Through its Center for Innovation and Research, The Network establishes partnerships with universities, government, corporations or philanthropies to develop, evaluate the efficacy of, and implement solutions to challenges. These solutions, or innovations, may be client service delivery focused or may address internal agency operations, governance or other operating factors. The Network’s Center for Innovation and Research provides ongoing training to its member agencies to increase their efforts to embrace the process of innovation and to incorporate strategies and planning processes which may contribute toward innovative responses to challenges.
NJHSA’s Center for Innovation & Research is designed to help agencies identify solutions for challenges.
The center is in the development process and aims to be an array of resources the Network could apply to help Members transform ideas and opportunities into actions through collaborations and partnerships with start-up companies, universities, foundations and corporations, philanthropists and government.
Jewish Poverty Challenge – Agencies Chosen to Participate in Intensive Incubation Program – An Initiative of the NJHSA Center for Innovation and Research
The Board of Directors of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, following the recommendations of an independent Grants and Opportunities Committee, recently chose three communities to participate in the Intensive Incubation Program of the NJHSA Jewish Poverty Challenge, an initiative of the Network’s Center for Innovation & Research. The goal of the program is to support agencies with their efforts to achieve increased impact and to advance an innovation in their efforts to address the complicated dynamics associated with addressing Jewish Poverty.
To move forward with the Intensive Incubation Program, NJHSA has engaged Start Co. to work with Jewish Family Service of Columbus, OH, Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia, PA and a collaboration of Network member agencies from Michigan: Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit, based in West Bloomfield, MI, JVS Human Services, based in Southfield, MI and Yad Ezra, based in Berkley, MI. Start Co. will guide these agencies through an entrepreneurship building process to move their new idea(s) forward or enhance an existing initiative. The process will include intense client discovery and triage, prototyping, experimentation, and building a business case worthy of more resources. The incubation program will last 3-6 months; providing approximately 60 hours of expert consultation assistance.
“The Network plays a critical role in supporting agencies around the country that are on the front lines in addressing Jewish poverty on the local level,” said Jerry Rubin, Chair of the Network’s Innovation Committee. “This intensive incubation program will guide these three communities through a client and system discovery process, as they mock-up, design, and build services and programs, and then finally create an operational and organizational framework to support clients, funders and partners, all as part of their overall solution.”
Reuben Rotman, President & CEO of the Network added that “These deserving agencies are eager to attack the challenges of developing a successful road map for their proposed high impact and sustainable solutions to Jewish poverty.”
Network Member Agencies Are Invited to Test Post-Divorce Parenting App
Over the last several months, the Network’s Center for Innovation and Research has engaged in dialogue with an app developer who has a product on the market to support divorced parents. Zimplified Post-Divorce Life Management Tool is designed to help divorced parents in their efforts to effectively manage communications, compliance and counseling challenges often associated with raising children post-divorce.
As part of the Network’s due diligence in product review, we arranged for several Network Member agencies to participate in an online demo of the tool. Learn more here.
Design Thinking
Design thinking solves the unsolvable. Design thinking puts you inside the minds of your clients and enables you to craft perfect solutions every time. Design thinking is the only sure path towards organizational perfection! OK, maybe a bit of an overstatement, but design thinking is both a perspective and a set of tools that can help you improve existing solutions and craft high-impact new ones.
If you’ve heard the term, but you’re not exactly sure what it means, take a look at this 15-minute Ted Talk by Tim Brown, one of the leading gurus of Design Thinking and the CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO.
Innovation Process
What is an Innovation Process? The answer to this question involves both “good news” and “bad news.”
The good news is – frameworks exist to help for-profit and non-profit organizations integrate continuous innovation into their day-to-day operations.
The bad news is – frameworks are not recipes. Frameworks help you identify core assumptions, develop questions to test those assumptions, and engage productively with current stakeholders and potential clients and partners.
Frameworks provide you with a place to start, but in the case of innovation, the process becomes unique for every organization.
In the September 2017 issue of the Harvard Business Review, in an article titled “What Your Innovation Process Should Look Like,” Steve Blank and Pete Newell describe “a self-regulating, evidence-based innovation pipeline.” The article provides valuable insights for those seeking to manage the chaos generated when you first decide to challenge your organizations to INNOVATE.
