From think tank to change hub
Keynote by Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America
Summary
Anne-Marie argues that we need to rename and redefine ourselves for this century — the concept of a think tank is a 20th century concept, and will not serve us well for this century.
As we think about moving away from the think tank label, Anne-Marie proposes the term ‘change hub’. This concept comes from thinking about what we do: the functions or functions that think tanks fulfil. We develop solutions to social, economic and political problems.
The term ‘think tank’ is short hand for some variation of ‘policy research institute’. New America now describes itself as a ‘public problem-solving organisation’, which shifts the focus away from policy. And this shift is critical. If we think about policy, that means we are engaged in change from the top down — and that top is government. And while policy is an integral part of public problem-solving, it’s only a piece. We have to go beyond it.
How are we different from other public problem-solving organisations? We focus on thinking.
Ideas really matter. Ideas drive action.
We believe in ideas, words, research, evidence, and knowledge. We are not purely service organisations, and we are not purely advocacy organisations. We are thinkers, but we are more wedded to actions than our fellow thinkers, academics, are.
Anne-Marie then talks about a new kind of think tank — one that uses a bottom-up approach, talking to those who are directly influenced by policy, and connecting directly to people. But saying that we are a new kind of think tank is not good enough. The label matters. The word ‘tank’ alludes to a closed, exclusive space and, in a changing context, that is not a kind of organisation that can be that effective.
Anne-Marie wraps up her talk by offering a version of what we could become — a label that incorporates a different theory of action: change hub. Much like ‘think tank’ is short hand for policy research institute, change hub can be short hand for public problem-solving organisation.
If you think about a hub, you think about a place that connects many different people or networks — it is a place where lots of things come together. It is also open — it invites lots of other people to connect to you, from different parts of the world. A hub is a place where ideas and action come together in ways that create a fertile environment for change.
In this century, as important as thought is, it must be connected to a direct theory of change. We are selling ideas married to action for the purposes of change.
From the chat box
Love the comment that the mere term ‘tank’ is enclosing.
I like the idea of a change hub, which encapsulates the approach of our organisation, the Institute for Economic Justice in South Africa. P.S. Anne- Marie’s input reminds me of a famous thinker who said: ‘Philosophers have interpreted the world. The point, however, is to change it.’
Angel Gurria attempted to create the label ‘Do-Tank’ to describe the OECD — trying to move away from the ‘rich country think tank’ label. It didn’t catch on. Any idea why? Or might it simply be because it is so hard to change labels?
I like your question on, ‘How do our think tanks reflect our countries?’ Our governments need to invest in our own knowledge providers.
Can we take a practical example. You have a programme on international security with papers on, e.g., China’s military–civil fusion strategy. How would a change hub approach a topic like that?
Thinking about hubs, I’m trying to build a hub for policy content. I’d love to have feedback.
‘Listening to our millennials’ — the role of youth/young think-tankers as key targets and stakeholders of think tanks — 💯
Resources shared
Anne-Marie’s article on ‘The new practice of public problem-solving’ in the Stanford Social Innovation Review
What came next at the OTT Conference 2021?
Parallel session 1: Changing think tanks
with Julia Pomares (CIPPEC, Argentina) and Karin von Hippel (RUSI, UK)
Parallel session 2: Think tanks and democratic transitions
with Sonja Stojanovic Gajic (former director BCSP, Serbia) and Ignacio Irarrázaval (Centro de Políticas Públicas UC, Chile)
Think tanking in the new normal
organised by the Think Tank Lab, facilitated by Weronika Perlinski (DGAP)
How do think tanks react to or foster change?
Read the OTT Annual Review 2020–2021
