The Harwood Public Innovators Labs In Australia

The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation will be in Australia in March for two Public Innovation Labs for people who seek to change conditions in communities and help solve community problems.

In conjunction with its partner, the ten20 Foundation, along with Woodside Energy, the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal and Philanthropy Australia, and with in-kind support from the Centre for Social Impact and the University of Western Australia, the institute will host its president and founder, Richard C Harwood, and members of its team to lead two Public Innovator Labs – one in Melbourne and one in Perth.

Perth, 15 to 17 March 2017

Melbourne, 20 to 22 March 2017

Learn how to make the community – not your conference room – the reference point for your choices and action. Applied learning, real life scenarios, and action not theory.

Public innovators are “pragmatic idealists” that seek to hold a deep understanding of their community, are determined to make progress, can take risks and will innovate within whatever structure they operate.

The Harwood Institute develops these leaders to “turn outward” in a lab-like setting where they will be consistently pushed to apply their learning to the real challenges they face in their work and create ways to move forward.

The lab covers five areas to help drive the success and impact of local efforts:

1. Understanding your community: what it means to focus on public knowledge, how to ask the right questions in communities and listen, and how to apply learning to decision-making.
2. Turning outward: how to change your own behaviour and choices to make community your first and continuous point of reference. And how to engage others to turn outward.
3. Creating the conditions necessary for change: how to understand a community’s readiness for change and the stage it is at, and how to identify the right conditions to accelerate and support change.
4. Choosing the right path: how to identify your sphere of influence, choose the best path to success and create an action plan.
5. Making an agreement with oneself: how to stay true to one’s values and the community one serves by identifying and making time for what rejuvenates you and creating a “personal covenant” for accountability.

During these labs, the institute will also will be debuting its new Funders Roadmap tool created in partnership with ten20 and Opportunity Child. This tool helps funders make more strategic choices about how to invest their resources given the context of the communities they support.

In addition to the labs, the institute will be partnering with Opportunity Child and PwC Australia to lead a series of one-day trainings for Department of Social Services staff in the fundamentals of place-based efforts.

The institute has seen firsthand over the past three years that, while Australians have a unique culture and history, as well as unique challenges, they, like others, aspire to be seen and heard. They want the reality of their lives to be reflected in the work of professionals and leaders.

The Harwood Institute hopes that in conjunction with its Australian partners, it can do its small part to help make this happen more and more – to help leaders turn outward and create greater impact.

For more information on participating in an upcoming Public Innovators Lab, visit ten20.org.au.