We’re TACSI, Australia’s national centre for social innovation

An approach to innovation that brings together lived expertise with other kinds of expertise e.g. (research, practice) in a structured process to design practice, services, policies and systems. Co-design is an alternative to professional-only innovation approaches — especially when working with communities who experience marginalisation.

Peer-to-peer models create change by connecting people who have gone through tough times with people currently in tough times who want to do the same. Peer-to-peer is alternative and a complement to professional service delivery across sectors and in areas including prevention, early intervention and recovery.

A practice for creating change in complex systems through participatory processes that include diverse stakeholders, especially those with lived experience. Systems innovation is particularly relevant for government policy, service system reform, and long-term philanthropic strategy. It is an alternative to top-down or basic consultation approaches.

An approach to building the capabilities and infrastructure for communities to lead their own change that typically involves strengthening skills in innovation, social change, imagination, and participatory granting. Relevant to community-led, place-based initiatives where communities play a major role in outcomes. An alternative or complement to a collective impact approach.

Practices that catalyse and support creative, practical action toward reconciliation, self-determination, and change with First Nations people. Relevant to settlers on colonised lands as a complement to cultural awareness training and understanding of privilege.

An approach to organising diverse stakeholders to drive systemic change that emphasises changemaker wellbeing, relationships, systems awareness, and independent aligned action. Relevant for enabling change in complex systems, particularly where the ‘system’ producing an outcome lacks formal structure and spans traditional sectors. An alternative or complement to top-down systems-change approaches.

An emerging field focused on creating R&D systems that advance social outcomes. These combine the best of scientific and industry R&D with participatory and deliberative processes. Particularly relevant to designing systems for commissioning and funding innovation. An alternative to laissez-faire or bespoke approaches to innovation.

An emerging practice focused on catalysing action toward more equitable futures that emphasises public participation, unlikely connections, imagination, diverse knowledges, charismatic demonstrations and influencing resources. An alternative to professional-only futuring processes when developing long-term strategy.

A growing global movement of Indigenous practitioners applying Indigenous ways of knowing and being to address complex systemic challenges for all people. Relevant across complex problems and design activities. A complement and alternative to dominant-culture-only innovation.

A practice for working with communities to identify surprisingly effective behaviours, and then increase the take-up of those behaviours. Developed in an international development context but relevant to a broad range of settings including mainstream service-systems.

An approach to shared decision making that uses randomly selected representative groups of the public (mini-publics) to deliberate and provide direction on highly contested issues. Relevant for decision making in highly contested areas, e.g. where political parties can’t or don’t want to make a decision.