Thrilled – if a little nervously – to be embarking upon the Open Innovation Process itself. We have a series of three warm-up workshops happening on Feb 11th., 18th. and 25th. (Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth), and then the Big One on March 11-12th., back in Glasgow. Feb 11 is next week…must get a move on.
We have facilitators available (more on this in a minute), our friends in the Long-Term Conditions Alliance Scotland are working the phones with their membership network on our behalf, people are signing up to participate (do they know what they are letting themselves in for?!) – all we need to do now is make it happen.
In that respect we’re really glad that we’ve been able to enlist the involvement of Lauren Currie and Sarah Drummond, to facilitate all four workshops in the OIP series. With their experience of service design and commitment to co-production, together with amazing connections (FutureGov, MyPolice), we couldn’t be more fortunate to have them working along with us on all this. At the time of writing they’re rapidly immersing themselves in what it’s like living with a long-term condition.
As soon as we began discussing working together, they came up with two wonderful ideas:
- the use of ‘cultural probes‘ (well yes at first glance the title may seem a little wierd – but go and find out a little about the concept). The tools are likely to be really good for supporting the generation of the flashes of insight and inspiration that will make the service design sing;
- that we should run a series of three warm-up workshops that built one upon the other, rather than three of the same. So in February we’re planning to move from story-telling, to envisioning how things could be better, to rehearsing the design and build process, before the Big One in March. Don’t worry, at the beginning of workshops 2 & 3, there’ll be a catch-up slot for those who didn’t come to the one before.
By a beautiful co-incidence, we’d just agreed this when NESTA’s Age Unlimited Scotland project popped up. This provides us with a very good opportunity to help people not only say “WIBBI” but actually then have a go at doing something concrete about it. 
Irrespective of any success we may or may not have with shepherding in the direction of NESTA’s competition, the model is a great one and we’re also hoping to create a wee plan with the Wellness and Health Innovation Project about possibly working in a similar way with their services too.
For now, keep an eye on @SupportingPipes and @Alissproject for developing thinking and news about workshop development!
…(memo to self)…now, must get a move on…
