This module will explore the mindsets required to lay the foundations for social change, and the skill sets that help us to design meaningful solutions that make a difference to people’s lives.

Social innovation is a powerful way of achieving social change because it asks people most affected by an issue to become the designers of new solutions. Through doing so, it leads to ‘professionals’ developing greater understanding of and empathy with ‘users’: children and their families, and communities more broadly.

Design thinking is a way of thinking but more importantly a way of working. It’s a process that helps us to:

● Understand people’s lives

● Generate ideas based on human insight

● Develop solutions to meet the demands of the future

● Implement solutions that are desirable, feasible and viable.

In order to skilfully use the methods and tools of design to develop tangible and transformative solutions that are of genuine need and help to users, we must consider the underlying mindsets that give the methods and tools their power. We call these social innovation mindsets, and they form the foundations for people to become agents of change and learn how to effectively use design methods and tools.

Above you will find a video seminar introducing the mindsets and skill sets of powerful social innovation. Below will find two modules to explore in order to develop your innovation capabilities. In Mindsets for social innovation you can uncover, practice and reflect on the five mindsets we believe are the most important for innovators. In Skill sets for innovation and change, we will take you through a light-touch design loop using a set of real methods and tools so you can experience how an idea can be collaboratively developed and improved into a tangible solution over time.