2021 In Review
Reflecting on 2021 Impacts
This news post originates from the joint venture work conducted under the brand Interchange for the year 2021.
When we were taking a look back at our year – to gain insights for strategic planning – we saw work we were incredibly proud of and wanted to share. You see, we both share a passion for meaningful impact and global transformation. To see it come to life in our own timeline in various ways was exciting and something we wanted to celebrate along with you all.
We would like to extend gratitude to all of those on the journey with us this year! There have been many champions behind the scenes and phenomenal open collaborators along the way making a difference on the journey.
As we head into 2022 in a matter of weeks, we look forward to more partnerships and collaboration as we expand our community and global connections to foster more rapid innovation, resiliency, and sustainable growth as we collectively craft a more preferred future.
After collaborating together for 18 months, Gráinne Hamilton (Ardcairn) and Jen Kelchner (LDR21) created a space called Interchange to connect their pioneering expertise. We are two open experts from opposite ends of the planet, with aligned beliefs and methodologies coming together to solve hard-hitting issues.
A project that ran from January through October, included conducting discovery through Trapped & Untapped Value analysis for a Fortune 100 company's buyer journey. The subsequent recommendations were delivered and applied during the course of the year. Key findings were able to determine the client's champions for uptake and people of interest to increase engagement and strategy to open the customer pipeline.
Interchange was initially brought together to help create future-ready governments – governments that perform futuristic thinking and planning with senior world leaders. We developed a learning framework and content to deliver masterclasses to help government agency leaders become more future-ready. Between June and October 2021, we delivered to 89 public sector leaders across 12 Latin America countries and the European Union. Masterclasses deliver 9 hours of expert facilitated conversation, learning and collaboration with repeatable practices where participants learn about the open principles that will empower you to leverage open source technologies and provide the cultural foundation for uplifting the capabilities within your organisation and people.
In June, we published the first version of our learning methodology - the ORBS Learning Arc. It provides the compass for Interchange learning experiences. It is our theory for learning that defines how we guide our learning experiences and is informed by leading research into the psychology of change and learning. The upcoming version release will showcase the full ORBITALS methodology entwined with the learning arc.
We were invited to deliver a masterclass to the European Commission which focused on the Workplace of the Future for internal teams. These sessions explored topics such as NextGen EU, OSPOs, cross-collaboration challenges, inclusivity, and identifying intelligences to increase innovation and engagement amongst team members.
Taking deep pioneering research, testing, and experience from the last 15+ years, we saw complementary alignment in our work. We began to map out our individual work and weave it together into a new set of tools, diagnostics, and new methodologies. Our methods are an articulation of the culmination of years of our experience and work across the spectrum of open and pioneering new concepts. The Interchange Compass holds the methodologies of ORBITALS, COG, and PENCIL to aid in navigating possible, probable, and preferred futures. By using the methodology, you identify the who, what and how of a change journey.
Through the lens of ORBITALS and COG, we crafted new learning around open principles, principles in practice, case studies, and repeatable practices for each principle. This content was crafted for online learning delivery through short-form video.
While doing a joint venture business as Interchange began at the top of the year, we continued to iterate on our brand finally launching it publicly in October. Huge thanks and gratitude to our team at Brand chemistry for helping us navigate our journey and land on what was right for us!
We crafted a full platform designed around connection, community, and knowledge sharing. We launched a beta version in October which includes bespoke community groups for our clients.
We ran a highly participatory workshop on Leveraging Open Collaboration to Fuel Sustainable Growth, focusing on the idea that “we” is better than “me” and how to balance teams with contribution archetypes. Topics covered include how to empower psychological safety, open behaviors and how each individual offers a unique contribution value.
We were pleased to deliver a Future Ready Government Conference as a 2-day virtual event to governments in Latin America. This conference was created and facilitated by us exclusively, with the help of live translation to Spanish and Portuguese, to 12 Latin American countries and 75 leaders.
One of our core strengths is connection - specifically seeing points of connection to create impacts and insights. We took phenomenological and qualitative data points from 2019 -2021 and filtered them through a lens of open culture to publish our first Insights Report. These insights show barriers to implementing open culture as well as leaders' thoughts on preferred futures built on open culture.
Interchange was delighted to contribute to COP26 at the Open UK Open Technology for Sustainability Day on November 11, 2021. The goal of the day was to demonstrate to governments, and public and private sectors that Open is a key enabler of sustainability – ecologically, socially, and economically. Jen Kelchner did not participate in this event, however, it was moderated by Interchange's Gráinne Hamilton.
On 01 December, we hosted our first Interchange Community call - Insights Chat - on the topic of Inner Source and Open Source Programme Offices for sustainable ecosystems. Featuring guest experts, Clare Dillon of InnerSource Commons, Daniel Izquierdo of Bitergia, and Sayeed Choudhury of Johns Hopkins University who led a great conversation. This call was facilitated by Gráinne Hamilton and Jen Kelchner; and, sponsored by Red Hat.
Being part of the open community and our desire to foster sustainable growth, through knowledge sharing and facilitation of new concepts, Interchange provided community contributions in the form of content creation, thought leadership, facilitation, concept architecture, and more in 2021. These community contributions in total came to $363,000. Communities contributed to: The Open Organization; Ambassadorship & Content Creation COP26; facilitation on Open Technology & Sustainability Insights Report; phenomenology insights on Open Culture Insights Chat; community call on Inner/Open Source Programme Offices
Links for resources listed in this post
References to ORBS Learning Arc, The Interchange Compass, ORBITALS, COG and PENCIL are now found under Mesh: A Human Centric Organisational Design for a Decentralised World published by Interchange Publications.
OpenUK Open Technology for Sustainability Day | Full Video on YouTube
ISPO/OSPO for Sustainable Ecosystems Talk | Full Video on YouTube
Organizations & Individuals Mentioned:
InnerSource Commons, Clare Dillon
Bitergia, Daniel Izquierdo
Johns Hopkins University OSPO, Sayeed Choudhury
