A “Solutions Lab” is a space that enables diverse groups of people to come together to develop solutions to a problem that no one person or group could solve alone. These challenges are typically complex and systemic – and are not easy to deal with.
The ‘space’ of a solutions lab is not typically a physical space. A solutions lab is really a set of steps (a process) we go through to work together in collaborative ways that don’t start with answers, but start by deeply understanding a problem.
A Solutions Lab:
- explores a challenge from the beginning to the end,
- ·proposes ideas or solutions
- experiments with those ideas or solutions to see what works
- works on a people-centred problem over time.
Solutions Labs are a response to everyone’s realization that our typical and older ways of tackling big problems have not been working.
Design principles
- Whole-System Representation: to find solutions that work in a system, that entire system needs to be somehow represented in the room.
- Evidence-Based: Solutions must be informed by multiple form of current evidence
- User-Centred Design: Solutions must centre around the experience of person who is going to be using it / impacted by it.
- Solutions Ownership: When we come up with solutions, the people or organizations that would play a key role in actually making it happen – must be in the room, as their buy-in is key to successful implementation
Active sensemaking
The Housing through an Autism Lens Solutions Lab project is using as part of its process Active Sensemaking or Sensemaking.
Sensemaking helps us understand a current system by looking at the real-life experiences of individuals, while we also pay attention to the context around those experiences.
Resources
- National Housing Strategy Solutions Labs examples
- NHS Solutions Lab – Applicant Guide
- Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience Social Innovation Lab Guide
- The Think Jar Collective Social Innovation Field Guide
- Canadian Labs Handbook
- Living Guide to Social Innovation Labs