11.00 – 12.30, 3 September
Overwhelmed by change? What is it costing you? Are you even solving the ‘right’ problems? This interactive workshop will immerse you in the dynamic practice of collaborative discovery and reframing.
If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes” Albert Einstein.
We often find ourselves blocked and paralysed from taking decisive action against our biggest challenges, simply because we are intimidated by the complexity of these ‘wicked’ problems and don’t know where to begin or what we are solving. At the same time the Covid-19 pandemic abruptly poses immense and confounding issues adding unprecedented pressure to all organizations. Processes supported by physical interaction need to move into the digital space rapidly and efficiently. So do our Living Labs!
But how can we be sure that we’re not jumping to quick, unsustainable fixes to symptoms while missing the hidden root causes? What if we could focus on the ‘best’ problem(s), so we don’t rush into action misguided and searching for answers to the wrong questions? How might we develop strategic, cross-cutting, and scalable solutions to de-risk change and amplify impact?
A drastic thinking and doing shift is vital to achieving systemic and regenerative change. With this in mind, our objective is to support changemakers and problem solvers co-develop the critical skills, tools, and culture needed to quickly propel them forward and help change-proof their projects and organizations; accelerating growth and uncovering shared value.
During this participatory workshop you will learn how to harness collective wisdom and ask propulsive questions to effectively define and collaboratively reframe problem spaces. You will work in transdisciplinary teams, with other field experts, on real-life challenges related to the topic of “The Digital Future of Living Labs” and deep dive into the anatomy of problems before moving into solutions.
Through a hands-on facilitated process and co-creative, peer-learning experience you will immerse into yours and others’ challenges, distilling their essence to yield clear inquiries and tangible actionable insights towards their quick resolution. All participants will build 21st-century competencies, simplifying complexity, and more efficiently overcoming urgent challenges while boosting their resilience and innovation capacity.
You will walk away with:
You will walk away with:
With registration participants can submit real-life challenges, related to the main theme, to collaboratively explore during the workshop.
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(25min) Welcome: introductions, ground rules, and objectives. Plenary presentation: the importance of focusing more on the discovery phase during projects and using the reframing model (method, tools, and impact) for problem-solving and better decision making. Live poll: barriers. Intro to the challenges.
(45min) Interactive session in break-out rooms: Participants divide into sub-groups and work on virtual white boards.
(20min) Harvesting & Closing: each team presents their findings and outcomes to the entire group. Open discussion on key takeaways and lessons learnt.
You will benefit most by this workshop if you are a:
15 participants (* for a deeper dive into the problem spaces investigated)
Service Designer & Facilitator
Thalia Rizou is the founder and director of Youthnest, an organization that develops holistic methodological approaches to address social challenges. With a strong background in project management, service design and facilitation, she is looking for systemic methods to tackle our society’s challenges in a participatory, efficient, and holistic way. The last 13 years, she has been involved in several organisations, projects, and initiatives that promote social innovation, civic society, and education in Greece and abroad. She is passionate about promoting practical social innovation ideas in her community, in her city, Thessaloniki, and in Greece. She believes that in order to find sustainable solutions you need a vision-driven idea, a strong systemic business plan customized for local needs, and a participatory, user-centric approach. Areas of interest and expertise: Design for Social Innovation, Systemic impact, Project Management, Learning Innovation, Service Design, Organizational Design, Social Innovation Secret Superpower: Although she lives in a country full of islands and sun, she is a deep lover of winter mountaineering
Participatory Innovation Architect & Strategist
Ioanna is the heart of Wabi & Sabi, a New York-based, strategic design and innovation consultancy founded to guide organizations into purpose-driven innovation, regenerative growth, and sustainability. Since graduating from Cornell University she splits her time between her two homes, the US and Greece, devising adaptive, cross-platform strategies that grow audiences, build resilience, and amplify social impact at the speed of culture and everyday life. Over two decades she has future-proofed startups and worked on award winning projects across three continents garnering international acclaim. Her clients range from fortune 500s and SMEs to nonprofits and public entities in need of reinventing themselves. Driven by her lifelong passion to explore society’s increasingly interconnected problem spaces she is dedicated to developing participatory programs that facilitate networked learning, capacity building, and transformational leadership for innovation. Her goal is to help changemakers shift to managing complexity more efficiently through collective inquiry and iterative problem solving—empowering them to ask the ‘tough’ WHYs that will confidently lead them through accelerating change. She believes that architecting human-centered experiences that resonate deeply and inspire meaningful transdisciplinary dialogues can fuel activation and accelerate systemic change. Secret Superpower: A forever curious chocoholic with an innate ability to make novel connections others miss and unlock opportunities for shared value co-creation.
Service designer
Vasia is a service designer with expertise in using service design to improve public and social services for citizens and transform organizations towards a design-led, human-centered culture. She is the founder of Design4Future, a service design agency in Greece and founding member of the Service Design Network – Greek Chapter. During the past 4 years she has organized and facilitated various service design events and jams in Greece (such as. Service Design Jam, Global GovJam, Service Design Drinks etc.) and has participated in the team who translated Nesta’s DIY Toolkit in Greek. Her portfolio of clients includes public organizations in Greece as well as multinational tech companies (Deutsche Telekom and more.) and the European Commission. She holds a MA in Design Management.
