innovation and entrepreneurship are catalyzed most efficiently when all four elements are present in a project. |
What happens at a personal level for who creates social innovation?
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From our experience, a person engaged in a process of social innovation undergoes the states pictured right, in varying sequences.
This analysis is at the basis of our program design and space design. To nurture a sense of belonging, programs will spur co-creation, peer-groups, collective problem-solving, collaboration. Spatial design will explore culture-specific notions of "homeliness". To catalyze disruption, programs aim at developing creativity, risk-taking, audacity and out-of-the-box thinking and acting. Spatial design ensures a sense of protection, safety, visual micro-cosm, comfort and modularity. To develop connectivity, programs focus on showcasing, scalability, practice-sharing and integrating global networks. Spatial design includes spaces to showcase and receive visitors for presentations, as well as high connectivity to bring the inside out and the outside in. |
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Services for innovation & entrepreneurship
Camps
Mobile workshops to give people first-hand experience of creating social innovation and enterprises.
Labs
Permanent or semi-permanent spaces within organizations or communities for people to acquire innovation and entrepreneurship skills and to create new products, services and enterprises.
The space and programs are based on Wow!Labs' model and co-designed with each partner to be context-specific.
Systems
Strategic suppport for organizations to increase their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship; taylor-made intervention involving redesigning systems responsible for producing innovation.
Camps
Mobile workshops to give people first-hand experience of creating social innovation and enterprises.
Labs
Permanent or semi-permanent spaces within organizations or communities for people to acquire innovation and entrepreneurship skills and to create new products, services and enterprises.
The space and programs are based on Wow!Labs' model and co-designed with each partner to be context-specific.
Systems
Strategic suppport for organizations to increase their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship; taylor-made intervention involving redesigning systems responsible for producing innovation.