The Finance Lab: Phases
Phase One - The Scenario Planning Workshops
Identify domains of the financial system where innovation will lead to significant change.
“A chance for unconstrained thinking and ideas”
We held a series of workshops in July 2009 that brought together over 200 people with different roles within the economy. They came from organisations including; Allianz, nef, Imperial University, FTSE, Britannia Building Society, Trucost, Westpac, Goldman Sachs, Aviva, Oxfam, Shell, Omni Group and KPMG.
What happened at the workshops?
The sessions stimulated discussion around the current financial system, challenged preconceived ideas and offered an opportunity to take time out to think constructively about the future.
Participants worked with two scenarios for the future of the financial system, developed by Oxford University’s Said Business School’s Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS). The slides from the scenario presentation can be downloaded from the InSIS website.
They identified domains of finance that if innovated within will lead to significant change. These areas will be the focus of activity for the Open Innovation Lab.
In the words of participants, the scenario planning workshops were:
- “A good opportunity to step out of organised roles and develop shared thinking on the future.”
- “Stimulation to think more creatively”
- “Great potential network with beginnings of shared visions.”
- “Sparked new ideas and challenged my existing thinking and paradigms.”
- “Gave me a greater appreciation of the financial system as part of the whole system”
- “An insight into the opinions of people who I don’t normally talk to, or work with”
- “Increased my confidence to embark on new initiatives”
- “Reassurance that many other people share my thoughts, concerns and aspirations”
Which domains for innovation were identified?
Participants identified domains of finance that if innovated within will lead to significant change.
These were:
Leadership, Values and Education
What are the values and leadership strengths we need to address complex contemporary trends both within finance and without? What new forms of education and education institution can support development of these capacities?
From Risk to Resilience
Finance is at core about the management and mitigation of risk, through arrangements that blunt the impact of crisis events on individuals. Whether this be through insurance or venture capital investment, risk sharing currently has a specific and limited focus. What would a risk industry that mitigates risks to our careers, our homes and our abilities look like? How could a new risk industry democratize finance?
Locally-directed Investment
Return on investment can come in multiple forms. Beyond a financial return, if the neighbourhood where I live is improved because my savings are directed towards local investment, then I’ve received a different form of return. How could the locality of investors - for example pension fund contributors - be considered in investment decisions?
New Forms of Banking
Events of the last year have made people keener than ever to explore new models for banking. In retail banking, what would a community-owned bank look like? A bank with the primary objective of serving its customers’ needs? What would it take to start and scale-up such a bank?
Money and Value
How is money created? Are there alternative mechanisms for creating money? Are there even alternatives to using money at all? How is value best represented in our day-to-day transactions?
Valuing Externalities
Beyond ‘cap and trade’, what options are there for an innovative mechanisms for managing our use of energy, our emissions including carbon, and the ultimate impact on the environment? What are the new forms of accounting or other approaches that ‘internalise the externalities’? Governance
From the institutions that regulate the global economy to alternate corporate structures such as co-operatives and mutuals: what governance structures in finance best serve society and the environment? What market opportunities might arise as governance changes in a post-crisis world?
Phase Two – The Open Innovation Lab
Create initiatives that when scaled will stimulate transformational change in the financial system so that it serves society and the environment.
The Lab will bring together 36 people to design and implement between five and seven individual initiatives. Participants will come from finance, business, government and civil society. They will learn, build relationships and take action to create initiatives that when scaled will stimulate transformational change in the financial system.
Foundation Workshop
Three-day relationship-building workshop
The Lab will begin with a three-day residential workshop where relationships will be built and areas of inquiry identified. Participants will build relationships that will be strong enough to take them through the most challenging phases of the Lab and will create a space where people are comfortable to think and communicate experimentally. The innovation domains established during the scenario workshops will be revisited and areas where further research is useful identified. Participants will also learn the skills necessary for the next phase of the lab.
Learning Journeys and Dialogue Interviews
Learn about the financial system
The research phase will follow, comprising a series of learning journeys and dialogue interviews. Learning journeys involve lab participants travelling together to immerse themselves in experiences and ideas they do not normally come into contact with, in practical terms involving both domestic and international travel. Dialogue interviews provide an opportunity to explore a particular topic in depth with key people from different parts of the system.
Innovation Retreat
Reflect on experiences and develop initiatives
In March participants will enter an innovation retreat, designed to allow participants a space to reflect on what they have seen and experienced during the previous phase. This involves spending four days alone in a natural environment and allows fresh and innovative ideas to emerge.
Coming out of the innovation retreat, participants will group themselves into six initiative teams. These teams will build on the domains established during the scenario workshops and the ideas that emerged during the retreat. Each team will create an initiative that has the potential to stimulate transformational change in the financial system, with each participant joining the initiative they have most energy for.
Prototyping Phase
Refine and improve initiatives through feedback
Teams then enter the prototyping phase, where the initiative is refined and improved through a rigorous development and feedback process. The team will build a working prototype of the idea, invite feedback and rebuild the prototype taking the feedback into account. This process will be repeated with colleagues, then interested parties and finally the target market. The ‘fail-fast’ principle will be followed to ensure that unworkable ideas are quickly discarded. Seed funding and logistical support will be provided to ensure that the initiatives have the maximum chance of success.
Participants must dedicate a minimum of 22 days over a nine month period, and are expected to commit as much time and energy to the initiative they create as necessary.