Solve Anything! Building Ideas through Design - Mar 2010

How can we better share social development strategies to get broader input and encourage replication?
How can we address social development issues more effectively?

Countless governments, funders, philanthropists, activists, academics, social entrepreneurs and everyday folks are trying different approaches to solving social development challenges every day. In many cases the same ideas are tried over and over. In other instances solutions work locally, but are not taken up more broadly. Why is this? What are we learning and how are we sharing this? How do we mobilise the combined capacity, resources, intellect and experience going into developing these solutions towards identifying and implementing the most successful/relevant/useful ones?

I was inspired by the open source software movement and the TED Talk by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, about design thinking. I believe releasing ideas and approaches early and often, collaborating and getting fresh input from those able to view and use ideas will make this ideas stronger. Brown said prototyping speeds up the process of innovation and putting our ideas out in the world helps us understand its strength and weaknesses. He proposed the design of participatory systems in which value way beyond cash are created and measured as the way forward.