Fostering Creative Problem Solving In The Social Sector
Launching Think Jar Collective in 2011 was based on the notion that diverse disciplines and people need ways to bump into each other's work in order to rattle assumptions and spark new thinking and action. If we take the time to reflect, hear ideas from other people and try to learn something from other fields we're not used to, then over time relevant innovations and better quality work can emerge. Like innovation writer Steven Johnson says, often breakthrough ideas come about not from quick eureka moments, but from slow hunches bumping into other people's slow hunches. I find it fascinating to see how people link and intersect unlikely fields in new ways and hope that you also find ideas you can use when you look outside silos you may be accustomed to. The intersection I've been working on over the last 5 years has been taking processes from the design and creative problem solving worlds and bashing those together with ways that social services are designed.
In the video below, some social innovators and I share the creative problem solving processes we've been experimenting with in order to enhance the inclusion and citizenship experience of people with disabilities. Always learning and tweaking the process as we find what is working and not working, think tank explorers are breaking new ground around how to think differently about better supporting marginalized populations in our communities. Some great successes and better quality of life outcomes have come about as a result of the over 90 think tanks.
Let us know how you are intersecting ideas and disciplines in the comments below.
For examples of what has emerged from the Citizen Think Tanks check out Project Citizenship
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