Why supporting innovation in communities matters

In shaping the purpose and focus of Coolkids, we’ve been inspired by some of the thought leadership on innovation in the not-for-profit sector. Here’s an example – McKinsey’s 2021 report - Building from purpose: Unlocking the power of Australia’s not-for-profit sector. Here’s a great quote:

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“Pairing innovation with external orientation is important for the sector to have an enduring impact. Many not-for-profit organisations are working to break cycles of disadvantage, health, or climate issues, and are constantly looking for new ways to solve problems and effect change, as approaches to date haven’t been enough. Innovation matters, and it matters that this innovation occurs with the same vigour in program design as it does in fundraising”.

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You can read the full McKinsey report here.

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Some of the key opportunity spaces they identified align perfectly with what we do for our Partners including:

Creating a shared vision

We do this through bringing your Board or Committee members together in facilitated conversations to define and agree your mission, purpose and values – your “North Star”. We can help you create an environment that allows innovation networks to emerge and flourish.

Top-down, bottom-up innovation & capturing, sharing knowledge and ideas

We effectively facilitate people with different knowledge and experience to combine their ideas and find new ways of tackling problems. We do this through designing and delivering engaging, purposeful and fun workshops with your team to explore opportunity spaces, then ideate and prioritise together. 

Invest in evidence collection and dissemination to improve innovation

We do this through helping you design and action consumer and community research activities; then support you in synthesising the data into actionable insights.

Expand access to coaching and mentoring on critical practices

We have a great network of people with specialised coaching and mentoring skills in areas like change management, business analysis, strategy and planning and innovation practices. We are here to connect people and ideas.

Provides opportunities to bring in ‘best practices’ from outside the organisation

As experienced consultants, we keep abreast of thought leadership, emerging technologies and solutions that work. We can also help you better unlock the value you already have, but don’t always utilise. Innovation networks enable you to capture more value from the existing people and resources in your organisation.

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