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Crafting a Social Innovation Program to Transform Communities
Project Overview
Project Overview
Client: Newmont stands as the global leader in gold production, also contributing to the production of copper, silver, zinc, and lead, globally renowned for its steadfast commitment to mitigating its environmental and social impact.
Timeframe: 12 months
Role: Co-Program Manager and Designe
Team: Co-Program Manager, Innovation strategist, Two on-site researchers and implementers.
Challenge: Tasked with crafting a social innovation program, we were challenged to guide the implementation of sixteen high-impact social initiatives aimed at fostering sustained transformative processes in the communities surrounding the mining site.
Methodologies:
Human-centered-design: More than ever was it imperative for us to truly empathize with the context and daily challenges these communities faced.
Systems thinking: Mapping actors and interactions, a powerful tool for understanding the complex context.
Gamification: The key factor in sustaining attendance and completion of the program. Through these techniques, we developed the most effective program Newmont Peñasquito had implemented.
Program Journey
Program Journey
Within twelve months, my amazing team and I understood the context of the region and its twenty-five communities; designed a hybrid social innovation program, and implemented twenty hybrid sessions to drive sixteen local change agents to transform their idea into an actionable plan.
We faced many challenges, from a very limited communication network to a three-month strike, which required us to apply all our improvisation and lateral thinking skills. Yes, it was a very laborious yet enlightening experience.
Understanding phase:
This journey began with a two-month comprehensive investigation of the geographical, social, and political context of the area, through which we identified key developmental barriers. During this time we visited some of the communities and talked with locals, asking about their main challenges, hopes for their communities, and their experience in past programs to identify best practices and improvement opportunities. As we gained understanding, we pinpointed success enablers and barriers for the program and formulated human-centric design principles.
For example, we understood during this phase how their community identities are based on their geographical position and water availability. We also discovered an interesting rivalry between those communities that tended to receive less support from the company and the "favorite" others, which we aimed to dissolve, at least within our group of participants.
Desk research plan:
Territorial analysis of the influence area
Geographic-environmental characteristics
Demographic characteristics
Field research plan:
20 interviews with community members
10 interviews with program stakeholders
3-day Workshop: stakeholder mapping (location, relationship, collaboration potential), social mapping of the influence area, sommon understanding of vulnerabilities, and prioritization of issues.
Co-creative problem-mapping session with communities
Area of Mazapil, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Program approach design:
Based on this research, we immersed ourselves in designing the program approach, aiming to address the main problems that afflict these communities. We applied System Thinking to analyze the interconnections between program elements and stakeholders. And used journey maps and system scenarios to visualize the user experiences throughout the training process and how our intervention could trigger an impact beyond the program.
Once we launched the program call for members of the communities, we selected the most promising profiles and ideas. Engaging in interview and survey techniques to understand in-depth participants' needs and challenges allowed us to develop an empathetic approach.
Facilitations design and artifacts development
As we began the preparations for implementation, we introduced Gamification as a tool to design a more engaging educational experience. Elements like team and individual points, badges, and leaderboards were used to encourage participation and collaboration among users, along with Behavior Change Design, employing self-determination strategies to positively influence participants' attitudes and behaviors.
With a clear learning path, we now delved into each of the sessions to outline the narrative, prepare dynamic activities, and design or purchase the necessary artifacts to implement it. Also, to improve commitment and continuity, we created an activities booklet with various tools that facilitated the sessions and enabled participants to follow the initiative design process.
The Implementation
The Implementation
A Hybrid Experience
Navigating logistics and communication barriers, we prepared a hybrid learning experience tailored to the unique circumstances of these individuals. Since people in these communities rarely have a computer or home internet, we chose WhatsApp as our main communication platform. Additionally, we organized recollection routes to overcome the difficulties many of them had in arriving at the location of the session. The result was an unprecedented attendance rate, compared to other programs implemented by Newmont.
Our program was delivered through WhatsApp activities and face-to-face sessions within communities and plenary. Participants embarked on a social innovation journey where they identified problems, mapped their system, set SMART objectives, created "How might we" statements, applied ideation techniques, and prototyped repeatedly until reaching increasingly interesting solutions that aimed to impact the largest number of people.
By the end of the program, they were able to pitch their initiatives, ensuring funding, training, and opportunities for further improving their initiative. In this process, users not only acquired knowledge but also experienced positive behavioral changes, marking this the beginning of their journey toward social entrepreneurship.
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