STACKS

In delivering Social Labs we find it helpful to think about the work in stacks. A “stack” can be thought of as the basic unit of architecture of a lab, a bit like a floor in a building with a specialized function. Obviously those with creative tendencies can design labs to have more stacks than the four outlined here, less stacks or a completely different architecture. The idea is, “to break the rules but break them beautifully.” So here is one way of conceptualizing the different “spaces” within a lab. 

The stacks are independent but interrelated. Decisions in one stack will impact others. For example, if you are lacking capacity in information systems, this can impact your ability to have necessary information to make governance decisions or to have effective prototypes in the innovation stack. If Governance is not clear, the innovation stack is impacted as decisions about what prototypes to persevere with or pivot may not be made effectively.