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In a Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop at Soft-Space in Geneva, I worked with a group of bi-lingual children (French/English) with a challenge on cleaning the oceans of microplastics. Working in collaboration with Aurore Bui, Founder of Soft-Web, we explored SDG 14 - Life Under Water. We took Sustainable Development Goal #14 as our inspiration, valuing each person’s imagination and creativity, as we played with ideas to solve the specific challenge of cleaning up microplastics. There is an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of microplastics – pieces of 5mm or less - in our oceans and water systems. Explore this sustainability issue for yourself through the links below. From ‘Flamotrash’ to the ‘Clean-o-rator’, ‘Poisson Man’ to ‘The Water Walker’ and ‘Robot Fish’ to ‘Pent-o-Pus’, the ideas were phenomenal. I shared the children’s ideas and prototype descriptions with Prof. Jonathan Rossiter, Professor of Robotics at Bristol University, whose team is doing innovative work on robots cleaning up oil pollutants in the oceans. See his TED talk. This is what he had to say: I am so impressed! They have come up with some amazing ideas which are at the cutting edge of technology. They have hit upon some pressing questions…please congratulate the children for doing a great job. Stretching the imagination and challenging conventional wisdom like this is what scientists and engineers do every day. It's so enjoyable and that's how the next generation will be able to solve tough scientific challenges like this.” I also shared the children’s work with Keith Tuffley, Founder of Neuw.com, sustainability advocate, polar explorer, Board Member of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and environmental entrepreneur. Wow these are fantastic. What great ideas - well thought through, inspiring, and exciting. And I love the videos with the explanations and presentations. The best ideas come from young people! Keep them flowing, so we can save our planet.” All children have the capacity to be agents of change today. It always amazes and inspires me, seeing the enormous capacity of children and young people as they play in these Flow In Action ‘change-maker’ spaces, using design and innovation thinking to develop resilience, wellbeing and life-skills; and connecting to a sense of purpose and hope about using their creativity to make positive change happen.
Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: SDG 14, Creativity, Innovation Collaborating with: Aurore Bui, Soft-Web Date: February 2017 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sdgs #worldwaterday #youthvoice #youth #climateaction #Nature In 2017/2018, I ran a series of Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenges for students (ages 11-16) at Verbier International School, during each school term. Each challenge was designed to increase their understanding of how they could take action as global citizens, using design thinking as a process to connect with creativity and come up with innovative ideas. From January – March, I asked students to focus on SDG6 and World Water Day 22nd March, to deepen their understanding around sustainability and climate action.  I set them the challenge of designing a water carry to put to the test on the 22nd March on the mountain; when they would walk to a set point to collect 20 litres of snow (or near enough) and then back again. World Water Day connects to Sustainable Development Goal #6 which sets out targets for all people to have access to water and sanitation. Water poverty is a growing issue globally and with mountains playing a key role in our water ecosystems, we need to take action to protect them. Additionally, WHO, the UN and other organisations such as WaterAid, indicate the nearly 1 billion people – mainly women and children – still must walk a minimum of 6km daily to collect water for drinking, cleaning and washing. Time spent collecting water also means it is often impossible to school or work, keeping people trapped in the cycle of poverty. We started the challenge with an ideas download, working in groups to come up with ideas for their water carry. Over several weeks, ideas were refined in class, miniature prototypes from recyclable materials were built to test the concepts; and then each group put together their full size prototype to be tested on the day. The students’ walk and water carry experience equated to a distance similar to the typical 6km walked, where they would collect 20 litres of snow per team – although the norm in a developing country is 20 litres of water per person - and carry this back to the starting point. (They were NOT expected to drink the water that they collected.) Accompanied by mountain guide, Cherries from Cherries Walks, students also developed their understanding of the mountain and its water systems. Class E were totally rocking it yesterday building their first prototype designs for their water carry on the mountain on World Water Day 22nd March. Not to be outshone, Class F also totally rocked it yesterday building their prototypes of their World Water Day - Water Carry designs. I work with young people this way, to build their critical and creative thinking skills as they design within the parameters of the challenge, encouraging them to collaborate. This challenge was also an opportunity for them to raise awareness within the local community about World Water Day, giving them a sense of purpose through their own creativity.
Working in this way, gives the time and space to build their resilience and entrepreneurial mind-set. Each group collaborates to create their prototype and on the challenge day, it is not about a winning concept but about adapting in the moment to the conditions, reframing failure into reorganisation as invariably the prototypes being tested respond to the test conditions! Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Topic: SDG 6, World Water Day, Creativity, Innovation Commissioned by: Verbier International School Date: Jan/March 2018 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sdgs #worldwaterday #youthvoice #youth #climateaction #Nature Running a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop with students at Verbier International School (VIS) in November 2019, focused on equipping them with the right tools for taking climate action in their local community. For this school in the Swiss Alps, that means exploring how to make their local ski resorts sustainable. Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenges use design and systems thinking to build youth wellbeing, problem-solving skills and give them a starting point for real projects. It all starts with opening up a safe space for them to imagine, download and test ideas. We specifically played with the challenge of making their local ski resorts sustainable by the end of 2030. First, we imagined and downloaded ideas. Second, we reverse engineered from 2031 to the present day to understand our path for achieving our ideas and impact.
I used futures-thinking as our starting point, we dreamed bigger to bring in new perspectives and insights; exploring what we need to do to make it happen, opens up the incredible space of understanding impact. Finally, we uploaded ideas onto the Flow In Action Hazu Edtech platform, so that they were captured as part of a global library. From a hyperloop inspired vertical transport system to, and around, the resort; to fully solar-powered housing; to telecabines which carbon-capture. To turn these ideas into reality, the students had fantastic insights on repurposing existing solar panels, incentivising different behaviour of residents and tourists; thinking about ways to manage the value chain, so as not to cause more damage and move away from a consume/dispose culture. Why do it this way? This style of challenge-based learning, makes a space for every young person to show up with their unique creativity and become a problem-solver, enabling them to explore essential questions about impact on people and planet, so that they can adapt solutions to respect and protect. Plus, it’s practicing and embedding the design and systems thinking skills recognised as essential future-of-work skills for Industry 4.0, if not the most vital. This learn to move mountains® approach becomes people and planet-centred design-thinking, empowering students as the innovator and entrepreneurs of the new decade. Solution: Youth Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: Creativity, Innovation, Climate Action, SDGs Commissioned by: Verbier International School, Valais, Switzerland Date: November 2019 [Coursera Global Skills Index: https://www.coursera.org/gsi] #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wonder #lovefortheplanet #sustainability #sdgs #climateaction #peopleaandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing As MBA students taking the sustainability specialisation at Grenoble Ecole de Management, their exploration is about how to engage colleagues and implement sustainability solutions in their workplaces or entrepreneurial ventures. As visiting faculty, I ran a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge to teach my method on raising awareness in business environments. The workshop was an opportunity to explore sustainability and its application in their specific settings; and how they, as a leaders of change, would create spaces for colleagues to explore new perspectives and innovative solutions designed around flourishing of the planet, to do things differently. A really valuable exploration, aside from connecting to creativity to play with ideas around achieving the UN SDGs, was to understand what living corporate values meant in this context, particularly in the oil/gas and automotive industries.
The group left with a set of tools to test in their respective corporate settings. Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop, Speaker Topic: Creativity, Innovation, Sustainability, SDGs Commissioned by: Grenoble Ecole de Management, Grenoble, France Date: 4 June 2019 #flowinaction #pureenergyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sustainability #sdsg #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing #climateaction #nature Turning the SDGs into reality will take innovative, courageous and dynamic investing. For participants taking part in the Certificate of Advanced Studies in SDG Investing at The Graduate Institute in Geneva, immersion into the UN SDGs starts on Day 1. And I was there to run an introductory Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenge with the group.
Opening up to the level of innovation needed to bring new, radical solutions which make real impact, means challenging business-as-usual. That requires everyone to show up with their unique blend of problem-solving creativity. Designing solutions means thinking across systems.
Which was the purpose of 90-minute scene-setting workshop! Setting the 20-participants an ambiguous challenge around making a product sustainable, looking back from 2031 to how we achieved it, disrupted old patterns of thinking. We played with ideas, tinkering with some reverse-engineering and understanding impact across systems and supply chains; building an understanding of how interconnected the UN SDGs are; and the need to be focused on designing for flourishing. All of which opens up new perspectives from different stakeholders with different expertise, creating an opportunity to come together and generate more impactful solutions designed around people and planet. Connecting with creativity is the vital starting point for radical risk-taking and Flow In Action’s Innovation Challenge Workshops invite participants of all ages to step into this problem-solving space to be risk-takers and changemakers. Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: Systems Thinking for the UN SDGs Location: Geneva, Villa Barton, The Graduate Institute Commissioned by: SDGI, The Graduate Institute, Executive Education #flowinaction #imagination #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #designthinking #designforflourishing #systemsthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #flourishing Getting young people involved in achieving SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, means exploring how to take action at a local level in their communities. On 24th June 2019, Ecolint La Grande Boissière Year 11 took a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop, exploring how to make their school campus sustainable.  As an end of term activity organised by Laura Italici – Head of Year 11, over 120 students from Year 11, arrived at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva to take the challenge workshop, which I ran in collaboration with UNCTAD's Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE). It was one of the hottest days of the year and with the magnificent, crystal clear view of Mont Blanc in the background, we were able to work outside, under the trees, in the gardens of the Palais, inspired by nature in the centre of the city.  I asked students to come up with ideas to make their school campus sustainable by the end of the 2020 academic year, turning SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities into reality in their community.
Having set the scene for the challenge, students split up into groups to with accompanying teacher mentors to do a rapid download. This Flow In Action workshop was a journey from ideas download to 1-min value proposition pitch, instilling a spirit of youth entrepreneurship as well as local social impact. The students were incredibly impressive in their creative thinking, dreaming big and with a practical understanding of how to take action when they got back to school in September. 11 groups of students came up with viable ideas that could transform the biodiversity of the site, reduce CO2 emissions, repurpose and recycle plastic, use flat-roof buildings for growing fruit and vegetables, composting food waste...and many more concepts that could become real projects. I was evaluating the pitches with guest facilitator Siobhan McLoughlin, 2019 Ship Director of Class Afloat specialising in #blueeconomy insights; and Fiorina Mugione, Fulvia Farinelli and Jayne Winter from the UNCTAD-DIAE team, sharing their insights and expertise of innovation and entrepreneurship. In Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshops, everyone’s imagination and creativity matters and new perspectives emerge as ideas are exchanged. And that is exactly what happened! These young people demonstrated patience, perseverance and resilience in face of the logistical challenges. With students demonstrating immense empathy and appetite for taking action, it’s clear that they have started their journey as leaders of change and as a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs taking action for the planet. Solution: Youth Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities Location: Geneva, Palais des Nations Collaborating with: UNCTAD Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) Commissioned by: Ecolint La Grande Boissière #flowinaction #iamunprecedented #wellbeing #creativity #ideas #resilience #innovation #entrepreneurship #youngleader #climateaction #noplanetb #sustainability #sdgs #unctad #ecolint #youthvoices Using wellbeing tools to deepen creativity and unlock innovation A new generation of start-up entrepreneurs want to create powerful solutions for a flourishing planet, that means being more creative and innovative than ever in ideas for products and services which challenge the status quo in competitive markets. To give them the tools to deepen creativity and unlock innovation, I ran a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop in collaboration with Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation (WCCI), during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2019 in Geneva.
In this interactive workshop, we started out with wonder, stepped into love and reverse engineered from 2031, experiencing the tools through playing with ideas. Set in a framework of using design and systems thinking, we focused on how to design around flourishing of the planet. Dr Vlad Glaveneau, the Director of WCCI, specialises in researching wonder as a trigger for creativity and innovation, so he asked the group to look through the lens of wonder and ask, “What is it? What else is it? What could it be?” to bring new perspectives. I like to disrupt old ways of seeing, by asking people to look through the lens of love and love for the planet; bringing in a boundary that inspires you to think about impact across systems and supply chains from the end-point of flourishing.
With contributions from Scott Poynton (Principal at Scott Poynton SaRL), Philippe Rudaz (Economic Affairs Officer, UNCTAD-DIAE) and Aurore Bui (Founder, SoftWeb), participants were constantly refreshing their creativity to find new ways of seeing the problems that they want to solve.
It was also fantastic to be running the workshop live in the Hazu.io platform, capturing in real-time each group’s ideas and concepts in response to the challenges. Meanwhile, Andy Abgottspon the Founder and CEO of Hazu.io turned the workshop into a Virtual Reality demo, enabling us to experience what it will be like to explore our concepts and impacts on the SDGs. A participant fed back: "Dear Elaine, Thanks a lot for your workshop. It was as informative as it was fun. Your original and creative approach enabled us to look for new solutions and fostered a "think out of the box" mindset. I also appreciated the mix between using our child side with colours, pens and imagination combined with the technology side and mapping. I can only highly recommend your workshop for any team or organisation who wish to create new product or service. Or just want a one-of-a-kind team building. Finally, merci for your kindness and openess. You managed to motivate everyone and gently pushed us out of our limits." Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Theme: Wellbeing Tools to unlock Creativity Location: Webster University Geneva Collaborating with: Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation Commissioned by: Global Entrepreneurship Week Geneva, Liberez Vos Idees #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #impact #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing #sdgs #wonder #love #gew2019 #wellbeing #resilience #nature #climateaction |
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