This tool is a ‘thinking exercise’ – a structured brainstorming process, designed to be used by an individual or group – perhaps engaging a range of actors. Users will consider the potential of an initiative (such as a project, policy or programme) to become a TIP experiment that contributes to the transformation of a socio-technical system dominant regime.
Citation
Bernal Hernandez, P., Ghosh, B., Shaw, V., Zinkstock, E. (2022) Tool: Articulating an initiative as a TIP experiment. Available at https://tipresourcelab.net/resource/tool-articulating-an-initiative-as-a-tip-experiment/
Facilitators Instructions
Important: Duplicating the tool
This resource is a Master version of the tool. To use it, you will need to duplicate it to your own Miro account.
How to duplicate the Board
- First, make sure you have your own Miro account. Researchers may be able to access a free educational plan for staff at educational institutions
- Click on the ‘download’ link to access the Lab master board
- Then click on the title
- Click ‘duplicate’ – this will open another board with ‘Copy’ in the title
- Rename the tool and save the URL
You will need to complete this process for each board. If you are using a tool with multiple groups, you can either: (a) create a different board for each group or (b) copy the tool multiple times on the same board. We recommend (b) to avoid confusion over board links.
If you are new to Miro, there is a short intro here.
If you accidentally change the Resource Lab Master, don’t worry! – please leave a message in the feedback section below and the Lab team will be able to update it.
This tool was tested at a Resource Lab preview event on 13 October. Participants brought in diverse initiatives from around the world, and were invited to articulate these as TIP experiments using the tool. In all groups, participants noted issues in the current system that experimentation in projects or policies might be able to solve. They also highlighted initiatives they were working on, which had scope to potentially become experimental spaces. The tool helped the Lab team to understand practitioner perspectives on the benefits and challenges of adopting an experimental mindset when approaching real world policy problems.
The following user tips and reflections emerged from the discussion:
USER TIPS
• Allow plenty of time for introducing everyone and getting to grips with the tool. Users might want to share the board with participants in advance of the workshop
• The work is so intense – if you have the time, maybe get all the groups to take a break after each step and reflect, so you have a series of short sessions. This also helps to manage time
• It really helps to have a very clear idea of the regime you are focusing on addressing
REFLECTIONS ON USAGE
• ‘We used the example initiative of a local policy (from the provincial government) to add food literacy to the provincial curriculum within the science and technology sphere’
• ‘Our group used the tool to explore the higher education regime, with a focus on science outside of the lab’
• ‘We used the tool to look at a climate change adaptation initiative. Due to the complexity of the case study, it was really hard to connect the system dimensions to regime vulnerabilities. This tool may be better for some projects than others’
• ‘It was fun moving things around on the Board!’
• ‘The tool helped our group to be purposeful about identifying vulnerabilities in the regime’
• ‘This was a taster and we needed more time to get through all the steps, but I’d like to finish it and use the tool’
• ‘There were a few glitches – one or two problems dragging the icons or moving them twice’
• ‘Fantastic tool – it really walks you through the key aspects of experimentation’
• ‘Amazing tool for being very pragmatic about a situation and trying to move towards action’
Dear TIPC Lab,
I am very happy that these tools have been created! I believe they will be useful in the work that we are doing to promote system transformations, by giving us the frameworks that we can apply to particular cases.
In particular of this tool, when I looked at it, it was mainly useful for me to understand the types of experimentation. Knowing what are the different ways that you can transform the system, and in what structures you can do it, gave me a good reflection of the possibilities of what we can do in my organization. I am not sure if the fit and transform questions may create a disincentive for the people doing the process. In the end, even when we aim for transformation, we require a transition in stages. I believe that a brief explanation of the graph that was explained in the video would be good to not make a disincentive for action, but to inform about the possible transformations.
Moreover, I liked very much that the last question is a part of a conclusion of all of what has being worked with. I think that will be very useful to create next steps in the experimentation process, and this could also be useful for other tools as well that are being developed.