CO·NECTA
The guide for creative and social entrepreneurs
LEARNING DESIGN | CONCEPT BUILDING | PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Client
Nesta & Inter-American Development Bank
July 2020 - February 2021
Location • Latin America and the Caribbean.
Context
Creative and social entrepreneurs often have to navigate the challenges of building a team, understanding their audiences and ecosystem, and developing the internal structures needed to sustain an enterprise.
CO·NECTA was developed as a self-led learning guide for creative enterprise teams, designed to help teams align their ideas, develop new ways of working, strengthen relationships and work towards a more sustainable future.
Brief
To create a practical, modular and user-centred learning experience that could help creative enterprise teams work better together, understand the world around their enterprise and build more sustainable ways of working.
Approach
Shaped with creative entrepreneurs
The learning experience was developed with teams of creative entrepreneurs, bringing their experiences, challenges and ways of working into the design of the guide. Their input helped shape what the content needed to address and how the activities could work in practice.
Bringing expertise into the room
The content was developed alongside international subject-matter experts, combining their knowledge with insights from creative teams. I worked across these perspectives to translate specialist knowledge into practical, accessible learning experiences for creative entrepreneurs.
Designing the pedagogy
Rather than simply compiling content, I shaped the learning objectives, sequence and pedagogy across the three modules. Concepts were broken down into activities, exercises and tools that allowed teams to learn by doing, reflect on their own context and apply ideas to their enterprise.
Testing and integrating
The activities and learning experience were tested with users and iterated through feedback and observation. Insights from testing were integrated back into the content, activities and overall experience, helping shape the final self-led guide.
Impact
CO·NECTA brought together research, learning design and practical tools into a resource that creative enterprise teams could use independently.
The final guide was structured across three areas of organisational development — team, relationships and sustainable enterprise — giving teams a way to work through challenges together rather than relying on a traditional training format.
Modules
Building your creative team
Creating the foundations for better collaboration
The first module focuses on the team itself: reconnecting with each other, understanding individual perspectives, creating a healthy team culture and developing better working habits.
The content was translated into practical activities and tools designed for teams to work through together, rather than simply consume as information.
Building your relationships
Understanding the people and ecosystem around the enterprise
The second module moves beyond the team to explore the relationships that shape an enterprise.
Activities help teams speak with their audiences, understand how customers experience their enterprise and identify the wider actors within their ecosystem.
Building your sustainable enterprise
Looking beneath the surface of how the enterprise works
The third module focuses on the internal workings of an enterprise — supporting teams to examine their processes, understand how products or services reach the market, consider risks and prepare for the future.