Economic Immigration Lab Cycle 1 Summary: Wrapping up
We are literally and figuratively wrapping up the first cycle of the Economic Immigration Lab. It is the end of the final workshop, and we’re taking down the graphic recordings of the whole process, collecting up the post-it notes and clearing away the various pieces of flip-chart paper that scatter the room in the Venn Innovation Centre in downtown Moncton. The first cycle of the EIL began and ended here — in Moncton, on the banks of the Peticodiac River. The Petitcodiac most likely derives its name from a Wolastoqiyik word, ‘petakuyak’, meaning ‘sound of thunder’ referring to the sound of the water surging back up the river from the Bay of Fundy tides — the highest tides in the world. By beginning and ending our journey on the banks of this river — once such an important trade and travel route to the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq nations — we are reminded of the ongoing story of immigration and reconciliation that all Canadians are a part of.
NouLAB is a joint initiative of the Pond-Deshpande Centre (PDC) and the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network (NBSPRN). It was formed when the two organizations realized the need for a space for diverse stakeholders to be able to come together to work on innovative solutions to the complex challenges NB faces. Nick Scott and Amanda Hachey have been learning from, and designing with, some of the foremost experts in social lab work worldwide. Zaid Hassan of Roller Strategies and Alan Kantrow of GovLab have both influenced the development and process of NouLAB and the Economic Immigration Lab. Lewis Muirhead and Rose Mosse were then brought on to organise the logistics and take the lead on collating the data produced by the lab. Nick, Amanda, Rose and Lewis make up the core of the NouLAB team, but we were helped by many others in the design, development, facilitation, harvest and evaluation of the lab. Greg Woolner and Sophia Horwitz of Co*lab, Rachel Derrah, Isabel Chender and Louise Lyman of Brave Space, Shawni Beaulieu of NBSPRN, Sarah Cormier of the PDC, and Jared Morrison of Story Work Media all made this first cycle possible — and awesome!
The Economic Immigration Lab was convened by Alex LeBlanc, Executive Director of the New Brunswick Multicultural Council, Adrienne O’Pray, Executive Director of the New Brunswick Business Council, and Rob Kelly, ADM for the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, GNB. They also sit on the Leadership Council for the EIL, along with Angelique Reddy-Kahala of the City of Moncton, Thomas Raffy of Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, Frederick Dion, Director of the Association francophone des municipalités du N-B, and Kalie Hatt-Kilburn, of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
Spring and Summer 2017 saw the NouLAB team sending out the invitation to participate in the Lab, and interviewing potential candidates. We were careful to communicate the aim and the nature of social lab work, emphasizing the ability to work outside of one’s comfort zone and a prototyping mindset as capacities we were looking for. By the beginning of August, we had a motivated first cohort of roughly 40 participants, consisting of New Brunswickers and newcomers, government employees, settlement workers, private sector, public sector, students and academics. Many of our participants wore more than one hat — and showed up with a wealth of lived experience.
NouLAB’s design and facilitation team set about the monumental task of designing a challenging and fulfilling learning and co-creation process for 40 people from vastly different walks of life. Drawing on social labs theories, user-centred design, Theory U and Art of Hosting Methodologies, we built a theoretical framework for the lab cycle, including learning objectives for each workshop. Drawing on the unique skill set of each member of our team, we worked to bring knowledge, experience, collaboration, laughter, relationships, beauty and magic into the workshop spaces, by envisioning the container we wanted to create — and then taking the steps to create it. From beginning to end, we designed the process, the experience, the container to best serve our participants, and their capacities for learning and creating together.
The kick-off workshop was three days, held in Moncton at the Chocolate River Station. Participants came together for the first time and the NouLAB team shared the theories and methodologies that make up the foundation of the lab process. In this first workshop, the NouLAB team helped participants to frame the problem, see themselves as part of the system, understand the urgency and need for the lab, and understand their roles as participants as well as the roles of the Leadership Council, facilitation team, evaluators and coaches. By the end of the third day, participants had formed seven teams around different topics within the realm of Economic Immigration in NB. Each team had come up with a first iteration of a ‘How might we….?’ statement, and were set to embark on the first round of fieldwork.
The second workshop was held in Saint John, in conjunction with the Multicultural Council’s Annual Conference, Growing Together. We overlooked the Saint John River, a very important waterway to the development of New Brunswick. Teams came back together to share the findings from their fieldwork. This was a short but very productive workshop, as teams were challenged to see (and build!) the systems they were operating within. Participants were challenged to really understand the end user and we explored the concept of user-centred design. Teams were given time to reinforce the communication and learning practices they were being equipped with. Finally, teams reiterated their ‘How might we…?’ statements, and were asked to make an action plan for the second round of fieldwork.
Workshop three was held in Fredericton — once again on the Saint John River — though a little further upstream. The water runs quicker and clearer through Fredericton and this allowed us to take a ‘deep dive’ into the challenges we were working on. Once again, the NouLAB team revisited some of the theories of change that we used to underpin the design of the lab. We explored prototyping as a concept a little deeper, really challenging teams to scope their problem statement and develop the quickest, cheapest and most effective way to test the solutions they were working on. The facilitation team pushed participants to fall in love with the problem, not specific solutions, as they were asked to let go of their solutions, and start again. Finally, participants were informed about the prototyping fund, and invited to start thinking about how they would share their learning/prototypes once the cycle ended. Once again, teams adjusted their ‘How might we…?’ statements as necessary and developed their own action plans for the last round of fieldwork.
The final workshop was held in Moncton once again, at the Venn Innovation Centre. On the banks of the Petitcodiac, where a tidal bore occurs twice daily with the changing of the tides, our final workshop was called ‘Rising Tides’. As rising tides float all boats, all teams set to build on and encourage each other in the plans of their prototypes. Each team had a chance to present their prototype, as well as their journey of the process and receive feedback from their peers, the coaches and the Leadership Council. Teams made a collective decision about whether to pause, pivot, pass along or persevere with their prototypes, and developed a plan for moving forward post-lab. Riding high on this wave as we were, this workshop was also a time for reflection on the whole process and celebration of the journey we had taken together. We finished the first lab cycle with a share back of what each person was leaving in the room, and what each person was taking with them.
Out of the process we have attained something that doesn’t always happen with policy development, action. Of the eight teams that participated, all have been out in the field collecting information from users that are affected by a specific immigration issue. The information they have collected is applied directly to the learning on their prototypes. Going into the new year, some prototype teams are not continuing as a unit but all ideas are being taken forward in one form or another. In the case of the team looking at employer needs, the team included an employer and a government employee working on the immigration file. With this close relationship spanning the months of the lab, the specific demands of the employer have been heard by government and are being integrated into the policy as it is developed. Stories like this are what the lab aims to achieve.
An exhausted, but invigorated facilitation team starts to tear down the remnants of this first cycle — to wrap up. Each of us has grown into our roles, somehow, and each of us has ideas about how to improve — the process, our delivery, the container, criteria — before the next cycle starts. There is a deep need for a debrief and to give ourselves space to digest the outcomes before we come together once more to design the Economic Immigration Lab — Cycle Two. But for now, we can have this moment to celebrate our success.
