To innovate, or not to innovate.
We live in an incredible world. As human beings, we have gone from living in nature, with the bare basics, to inventing electricity, the internet, cars, all these things to make our lives easier and more exciting. Yet, the word ‘innovation’ can still be too risky for some, scare people into saying no. Humans are incredible. We achieve amazing things, yet innovative ideas face adversity all the time, with the masses believing risks will lead to failure over success.
We are Community Led
I work in the Innovation team on the Community Led project in Camborne (part of the Camborne, Neath and Nelson locally led project) and in my role, as an Innovation Officer, I have heard the negatives, the doubt, the loss of hope of community members and business owners. But it is my job to highlight the potential and let others believe in what they envisage for their community. It’s also about reminding people that risk-taking is vital in order to achieve the big successes. It’s in our nature to take risks and try again, and again, until we get it right..
We can get it wrong
And that’s the thing, we’re allowed to get it wrong. It’s easy to get caught up in every day life and forget that we make mistakes all the time and generally, it’s going to be ok. In our team we learn from our mistakes and we grow. We are resilient.
It can be challenging, when facing people who have lost hope in change for their community, particularly when people feel jaded after 18 months of pandemic. It’s tiring staying positive all the time, especially when it’s been conditioned in us to be risk averse. But what I’ve learnt through working with my community, is that the majority of people do want change, they believe it can happen and they want to be a part of it; it’s about tapping into that whisper of hope and creating a change of mindset into something positive.
It’s exciting
And it’s exciting, the feeling of being on the precipice of something positive. It’s also contagious, when we’ve been out in the communities, the locals see our enthusiasm for creating positive change and they believe. This is a huge part of what can make it a success, creating a belief that we can make change by working together.
Working in the Innovation team is exhilarating, fast paced and quickly changing. Even though we’re a team of 5 (Aaron, Charlotte, Cara, Bethan and I), in reality we are hundreds of minds put together as we take on the ideas of a diverse range of people from the BRC and foremost, from our communities. We have been put together to make change, with community members at the centre of this project.
So what are we doing now?
At this moment, we’re in the design phase of our locally led projects. It’s the nitty gritty, the big decision-making time, with our community members at the centre of it.
Of course, at each step of this process we will be faced with people who don’t believe we can make a difference or are working on a lost cause. But we wouldn’t be called the Innovation team if we weren’t here to change people’s mindsets and take risks. If we fail? We will learn and come back stronger.
