DESIGN THINKING 16 APRIL 2017

LEARNING LAUNCHES

CHALLENGE South African society is an extremely diverse collection of people with a colourful history marred with  stories of oppression. The social status quo in South Africa is one with the potential of people either  standing alongside each other to build the”Rainbow Nation” that Nelson Mandela dreamt about OR one  where the ruling party’s rhetoric polarises society into an “us and them” solution which will lead to South  Africa joining the list of failed independent African states left impoverished, not only economically, but  morally where people do not communicate openly, share ideas easily and develop separately, much  like in the Apartheid years.

SELECTION After a visualisation exercise, I managed to get a few stakeholders interested which led to a very  successful storytelling session which set us up for a series of Learning Launches. These Learning  Launches had to be planned quickly and extremely cost effective as the entire project would eventually  rely on corporate sponsorships and was, at the time financed personally. 3 phases were planned...

APPLICATION Phase I of our Learning Launches relied on social media as a dipstick measure – we used my personal  Instagram and Facebook accounts to post images of outdoor barbeque situations and meals being  prepared by me every day of the week for a period of 3 months (insight i) Phase II involved physical events where we invited friends over to participate in the already tested  social media barbeque posts and share their experiences (insight ii) In Phase III we took the events one step closer towards the planned final project and invited an expert  in a field, 3 other guests worked in. We documented the interaction between everyone present at the  event ( insight iii)

INSIGHTS Insights from our 3-Phased Learning Launches lead to a serious decision making workshop which will  happen in the next couple of weeks and involve all stakeholders and potential sponsors.

Insight i: Organic Instagram following grew with 200% in 12 weeks and international influencer  interaction (likes & comments) grew with 1 000% Insight ii: Social interaction grew even more and 70% of users started to ask to be invited to these  events or wanted to know how they could get involved. Insight iii: The interaction with the key “speaker/guest” was as expected – A group of people from  the same industry immediately bunched around the expert and spent the entire span of the event  discussing their industry, issues and solutions they experienced every day.

APPROACH The positive feedback from these Learning Launches affirmed that South Africans from all walks of  life share the culture of getting together socially, cooking a meal on an open fire and having serious,  uplifting and sometimes inspiring conversations. Whether it’s a Braai, Chesa Nyama or a normal barbeque, ideas will be shared and the future of `nelson  Mandela’s Rainbow Nation may just look a little brighter with brothers and sisters sharing something  as normal and common as a meal.

I will feed back on our general meeting in May. Exciting stuff is in the making.

