co-designing profound change
Ever thought about mixing ideas, emotions, and actions to make things happen?
That's basically what our Co-Design is all about. We bring everyone to the table – participants, mentors, experts, and neighbors – to create the ultimate ME=WE Experience.
The whole idea? Integrate thinking (head), feeling (heart), and doing (hands) to drive transcendent change for individuals and communities.
The best part? Everyone gets a slice of the pie. We all own it; co-initiate, co-sense, co-evolve, and aim for collective transformation.
ME=WE Framework focuses on the followings the key areas with a holistic approach;
prioritizing care for people, profit, and the planet
employing a systems thinking and utilizing design thinking
aiming for transformative change
Implementing through action and reflection.
Co-design: A Pathway to Social Change
ME=WE is based onCo-design is a collaborative and inclusive approach that embraces the complexities of human interactions to drive social change. While the process can be time-consuming and iterative, it's a vital tool for community participation and finding sustainable solutions. Our strategy involved engaging both local and international communities through outreach, exploratory sessions, and surveys. This approach opened dialogues on reimagining education and learning, shaping our direction. IN has been working with students, educators, experts, government agents, and community neighbors, brought varied perspectives, enhancing the co-design process.
Curious how ME=WE Framework came about?
We started by asking: “How can we help young people today become game-changing protagonists for society?” We turned to some human-focused models to see how 'ME' (you, me, all of us as individuals) works with 'WE' (society as a whole). Some ancient wisdom from around the world had our backs. Ever heard of Ubuntu? It's an African philosophy that says we shine when others shine. There's also the Balinese idea of Tattwa-Masi, which is all about “I’m in you, and you’re in me.” Believing that we are one human family, We took these wisdom and turned them into fun, hands-on activities that revolve around trust, empathy, and fluid communication.
Now, our protagonist path kicks off with understanding the ME=WE Framework. It's about valuing co-design, making stories, sharing personal and group growth tales, and vibing between action and reflection.
The whole journey is a back-and-forth dance between focusing on ourselves (ME) and the bigger group (WE). It's all about leveling up together!
Ready to co-design and reshape the world? Dive in with us!
INNOCO’s manifesto to connect, collaborate and contribute to systemic change on social issues is aligned with Margaret Mead’s famous words “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has” provides a common ground to communicate the ‘co-design concept’ with participants.
Visualizing a changemaker pathway aims to support building capacities of leadership (Senge 2015) and can be seen on multiple levels. Capacity building is an interactive and experiential process fueled by meaningful services rendered with team(s) integrating design thinking, systems thinking, co-design towards transformative change. It is an iterative and non-linear process supported by various inspiring hands-on activities including a ME=WE workshop, Ecosystem Mapping, and/or modified LEGO Serious Play. The healthy pathway can be associated with growing capacities of eco- socio- spiritual capacities, connectedness, and resilience.
Any path will be unique and has its own explorative learning and growth. It’s notable that a common pattern can be found in “ME (EGO-based) INTEGRATION PROCESS TO WE (ECOsystem-based)” which can assist for a constructive path development with the four stages of ME ≠ WE, ME + WE, { ME WE }, and ME=WE. These visual icons inspired by the ME=WE framework elements are designed to describe each stage of capacity growth using infinity loop, perpetual growth, capacity expansion, cycles (one cycle ends for another to begin). Four circles represent design thinking, systems thinking, co-design, and transformative change, and arrows signify ‘growth’ stemming from the core value of ME=WE. The yellow circle indicates a boundary created by self-limiting attributes, and dissolves as growth is happening.
EDUCATION SECTOR STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEW SUMMARY
We are grateful for your insightful knowledge, experience and projection towards this research. This supports ongoing research and development of emerging education practice for enabling learners to be future ready and be the change they want to see in the world. In order to create a sustainable practice of changemaker education, INNOCO joined the MIT u.lab 2x (www.presencing.com) cohort in January 2021. We formed an extended team of 9 members from Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, UAE, USA and Canada. The program was an accelerator to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals initiatives in local settings. Our team focus was EDUCATION and the Stakeholder Interviews was to understand comprehensively the current situation of education from multiple perspectives on a global scale. Here is LINK for the summary.
KULNA: CO-DESIGNED ACTION RESEARCH: FOOD REVOLUTION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
CO-DESIGNING Efforts for KUNA Social Enterprise Future Scenario: In order to propose new social enterprise solutions, reading the reality and listening to the system was a high priority. Through LEGO Serious Play, design thinking, and systemic design toolkit workshops and zoom discussions with potential collaborators, building a food forest and changemaker program took shape as a guiding light to envision ME=WE pathway for the future stories unfolding. The business proposal requesting an endorsement and partnership was submitted to ZU in July 2020 along with the main project timelines.
A committed team ventured to model social enterprise to help sustain KULNA efforts and lead social change in the food system. The goal is to generate sufficient profit and contribute to the security of the planet for people’s well-being by 1) building a Food Forest, a unique outdoor classroom environment within our native desert climate where the community can learn about sustainability and social change in the region through hands-on, experiential learning, 2) offering a Changemaker Program, a transdisciplinary community learning space so community members can become changemakers while prototyping their ideas around sustainability through mentorship and small grants, and 3) collaborating with academic, business, government and community partners to scale up this model in wider communities. To realize this plan, it required a transition from a cluster to a social enterprise for a wider community with support from ZU. The proposal submitted to ZU marked a {ME WE} pathway engaging the stakeholders and maximizing leverage points to work with the local and global system. This future scenario projects an unified vision of building a sustainable food system and embodies implementing the framework of ME=WE. Visualizing KULNA Social Enterprise structure, products, service, team, stakeholders and philosophy.