The objective is to collect the participant’s knowledge and expertise on the innovations’ impacts on sustainability. Participants are asked to answer the simple question: “What has each activity changed in the short, medium and long term on the path to sustainability?”
To identify a large enough number of changes and points of view, we suggest you use breakout groups. These are an easy to use, as a functional and inclusive way to achieve your objectives :
- Functional: Breakout groups will help you map more changes and impact pathways of innovation and can enable you to work on several activities simultaneously.
- Inclusive: Breakout groups offer safer spaces for people to contribute as people usually engage more in discussions and reflections in smaller groups.
Each group will start from an activity to map the pathways to determine what changes and impacts stem from that activity.
Groups working on the first stages of a impact pathway map.
We recommend having one facilitator per table/breakout group and between 3 to 6 participants per group. Small groups are more effective because they give everyone a chance to express themselves, engage in dialogue and improve team spirit.
Ideally there will be two or more opportunities for breakout groups to develop and review the impact pathway maps that they create. Once the first breakout group has drafted an impact pathway map, groups should change positions and to validate and add to the initial impact pathway maps.
Facilitators can help participants bring their ideas to the group, distinguish direct changes (outputs) from indirect changes (outcomes) and from impacts to draw a pathway.
They can also make sure to flag the final impacts and their sustainability dimensions (using colored dot stickers for example) and help unravel how these pathways emerged.
They can also help distinguish potential changes from actual changes, or negative and positive changes (using different coloured or shaped markers for example).
Keeping in mind power dynamics, it can be very generative to organize groups so there is substantial diversity among participants, which can lead to more fruitful discussions. In addition, if possible it could be useful to think ahead which group will work on which activity in order to identify actors who would be better able to reflect on a given activity.
The organisation of breakout groups can vary by topic addressed and format. You can refer to the 2 examples below for more details.
Sample Workshop Timeline:
- 4:00 – 4:30 PM: Briefing and discussion with facilitators.
- 5:00 PM: Workshop start
- Icebreaker activity
- Presentation of the innovation (pre selected activities).
Explanation of breakout groups and participatory exercise.
- 5:30 PM: Breakout Groups—Round 1.
- 6:10 PM: Breakout Groups—Round 2.
- 6:50 PM: Break.
- 7:00 PM: Breakout Group—Round 3.
- 7:30 PM: Debriefing and Feedback.
- 8:00 PM: End.
