Congratulations again, to Claire Buckle and Ability Consultancy – last year’s winner of the award, and to the 2023 shortlisted candidates such as EY’s Neurodiverse Centre of Excellence, Lisa Edge‘s GB Shared Ltd, Fund Her North (we were at their 3rd birthday party recently – see the photo above!), Financielle, YZen.ai, OnSide Youth Zones, the Multicultural Network United Utilities, BioGrad, and ORCHA. Quite an illustrious list, though I’m confident we will see submissions that are just as strong this year.

As a category, inclusive innovation tends to get caught up in a bunfight over definitions.  Though really, this is just a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal.

What’s the difference between mainstream innovation and the inclusive kind?

In a word, funding.

Brand-new-to-world research draws strong interest, as it should, from private and public funders. The inclusive variety, which often seeks to work with existing ideas but adapt them to the needs of underserved groups, not so much.

If there is a ‘hotspot’ and a ‘notspot’ in the world of innovation, then companies and projects focused on social impact as well as profit are definitely in the latter category.

This is the current reality of UK investment into inclusive innovation, as outlined within Connected Places Catapult research that Groundswell Innovation completed earlier this year.

The funding disconnect means that tragically, many outstanding projects that have strong economic potential do not gain the profile or the investment that would enable them to maximise long-term social value creation.

It’s time that more people woke up to the fact that:
Inclusive Innovation = Financial Returns + Benefits For Society

It’s your standard BOGOF deal.

So the more that campaigns like the Northern Power Women Awards highlight commercially strong initiatives that are ALSO solving a problem in society, the better off we will all be.

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Making this commitment has been on my list for a few years – since we began working on place-based innovation projects – to make sure our practice is informed by and connected into other initiatives across the country. 

Be more yes.  Be open, optimistic, rigorous, courageous and enabling. 

A succinct way to describe what the organisation and its work are all about.  With a 260-year history of working for the greater good, you might expect to find a culture that was slightly fustier than that, at the heart of the RSA.

Working from the North, we are often told that our project ideas and our business projections lack ambition.  The sums of money we are asking for are not big enough. 

It always makes me feel a little Oliver-esque. 

We absolutely should be asking for more, and bigger and better, for our communities.  But we are perhaps a little too well practiced at making do with less, so that the funds we have stretch as far as they can.  And perhaps the nature of our ambition is different.  I’d rather see companies and organisations scaling deep within Lancashire – building ecosystems that function well and make our county strong – than see them scale up, up and away to other places with more resources.    

One thing that I am really looking forward to as an active part of the RSA, is working with the backing of a really strong network of people who espouse similar values.  With the moral and practical support of national bodies, home-grown levelling-up can be bolder in scope and bigger in impact.     

Take for example, our ongoing collaboration with Lancaster University, Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council and Connected Places Catapult to encourage and enable active and sustainable travel between Morecambe and Lancaster.

Gathering partners as we move forward, and building on the human-centred-design work within i-Connect, we have the opportunity to re-green an urban area in a way that will encourage active travel, improve natural habitats and community wellbeing. 

Watch this space for further updates and if you’re part of Lancashire or the RSA yourself, come and help us build something fantastic. 

Jane Dalton, Founding Director of Groundswell Innovation

The post Celebrating our Founding Director becoming a Fellow of the RSA appeared first on Groundswell Innovation.

Yet, time and time again, inclusivity and diversity has been proven to have a drastic impact on innovation and the economy.  

What can we do about it? 

At Groundswell Innovation, we understand the value of innovation inclusivity. That’s why we support the Inclusive Innovation Network (IIN) which has been set up to place inclusion at the core of innovation, to facilitate quicker growth and more equitable prosperity for individuals and communities.  

Their goal is to create a diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem that supports and empowers underrepresented groups, including women, people of colour, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from low-income backgrounds. 

Consider this… 

If everyone had the same inventive capacity as white men from high-income families, the rate of innovation would quadruple. 

And people from families below the national median income are 10 times less likely to become inventors compared to the top 1% of families. 

These statistics are not just alarming, they are a call to action. That’s where the IIN comes in – to foster inclusive innovation through the creation of a platform where people and organisations from various sectors and backgrounds can collaborate and network. The organisation hosts regular events and workshops where members can share their experiences, learn from each other, and collaborate. 

By providing platforms for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and networking, they’re helping to bridge the gap and empower underrepresented individuals and communities. This, in turn, can increase participation, enhance innovation, and bring economic benefits to society. 

Just think; if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men, an astonishing £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy. 

Similarly, the immense talent within BME communities could boost the economy by a further £24 billion.  

These stats, alongside the fact that a mere 1 in 7 applications for Innovate UK funding come from women, once again demonstrates the fundamental problem (and obvious solution) that is hindering our progress towards inclusivity. 

The economic advantages of promoting inclusivity and diversity in the UK is undeniable – by fostering diversity and inclusion in innovation, we can ignite growth, cultivate creativity, and tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. 

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Because that’s what we’re all striving for, right? Consistent profit. Scalability. Sustainability. 

Collaborative innovation is where it’s at. 

Why is collaborative innovation so good for business? 

According to Alfons Cornella, Founder of Infonomia and Co-society, there’s a very simple explanation:

“The world and the markets are too complex to try to settle them on our own.”

Indeed, why go it alone, when we can generate more value for customers by pooling our knowledge? 

Collaborative innovation is…

“Conducive to the formation of ‘new resources’, resulting in knowledge spillover, bringing ‘collaborative surplus’ to enterprises, and breaking through resource constraints” – MDPI research on Collaborative Innovation

All good profit generating stuff. There’s just one problem:

It’s a lot easier for the big corps, than it is for us SMEs. We don’t have the same access to big chunks of money, far-reaching networks, extensive resources and know-how to get the same idea-to-profit results.

Researchers of the Journal of Business Economics and Management put it well –

“Larger firms have greater capacity and more resources (research, technology, marketing skills, financial autonomy, experience, teams) to develop and implement successful innovations”

Having said that, hope is by no means lost for smaller businesses…

Successful, profitable, collaborative innovation involves people across all disciplines and walks of life – it’s not just for the big corporations who have the right resources – who have the expensive consultants and the domineering CEOs. It’s for SMEs too.

So, according to Cornella in his Harvard Business Report on co-innovation here’s what you need to do to make innovation work for you (i.e. turn those ideas into £££)… With a Groundswell Innovation twist added in, of course!

1. Share – it’s the generosity in sharing knowledge that creates the conditions for collaboration, and that begin to ignite sparks of potential. From inter-department to cross-sector collaboration, when you pool data, skills and expertise, you can build a bottomless well of innovative opportunities. And with the right people involved, you’ll find it much easier to decipher which of those opportunities is most viable.
2. Trust – collaboration isn’t about one party taking advantage of the other. All parties need to understand the common goal… and what’s required of them to succeed. You need to make sure all stakeholders can answer the question: what’s the purpose of this collaboration? People need a strong reason to share their hard-earned insight willingly.
3. Be understanding (read: patient) – innovation is a long-term game, so don’t expect short term gains. This is where most businesses get stuck; too many people want the quick fix, the easy money. But that’s not sustainable. You need to make a long-term game-plan and stick with it… Trials and tribulations make up the fabric of innovation!
4. Authorise – as a CEO you need to be fully on board with the innovation process.You need to lead by example. If you’re not all in, then your employees won’t be either. What’s more important though is the idea of permission/authorisation – give your employees permission to explore, test, investigate and question. Give them permission to fail: not every idea will be a good one, but each one will offer a lesson.
5. Collaborate rather than compete – Competition will be seen as a failed collaboration. Remember that common goal? It’s not about who gets there first, or who put more resources into getting it… You joined forces to reach a goal, and that partnership is the reason why you’ll succeed – you’re a team!

Great ideas right? But let’s see how that actually fits together in real life!

Collaboration nation?

As a nation, we’re already witnessing the value of collaboration as our intersectional enterprises come to fruition.

Cross-sector

Homes for Cathy have a mission to tackle the link between homelessness and poor health. They’re working with various partners across the health, social care, and housing sectors, to provide:

“Intensive support for each person to improve their health outcomes and also their life skills and tenancy skills, so they have more likelihood of being able to move on to more secure, permanent accommodation in the long term.” 

Good quality housing = good quality health + reduced strain on the NHS. 

National collaboration

The Eden Project North. What was a vision is now in full swing, and will mean a much-needed boost for Morecambe and the North West.

Key stakeholders, including the city council, Lancashire County Council, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, Lancaster University, local businesses, industry experts and the general public have all been a part of making this happen. Eden brought people together to think about ideas, and not just the end-goal … there have been spin-offs and other projects that will also benefit the area.

International collaboration

As we’ve already discovered, most innovation relationships are national or cross sector in scope. But the Connected Places Catapult is going one step further to bring ‘high potential’ cities (such as in the UK and South Korea) together through their Innovation Twins Programme, to enable collaboration and support between both countries across:

“Government, business and academia to drive real outcomes… accelerate long-lasting R&I collaborations and create a pipeline of opportunities for bilateral trade and FDI.”

Creating a thriving, innovative, global economy is within reach, though not without its challenges.

Collaboration will get us there. But it has to become the norm.

To talk to us about innovating in your business, get in touch. We work with businesses in Lancashire, the North West, and beyond.

The post Collaborate and Innovate to turn your ideas into £££ appeared first on Groundswell Innovation.

Groundswell Innovation is thrilled to announce our sponsorship of the 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival, a celebration of the vibrant and diverse jazz community in Lancaster and beyond.

As a company that values creativity, innovation, and community engagement, we are proud to support the arts and culture in Lancaster. The Lancaster Jazz Festival is an opportunity for music lovers from all walks of life to come together and enjoy world-class and progressive jazz performances in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

We believe strongly that innovation is fuelled by diversity and creativity, and the Lancaster Jazz Festival embodies these values, and brings an incredible celebration of jazz to our hometown.

The 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival will feature an outstanding line-up of exciting and emerging jazz talent from across the UK as well as local and regional acts. 

“We are super pumped by Groundswell Innovation’s support of the 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival,” said festival organiser Dave Shooter. “Their forward-looking commitment to community and creativity aligns perfectly with our mission to create spaces for artists to produce their best work, celebrate the art of jazz and bring people together through music. We look forward to a successful partnership and an amazing festival.”

The 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival will take place from 6-10 September, 2023 at venues throughout Lancaster. Check www.lancasterjazz.com and sign up to the mailing list for updates as they become available.

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This is the second of three Groundswell Innovation profiles of women leading businesses in the North West who are creating change, generating social inclusion, and truly demonstrating inclusive innovation.

Kay Johnson MBE is the founder of The Larder and has worked for more than 20 years as a nutritionist managing food poverty initiatives nationally and overseas; she spent a brief spell as a chef and was brought up on a small farm in Lancashire.

The Larder is a women-led social enterprise that promotes food that’s healthy, local, and seasonal, innovating to tackle food poverty across Lancashire. It focuses on creating a sustainable food system at a micro level, tackling issues around food with a holistic approach, across four elements:

1. Tackling food poverty
2. Benefitting the environment
3. Supporting the local economy
4. General nutrition

Kay’s story

“I was brought up with good food around me, there was always a meal made with local produce, I ate really well. Although I didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, we always had fresh, good and healthy food and I suppose I took it for granted really at the time. 

I went to University and studied nutrition. I then became a nutritionist and I started working for and managing food poverty initiatives, so a lot of my work as a nutritionist was managing these healthy food initiatives and disadvantaged communities.”

Kay knows the importance of innovating to address food poverty, particularly during the current cost-of-living crisis.

Her most recent project for The Larder is partnering up with the ‘Sewing room’, an organisation in Skelmersdale. They have innovated new thermal food bags, allowing cooked food to simmer and keep warm for over 8 hours. Alongside this, the Larder has also provided cooking classes teaching a range of different meals every week.

“All of our projects strive for innovation and creating new ideas on tackling food poverty. One of the projects The Larder did was face-to-face cooking classes over the holidays for children.

Quite often, families on benefits or low incomes really struggle during the holidays because of the children that are entitled to free school meals, so it’s difficult for parents to afford that extra money to pay for meals for their children.

Then Covid-19 hit, and The Larder were unable to teach face to face. In response we developed and innovated online cooking videos. We had volunteer delivery drivers that delivered the ingredients to people’s houses, and people were emailed a link to the cooking classes. It was a very successful and popular project.”

One of the key elements of The Larder is ensuring that there is positive and lasting community impact.

“The Larder has a good relationship with the community, we do a lot of community engagement and we have conversations with people. At the beginning, the team spent a lot of time going out and asking ‘what is it that you need to happen to help you with your situation’ so we have then been able to put our projects together based on what people have told us. I think that is the key aspect of why we get such a good response.”

But there are challenges that Kay experiences running her business.

“Sometimes I do think it is really difficult when you’re up against opposition, and if you want to create change, which is what I am trying to do, you just really need to stand up for yourself and stand up to people who have different opinions. What The Larder is trying to do is promote fairness, fight for a fairer food system, and sometimes it is quite hard to get your point across.

And I also think as a woman running this organisation you have to be quite resilient. Sometimes people like to make things more difficult for you because they may see you as a troublemaker because you’re trying to promote change. So that can also become very difficult at times because I feel like sometimes I have to be assertive just to make things happen, so as a woman it can be challenging.”

Social inclusion is fundamental to how The Larder is run – and that means involving everybody – and the benefits to Kay are clear.

“The Larder tries to be as inclusive as possible; we try to be inclusive of everybody who may need our help. We run credited hospitality courses to people who wouldn’t see college as an option, we work with people who have been in prison, we work with people with mental health needs. We have also supported work placement for people with additional learning needs and I’ve delivered food hygiene training for Syrian refugees. We always try to make sure we are always providing a service for the people that are involved.”

“The best thing about running The Larder, is seeing everybody wanting to get involved. The benefits are definitely from the people of this community. We now have all these ladies that have started coming after Covid into the café space in Preston. These women knit items which we can then sell in our little shop, that then helps us get the money we need for our project work. We now have this community building, and seeing people connect through my enterprise is truly amazing.”

Written by Eden Latimer, work experience student at Groundswell Innovation

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This is the first of three Groundswell Innovation profiles of women leading businesses in the North West who are creating change, generating social inclusion, and truly demonstrating inclusive innovation.

Nickala Torkington is the Co-Founder and Director of Flourish Together CIC, a social enterprise reinvesting surplus resources to support women to create the change they see needed in communities through peer learning, mentoring, crowd sourcing and investment.

Nickala has been shortlisted in the Northern Power Women Awards 2023 for the Levelling Up Leader award, recognising individuals who play their part in the Levelling Up Agenda to accelerate gender equality and wider inclusivity.

Founded in 2016, Flourish have a core network of over 500 women changemakers and have supported over 1000 into social venture developments, to help ‘women change-makers’ develop themselves personally and professionally.

Nickala’s story

Flourish was founded by Nickala Torkington after nearly 20 years’ of experience working in the voluntary and community sectors.

“I worked for national funding agencies and what I realised was although the organisation that I worked for gave 50% of grants to women, I learnt that that wasn’t the norm, and that actually in the business world, far less investment and funding was going into female-led initiatives.”

“We know that women are great leaders and entrepreneurs, so if we can empower more women to lead a change then it would really make a difference … we can enable women to feel more fulfilled, earn a good living and perhaps a better one than before.”

Nickala knows the importance of providing support for women who may have had struggles in their life, both professionally and personally.

“I have seen that a vast majority of the women we work with are women that have setbacks, they might be emotional setbacks, health setbacks, relationship setbacks, life in general setbacks, financial setbacks, age setbacks and so, we wanted to make sure there was a good place for women to achieve their potential and not be held back by the constraints of what gender inequality lies or their own individual initial baggage.”

There are challenges – and benefits – Nickala faces in a female-run business.

“I am a full-time working single parent, that has supported over a thousand other women in order to lead the change they needed in the past 5 years, so there is an element of empathy and having seen certain things, that aids what I do and means that I can take risks that other business support agencies or other training providers wouldn’t take. Flourish can be incredibly flexible and patient and take more risks because of the built experience that we have as women who have faced multiple setbacks and I definitely think that is a critical element of our business and USP in achieving the results we do.” 

“Because we have come from lived and professional experience, and a culture of empathy, those are the things that have set our business and leaderships style apart from some male-run businesses. I think this is a very important difference.”

Innovating is key to how she runs Flourish Together, alongside creating game-changing opportunities.

“The way we innovate is that we spot opportunities collaboratively, and we always go for it. I think as women, we are really good at that … one of our key aspects as a women-led organisation is that we jump to strategic opportunities which unlock potential in others and communities.

“Recently one of the opportunities we’ve taken is the Action Station project, a number of train stations are becoming derelict but we want to turn them around and use them as community ventures. We are looking to redevelop two stations and turn them into community and social enterprise hubs … an asset that we can repurpose and bring back to life using our networks, to redesign, redevelop communities.”

“We’re a game-changing organisation because we are a partner to the people we work with, we’re not just investors or support providers, we seek to collaborate in new ways of working and create new community-led supply chains across multiple sectors. We are not just telling people what social enterprise is, we are building communities constantly; we develop these sorts of collectives of knowledge, collectives of services and we are constantly seeking opportunities and innovate by investing in women as a force for social change.”

“Flourish is all about us investing our time, investing our knowledge and new learning. But it is also about cash and particularly about investing into our social networks, so that they can flourish. “

 “We try to offer enterprise opportunities, collaborative partnerships and hope, to build peoples self-belief and their track record quicker than they otherwise would and that then evolves, because we have this culture, that once you are in this Flourish network of ours, there is this osmosis and a set of DNAs that makes people feel part of something that can evolve, grow and make change happen.”

Alongside all this, being a northerner has its benefits.

“I do think as Northerners we have an inbuilt character of just getting on with it. We spot and create opportunities in alternative ways and I see that a lot in communities across the North when people are given the chance. I am sure that happens in the south as well, but up here it’s our pride, culture and heritage that makes us create and seize opportunities and step forward.  People up North often get underestimated, but I believe the people of the North have a sense of unity that makes us work together and push each other harder to get things done.”

And Nickala had one final piece of advice to give female business owners:

“If I had one lesson to give women business owners, it would be to take more time off, I am finally learning to practice what I preach, but I am not perfect on that front I’m afraid!”

Northern Power Women (NPW) is the collaborative campaign to accelerate gender diversity from the North of England. Their aim is to transform the culture of organisations; increase opportunities for all; showcase role models; and highlight best practice among organisations that are helping to drive and lead economic growth.

They engage people from all industries and business areas as ‘agents of change’ and connect, collaborate, and celebrate their achievements as campaign champions and advocates to drive gender balance from the North of England.

Go to https://www.northernpowerwomen.com/awards/#shortlist for more information on the NPW awards, celebrating their 7th year in 2023.

Written by Eden Latimer, work experience student at Groundswell Innovation

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Of all the topics that could have dominated our discussion, I wasn’t expecting bus journeys.   

A couple of weeks ago I ran a workshop about creativity in business, with a room full of Masters students.   

12 nationalities represented, many different sets of life experience. But when I asked them to work in groups on an issue they would like to change, 4 out of 6 groups chose bus journeys. Why?

Because they’re a major pain.   

Grumpy bus drivers who don’t seem to like students, expensive tickets, Wi-Fi that is promised but rarely works, no room to put your shopping bags, not even any way of queuing at the bus stop to make sure you have chance of getting a space when the bus eventually arrives. It’s an old, old set of annoyances.   

What an introduction to life in the UK. What a great impression to leave people with.   

I’m surprised we don’t see more bus stop punch-ups to be honest. When you think about it, they’re a big intersection point for lots of different stresses and strains. To break it down a bit –  

Grumpy bus drivers – are they on strike, or just feeling like they should be?

Here they are, being paid less than the cost of living, having to deal with jumped-up students who get nice new accommodation built for them right through the city while other people around here can’t find anywhere to live at a price they can afford.   

Expensive tickets – don’t people realise how much it costs to run a bus service?

We’ve got drivers asking for money, ever-higher energy costs, a fleet that constantly needs repairing, and a load of unprofitable routes to run.  But according to the media, we’re almost as money-grabbing as the train companies. Why are students complaining anyway? We run free bus services to Sainsbury’s every Wednesday afternoon. What more do they want? 

Sainsbury’s? 
What happened to supporting local trade?

How are we supposed to keep independent retail alive on our high streets if you’re ferrying people for free, right up to the door of a major supermarket? Students live out of town, get ferried in for food, then head straight back out again.  Not so much as a cuppa bought from the high street.   

– Just a short summary of the points raised by students with a bit of context thrown in, courtesy of other stakeholder conversations we’ve been hosting about place-based innovation.   

Even in this paraphrased form, it’s pretty clear to see that the current system isn’t working well for anyone.   

Walking through the stage set of a bus stop in this way helped students to see things from all sides. An ecosystem becomes visible. They could see their place within it. They could also appreciate their role and agency in making it work better. Suggestions started to flow, like a multi-trip (rather than weekly) bus pass, bought in advance to make the driver’s job easier. Tie that prepaid card in with discounts at local stores and hey presto, you have a happy Business Improvement District.   

I asked the question at the start of the session – who here is confidently creative?

One and a tentative half hands went up.    

An hour into the workshop, students had some structure to their thinking and a well-defined challenge to work through. Less than an hour after that, students presented back a range of logical, practical, and often downright radical plans for action. 

Their own combined creativity had opened up a flurry of ideas, arriving all at once. Just like those buses.  

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