Work should be fun, shouldn’t it!
I’ve recently had the privilege of joining Mike Pinder’s Explorer Labs team to support the delivery of the Ignite Labs: Circular Critical Materials offered by Innovate UK. It’s been fascinating and fun in equal measure.
The cohort, who first met at an in-person development day at the Business Design Centre in London, were a fascinating group of individuals, with deep knowledge and understanding in a wide range of sectors which are ‘impacted by’ or are ‘impacting’ the circularity of critical materials, everything from space to EV batteries. The knowledge in the room was palpable.
We combined our expertise to provide a series of in-person and online workshops to support the cohort through the process of mapping, refining, ideating and developing their thinking around the circularisation of critical materials in the UK, and how to exploit them using the power of design. To complement Mike’s substantial expertise in business systems mapping, I added design expertise and in-depth circularity knowledge to the mix. We made quite the power duo.
Design capability in this space is particularly critical because many of the key risks are systematic not technological. Innovators need to correctly frame where value is lost, why materials fail to circulate, and which actors control key leverage points. We developed a (dubiously named, but very effective) ‘Linear Leakage audit tool’ to help the participants to map out where critical materials are currently ‘leaking’ out of their sector.
Design methods such as system mapping, value-chain ethnography, stakeholder analysis and evidence-led problem framing help to highlight misaligned regulations, conflicting commercial incentives, information asymmetries, and behavioural frictions that suppress collection, reuse and high-quality recycling. Taking the time to clearly identify right problems to solve, reduces the risk of investing in technically elegant but systemically ineffective solutions.
If you are interested in exploring the range of tools we utilised with the participants – then visit the Explorer lab website where you can download them for free. I particularly enjoyed the 100 ideation ‘What if?’ cards a twist on the traditional ‘What If?’ methodology that saw the group generate a whole range of provocative ideas.
Notes: Circular Critical Materials Ignite Labs was an Innovate UK dynamic programme to ignite innovation, empower growth, and transform businesses. It was created in recognition of the fact that businesses that utilise effective design practices outperform their peers by up to 200%.
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