Catalyst Collaborative: embedding learning into digital transformation at scale

 

Tim Hobbs | CEO | @tim_hobbs_lab

The COVID-19 emergency is demanding radical changes in how public systems, communities and civil society organisations support those in need across the UK. Funders, Government and Civil Society are rallying in support. 

Civil society organisations supporting vulnerable individuals, families and communities are rushing to adapt to digital means of outreach and support. There is much for organisations to do and learn as they adapt. Digital transformation is one thing, digital transformation with impact is another. 

One rallying effort is being supported by Catalyst – a collective of digital organisations, foundations, charities and the UK Government. Catalyst is throwing its collective resources to support delivery organisations working with vulnerable groups across the UK as they quickly switch to digital means of outreach and support. You can read about how the coordinating efforts and rapid mobilisation of Digital Teams are shaping up here, from one of the partners leading the charge - Nick Stanhope at Shift. 

Dartington Service Design Lab is one of many charities that are throwing as much of our capacity, skills and resources as we can into this coordinated and collaborative effort. As well as contributing research and design skills to the Digital Teams, a key supportive role we are playing is in relation to learning. 

With so much activity taking place at an unprecedented pace, it is imperative we learn from elsewhere and each other. We’ll be working with the Collaborative to bring learning from the outside in, and learning from the inside, out. Here we provide a brief overview of how we expect this will look and evolve.

Bringing learning from ‘the outside in’

Digital Teams will be deployed to organisations in the midst of fundamental change and redesign efforts. To contribute to the design process, Dartington will work within and across teams, with partners, to rapidly synthesise evidence and learning from elsewhere. 

This will include:

  •  (Very) rapid synthesis of existing research and evidence. This may be related to specific ‘common elements’ of practice associated with a positive impact, and an understanding of the contexts and conditions conducive to impact;

  • Synthesis of existing datasets to extract data and insights informing design efforts;

  • Synthesis of learning from wider digital transformation and crisis response efforts, from fields of international development and beyond;

  • Drawing on the experience and practice wisdom of networks in which Catalyst and Digital Teams are situated.

These insights will be in service of Digital Teams and the organisations they are supporting, as well as being aggregated, organised and shared for wider use. 

Working on the inside to learn

We’ll be bolstering research and data capabilities within Digital Teams, ensuring data and learning from elsewhere is informing design efforts. We will use this to design digital adaptations with the best chance of being positively impactful, but also consider the ‘dark logic’ of designs – thinking through potential unintended consequences of design decisions.

Initial digital designs and adaptation is just the start. We’ll work within and across teams to help establish the necessary data infrastructures to guide ongoing adaptation, testing and learning. Supporting organisations to iterate and optimise over the weeks and months ahead will be critical in effectively responding to the systemic and dynamic challenges faced. 

Finally, we’ll work to embed principles and mechanisms to routinely capture learning at all stages. The scale and pace of adaptation will generate an unprecedented amount of experience and data - with huge potential for individual organisations, and the wider sector to learn. To make this possible, it’s important we clarify what questions we want to answer, and create the infrastructures that will allow people to come together to develop these answers. 

Bringing learning from ‘the inside, out’

With all this adaptation and learning taking place at pace, we’ll also work with the Collaborative to coordinate efforts to continuously identify and share what is being learnt. We’ll create mechanisms to identify commonalities in challenge and response within and across Digital Teams, cross-pollinating learning. 

We’ll undoubtedly learn quicker from our mistakes, and given the challenge and the pace, there will inevitably be a lot of mistakes. Some of these mistakes will become apparent quickly, whilst others may take a period of implementation to become apparent. Learning from what does not work (as well as what does), in what contexts, will expedite the learning, reduce risk of harm, and of waste of precious time and effort. 

All of this learning will be shared as openly and widely as possible to contribute to wider national and international efforts. 

We’ll also, over time, be able to contribute to the ‘story’ of what unfolds over the coming weeks and months. Capturing this story is important, not just for a retrospective down the line, but to inform the narrative and inevitable resettlement of how the state, local government, civil society and communities inter-relate. 

The work starts now

The work of this Catalyst Collaborative effort is just beginning. We are rapidly mobilising our collective resources and establishing our best and most complementary roles. Our thinking and concrete means of bringing learning from the ‘outside in’, and from the ‘inside out’ will adapt as we also learn. 

Get in touch if you have ideas, assets, resources or expertise in relation to learning that you can bring to the table.

 
Reflection, PublicationsBLOGTim, Collaboration, Catalyst, Learning, Digital