We wanted to find a way to disrupt the same-old, same-old and give staff the time, the space, and the resources to make & test fresh ideas with folks from the ground-up.

The inspiration

Innovative companies, like Google and 3M, recognize that great ideas don’t just come out of thin air. They come out of having dedicated time, space, resources, and methods.

In social organizations, it can be pretty hard to find time, spaces, and resources. And we tend to confuse meetings, committees, quality improvement processes and strategic planning for development methods. They aren’t. Such activities and processes tend to consolidate the existing systems, not disrupt them. In fifth space we gave 27 staff or “Fellows” from across our three agencies, from front-line to senior positions, a day a week for six months to learn and practice social research and development methods.

Real Talk emerged as one of six prototypes from this process.