Guest Blog: Hosting Social Innovation

Guest Blog by Petra Počanić

Part 1. (Click here for Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)

A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY BEGINS

This past September I participated in ‘Hosting Innovation Certificate Training,’ an event focused on methods and tools to inspire, activate and guide groups of people during innovation processes by helping them unlock their collective creative potential to come up with new ideas and realize them.

It was hosted by Art Monastery, Plenum Austria, Sendzimir Foundation, and the Visionautik Akademie within the Erasmus+ Project ‘Hosting Social Innovation’ and is divided into two modules:

(1) Creating an innovation-friendly culture (held in Italy) and

(2) Implementing hands-on tools for innovation (to be held near Warsaw in March 2017).

It seems like everybody is innovating today—from businesses to public institutions, from education to politics and even citizen-led initiatives. There is a growing and urgent need to rethink and reinvent the way we live and work in this complex and interconnected unsustainable present.

How do we activate the transformations that will be the basis of an innovation-friendly (and hopefully resilient) culture? How do we empower people to take the lead in generating solutions and alternatives to current unsustainable lifestyles?

DAY 0—A COMMON DESTINATION—INNOVATION

Monday 19th September 2016: A day of departures from our homelands, cities, towns, and villages and a day of arrivals to our common destination, Italy, in the beautiful surroundings of the Umbrian countryside where we, a very diverse international group of people and a dog, embarked on a common journey—Hosting Social Innovation Certificate Training. Creating an innovation friendly culture started immediately upon our arrival. With a warm welcome, a tasty interactive dinner, and a playful and creative icebreaker.

What was interesting to notice during our first conversations was that not only are we passionate about innovation processes and social change, but that on a personal level most of us are going through major life changes. Leading successful innovation starts with transforming yourself, or as we came to say during the workshop, “innovation starts at home,” (something obvious, one might think, yet often overlooked).

This was Part One of a three-part post. Want to keep reading about the “Hosting Innovation” programs hosted by Art Monastery Italia this fall? Click here for Part 2 or Part 3.