User Type: Stakeholder outside of government

Produced as part of the Making Sense project, which draws on nine citizen sensing campaigns in Holland, Kosovo and Spain in 2016 and 2017. Based on that experience, the publisher developed a framework and methods and tools for citizen participation in environmental monitoring and action. Their approach is bottom-up and participatory, which the publishers call "citizen sensing." The publishers offer a software platform for collecting data, methodologies for making sense of data, and best…

Features: Facilitators guide

The toolkit provides an approach and methods those looking for a new way to tackle social and policy issues by making services more valuable to customers and users, easier to use, with fewer resources wasted on implementing the right ideas in the wrong way (or on the wrong ideas entirely). This approach involves spending time understanding people’s experiences and resources on their own terms, taking methodical steps to analyse and address these with their active participation, and pushing for…

Features: Guiding framework, Techniques, Tips&Tricks

A Role-Playing and Ideation Game That Simulates The Process Of Launching A Social Enterprise. The game walks players through a series of activities in order to simulate the process of ideating and launching a social enterprise in four steps: Learn, Invent, Program, and Report. It is available via a pay-what-you-want digital download, and includes instructions for gameplay, a glossary of 200+ business models, and a suite of other resources.

Features: Interactive diagnostic

This web-based resource has been created by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art to share ways to design inclusively for a range of physical and cognitive abilities. It includes personas representing different abilities, an overview of typical daily activities done by those personas, a selection of design methods, as well as a collection of ethics for designers. The research method selection describes each by input, output, suitability, and characteristics, including…

Features: Techniques

The MaRS Library contains articles, templates, reports, workbooks, reference guides and videos covering a range of topics, including accounting, funding, governance, intellectual property, leadership, legal issues, marketing, product management, selling, social innovation, strategy and talent. It is intended for an entrepreneurial context, but it can be adapted for a public sector organisational context.

Features: Examples or Cases, Peer-reviewed literature repository

DIY Learn is a set of online modules to help development practitioners understand and embed practical tools to support social innovation in their work. It contains a series of free, 2-hour courses as well as a trainers handbook. It was created for international development practitioners but is applicable for public sector staff as well.

Features: Associated curriculum

This website and blog containing a toolkit based on the book GameStorming (not free) and intends to bring a playful or game-like atmosphere to group problem solving activities for the purpose of creating an mindset conducive to innovation and change-making. The site contains games for different purposes, including vision and strategy, planning, problem-solving, and decision-making. The online resources describe each method and technique in terms of: Object of Play, Number of Players, Duration of…

Features: Facilitators guide, Tactics, Techniques, Tips&Tricks

The Scenario Exploration System (SES) is a serious game for future simulation (2035 and 2050). It involves participants exploring their long-term objectives in contrasting scenario-related contexts while interacting with other stakeholders. By creating a realistic journey towards the future, the SES generates a safe space to simulate possible responses connected to any issue of interest to the participants. There are two editions: "Sustainable Transitions" and "Food Safety and Nutrition…

Features: Interactive diagnostic, Video guidance

The Game of Life 2050 draws on scenarios for a sustainable European society in 2050. It is an interactive board game in which players consider four scenarios that describe the radical changes needed to be living within key environmental boundaries by 2050. The game takes a minimum of 2 hours to run (ideally 4 hours) and involves 5-7 actors (each played by one person or in pairs) and one Games Master. Play consists of three ‘rounds’ in which actors are given a set of circumstances that have…

Features: Facilitators guide, Interactive diagnostic

This canvas and associated guidance is is a strategic management and lean startup template that can be used the to describe, design, challenge, and pivot a business model to deliver different values or in different ways. It consists of 9 elements: value proposition, customer segments, customer relationships, channels, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure, and revenue streams. It can be used individually or in a group. It works in conjunction with the Value Proposition…

Features: Associated curriculum