Most councils and government agencies have community grants programs.
\nAnd most of those programs kill innovation.
\nWhy? Because the typical applicant\u00a0is so desperate to be funded they try to second guess what the agency is looking for by packing the grant application full of buzz words extracted from the agency\u2019s documentation, and what got funded last year, rather than gamely having a go with imaginative ideas. There is simply no incentive for innovation in the conventional grant process, and plenty of fear of being knocked back for being too radical.
\nAnd because the application form is usually completed 5 minutes to midnight before the close-off date by a tired group president or secretary, there is simply no way that much deep or original thought goes into most project plans.
\nThat\u2019s why 90% of the language in grant applications reads like an opaque pile-up of management speak, like:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo provide educational programs and tools to build knowledge, skills, to increase the adoption of sustainable agricultural and natural resource management through community ownership, partnerships and collaboration.\u201d
\n[This is a true\u00a0example. Translation: \u201cProbably we\u2019ll do what we did last year.\u201d]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From that point on, the grantee thinks they are legally bound to do whatever they wrote, even if they\u2019re not sure what it meant, and even if it isn\u2019t working.
\nYET, if the aim is engaging other human beings in a community project, then doing novel, surprising, imaginative things is of the essence. That\u2019s because the human mind barely registers predictable stimuli. To get people buzzing, to draw them in, to make them want to break their schedules, to invest their time, to get excited, and to focus their attention so they actually learn, it\u2019s all about breaking stereotypes.
\nAnd that requires creativity. And creativity requires joy, which isn\u2019t going to happen 5 minutes to midnight before a close-off date.
\nSouth East Local Land Services (the natural resource management agency for south east NSW) is being innovative, having fun, creating love, and transforming community Landcare projects, by innovating the conventional Landcare grant process.
\nHere\u2019s what they did.
\nFirst they simply asked for brief expressions of interest.
\nThen they invited applicants into a one-day hothousing workshop to develop their ideas in an enjoyable, creative atmosphere, with their peers, and some professional project design and innovation processes thrown in.
\nThe applicants worked in pairs and teams, using enjoyable innovation processes to create user experiences that would get their own communities buzzing. And they also got to swap vague abstractions\u00a0for the kind of touch-and-feel-plain-English-with-word-pictures that\u2019s actually likely to communicate with listeners and readers.
\nThey also did some clear thinking: What\u2019s the real problem? What really needs to change? What motivates our\u00a0actors?
\nONLY THEN did they go away to write their grant applications, over two weeks, with a mentor from the agency at their side.
\nHere\u2019s that the applicants liked\u00a0about the process:<\/p>\n

\u201cencouraged to be playful; permission to dream; a way to have a clean look at things; forced to examine problem; time bouncing around crazy ideas; the ridiculous ideas session was good; tailoring to fit real life problem; time to stop and focus with my team; built excitement and clarity, new ideas, fantastic investment of time; completely changed my project\u201d and more delighted responses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had a sneak peak at the final project plans\u2026and I am proud of what they created. Also, I can actually picture their ideas in my head because they used\u00a0plain English, and so I\u2019m excited too.
\nThis leads to an interesting question\u2026 is it possible to get innovative results without first having innovative processes?
\nInterested in trying this? Contact me on les@enablingchange.com.au<\/a> and I\u2019ll pass on the contact details of the SELLS program manager who I\u2019m sure would be happy to answer your questions.
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\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most councils and government agencies have community grants programs. And most of those programs kill innovation. Why? Because the typical applicant\u00a0is so desperate to be funded they try to second guess what the agency is looking for by packing the grant application full of buzz words extracted from the agency\u2019s documentation, and what got funded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facilitation-2","category-innovation-2","category-strategy-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pac6ss-hj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}