blog

New Report: Love-ins, Lobster, & Racing Cars.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:30:13 +1100

Mike and Liz

10 kilos of bananas, 200 Anzac biscuits, and 130 conversations later, the Radical Redesign have published the next report from their Ageing and Caring project.

After two months spent with people in Unley and Salisbury we’ve come to the end of our ‘Look and Listen’ phase and are proud to launch our report, “Love-ins, Lobsters and Racing Cars: Great living in late adulthood.” We've learnt a lot about what great living looks and feels like for people in caring roles and relationships. Click here to download.

The report tells the stories of the people we've met, and outlines 7 opportunities we’ve identified for enabling more people in caring roles and relationships to lead great lives.

Participants Dudley and Daphne with their dog Dasha.

Thanks to everyone who so openly let us into their lives, living rooms and kitchens. We can’t wait to bring some of our early ideas back to you in the next month and work together to design some great new solutions.

Thanks too to the many services we spent time with, who were so open and positive about sharing the way they do things.

We look forward to hearing what you think of the report! Get it here.

Solutions that work

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:55:00 +1100

On 4th November 2011, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill launched Solved, our latest effort in scouting for and sharing social solutions working to address social issues across Australia.

Spotters took to the streets and over the next 6 weeks, put forward a total of 80 solutions. Each entry went into the draw for $5000 cash and 10 hours of expert mentoring from Christian Stenta, TACSI’s Venture Support Leader.

After hours of careful analysis and deliberation, the judges’ votes are in... it’s a tie!

Our congratulations go to Welcome to Australia and Produce to the People Tasmania, both of whom have been selected as the winning solutions. Each project will receive $2,500 in cash from TACSI as well as 10 hours of expert consultancy.

Produce to the People Tasmania is a locally driven initiative aimed at addressing the issues organic waste and food security in north western Tasmania. PTTP have successfully replicated a model initially developed in San Francisco, USA within a new context to meet a locally identified need.

Welcome to Australia is a powerful, community driven social media campaign sharing a positive voice around asylum seeking, refugees and multiculturalism that is not politically aligned or focused on policy.

For more information contact Christian Stenta on (08) 8110 9957.

The power of play at Family by Family - Part 1

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:32:28 +1100

Before joining TACSI I was a junior primary teacher. For many years I tried to spread the word to anyone who’d listen about the importance of play for children’s development and wellbeing.To be honest I’m not sure if I’ve been too successful. Some realise it’s value for little kids but as soon as children hit school learning to read and write (formally) becomes the overwhelming priority. In fact, learning these skills, along with skills in numeracy, will dominate a child’s day at school five days a week for 12 or so years. And it has to if you want them to do well in NAPLAN and a whole range of other testing. I’m not saying these skills aren’t important, they are, but I believe these skills only make up a small part of what children need to become a happy and healthy, involved member of their community.

Since starting at Family by Family and working more directly with parents as well as kids, I’m getting a sense of what is blocking the paths to being happy, healthy and connected within a community. Families are stressed and many of the stressors seem to be centered around:

isolation
strained family relationships
concern over children’s behaviour

More so than ever I can see the value of play for both kids and adults, especially when it has the power to positively impact on the stressors listed above. And it does so for the following reasons:

Play brings people together. Think of how many people at sporting clubs or hobby groups connect over a common interest, regardless of their differences.
Play can strengthen relationships. It gives families a chance to be there for one another, build trust and diffuse anger. Play can also create a safe environment to work through past troubles.
Play gives kids something to do and it’s what they should be doing naturally. Often children’s bad behaviour comes from boredom or not being able to use their energy constructively.
Play is fun and it’s ok to have fun, even if you’re an adult!

So whilst I always knew play was vital for children and their families maybe my approach to spreading the word wasn't quite right. I thought I had to teach families how to play because they didn’t know how. And while I’m sure everyone could benefit from trying out some new ideas, I’ve realised many families actually do play very well. What they do need help with is to learn to make it a priority. We all need to realise that it’s ok to play and that it’s just as important as learning to read and write. We also need to know that the more time and effort families invest in playing the better the outcomes for their family will be.

Country music trumps merino socks - How can we create the experiences that people really care for?

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:32:05 +1100

Christmas has been approaching so fast this year, hasn’t it? It seemed like December has been under a time lapse rushing to become history. At the radical redesign studio our thinking & doing caps have been focused on creating the Insights & Opportunities report of the caring project (to be released in January).

Evenings and weekends we’ve spent in look & listen mode in the “ethnography zone” with people in Salisbury and Unley. Those many impressions and thoughts during the intense days of December helped me frame a first hunch to a question that I’ve been schlepping with me: If during the look & listen phase we get to deeply understand people’s life as it play out every day, how can these insights then facilitate experiences that work for people in the creating phases?

It seems an answer to this question might be just under the Christmas tree.

My Christmas shopping of gifts and experiences for the family suffered badly this year. A case of too little too late. While I speak regularly with my family and long-time friends, based in Europe, I haven’t spent much time hanging out with them. We speak about our lives, rather than live them together. So I found it hard to put myself in their shoes, what could help them with their plans for 2012? What experience could give them joy in the new year? Weren’t it for a few tip offs from people around them the stockings would have looked awfully vanilla – timeless pairs of socks that would be little more than trade ins come Boxing Day.

In contrast, it was so easy to think of small but meaningful surprises for the people that have been very happy to share a sliver of their life with me during the last few weeks. People like Leon who is an expert in repairing trailers and find precious metals in old appliances to be sold on to the recycling yard. Or Barbara, a proud Scottish lady who likes to teach her parrots how to speak, and is an expert in preparing tasty short bread, haggis and other delicatessen. Or Daphne who loves decorating cakes but hasn’t done so for many years and firmly believes that cupcakes aren’t sold at up and coming purveyors of specialist patisseries.

I’ve started to understand where people are coming from and where they want to go. Leon likes for instance spending more time line dancing at the country music or to enjoy a nice bottle of Shiraz with friends. Barbara loves a voucher for delicatessen and for trips to meet people again who share her wicked sense of humor. Daphne likes an assortment of cupcakes with fancy frosting and her husband Dudley likes that ticket for a day of respite at the car races to soak in the action and the hypnotising noise.

During the times spent together a little magic happened. Tuning a classic V8 with layers of dust on its bonnet with Dudley in a fully kitted out work shop with cob webs, or spending time with Leon at the country music were the stepping stones to grasp their ideas of what a good day in their life looks like. With this experience in mind it is then possible to work out not only what they’d like more of in their lives but also what would make a good gift for them - a gift that gets them closer to their idea of a good life.

So next time I want to fill the stocking of someone that I care about I’ll better make sure I first understand through experiencing where they come from and where they’re going to avoid that vanilla pair of socks experience.

Scaling Social Impact

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:12:12 +1100

Hello! I am Suhit Anantula, the new Business Coach of Family by Family.

As you would all be familiar, the Radical Redesign team at TACSI over a year of innovation created the Family by Family Project. Now, the project is headed by Carolyn, there is a new team and they are expanding. Where to next? What the team at TACSI rightly identified is that as a social enterprise, how can we increase our social impact? How can we scale? That is where I come in.

My background is in business. I worked in sales, Investment banking, social entrepreneurship in rural India, many failed startup attempts, the environmental field and currently working in Families SA with an MBA. In all these roles, I have learned that there is tremendous value in using Business tools and techniques in the social space.

In simple terms, how can we scale Family by Family. What is the business model required to do this? From a business point of view, what the Radical Redesign team has achieved is a new methodology to create innovative products. The working backwards methodology of social sciences plus design thinking has a great potential to come up with new solutions for social problems. However, we need a methodology to scale it, to grow it, to increase our social impact.

The best analogy I can give is the iPhone. Before the iPhone, a smartphone looked like a Blackberry. The best keyboard, emails, BBM messenger, internet on the phone etc. After the iPhone innovation every smartphone started to look like it. That is great product innovation. That is not enough though. The growth of the iPhone and its increasing impact is due to a number of other factors like superior manufacturing, supply chain management, marketing and sales, financial management, negotiations with carriers, Apple retail stores, creating the App store and developer relationships and on and on. You get the idea. There is tremendous business model innovation and organisational capability behind the product development.

This is the exact kind of work that is required to scale Family by Family. I am a big believer in design thinking and will be using the design thinking principles to develop the business model behind Family by Family. I am very excited to work with Family by Family as well as Brenton and the rest of the team at TACSI.

As we learn to scale Family by Family, we will be sharing our experiences here. In due course, we should start to codify this knowledge in such a way that it can be shared across other new product innovations that will be coming out of TACSI.

For more on business and the social sector, check out my blog - www.worldisgreen.com

Designing Better Lives

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:05:30 +1100

Designing better lives: An economist’s appreciation of design

Nicholas Gruen [1]

Design is often described as making things not only useable but useful and desirable/delightful. We'd agree this is important - but what is even more fundamental (and rare) is making things that prompt change.

Sarah Schulman and Chris Vanstone [2]

I.

Design is on the march. Apple teeters on being the most highly valued company in the world – its core competitive strength lying in design and systems integration, not technology. ‘Design thinking’ is becoming increasingly prominent not only in the development of products and processes, but also in the delivery of services. So much so that Deloitte has recently begun investing heavily in its own ability to provide its clients with design knowhow as a crucial engine of its innovation and competitiveness. As I write this, a prominent article on Australia’s Deloitte Online’s homepage [3] is titled “Design thinking demystified”. So what is the core contribution of design and what is behind its rise?

Adam Smith’s invocation of the benefits of self-interest – or as he called it self-love – is famously encapsulated in this aphorism:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

Smith’s point is not that self-interest is good in itself, but that the self-interest of one person in a market brings them into relation with others’ self-interest. Note that Smith’s injunction (implicitly to both parties) is for each to seek their own interest by addressing themselves to the other’s interest. Since Smith founded it, the discipline of economics has focused on the incentives facing each of the parties to a bargain and on their relative bargaining strength.

But there are more things in heaven and earth. For the butchers, bakers and brewers of Smith’s time there was no great mystery as to what constituted the customer’s wants or needs. Today’s world is much more complex. If you’re making computers or even cars, customers have specific wants that are not so easily divined by producers. Thus, part of Japan’s auto-producers’ recipe for competitive success was meticulous attention to consumer needs.[4]

This process has now gone much further. A great transformation occurred at the outset of the personal computer era when the Apple Macintosh showed that consumers didn’t just want more technical capability from their software and hardware – something that could be captured well enough in standard disclosures of those technical capabilities. They wanted user-friendliness – a very different thing and something inherently difficult to ‘disclose’ in specifications.

It turns out you can’t really make a car or a computer useable without a lot of work, almost invariably involving the users themselves. And indeed there is a discipline that has grown up under our noses which has been all but ignored by economists and policy makers but which nevertheless addresses itself to this issue. That discipline is design.

II.

Design is often thought of as an essentially aesthetic overlay on products. We know it contributes to usefulness – indeed, particularly since functionalism, usefulness is part of the aesthetic. Yet, as Steve Jobs is famous for insisting, good design is not fundamentally about how something looks but rather how it works. Intriguingly, Adam Smith would have agreed. He quoted his friend and fellow philosopher David Hume to the effect that utility was one of the principal sources of the beauty of things. Indeed, Smith went further, arguing that people were often more strongly motivated by the beauty of all the complex parts of some mechanical or social artefact working felicitously together than they were by the utility to which it gave rise.[5]

Smith was particularly proud of this gloss on Hume, and I suspect it explains much of Steve Jobs’ commercial success too. Jobs’ genius also helps illustrate something else of great significance in modern design. Consumers may not have sufficient information or expertise to know what they themselves want. In such circumstances good design often requires creative leaps beyond simple functionality. Jobs was celebrated for his intuitive leaps in anticipating the way new technology might be used to make new kinds of products before consumers could tell market researchers how much they might like them.

These developments have been a source of great renewal within the discipline of design and have underpinned the increased attention and prestige it is receiving. The revolution Apple started with the ‘user-friendliness’ of the graphical user interface has morphed into a preoccupation with actively designing ‘user-experience’ – or UX among the cognoscenti – to the point that, for Web 2.0, useability (including the pleasure of use) has become a precondition of competitive success.

III.

And, as I learned on taking up the chairmanship of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) in late 2010, in some places these ideas are being taken further still. If design principles matter when considering the interface between humans and their increasingly indispensible gadgets, or when considering the design of bank branches and airport executive departure lounges, how much more important might they be when considering the interactions within more complex social institutions in health, education and social support?

TACSI established a Radical Redesign team to explore and extend these ideas. We recruited Sarah Schulman, a social scientist, and Chris Vanstone, a designer, who together form a professional partnership from the UK with some exciting projects behind them, and Carolyn Curtis, an Australian social worker on secondment from the South Australian Department of Families and Communities (now renamed Communities and Social Inclusion). The cross-disciplinary nature of the team draws attention to another critical feature of design. Despite endless exhortations for academics and professionals to be more cross-disciplinary, a variety of institutional imperatives in most disciplines appear to push towards ever-increasing specialisation. (Again, it was Smith, the apostle of the division of labour who warned us of its capacity to so narrow our focus as to dehumanise workers in a factory.) Yet the usual practice early in any design project is the search for insights from any number of divergent perspectives. To achieve this, design is usually built around small, cross-disciplinary teams. If there is a discipline of the cross-disciplinary, it is design.

The brief of Radical Redesign’s cross-disciplinary team was to find a way to reduce the likelihood of families falling into crisis and so requiring the services of the state. It began by consulting various relevant literatures. It also embraced ‘ethnographic methods’ – an exotic name for a very ordinary process that is nevertheless (astonishingly enough) rare in social welfare agencies. The team visited families but with purposes different to the ones social workers might have had. The team spent time with them in order get to know them, their environment, values, routines and aspirations. Its objective was not to advise, instruct or assess in accordance with agency procedures, but to engage the families in a search for what might improve their lives.

The result, after a substantial period of prototyping, trial, error and refinement, was the Family-by-Family program. It is a hybrid between a mentoring or peer support and a behaviour change program. In traditional programs, social workers might work directly with individuals or (unusually) with families on specific issues. In Family by Family, ‘sharing’ families, who have been through difficult times but who seem to have made their way through them, are paired with ‘seeking’ families, who are seeking something better in their lives and may be at risk of falling into crisis. As my colleague on the TACSI board, Martin Stewart Weeks, puts it:

Instead of assuming people, in this case families, need a service in the traditional sense, it suggests that to a large extent they are the service. The real subversion of the design method is that it assumes the best way to learn is to look and listen. Hard, for a long time, with some humility and always from the perspective of the people who want to improve their lives, thrive or whatever other positive outcome they yearn for. For all its obsession with focus groups and customer surveys, this is something the public sector often finds extraordinarily hard. This is why people always react so positively to Family by Family for all its simplicity and old-fashioned ordinariness. It’s so far removed from the often rigid and contrived rhythms of ‘consultation’ and ‘co-production’ that consume the professionals. [6]

IV.

These thoughts conjure up one of Friedrick Hayek’s central motivating ideas. In a series of essays in the 1940s, Hayek critiqued the way in which the intelligentsia increasingly privileged some kinds of knowledge over others. They were privileging their own kind of knowledge – of systematic inquiry and knowhow such as engineering. By contrast, unsystematic knowledge of the everyday – knowledge pertaining to some local time, place or context, or to the idiosyncratic preferences of individuals – was given short shrift.

When applied outside its proper sphere – for instance to government – this mindset spelled hubris. It failed to appreciate the extent to which the governed would make their own decisions. Indeed, one of the central motifs of Hayek’s denunciation of Soviet-style central planning is its under-appreciation of the local (unsystematic) knowledge of those on the ground. For the “marvel” of the price system was that it acted as “a system of telecommunications” to distribute the sum of information about local trading conditions and opportunities throughout the economy.

Today it is almost heresy to suggest that scientific knowledge is not the sum of all knowledge. But a little reflection will show that there is . . . a body of very important but unorganized knowledge: . . . the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place. [In this] respect . . . practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active coöperation. We need to remember only how much we have to learn in any occupation after we have completed our theoretical training, how big a part of our working life we spend learning particular jobs, and how valuable an asset in all walks of life is knowledge of people, of local conditions, and of special circumstances.[7]

Hayek’s concern here was knowledge of market conditions, and so he juxtaposed the knowledge of scientists and engineers with the knowledge of traders. It is unfortunate that Hayek’s preoccupation with prosecuting his case – now thankfully won – against central planning so comprehensively diverted him from exploring the wider relevance of his ideas. In this context those ideas enable us to better understand the potential of design and ‘design thinking’. For the ‘scientific’ knowledge from systematic inquiries into psychology, sociology and even economics give us far less purchase on the human world than the disciplines of natural science and engineering give us over the natural world. Moreover, the point of any social action is to influence the experience of those ‘on the ground’.

Introducing design thinking on the homepage of Australia’s Deloitte Online website, Zaana Howard extracts the following “generally agreed upon” characteristics of design thinking:

Empathy: development of a deep understanding of the needs of people for whom the solution is being designed; seeing and ‘feeling’ the world through their lens in order to develop a rich understanding of the problem context.

Human centredness: design thinking considers the needs of all people affected by the problem – customers, employees, business partners, suppliers – and solutions are designed accordingly.

Holistic view: it locates the problem within its wider context and understands its interrelationships and interdependencies with other systems.

Collaboration: collaborating with people from multidisciplinary backgrounds enables radical innovation through the bringing together of diverse skills, knowledge and experiences.

Design doing: despite its cognitive connotations, design thinking is action oriented, valuing doing and making things over thinking and meeting.

Visualisation: visualisation may take many forms – sketches, prototypes, mind maps or stories – all of which allow for interaction with ideas and solutions, and act as conversation starters to develop shared understanding and iterative design.

Future orientation: design thinking is focused on creating better results for the future, not just on resolving problems for short term gain.[8]

In contrast to scientific knowledge, the elements of ‘design thinking’ as expounded here are from the lifeworld.[9] Thus described, design thinking stands as a counter-narrative or foil to systematic and scientific knowledge offering an antidote to the hubris that Hayek warned us against so presciently.

One might even go so far as to argue that the current dominance of scientific over local, contextual knowledge of life as experienced, of theory over practical wisdom, is precisely the wrong way around. Of course systematic, scientific knowledge is of great importance – and is a central reason for our species’ progress in recent centuries. Yet, if the preeminent value of science is its contribution to our lives, the skills of practical wisdom should surely guide our appreciation and application of systematic knowledge. In Family by Family, organised disciplinary knowledge is consulted wherever useful in designing the program and rolling it out to families. But it remains in the background, mediated by and subordinated to the practical commonsense of those on the ground. The professional knowledge of the social worker is reintroduced and recast.

V.

With the model having completed its initial proving up and now being rolled out to other suburbs, the program is receiving some media attention. Presenters on the 7 pm project commented on how old-fashioned it was – like neighbourhoods of old with people helping one another out. These observations point to the essential simplicity of Family by Family and its goals. And they illustrate something else. As with much good design, it is unobtrusive to the point of invisibility.[10] Yet, despite its informal ‘feel’ and mode of operation, the program has been painstakingly designed from the ground up. Throughout the program a range of routines, events and materials have been scrupulously co-designed by the team and the users through endless prototyping, testing, feedback and iteration. Here are Schulman and Vanstone on the design input to the program:

The Family by Family Blueprint runs to nearly 100 ‘scenes’ each scene being 'designed' and each scene calling on at least one designed 'touchpoint' (e.g. a brochure or work book or manual) that is itself designed. We estimate the documentation of this to run to over 200 pages and the number of designed 'touchpoints' to exceed 150. We've detailed to this level because we're designing for scale.[11]

Specific designed aspects of the program include:

recruitment materials;
events;
training camps;
the professional 'coach' role;
websites;
promotional materials;
the visual identity of Family by Family;
measurement systems and
backend systems such as customer relationship management systems.

VI.

Unlike most design, Family by Family seeks not to facilitate some end state, but to facilitate change. But where Steve Jobs might have had the uncanny knack of divining what people had not yet realised they wanted, Family by Family is built to assist its participants to come to understand and articulate the change they want and to help them realise it. Thus, at the outset and throughout the program, coaches take families through a process of reflecting on and refining their goals and then working to achieve them.

This is not just a program in which families mentor other families. It recasts the role of each of the players. The family members are no longer simply getting ‘counselling’ from a social worker – they’re much more active in the process. And the external influence on the seeking families is not a social worker but rather sharing families, who are coached by outsiders. The training of the coaches is an integral part of the design of the program only now being fully worked out as the program is being scaled up. Those coaches may, but need not, be qualified social workers, but their training shows them how to maintain a balance between being informal and focusing families on setting goals and monitoring their progress towards them.

I think of all this when I’m discussing the program with politicians and administrators who often assume that replicating our achievements will be straightforward. If only! We know only one means to effect the requisite transformations in these multiple social roles – Family by Family.

It is too early to pronounce the program a success as there is insufficient data to evaluate it rigorously. However, the signs are extremely positive. Virtually everyone associated with the program has been very enthusiastic, from its sponsors in government and the third sector to the families themselves, many of whom describe their involvement with the program with great excitement.[12]

VII.

Family by Family is at the forefront of contemporary experimentation with social forms. But it is built upon the kind of perennial insight that somehow became marginalised in many of the workings of modern government and society. Within a community, our own health and happiness is ultimately bound up with the health and happiness of others’ lives. That was something that Adam Smith pondered deeply. His 1759 book Theory of Moral Sentiments sought to delineate the social preconditions of a healthy society and economy. It begins: “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it”.[13] In fact in most cases, as Smith understood only too well, we gain more than the pleasure of seeing others’ happiness. But given that human freedom and human happiness is found within a social context, Family by Family tries for a new synthesis of local and generalised professional knowledge.

Anxiously observing the French Revolution at the end of his life in 1790, Smith looked with foreboding on the emerging triumph of what today we would call ideology, and what Hayek called the hubris of ‘scientistism’. That was the conceit that those with sufficient expertise can (and therefore ought to) make better decisions about people’s lives than they can make themselves. In the last, revised edition of the Theory of Moral Sentiments he warned against “the man of system” enraptured with the beauty of some ideal for government.

He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess–board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess–board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess–board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it.

Smith went on to point out that if those two principles oppose each other, “the game will go on miserably.” Certainly it has for some families in crisis. By contrast, as Smith puts it:

If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful.

Family by Family deploys the discipline of design in an attempt to bring that integration about – intellectually between systematic knowledge and the lifeworld of families, and in practice between the world of state-funded services and the intended beneficiaries of those services.

Time will tell how successful we have been.

[1] Nicholas Gruen is CEO of Lateral Economics and Chairman of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. He is grateful to Martin Stewart-Weeks, Anne Edwards and Matthew Silva for comments on an earlier drafts.

[2] Personal correspondence.

[3] http://online.deloitte.com.au/ Accessed on 25th Nov.

[4] There was more to it than that. The Japanese production system was not just better at integrating the perspectives of producer and consumer. It decentralised the process of decision-making within the production system by actively involving suppliers and employees in endlessly optimising the entire production process.

[5] See Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part IV, Chapter I. “Of the beauty which the appearance of Utility bestows upon all the productions of art, and of the extensive influence of this species of Beauty” at http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=192&layout=html or http://tinyurl.com/3muq6au.

[6] Personal correspondence – slightly edited.

[7] Hayek, Friedrich A., 1945. “The Use of Knowledge in Society”, American Economic Review. XXXV, No. 4. pp. 519-30 viewed at http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html.

[8] Howard, Zaana, 2011. “Design Thinking Demystified” at http://online.deloitte.com.au/our-thinking/design_thinking.html accessed on 27th Nov, 2011.

[9] My use of the term ‘lifeworld’ is commonsensical, rather than a term of art, and I would content myself with this dictionary definition: “the sum total of physical surroundings and everyday experiences that make up an individual's world.” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lifeworld accessed on 17th Dec, 2011.

[10] Rule 5 of Deiter Ram’s 10 rules of good design is that good design be unobtrusive. http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/dieterrams/gooddesign.

[11] Personal correspondence.

[12] See for instance http://vimeo.com/23628619. Many other resources can be found here: http://vimeo.com/search/videos/search:tacsi%20family%20by%20family./st/53d350f7 accessed on 17th Dec, 2011.

[13] The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1790, available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=192&layout=html.

More than just setting goals at Family by Family

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:26:03 +1100

One of the many things I have learnt since being at Family by Family is a deeper understanding of the role of the Family Coach.

In all of my past professional roles I have related to words such as leader, overseer, supervisor. I have been encouraged to “take control” of a situations or be in charge. These roles are not necessarily negative and of course I have always been a passionate social justice driven worker and above all have made a commitment to show nurture and encouragement to those I work with, however the way in which this nurture is communicated seems to have shifted since starting in this role.

During a discussion with Carolyn the other day she described to me the role of the Family Coach as one that ‘holds’ the people you are with. Carolyn used the word hold in the emotional sense. To hold peoples anxieties their fears, to be able to walk into a room and to have your continence create a safety of environment, that your presence when fully committed to another in the moment is in itself nurturing.

The word nurture is derived from the latin word nutrire which means to feed and cherish. Family Coaching is more than making sure people stay on track with there goals, it is your existence in someones life that feeds their growth and development. A role that cherishes who they are and what they can offer, holding their hopes for them and knowing they can fulfill their ambitions. or as Carolyn put it to “hold them.”

TACSI Seeks Nominations for its Board

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:43:19 +1100

Nominations for the TACSI Board of Directors

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) is a not-for-profit association that is managed by a voluntary Board of Directors. The role of the Board is to set the strategic direction for TACSI and to oversee the performance of the organisation. The Board meets on a bi-monthly basis in Adelaide.

The first term of the inaugural Board expires in February 2012 and TACSI is seeking nominations from suitably qualified persons from all over Australia to nominate for the election of Directors to the Board. Potential Directors will possess a diverse range of leadership and management skills and experience that will enable TACSI to achieve its mission - to identify and support the innovative ideas, methods and people that will contribute to and accelerate positive social change. Nominees are requested to forward a brief CV and a letter explaining why the nominee is nominating for election to the Board. All nominations will be reviewed and successful nominations will be seconded by the CEO or a current Director.

Additional information: The Board Skills Audit (PDF) document is available for download as a guide to the desired skills of potential Directors.

The due date for nominations is: 12 noon, 22 December 2011.

The election of Directors will take place 31 January 2012.

For more information contact David Kelly at david.kelly@tacsi.org.au or on 0414 516 986.

Learning things by doing stuff

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:50:30 +1100

So far as a Radical Redesigner I’ve had to prototype a sandwich, make a “best practice” cocktail, rapidly prototype a bag for a friend at co-design camp, formulate ridiculous plans to recruit carers (one of which included a bear suit), analyse policy, craft an argument, talk to people on busy streets in suburban Adelaide, and the list continues to grow day by day.

The common thread between these has been learning things by doing stuff.

It’s been invaluable learning something new and immediately applying it to a live project and then being able reiterate and refine the work.

This worked particularly well when creating materials for recruiting carers for our research. After being in the office for a few days discussing our plans to recruit the carers of Unley and Salisbury, we went out to test our first round of materials on real life people at the Jack Young Centre.

At the time it felt extremely rushed and premature to be going out and showing people sub-standard design, but the learning was in the interaction.

Brochure v1

By talking to people we gained insight into what the brochure needed to communicate and what language it should use. We learnt not to use the word “carers” as many people don’t identify with that label. Ultimately going out and talking to people, rapidly prototyping our brochure allowed us to create something that was far more compelling and resonated with a lot more people.

Showing people unfinished work or sharing an idea in its early stages can sometimes feel uncomfortable, but each time we come out of these situations with a greater understanding of the methods and process, charged with new skills and ways of thinking that are ultimately invaluable in this line of work.

Brochure v2

So what is needed to enable such a learning experience in a work context? A good curriculum, a good interdisciplinary team and the time and space to test and fail, and then try again.

The last condition can sometime be frustrating when we seem to be going around in circles or have competing views on the best way to move forward. However it is this fuzzy part of the process that provides invaluable learning can insight into how to move forward the next time round.

Working with an interdisciplinary team has at times been awkward and jilted as we slowly try to understand each others working and learning styles. It has also made our respective processes more transparent and inclusive, and personally has forced me to communicate my design process in a more intelligible way.

Rather than being separated by different departments it’s refreshing to work side by side with people and develop a common language around the work that we do.

Ultimately working in this way involves letting go of expectations and notions of what a ‘job’ or ‘work’ should be. Instead it’s important to appreciate this unique process of learning by doing and having space and time to reflect and grow.

Lit Reviews for Designers: 5 tips

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:00:00 +1100

Every so often Sarah plunks down a truly intimidating stack of journal articles on our desks. Coming from university backgrounds in engineering and design, I've waded through literature, but nothing on the scale of the social science folks. I'm told that some of you love this part of the process, but for me that stack doesn't inspire anything other than a cold sweat.

Luckily, we've got some rockstar social science folks on our team, and today Sarah and Jess gave us designers an intro to skimming, scanning, and generally plowing our way through a massive pile of literature.

This is going to be pretty elementary for you social science-rs out there, but I thought I'd pass along a few of tips to my less-well-read brethren.

Start with a purpose for each article. Write it down at the top of the article. This could even be as simple as key words or concepts you're hoping to get out of the article (like "positive ageing" or "carer stress").
When reading articles, quickly skim the introduction (provides background information and rationale for why the research is needed/relevant), then skip to the discussion, where the meat of the article is.
Highlight things that are relevant to your research, *don't* just highlight things that are important/interesting in the article but not relevant to your research aim.
Summarise interesting paragraphs with a word or phrase in the margin (this makes going back to the article later much easier).
Don't forget your visual background. Making a concept map after reading an article is a great way to process and share the content.

Hope this helps with your next lit review. Happy highlighting!

Solved Interview: Tips for online fundraising from StartSomeGood founder Tom Dawkins

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:04:27 +1100

INTERVIEW: TIPS FOR ONLINE FUNDRAISING FROM STARTSOMEGOOD FOUNDER TOM DAWKINS

This interview is from the first issue of the Solved newsletter - full of information about the great social solutions being shared by people across Australia. Want to get more news & tips for doing good in Australia? Subscribe to the Solved email for the final two issues!

*** Upload a social solution to Solved by 16 December for your chance to help them win $5000 to keep doing good!***

Like it or not, fundraising can be necessary if you want to make sure that your social venture can be sustainable and help more people. The internet has made it much easier to do this, through crowdfunding. New to this idea? Fear not, because we've got some tips for you from StartSomeGood, the American/Australian website which helps people find supporters and raise funds for their social good ventures!

The co-founder of StartSomeGood, Tom Dawkins, has kindly done an interview with Solved, to provide some tips on how YOU can raise money for your social venture!

Q. I’ve started something good in my neighbourhood, but I think it will need some kind of help or financial support to keep going, or to grow and help more people. I’ve never asked for money. How do you even start doing something like this?

Tom: Like anything, you have to start by summoning up your courage and just starting. When you’ve never done it before it can feel weird to ask for money, but think about it this way: you are inviting people to make an investment in the future of their community, giving them a chance to be part of something that is bigger than them. Focus on your story - the vision you have for your venture or community. Once people are excited about your vision, and understand your commitment to make it happen, they will often be thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to making this happen.
One thing to remember about fundraising though - no matter how compelling your vision, it really does come down to asking. You have to be prepared to directly ask people for their support - not just tweeting and posting facebook status updates but through email, phone and in-person as well, when it’s more direct and personal.

Q. I asked my (local council/ local business/philanthropist) for money, and they asked for a business plan and forecasts of our costs and income... I’m not a business person, I just love helping people. Do I really need to do this business stuff? How can I get help?

Tom: When you’re asking for financial support you need to be able to articulate how much money you need and how you plan to spend it. People often want to see evidence of careful thinking and a responsible approach to money. If you’re starting an long-term venture they’ll want to know what you have a plan to be sustainable. The good news is you can get help though! Look to your local volunteering center or a national organization like Volunteering Australia for information on how to find and manage volunteers. There’s lots of people who want to share their skills to help make good things happen!

Q. I don’t want to go through the legalese and paperwork to become a registered foundation or charity. Can you suggest how I could put together a simple package offer for people or organisations who’d like to support my venture?

Focus on the core elements of your pitch: the future you want to create, how you plan to create it (ie. the issue you are addressing) and the support you need (financial, human resources, networks) to make this happen. It doesn’t have to be too onerous, but make it realistic and compelling.

Q. So StartSomeGood helps people crowdfund their ventures. You can ask the internet to give you money and it does? Sounds way too easy to be true. What’s the catch? Could it work for my venture?

The catch is that it’s not magic, like any form of fundraising it takes hard work. But sites like StartSomeGood provide a fantastic new tool kit for changemakers to mobilise their community and raise the funds they need to go from idea to impact. You will need all the elements discussed above, along with a video and a set of rewards you’re prepared to thank your supporters with. Sounds daunting? It shouldn’t! We’re here to help and we provide lots of info sheets and how-to guides to guide you towards success. StartSomeGood supports all forms of social change ventures, from for profit to nonprofit and unincorporated, covering any issue and anything from a one-off project or the launch of a new organization. Want to see an example? Check out the Do Good Bus Tour which funded their venture through StartSomeGood). So if you’re ready to make a positive difference in your community we’d love to hear from you! Why not get started now?

Solved campaign enlists ‘spotters’ to help find social good across Australia

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +1100

Solved campaign enlists ‘spotters’ to help find social good across Australia – ‘Spotters’ prizes plus a $5000 prize for the most promising social venture

25 November 2011 – Keep an eye out for social good being done in your neighbourhood, because the new Solved campaign wants to help you kick in some funding to keep that good work going!

Solved, a new, crowdsourced search for solutions to Australia’s social problems will reward “solutions that work” as well as the spotters who find and share them online.

Solved, a campaign by The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI), aims to unearth working social solutions by encouraging the people behind those ventures - or people who've noticed something working in their neighbourhood - to share them on the map at www.solved.org.au.

“Maybe you noticed a scheme to help local kids eat a healthy breakfast in Broome, and someone in Newcastle is searching for a way to do just that. By sharing what works, we hope these social solutions can help more people across Australia,” said TACSI CEO Brenton Caffin.

Through Solved.org.au, TACSI will award a grand prize of $5000 in cash support and a mentoring package to the most promising social solution uploaded to the Solved website by December 16.

Solved.org.au is also providing $500 weekly incentives for 'spotters' who share something they saw working in their neighbourhood, which will be donated to the social venture of their choice.

"To get the most comprehensive list of working solutions, we need 'spotters' across Australia to help us fill out the Solved.org.au map," said Caffin. "So we're offering an inventive - each week if you've spotted a solution and upload it to Solved.org.au, you'll have a chance to win a $500 donation to your favourite Australian social solution."

Each new solution added to Solved gives the spotter another chance in the draw, so the more social solutions they add to Solved, the more chance they have of winning.

The $5000 grand prize will be awarded to the most promising social solution, as judged by a panel of expert judges from TACSI. Selection will be on merit, based on the winner’s capacity to best use the investment and mentoring support to improve and keep doing good.

“Now people have three great reasons to support Solved - they can nominate their favourite local solution and put it in the running for the $5000 grand prize, they can give a shoutout to all the local solutions they spotted which are working to solve a social problem in their neighbourhood, and each time they participate, they increase their chance to win a $500 donation to support their favourite solution.”

The Solved campaign runs until 16 December.

Information on how to enter can be read in the Solved terms and conditions.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Stokely, Mobile: 0403 800 991. Email: sarah.stokely@tacsi.org.au

The Game Tape

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:43:04 +1100

Ever heard yourself on tape? It's awkward.

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to myself during a contextual interview we conducted last week. It's the design equivalent of watching the Game Film in football and reviewing the play by play to catch things you wouldn't have seen otherwise. Dan and Chip Heath (authors of Switch and Made to Stick) and wrote a great column about this last June in Fast Company.

While it's common practice in sports, reviewing the game film rarely happens in the business world. For all of our talk of feedback, most of it is done retrospectively and we always struggle to remember concrete examples and specific details of what went well or things to improve.

Listening to a recording, there's no shortage of concrete details. The interview I'm reviewing is one we did of a wonderful 94 year old woman here in Adelaide. There are all kinds of insights that we missed in our notes and just as many ways we can improve how we ran the interview. I thought I had spoken loudly and slowly at the time, but listening to the tape, it's clear that much of the time I still spoke too quickly and she had trouble understanding what I was saying.

As helpful as it is, it's not always practical or possible to record and review the action, especially when it comes to stakeholder meetings or even just day-to-day work around the office. In their column, the Heath brothers give a solution for this, pioneered by Jump Associates. During important meetings, they assign a staff member to Be the Tape, observing the interaction in real time and taking notes of what's working and what could go better.

If we're serious about continual improvement, we need to start using these real-time feedback devices. So record your next interview or meeting and afterward pop on the headphones and power through the awkward. It's worth it.

[photo by flickr.com/photos/statusfrustration]

Hard Learning for Soft Situations

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:31:56 +1100

Since we’ve begun on the Radical Redesign team it’s been a marathon of camp, a dive into theories and frameworks, a jungle of language and a glimmer of conversations. We’ve travelled from learning what the heck this project is all about to getting out and meeting the people who it could potentially affect the most. We’ve navigated a maze of making conversations with strangers to discovering meaning methodologies. I’ve found myself in a new team of people who inspire me with their wisdom, honesty, humility, uniqueness and humour. The Radical Redesign learning curriculum is slowly unravelling - and I’m intrigued, excited and curious of where it will take me.

Something that has been keeping me awake at night is the conundrum of having a strong foundation of methodology, programme of learning, and theory basis but still making space for softness - intuition, listening, learning through doing and reflection.

As an example - the last couple of weeks we’ve been out meeting people, on streets, in community spaces and even in their homes. We’re doing this because we suspect these folks we meet and their experiences can teach us something useful for our project. We’ve spent time designing how we talk with them - what story we tell in presentations, the ways we get people’s attention on streets, the topics we’re curious to uncover in conversations. But how do you design listening, empathy, and honesty?

In my head these last couple of weeks I’ve held segmentations of people that we’re missing, key features of an “interesting” person and scripts for uncovering information. It’s been a hunt, and it was great to have the tools, the people and the eventual outcomes in mind. I appreciated the rigour with which we considered our approach, role-played our scripts and kept developing and growing until we got somewhere better. But I think in the middle of it all I lost some softness. I started to lose the voices and essence of the people I talked to.

So how do you design softness? You can’t teach someone to be empathic, or to listen for insights - but perhaps you can create the space and demand for these? What if after every ethnography we wrote a poem about how it felt? Or drew a picture of our response to an academic paper? Since arriving here listening to my instincts was something I’d hidden in a fear of new language, theoretical framing and trying hard not to be lost. I’d been so busy remembering what I knew that I forgot how to be myself - to bring my bizarre metaphors of understanding into a conversation, to dance with language, play with possibility and remember people. I’m intrigued to be discovering the Radical Redesign frameworks, and seeing the value they add has been eye-openingly wonderful, and has given me a new dimension. I’m not sure why I felt the need to drop softness in the face of structured learning and new thinking arenas - but I have a hunch that was wrong and I’m starting to trust my intuition around these things again.

TACSI launches Solved, a nationwide search for social solutions that work

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:04:14 +1100

TACSI is excited to announced that our latest project, Solved, has been launched by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill. Solved is a nationwide search for social solutions that are working. Maybe you noticed a scheme to help local kids eat a healthy breakfast in Broome, and someone in Newcastle is searching for a way to do just that. By sharing what works, we hope social solutions can help more people across Australia.

If you've spotted something working in your neighbourhood, or if you came up with something that's working, we invite you to share it on the Solved map at the Solved website.

We're excited about Solved because while there are many forums to discuss new ideas (which are often unproven) - there's very little opportunity to showcase ideas that have been tested and shown to work. In the interests of maximising the impact of social solutions which people have seen working in their neighbourhoods, we believe Solved is worth participating in. We invite you to add a solution you've seen or created, and we'd also ask for your help in publicising Solved to your networks, especially amongst communities or regions which aren't usually well represented online.

Solved is collecting solutions for six weeks - you can follow the progress of the campaign via Twitter (@SolvedAustralia), Facebook (Solved in Australia page) or subscribing to the regular Solved e-newsletter (via the form on the Solved website) which will run for the life of the Solved campaign. We look forward to sharing stories from across Australia as we unearth social solutions that are working!

What's a teacher doing at TACSI?

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:03:53 +1100

My previous working life was punctuated by routine. As a high school teacher in Darwin I had a timetable: bells rung, my Year 9 class filed out to be replaced by my Year 10’s, lunch duty in the canteen was on a Thursday at 12.30pm for half an hour, my reports were due two weeks before the end of term.

The fact that I had these structures is not to say, of course, that many days teaching went to plan. Kids would come in to class after a lunch time spent playing football in the monsoon rain dripping wet and riled up, and my carefully scripted lessons would go out the window. Then there was the term where half the boys in my literacy class left for men’s business one week into term, to return when the season changed. Because teaching is all about people, all sorts of human things influence how your lessons played out: kids’ birthdays, how my morning commute had gone, the conversation you had in the staff room before walking into class, how one of your students had been spoken to by their grandmother the night before on the phone.

Similarly, every day here at in Radical Redesign looks different. Recently we have been out and about meeting people in Unley and Salisbury who help each other out. These people might look in on a neighbor, care for an elderly parent or need some help day to day themselves. Some days this has meant standing outside the local supermarket for hours, giving away biscuits and having conversations with people on their way to the car. Some days it’s been heading along to a ‘Knit and Natter’ or Tai Chi session at the local Community Centre. Other days it’s been back in the studio, discussing how folks in the developmental psychology world think about caring. Or going door to door in the early summer sun, talking to people about our project.

Many times since starting at TACSI I’ve found it hard to see what skills from my previous working life I bring to the table in Radical Redesign. I’ve never thought of myself as a ‘maker.’ I don’t know a texta from a Mont Blanc pen. I haven’t ever consciously thought about designing interactions, encouraging thriving behaviors or done recruitment on the street. The stuff I know about is how to deal with teenagers, English literacy, marking, and education policy.

For all of us in the Redesign team, working out how to bring something from our backgrounds in education, business, community development and design to this work, add it to the mix, and then learn a heap of completely new stuff is all part of the process.

But because our methodology is centered on people, I’m beginning to see that there are a lot of lessons from the classroom that I can bring to this work. Like teaching, a lot of Redesign is about empathy, connections, listening and responding. There might not be any bells to signal the start of recess, but being flexible, willing to throw the plan out the window when needs be and wanting to understand what makes people tick are all bits of being a teacher that I bring to this work in Radical Redesign. Getting the Redesign team to call me Miss de Campo would make me feel right at home....!

Who gives a care?

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:00:50 +1100

I’m part of a caring network. From the outside it looks like it’s purpose is about keeping an eye on or supporting the frailer, older people within the network.

It is about that, but from the inside you know there is also so much more to it than that. Yes it is about physical fitness or wellness. If someone suddenly falls ill, has an operation or has worries or problems the standard responses apply. Phone calls, visits, offers of help with meals, getting to appointments and other general activities that come with the territory of recovering from illness or feeling like life is going okay.

My caring network is based around our extended family. Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunties, cousins, grandparents, mums and dads, husbands and wives. Being a member of this network affords you certain privileges. If you are worrying about something, are feeling sick, have something to whinge about or just want some advice, an opinion - there are plenty of people to call. Ill call my sister if I just want to have a whinge, to get whatever is bothering me out of my system. We know each other well so I know what I say will be taken with a grain of salt, heard from the perspective that it was said in the heat of the moment and absorbed without judgement or criticism. I know i can just say what is on my mind and get it out. My sister is great for that.

If i’m looking for a solution, a way to make something better or get around a particular issue my uncle is a bit of a go to man in this department. He is practical yet insightful. He has the ability to highlight several sides of an issue and encourage you to think about things differently - to find a way to make a solution fit. To move things around so my world is right again.

If i’m looking for a reality check i’m going straight to my cousin. She is a down the line, black and white, tell it how it is kinda girl. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. There are definitely times when this approach has helped me immensely.

So when someone in our caring network has an event or series of events that causes their world to come tumbling down, or partly come tumbling down they know that they have the support of a big group to rebuild. For those of you in a similar situation - you know how comforting this feeling is. To know you are not alone, that you stand alongside your caring network. That you can rely on people and that they rely on you.

So what is life like for people without this kind of support, without these kinds of people to be there when the chips are down, the world seems against you and nothing you do is working. Who cheers you up? who listens to you? who brings home your favourite takeaway when you are too sick to cook? Who do you rely on when you alone are not enough? What do you do to keep your world spinning?

We want to know what works.

Everyones caring and cared for network looks different. We all get by, push through and make the most out of situations with the support of different sorts of people. Like me, those people might have specific roles. Some networks have only family, some a mix of family and friends and others even include some professional services. Some networks only include one other person.

The Radical Redesign Team have been out and about in Salisbury and Unley introducing themselves to people and asking about the role that helping and being helping has in their lives. Do they provide or recieve some help to a friend, family member or neighbour? We've learnt a few things.

You cant judge a book by its cover. It seems anyone can be a carer or be cared for - not just a certain sort of person with a particular characteristic.
The situations people describe can seem straight forward on the surface but within a few minutes of chatting often the web of people and actions woven to help a specific someone multiples in complexity.
Many people, especially those those have knitted together some professional services along with some 'just in case support' from a family or friend, on the surface seem to be coping pretty well. They have told us that themselves. Many of these people just don’t consider their story unique or how they approach things particularly special. We think differently.

Over the last week or so we have sought to meet a wide variety carers and people they care for. People who tell us they are coping and people who aren't. Carers who access alot of traditional services and those who don't. People who get out and and about and those who don't.

The list goes on.

Time to hear some stories in more depth.

Moving to Mars with the aliens at Family by Family

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:36:24 +1100

My first five weeks with Family by Family has seen me go through a huge range of emotions. Excitement has been the first and longest lasting of all of these. I don’t at this stage see this excitement ever leaving me. It is as if I still need to pinch myself that this is reality.

However on the other side my inadequacy is plaguing me, questions like ‘will I be good enough?’ and ‘can I do this?’ My work mates are from a different world to me and I wondered if I would ever speak their language! But I decided that it is best to think of it as ‘I have moved to Mars with the aliens’. Now I can go about learning their culture and language.

I love the saying Carolyn uses, “throw away your ego”, as I have to do this on a minute to minute basis so that I can cope. Telling myself always that it is ok to not know it all and not understanding everything.

The thing that I do know though is that I’m here for a reason and an important one. It is about family and I do family well. It is what I do best and what I work to do each day. Now my family is bigger then ever before and that is why I will be here and working as hard as I can to understand and make it happen.

Family by Family Camp Ironbank

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:35:43 +1100

During October the Family by Family team along with our sharing families travelled to Ironbank, in the Adelaide Hills for camp. This 2.5 day camp was an opportunity for sharing families to train and prepare for the link up process with a seeking family.

Camp had a strong focus on change. All of our sharing families have been through some exceptionally hard and unique tough times, and have managed to see big changes occur in their lives. They are now all experiencing more ups than downs. Our question to them was how did they make this change happen? The camp took families through several in-depth workshops which focused on the things we say, think, feel and do to create change. Or in other words how did we do what just came naturally.

What stood out to me over the two days, is how well equipped these families are to deliver an effective linkup through the use of their own stories and experience. They communicated these concepts to us and each other in a way a professional never could. The sharing families demonstrated to us the subtle beauty of this process through their honesty and understanding that has only come through personal experience.

For me personally camp took my understanding of co-design to a new level. For the first time in a long while I found myself at a loss for words as I realised how this “concept” effects everything I do personally within this workplace. I am coming to a new appreciation that absolutely everything we deliver comes firstly from ideas, notions and language which was created from the families. Learning this new language and way of doing while giving respect to this process, proved to be challenging for me. Saturday night saw a spectacular meltdown as for the first time I acknowledged having some fears around losing my own identity within this process.

Walking the talk - my HSM journey

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:31:14 +1100

Eighteen months ago I watched a grainy poor-lit video of a young man setting out his case for why we should fund his bold idea for a better Australia. His idea was simple; that by persuading thousands of Australians to take a strategic pause from alcohol for three months and reflect on their journey by blogging on a website, we might start a different conversation and ultimately succeed in changing Australia’s drinking culture where so many public health campaigns had faltered.

The young man in question was Hello Sunday Morning’s founder and CEO Chris Raine, who, despite the initial production values of his video, ultimately succeeded in persuading us to support him as one of eight winners in our inaugural Bold Ideas Better Lives Challenge.

It was exciting to see Chris get off to such a flying start and build excitement and momentum across Australia, with numbers of people signing up with Hello Sunday Morning (or HSM) increasing exponentially. It felt for a while as though there wasn’t a television program that Chris hadn’t been on with media coverage across many channels both here and in New Zealand.

Intuitively and conceptually, I appreciated the value of the HSM model, having been involved with and impressed by other peer-supported health promotion programs, such as the Global Corporate Challenge. It helped to have our Venture Support Officer Christian complete his HSM so we had a local point of reference.

Deep down though, I knew that at some stage if I was to be an effective champion of Chris’ work and to really understand the personal impact of HSM, I was going to have to walk the talk.

So began my alcohol-free winter.

First a word on my pre-HSM drinking habits. I am not a binge drinker and any excess I may have displayed in my twenties largely disappeared with age and the arrival of children, who have no mercy when it comes to hangovers (and nor should they). That said, I love a cold beer and a good wine and remain a regular drinker, both out and about and at home. I had tried on a number of occasions to moderate my drinking, usually only to concede defeat a few weeks later.

So I approached HSM as a way of externally committing to going the distance, reinforced somewhat by the fact that as TACSI had financially committed to the HSM project, I had to show a degree of solidarity.

In the end, I found it relatively easy to get through the three months without drinking, and to do so without hiding away from my social commitments, including my wife’s birthday, family holidays, a charity ball, and even wine-tasting in the McLaren Vale with our recent speaking guest Charles Leadbeater (ok, I had two small tastings, but I spat most of it into the spittoon, as the team can attest).

Many blog posts on the HSM website talk about their friends reactions to the news that they have given up alcohol for three months, ranging from disbelief to outrage and hostility. As for my friends, the general response was one of support, though usually with the caveat “Good for you, but I’m not sure I could/would want to do that.” My wife didn’t declined my invitation to join me on the HSM, pointing out that she had an 18 months head start courtesy of two pregnancies, but was very supportive nonetheless.

So, what did I discover?

I discovered a love of alternative drinks, from lemon lime and bitters, to chai lattes, a range of exotic cordials, juices and teas…even Horlicks. I discovered that coming home from work and throwing down a refreshing lime and soda was just as satisfying as throwing down a beer. Really.

From very early on in my HSM, I began to sleep much better and woke in the mornings with more energy. That held me in good stead not just through the day but well into the evenings and weekends when, rather than limping over the line, I had newfound reserves of energy for playing with the kids.

It wasn’t just energy that I found, but also patience, an essential ingredient for managing the vicissitudes of life with small children, such as when they discover chalk and decorate the length of the hallway with it. In the words of my four year old daughter, Eleanor, I was altogether ‘less grumpy’.

I had set out to be healthier during the HSM, eschewing Coke and South Australia’s famous iced coffee and exercising more regularly. I succeeded on the first, but failed dismally on the other two. Nevertheless, I shed 6 kilograms and a belt-hole, which I have managed to maintain post-HSM.

In short, the downsides were not nearly as bad as I expected and the upsides far exceeded my expectations. I had expected to get through it – what I hadn’t expected was my commitment to repeat the process again next year.

And while it may be too soon to claim mission accomplished, my drinking patterns post-HSM appear to have changed for the better. Alcohol-free days and even weeks are a more common occurrence and it is comforting to realise that alcohol is an optional component of one’s social activity and not a determining factor.

Above all, I’ve reminded myself of the importance of first-hand experience. No amount of intellectualising about the benefits of HSM could substitute from the physiological experience of going through this journey.

Irrespective of whether you believe your drinking behaviour requires changing; I’d strongly encourage you to give Hello Sunday Morning a go. You may find that you surprise yourself with what you discover about yourself.

p.s. In recognition of Hello Sunday Morning’s #12in2012 campaign, I have donated 12 per cent of my estimated annual drinking spend to HSM. If you have benefitted from HSM or simply believe in supporting innovative approaches for improving public health in Australia, can I encourage you to consider donating to HSM or supporting it in any other way you can.