What we’ve learnt from 100+ episodes of the Innovate For Impact podcast

A couple of months back we released our 100th episode of The Innovate for Impact Podcast.? Recently Tracey Newman and I reflected on some of the insights we've gathered over the past two years running the podcast and speaking with some of the most innovative leaders in the sector. Here are a few of our most valuable takeaways that deeply resonated with us…

Slow Down to Speed Up

Taking the time to understand community needs before implementing solutions can prevent burnout down the track. The idea of "slowing down to speed up", that Daniel Flynn from Thankyou Group expressed as "pressure off" when he appeared on the show. Sometimes we need to take the pressure off our people to ensure they have the space to do a good job, and often that means taking the time to do things properly, especially when engaging with your clients or people with lived experience.

Many guests have discussed how investing in co-design and deep relationships with stakeholders and partners at the start, allows projects to progress much more quickly once trust and understanding is established. I personally believe that it's better to spend your time doing this learning upfront rather than having to pivot your solutions later on.

Bring a Learner's Mindset

Another surprising insight has been the value that can come from not seeing yourself as an expert and instead as a learner. When we chatted with Tim Kachuriak from Next After, he spoke about how he has learnt that many of his assumptions about digital fundraising were wrong, and now he approaches each new topic with curiosity, rather than judgement.

Maintaining an open mind and willingness to learn from each new situation is key to innovation.?

Add Fun and Playfulness

Ensuring work remains enjoyable is really important for sustainability and creativity. Robin Cho from Who Gives a Crap spoke to us about how she makes delivering impact results to her peers fun, so that she captures their attention and has a greater impact.? Instead of only sharing the raw numbers, she will often turn the communication of these results into an event or game to encourage participation.

After 100 episodes, we feel privileged to have learned so much from leaders across the social sector. We are grateful for how generous they’ve been in sharing their knowledge and we are excited to continue shining a light on great examples of innovation and collaboration for another 100+ shows to come.

Do you have a favourite learning from our first 100+ episodes? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.