1.
Supported by:
Upgrading
Social Innovation
8 years,
8 lessons
2018

2.
We are celebrating our eighth anniversary
and on each anniversary we try to share
what we have learned by being constant-
ly exposed to innovations from all over
the world and in very different spheres.
It is very stimulating to discover what
works and what is generating a great
impact, but also to understand and learn
from what stops working. In addition, the-
re is much to celebrate for what has been
achieved among all us actors who in one
way or another participate in the social
innovation ecosystem. For this reason, we
would like to distance ourselves a little
from the tyranny of everyday life to focus
on the lessons learned over these years
and the questions that arise in our work.
This short document highlights eight
lessons in the form of themes and ideas
that we can start working on together to
strengthen the social innovation ecosys-
tem.
Miquel de Paladella
CEO, UpSocial
This publication is
complemented by the
video you can watch here.
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons

3.
What innovations
do we need?
We have seen that there are two types of
innovations: those that support existing
organisations and those that question
them. The former propose improvements
or develop existing structures, the latter
are disruptive and aim to reinvent or trans-
form them.
We tend to focus on innovations that com-
plement or improve what already exists:
our organisations, the actors that are
already participating, etc.
But there are great opportunities to explo-
re disruptive innovations that allow us to
reinvent what already exists. For example,
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
1.
Improve
Reinvent
Complement
Transform
Disruptive
innovations
Formal Informal
Sustaining
innovations
2010 Cisco Systems, Inc.:
Learning from the Extremes, Charles Leadbeater.
in education, thinking not only about im-
proving schools, but also about creating
new roles for them. Or going beyond
formal education and transforming them,
activating actors that do not traditionally
form part of the education system, such
as families, companies, public institutions,
etc.
The adjacent theoretical framework is
helping us to understand what innovations
we have before us and where a change
can be generated.

4.
How to better match
ideas with teams and skills?
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
We still fail to put the best ideas in the
hands of great teams:
Who leads
the change?
From heropreneurs to
systemic entrepreneurs
Great changes come about through a collective
intelligence that thinks about changing roles,
functions, relationships. Faced with increasingly
complex problems, with so many sectors and
disciplines involved, it is essential to involve and
integrate more people in the improvement or
transformation of the system. And to bring to-
gether entrepreneurs capable of rethinking the
system and mobilising different actors.
“Knowing that there are no easy answers to
truly complex problems, system leaders culti-
vate the conditions wherein collective wisdom
emerges over time through a ripening process
that gradually brings about new ways of thin-
king, acting and being”
— Peter Senge
Sometimes we get obsessed with looking
for new teams, but we could build on
existing teams and put great ideas at their
disposal.
2. 3.
In the ideation phase
We need to improve the ideation
processes to improve the potential
impact of the innovations we develop.
We often rush to incubate and
accelerate ideas that need more
work.
When creating teams
We need to create better teams
capable of driving great ideas. Many
innovations end up failing due to the
lack of a powerful multidisciplinary
team.

5.
Share
basic standards
When we talk about innovative transfor-
mation processes, we realise that we use
different indicators to measure things. It
would be good to start working together
on standards that allow us to identify
when we are talking about the same type
of processes or results.
An example is ESSA, a standard that
analyses interventions taking into account
their impact evidence and how it is docu-
mented. But we can also do it on the level
of packaging or consolidation of the inco-
me model. Or on the level of experience of
adaptation/adoption in other contexts.
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
Strong
Moderate
Promising
Strong theory
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
of the USA Department of Education
Overcome transactional
relationships to integrate
capabilities and drive
hybrid responses
We are increasingly able to involve both
the private sector and the public sector.
But we still work too much in transactional
‘you give me this and I’ll give you that’-type
relationships.
If we want to solve problems, and really
solve them in all their dimensions, it is
essential to think about how we integrate
capacities, how we involve all the actors so
that each one of us thinks beyond our own
organisation and also that we complement
and establish norms for our actions, buil-
ding a more powerful process of change.
ESSA
Impact Evidence
The impact is isolated
through a control group.
Positive change is demonstra-
ted but causality is not esta-
blished (almost experimental).
Studies that point to a
correlation between change
and activity.
Theory of change strongly
documented.
5.4.

6.
What do we want
to scale?
We often focus on growing organisations
to increase the impact: this is called sca-
ling out.
However, the solution to social problems
may require scaling up; that means chan-
ging policies, changing institutions or crea-
ting new ones, or even creating new laws.
The LISMI law (Law on the Social Inte-
gration of People with Disabilities) is an
example of transformation in Spain, and it
is being replicated in many countries. Ano-
ther example is the National Transplant
Organisation, which has made Spain the
number one country in organ transplants
thanks to this reference model. And it
all started with an innovation by a public
institution.
Another option to solve problems at scale
is scaling deep. This implies changing the
culture of a country, the values of a society,
or social norms. As Montserrat Roig said:
“Culture is the most revolutionary long-
term political option.”
All this is important because it implies that
the answer is not always to try and scale
an organisation: the great challenge is to
scale the impact.
Scaling out
Grow in numbers,
replicate, disseminate...
Scaling up
Change institutions,
laws, public policy...
Scaling deep
Change cultural norms,
relationships, values...
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
6.

7.
— Change comes through seeking
systemic change
We should focus part of our
effort on finding ways to redefine
interconnections and roles, to change
the rules that govern our society and
power relations. This must be the
ultimate purpose of social innovation.
And we can do a lot if, when we start
to analyse and design, we think more
about how to change the system.
— Change also occurs by making
the adjacent possible
Sometimes it is important to take a
step forward in one direction so that,
suddenly, new paths open up. The
power of that step often generates
possibilities that were not possible
before. This is evident with JUMP
Math, a mathematics teaching-
learning programme, which could
appear to be just a simple but good
maths programme. However, its
implementation in schools is causing
many teachers to discover the abilities
of many students, change their
perception about teaching and begin to
look for more educational innovation. A
change in one subject opens the doors
to a deeper systemic change.
Trying to understand how social problems are really solved is difficult,
but it is, perhaps, the most important lesson.
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
— Creating chaotic moments where we
bring together different people with
different ideas
Another way is to create chaotic
moments where ideas collide, where
the most unexpected people meet.
Many of the best innovations have come
from bringing different people together
in unlikely spaces that could help to
generate change.
— Creating safe spaces for rigorous
experimentation
Innovation is a discipline that requires
safe spaces for trial and error, and a
rigour that allows us to learn and obtain
better results.
How does
change happen?7.

8.
The Economist Intelligence Unit,
2015 Social Innovation Index
Ranking
1 USA 79.4
2 United Kingdom 77.3
3 Canada 75.7
...
27 Kenya 45.4
28 Spain 44.8
Strengthen
the ecosystem
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
There is much
to celebrate
We have an ecosystem that is taking its first
steps:
— Social Impact Bonds have finally arrived, with
Barcelona and Navarra exploring their imple-
mentation…
— EuroPACE is being piloted for all of Europe
from Olot…
— In education, Change Dyslexia, JUMP Math,
Science Bits and VoxPrima are all being
scaled...
— The model used by the Therapeutic and Edu-
cational Unit at Villabona Penitentiary Centre is
inspiring changes in the penitentiary systems of
other countries…
— The BuildUp model to promote coexistence is
growing around the world…
— Specialisterne is consolidated and is growing
internationally, and The Change Factory is being
adapted to improve the welfare of children...
— Factoría F5 has launched the first promotion in
Barcelona based on the Simplon educational
model...
— Creas is launching its Creas Impacto fund...
8.
Innovation can come from accidental,
organic or random processes, but it can
also be an organised process, thanks to a
conductive and fertile ecosystem.
Unfortunately, Spain ranks 28 out of 45
countries in the following social innova-
tion ecosystem ranking prepared by The
Economist Intelligence Unit. This ranking
evaluates the institutional political fra-
mework, financing, entrepreneurship and
the capacity of civil society to respond to
social challenges.
This gives us an agenda to work on toge-
ther, identifying areas for improvement and
devoting part of our time to developing the
possibilities of the ecosystem.

9.
How to promote experimentation
and change from public administra-
tion?
— Experimentation fund
Creation of an investment fund
with the capacity to assume the
risk of a possible failure in the ex-
perimentation phase of new inter-
ventions, allowing innovative and
effective solutions to be tested.
— Social Impact Regulatory Sandbox
Advocacy to promote this form of
regulatory flexibility that allows
for experimenting and generating
impact evidence on interventions
for which the current regulation
is a barrier.
How to develop financing mecha-
nisms capable of overcoming ba-
rriers to scale?
— Money Flow
Mapping of current agents and
potential financiers of social inno-
vation in Spain, in relation to the
support they offer in the different
phases of social innovation and
with the aim of structuring and
activating the ecosystem.
— Network of networks for social
profitability
Promotion of connections in local
communities to take advantage
of spaces, resources and existing
connections to promote social
innovation processes.
How to create powerful multidis-
ciplinary teams to scale social
innovation?
— Collaborative platform for
educational innovation
Development of a platform that
serves as a point of reference and
communication for the agents
of the educational innovation
ecosystem.
— Partners for better education
Creation of a learning and mento-
ring network among teachers and
8 co-created ideas
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
managers that enables training
options through a face-to-face and
online service.
How to create powerful multidis-
ciplinary teams to scale social
innovation?
— Innovate Lab
Development of an online and
offline platform that facilitates
the sharing of knowledge about
social innovations and the teams
that promote them to generate
opportunities for contact, syner-
gy and scalability.
— Social Innovation Lab
Acceleration of social innovation
processes from the identification
of priority cross-cutting challenges
to work in an interdisciplinary way
and connected with a wide range of
actors and sectors.
UpSocial’s proposal is to be aware
of the social innovation ecosystem,
and unite to strengthen it and build
a more just country.
That is why, in May 2018, we brou-
ght together a group of people and
organisations, who promote social
innovation from different spheres
and with different strategies, to begin
to explore what we can do together
based on four topics of debate.
Here we share the eight ideas for
action co-created during the day.

10.
www.upsocial.org
@UpSocialBCN
2018
Upgrading Social Innovation. 8 years, 8 lessons
From the UpSocial team, we thank all those
who participated in the co-creation of these
ideas and we invite you to participate in
their development.
If you would like to be kept up to date or to
get more involved, please write to us at:
info@upsocial.org.
Assiri Valdés
Jorge Rovira
Laia Oto
Mamen Salcedo
Miquel de Paladella
Ona Argemí
Stefan Pahon
Tomás Kidd
Viviana Urani