Open Source Innovation Platforms

She couldn't finish her homework before dark. In the Wayúu communities of northern Colombia, sunset means the day ends. No grid. No generators. Just night. A Colombian startup, E-Dina, built a different kind of lamp. You pour in saltwater. Magnesium and copper plates do the rest — an electrochemical reaction that produces light. No fuel. No noise. No toxic batteries. The numbers: ↳ 500 ml of saltwater powers it for up to 45 days ↳ One unit delivers about 5,600 hours over its lifetime ↳ It charges small devices via USB ↳ Built for reuse, fully recyclable The chemistry is clever. But what stopped me is how they built it. E-Dina didn't design this in a city lab and ship it out. They worked with Wayúu families — around the problems they actually live with. A child studying after dark. A phone that stays charged during an outage. A backup light when storms hit. Not a gadget. A tool people can depend on when everything else goes dark. The Multiplication Effect: 1 home with steady light = kids can study after dark 10 coastal villages = emergency power without diesel 100 off-grid communities = electricity without waiting for infrastructure At scale = we stop asking who deserves power and start building where it's needed The ocean has always fed these communities. Now it lights their homes, too. The best innovations don't start where the resources are. They start where the problem is. Where have you seen proximity to a problem matter more than access to funding? Video Credit: Harald Friedl

In many nonprofits, innovation often mirrors privilege. Who gets to dream up solutions? Whose ideas are embraced as “bold” or “innovative”? Too often, decision-making is concentrated in leadership or external consultants, leaving grassroots, community-driven insights underutilized. This perpetuates inequity and stifles transformative potential within our own organizations. Here’s the truth: Privilege shapes perceptions of innovation: Ideas from leadership or external experts are often prioritized, while community-driven ideas are dismissed as “too risky” or “impractical.” Communities with lived experience are sidelined: Those who deeply understand systemic challenges are excluded from shaping the solutions meant to address them. The result? Nonprofits risk replicating the same inequities they aim to dismantle by ignoring the imaginative potential of those closest to the issues. When imagination is confined to decision-makers in positions of power, we limit our ability to create truly transformative solutions. As nonprofit practitioners, we can start shifting this dynamic by fostering equity within our organizations: * Redistribute decision-making power: Engage community members and frontline staff in brainstorming and strategic discussions. Elevate their voices in decision-making processes. * Value lived experience as expertise: Treat the insights of those who experience systemic challenges as central to innovation, not secondary. * Create space for experimentation: Advocate for internal processes that allow for piloting bold, community-driven ideas, even if they challenge traditional approaches. * Focus on capacity-mobilisation: Invest in staff and community partners through training, mentorship, and resources that empower them to lead imaginative projects. * Rethink impact metrics: Develop evaluation systems that prioritize community-defined success over traditional donor-centric metrics. What practices has your organization used to centre community-driven ideas? Share your insights—I’d love to learn from you! Want to hear more: https://lnkd.in/gXp76ssF

Bad ideas don’t kill innovation. Rigid cultures do. Someone proposed a small fix in a routine process. It cut errors, made work smoother, reduced stress. The team adopted it. It worked. But because it didn’t come from the “right level,” it was brushed aside. The change stayed. The credit didn’t. And the person behind it never spoke up again. Not because the idea was wrong, but because the culture wasn’t ready. Change isn’t about more ideas, it’s about reshaping culture itself. So what does that look like in practice? 1️⃣ Reward questions, not just solutions Innovation doesn’t begin with a polished pitch. It begins when someone dares to ask: “Why are we still doing it this way?” 2️⃣ Make failure boring If every test must succeed, no one will try. Normalize small, fast, safe failures , momentum builds without blame. 3️⃣ Remove the need for permission Good ideas die when they need five layers of sign-off. Trust creates velocity. Embedding these into an existing culture is never easy. One way forward is to create safe spaces where people can test, learn, and adapt without red tape. That’s exactly what Design4Impact (D4I) set out to do, not just talk about culture, but build it in practice. D4I launched in 2020, in the middle of COVID-19 to bring health, social, and design for good together. And it grew into a national platform that empowered communities with tools and trust to co-create solutions. In 5 years, D4I: 🔸 Trained 500+ participants in design thinking 🔸 Ran 3 national design challenges 🔸 Launched 9 pilots, from tackling mental health to helping caregivers feel less alone I was blessed to serve on the organizing committee, and to witness firsthand how trust, not hierarchy, unlocked real innovation. The collective wisdom has now been distilled into the D4I Playbook. It isn’t just a handbook. It’s an invitation, to rethink how we innovate, and to design with communities, not for them. 👉 Access it here: https://lnkd.in/ghJ3S6ex Culture isn’t shaped in glossy labs or polished decks. It’s shaped in the messy middle, late nights, side conversations, the meetings no one wants to attend. Every unspoken idea is a missed opportunity, to make things better, faster, or more human. If you’re in a leadership role: Who’s the quiet innovator on your team you need to hear from today? 💡This post is part of 'Rethinking Digital Health Innovation' (RDHI), empowering professionals to transform digital health beyond IT and AI myths. 💡The ongoing series and additional resources are available at www•enabler•xyz 💡Repost if this message resonates with you!

The 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 (𝐏𝐑𝐨𝐅) teaching case shows how a large healthcare consortium and a small group of manufacturers collaborated to rethink innovation in a highly regulated sector. At its core, the case demonstrates how PRoF turned the interaction between two very different communities into its main innovation engine. The large consortium represents the healthcare user community: nurses, doctors, caregivers, patients, and hospital managers who express the lived reality of care. Their contribution is experiential and value-based. Through structured “brainwave sessions,” they surface latent needs and convert them into broad keywords such as comfort, privacy, dignity, or anti-loneliness. These keywords form a shared language that avoids technical jargon and allows hundreds of users with diverse perspectives to converge around common priorities. The small consortium consists of manufacturers, architects, and designers who have the capabilities to transform these user insights into concrete room concepts. Their commercial goals are kept strictly outside the creative process, allowing trust to grow between the groups. Once the user community defines the keywords, the producer community develops prototypes, after which the large consortium returns to evaluate and refine them. This modular sequencing keeps tensions low, ensures rapid progress, and prevents commercial logic from dominating user needs. The interaction between these two communities solves a longstanding problem in healthcare innovation: suppliers often misunderstand user needs, while users lack the means to innovate. PRoF bridges this gap by letting users drive ideation and letting producers translate that insight into solutions. What emerges is a genuinely user-oriented innovation ecosystem in which neither community could succeed alone, but together they generate concepts that reshape expectations of care design. You can find the case study at HBSP: https://lnkd.in/e6nxTFM7 #UserCentricInnovation #Collaboration #OpenInnovation #CrossCommunityCollaboration #HealthcareEcosystems #CoCreation #Ideation

How often do we design with people, instead of for them? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that creativity is something only designers hold the key to. But when we pause and engage with communities, we realize something powerful: Creativity thrives within the community itself—it just needs the right conditions to flourish. Take, for example, the Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) by Frog. It’s not just a tool; it’s a framework that empowers communities to solve problems by tapping into their collective strength. Through a series of activities—like clarifying goals and imagining new ideas—small groups around the world have used this toolkit to not only share their thoughts but to take decisive action that addresses their concerns. The beauty of this approach is in its adaptability. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model. Each group can mould it to fit their unique needs, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and valued. But collaboration, as we know, isn’t always easy. There’s often discomfort, sometimes even conflict, when differing ideas meet. Yet, as designers, navigating these challenges is where true progress happens. As Otto Scharmer and Peter Senge, leaders in organizational development, have shown, it's in this space of tension that new solutions are born. A recent contribution from @Design Impact offers a set of guiding principles for designers to keep in mind when working with communities. One of these, “Value me for who I am, not who I’m told to be,” resonates deeply. It’s a reminder that behind every design is a real person, with history, emotions, and passions. When we acknowledge that, we move beyond simply gathering feedback—we tap into real leadership within the community. At the end of the day, Social innovation isn’t just about creating a product or service. It’s about co-creating, about building alongside communities rather than handing down solutions. It’s about fostering a space where everyone’s creativity can shine, and where long-term, sustainable change is possible. Have you been part of a design process that values community leadership? What challenges—and opportunities—did you encounter along the way?

When the grid failed, these Amazon communities built their own power 💡 Near Brazil’s Belo Monte dam, one of the world’s largest hydropower projects, the promise of abundant electricity has proved uneven. A household survey of 500 families in Altamira found that 86.8% experienced higher electricity costs after the plant began operating in 2016. Many riverside residents still endure outages, pay steep tariffs, or rely on diesel generators. As Emilio Moran, a social anthropologist at Michigan State University, observed, “People are right under the transmission line, but the energy doesn’t come from that hydroelectric plant.” For some communities deeper in the Amazon, waiting for grid expansion has yielded little. In the Tapajós-Arapiuns Reserve near Santarém, researchers and residents have instead built small, independent energy networks, reports Jorge C. Carrasco. Launched in 2023, the pilot combines solar panels with hydrokinetic turbines placed in river currents. The aim, said project coordinator Lázaro Santos, is straightforward: “that we bring energy to contribute to improving the quality of life of these communities.” The hybrid design addresses the limits of each technology. Solar output varies with daylight, while river turbines generate power continuously. For villages long dependent on diesel, the shift has been tangible. One resident recalled that fuel deliveries required multi-day boat trips, and electricity was rationed to a few evening hours. Today, a communal freezer runs around the clock, enabling food storage and modest commerce. Internet access and emergency communications have also improved. Crucially, the project trained local technicians to operate and repair the equipment. Three residents in one village can now maintain the system themselves. This emphasis on autonomy reflects a broader lesson: infrastructure need not arrive fully formed from outside to be effective. Several practical insights emerge: ⚡ Small, modular systems can deliver reliable power where large grids are slow or costly to extend. ⚡ Combining energy sources reduces vulnerability to weather or seasonal change. ⚡ Local training builds resilience and lowers long-term operating costs. ⚡ Shared assets, such as community freezers, can spread benefits even when generation is modest. The initiative currently serves about 200 people, with plans to expand. It does not resolve the wider inequities associated with large dams. Yet it suggests that communities facing resource constraints are not without options. With technical support and local organization, incremental solutions can materially improve daily life while larger debates over energy policy continue. 📰 https://lnkd.in/gU_XcVNB

From my new Harvard Business Review article, here’s how to create the last of four pillars that innovative organizations need – Innovation Communities: Innovations often happen at intersections, yet many companies lack ways for innovators to connect informally and see where conversations go. This can also make innovation a lonely endeavor. It doesn’t cost much or take a lot of time to provide people with common innovation interests a means to connect and exchange ideas. At the very least, it’ll help keep them motivated. At best, it may trigger new kinds of cross-disciplinary collaborations that open up previously unseen vectors for change. Don’t be Atari, which was abandoned in frustration by an ambitious innovator: Steve Jobs.   What to do instead? Cultivate community. Take the German life sciences company, Bayer. Bayer has created an internal community of 700 innovators around the world who use common resources, join competitions against one another, and nominate local representatives to participate in an annual meeting. These connections then enable discussions about ways to cross-apply methods, business models, and other capabilities that can translate across business units. For instance, the program helped create agricultural finance options that are now offered around the world, stemming in part from an idea that originated in Bayer’s corporate finance and marketing departments in Greece. (How have you built innovation communities? Please share your approaches in the comments!)

Innovation is often associated with cutting-edge technology, massive R&D budgets, and sophisticated equipment. Yet some of the most remarkable solutions emerge from ordinary people solving everyday problems with the resources available to them. A viral video currently making rounds on social media perfectly demonstrates this principle. In the clip, a man uses a simple plastic bottle filled with thermocol balls and a tiny opening at the bottom to identify a tyre puncture. As he moves the bottle around the tyre surface, the escaping air from the puncture causes the lightweight balls to react immediately, revealing the exact location of the leak within seconds. What makes this solution fascinating is not just that it works—it’s the thinking behind it. The method leverages a basic scientific principle: moving air affects lightweight objects. Instead of relying on expensive equipment or complicated procedures, the inventor uses common household materials to achieve a practical and reliable result. The outcome is a low-cost, accessible, and highly effective solution that almost anyone can replicate. This is a powerful example of what many call "frugal innovation"—the ability to create value through simplicity, creativity, and resourcefulness. Across developing economies, particularly in India, such innovations emerge every day from mechanics, farmers, technicians, workers, and small business owners who face real-world challenges and develop practical ways to overcome them. There is an important lesson here for businesses, startups, and leaders. Innovation does not always flow from the top down. Some of the most valuable ideas originate from people working closest to the problem. Frontline workers, technicians, and local communities often possess insights that cannot be found in boardrooms or strategy documents because they interact with challenges directly every day. The viral tyre-puncture hack is more than an interesting trick. It highlights how observation, experience, and problem-solving skills can create solutions that are affordable, scalable, and impactful. In a world increasingly focused on advanced technologies such as AI, robotics, and automation, we should not overlook the power of human ingenuity expressed through simple, practical ideas. True innovation is not measured by how complicated a solution is. It is measured by how effectively it solves a problem. #Innovation #Jugaad #FrugalInnovation #ProblemSolving #DesignThinking #Leadership #Engineering #Technology #Manufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #FutureOfWork #Creativity #Learning #BusinessInnovation #GrassrootsInnovation #Operations #LeanThinking #Entrepreneurship #India #WorkplaceInnovation

“𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴” 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘇𝘇𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱. But often it causes more harm than good: We hear the word scaling everywhere in the field of social innovation. But: 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴? And: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁? Dominant models of scaling prioritize: • Metrics over meaning • Speed over stewardship • Reach over relationships They are rooted in 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰. And, 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀. Therefore they treat social change like a tech product. That kind of scaling often does harm: • It erases context. • It sidelines local wisdom. • It centers Global North norms. So… What does 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 look like? We talked to local innovators across five countries, who are re-imagining scaling. Not as replication. But as 𝘀𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘁𝘆, 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, and 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 🌀 𝗜𝗻 𝗚𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗮, scaling honors 𝘉𝘶𝘦𝘯 𝘝𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘳 — a Mayan worldview of harmony with nature and collective resilience. 🌱 𝗜𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗮, innovators lean into 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘨 — mutual aid and interdependence rooted in cultural values. 💪🏽 𝗜𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗻, scaling flows through 𝘕𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳 — community fellowship, where trust is the true measure of success. 🐝 𝗜𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗹, the Meli Bees Network spreads not products, but ancestral knowledge, ecological stewardship, and collective care. 📣 𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀, “scaling” doesn’t even translate neatly. Instead innovators use words that hold nuance, such as: 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘺 (sustaining) or 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘺𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘨 (growing). Across all five places: 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗞𝗣𝗜. It’s an 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. One that honors: - Autonomy - Cultural identity - Community wellbeing. This report is a call to: - Amplify locally-led change. - Transform systems of coloniality. - Re-imagine innovation in service of life. Gratitude to the 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆-𝗟𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 (𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗣) for trusting us at Indigenous & Modern to co-create the report. And to the incredible partners who made it real. Special thanks to Joshua Konkankoh & Isabel Gennaro from the I&M team. 📖 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 👉 https://lnkd.in/e-cCMxZ8 ✅ 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? -> Connect with me, re-share with your network & join my newsletter

Innovation Is a Community Effort — Not a Job Title When we talk about innovation in government, the conversation too often focuses on tools, technologies, or methodologies. But after more than a decade helping national, state, and local governments tackle their toughest challenges, I’ve learned this: innovation is only as strong as the people that expands its reach. Innovation doesn’t live in a department. It lives in people—and in the relationships, trust, and shared purpose they build together. Across the country, and most recently through our partnership with the City of Pomona, I’ve seen how powerful it is when frontline workers, community members, managers, executives, nonprofit partners, and residents all begin to see themselves as part of a shared innovation ecosystem. When that happens, the work stops being “someone else’s project” and becomes a collective mission to improve the world we live in. This is why building an innovation community matters: 1. It distributes creativity instead of centralizing it. The best solutions rarely come from the top—they come from those closest to the problem. A community approach invites everyone to contribute their lived diverse experiences insights and imagination. 2. It allows complex systems to move together. No social challenge—housing, climate resilience, transportation, or public safety—belongs to a single department or oganization. Innovation requires cross-sector collaboration, shared language, and common goals. 3. It strengthens trust and belonging. When residents and public servants co-create solutions, they build not just programs, but relationships. And those relationships are the foundation of resilient, responsive government that can help rebuild trust and belonging in our communities. 4. It sustains change long after the “project” ends. Tools, plans, and implementation are critical. But cultures—and communities—are what endure. Building a network of innovators creates long-term capacity that outlives any single leader, grant, or initiative. The future of government innovation depends on our ability to bring people together across roles, silos, and lived experiences—and helps them strengthen their agency in shaping the future. At Ascendant, we believe deeply in this kind of community-powered innovation. It’s how real progress happens. It’s how systems change. And it’s how we build cities, countries, and futures that truly reflect the people they serve. If we want a better world, we have to build it together.