Last week, along with my colleague Jean-Marie Chapeau, I was grateful to spend time on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst many First Nations. Sandra Lapointe and the Canadian Forum for Social Innovation convened researchers, entrepreneurs, social innovators, and others around the intersection of higher education talent and social innovation. The goal? A roadmap for Canada’s social innovation ecosystems.
During the gathering, brilliant changemakers and I were invited to reflect on this question: What does talent look like in a fully enabled social innovation ecosystem?
I’ll be thinking about this question for a while. Here’s what comes to mind right now (and I heard these themes across the gathering and during the consultations that led up to the gathering:
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Talent looks like recognizing, nurturing and amplifying the innovation that emerges in community settings, and particularly in communities most deeply impacted by poverty, colonization, climate inequity, and other forms of oppression.
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Talent looks like an evolving set of capabilities. There is no one way to change systems, but talent looks like cultivating mindsets and practices focused on systemic equity, relationality, and the ability to navigate complexity. It looks like centring lived experience, staying open to being transformed, and working across differences to understand each other and pursue shared goals.
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Finally, this talent ecosystem is full of imagineers focused on long-term, audacious goals. Maybe that’s zero poverty. Maybe it's net-zero emissions with the burdens of climate change equitably shared. Maybe it's social connection and belonging. Regardless, people hold an audacious goal that can’t be achieved by one sector or generation or perspective, can’t be achieved without seismic systems changes, and can’t be achieved without those closest to the problem.
Thanks to our host community, to our conveners, and the many participants from across sectors, places, and experiences. And thanks to Justin Williams, our Associate Director of Public Policy & Government Relations, for his role in the consultations that informed this gathering, and for reminding me that local places are rich with innovative ideas and experiences. Onward!
