How To Impact

How can we make a system beautiful by breaking it? How to Impact team were recently treated to a Kintsugi Masterclass with Jun Morooka of Kintsugi Australia. Kintsugi is a traditional Japanese art form that focuses on the repair of broken ceramics by piecing them together with gold lacquer. The aim is not to hide the faults, but draw attention to their beauty.     Normally, the ceramics break naturally through everyday use, but Jun has a business to run and can't rely on fate to hand him broken ceramics. Jun must meticulously break the plates before each session, so that his guests can carefully piece them together again.     There's a beautiful parallel between our Kintsugi experience and the work we do as strategic designers - breaking something, not in violence, but with careful consideration so that it can be made again, more distinct and more beautiful than before.     You won't know the limits of a system, tool or process until you stress-test it. Only once you've exposed the cracks and seen its weak points, can you begin to improve it beyond where it was before.      Our 'Constructive Troublemaking' mindset is built around the introduction of tension into your creative thinking processes. Applying some of these concepts to your own stress-tested problems could be the gold that binds together a beautiful solution. #kinsugi #innovation #systemsthinking #designthinking

As discussed in a recent Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) article, the Australian Government recently announced its plan to introduce minimum age requirements for Social Media usage - its intent: reduce the negative impacts of social media on the mental health of young Australians. Young Australians are increasingly turning to social media platforms to connect with the world around them. If managed correctly, they can give support organisations a platform to reach those who need it most, through the channel they're most familiar with. Rather than reducing access to valuable communication channels for young people, what if we moved to a model of care that meets young people where they are: online? In a recent project with ReachOut Australia, we developed PeerChat - a mental health support platform that allows young Australians to speak with peer workers who have first-hand experience with their own mental health challenges. To read more about our work on ReachOut Australia PeerChat mental health support platform, follow the link in the comments. #socialmedia #youthmentalhealth #policy #innovationsydney

In Australia's market economic model of care, the community have very little power or ability to "shop around". Choice is often severely limited by scarcity, affordability, and necessity. How might we evolve traditional Service Models to increase dignity of choice? Here are three principles to consider, inspired by three Australian organisations that are addressing the problem. We're putting a spotlight on the Future of Care, applying our Strategic Design capability to solve large-scale, systemic challenges in the care sector. Want to know more? Click the link in the comments. #caresector #innovation #servicedesign #strategicdesign #sydneyinnovation #futureofcare

We're incredibly fortunate to work with Jackie Hallan, an exemplar of leading with empathy.

Traditional research techniques struggle to uncover the nuance that exists between what customers say and what they do. Getting beneath the surface of an experience requires the right mix of tools and methods. By incorporating aspects of ethnography into your research, you'll see the problem from new and different perspectives. You can't rely on assumed experience, immerse yourselves in ”lived experience”. If you want to read more about how to use ethnographic research techniques to uncover deeper insight, follow the link in the comments! #strategicdesign #consumerinsight #consultingsydney #insight #research #ethnography

We had a lot of fun presenting yesterday's University of Technology Sydney Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation's Capstone workshop. We explored the importance of collective understanding throughout the design process, leaving the group with a range of tools that help get to the heart of the problem with the client. Great design doesn't happen in a vacuum - it requires collaboration, empathy... and sometimes a little bit of negotiation. Thank you to Helena Robinson and the team at the UTS Transdisciplinary School (TD School) for inviting us and to everyone for attending. We leap at any opportunity to share our passion for strategic design and innovation, and get great joy from seeing the innovation community grow! #UTS #CreativePractice #Methods #Workshop #Collaboration #Innovation #Research #Community

Our Director Steven Sullivan will be teaching Futures Thinking at UTS Transdisciplinary School (TD School) next month, drawing on rich theory and numerous How To Impact projects. See the link for more info!

Yesterday we had the privilege of being invited to Future Generation's breakfast event: "Why prevention matters and the challenges of social media for young people". The amazing Annabel Crabb moderated two brilliant panels, bringing to light a unique melting pot of issues. Three big paradoxes stood out:    ・There's a youth mental health crisis, but it's not always visible. According to the panel, 40% of Young Australians have or will suffer from a form of mental illness. The link to social media is clear; rates of youth mental illness have increased 50% since 2007. Yet alarmingly, only 3% of parents are aware of their kid's mental health issues.    ・Social media brings harm, but it's also a valuable source of connection for kids. Harvard's Adult Development study established that social connection is the biggest contributor to longevity and quality of life. Despite this, social "third spaces" for kids are decreasing, and as a result they're turning to social media to find connection. Amanda Third put it best: "Kids aren't addicted to their phones, they're addicted to talking to their friends all the time".    ・Blanket bans encourage hidden usage, further worsening the impacts on mental health. Connection is too powerful a driver to be stopped with prohibition alone, so kids will inevitably find creative ways around restrictive measures. The panel cited an example; the new digital token ID Systems, which aims to age-gate certain online content, resulted in an apparent 1000%-9000% surge in VPN usage.    Straightforward interventions designed to limit access don't work. The yearning for connection that underpins social media usage is too strong.    As we heard in yesterday's panel, early intervention, strengths-based approaches, and education rather than pure prohibition are all critical. However, as the panel themselves pointed out, there weren't many young perspectives in the room. This begs the question:    How could we be tackling the complex problem of youth mental health with approaches that design with kids, not just for them?    Thank you to FGG for inviting us and thank you to the panellists for sharing their amazing insight!

We’re happy to announce our new partnership with 5 Ways to Innovate. We're strong believers in the power of combining innovation mindsets with the right mix of systems and processes to get to the heart of a problem, and are always looking to grow our community of practice. It's energising to work with such like-minded people, and a pleasure working with you again, Amer & Roshan!

Proud to see our work being acknowledged by Good Design Australia! Read the case study here: https://lnkd.in/gdeAuCT9