Dos
Be realistic
A Living Lab is not the ‘magic’ ingredient or tool for more sustainable farm advisory services that can be applied without consideration. A review of the theory, practices and experiences of the AgriLink Living Lab provides insights into their role, use, advantages and limitations, enabling conditions and resources required. Applying this to other situations requires a realistic assessment of what might be achievable in any given context considering existing needs, skills, resources and capacities of likely participants, including organisers.
Build trusting relationships
Establishing and building trusting relationships before and during the Living Lab among organising teams and also participants is essential to developing a meaningful goal and longer term viability of the Living Lab. This requires investment of time, resources and skilled listening. In existing situations, established trust and good working relations can help speed progress, but a Living Lab can represent a marked shift in approach and a wider focus than just technical aspects. Understanding relationships, power dynamics and roles within the organisations involved is always an early priority and sets the foundation for later work. Clarification of (changing) roles is also important to establish and manage expectations for all.
Identify a meaningful and pressing issue of concern
Make sure that the topic is interesting and relevant for the stakeholders and the end-users as this is essential to maintaining energy in the Living Lab. This can take time to determine and requires openness to ideas and change as discussions continue with stakeholders. Practical, ‘concrete’ proposals which relate to more immediate issues are more likely to be engaged with and generate enthusiasm for any viable response or solution. Beginning with a simple problem that stakeholders have identified can also be a successful strategy that allows, once trust and engagement is established, expansion of the problem boundary to encompass more complex elements of the situation.
Seek and establish a mandate
This is an easily overlooked, but a very important part of ‘stepping into’ another’s situation. Asking for and receiving a clear mandate to become involved in a situation is good ethical practice, promotes reflexivity and helps develop trust and understanding.
Be prepared to limit focus and boundaries
Be ready to narrow down the scale of the Living Lab, its focus and scope. While this may mean less can be done, it can make it more likely to succeed. Lowering your ambitions may diminish your ‘energy to move’, but it can also be important to provide focus, making it possible to implement your idea in practice.
Be inclusive of stakeholders with complementary skills
This relates to before, during and at the end of Living Lab processes. Invitations to participate in a Living Lab should be linked to the nature of the situation, likely focus and nature of possible outcomes. Too narrow a set of stakeholders may mean limited energy, scope, insight and skills-base for possible changes. Too large a set may lead to dissonance and dissipate ideas and focus. The stakeholder contingent may also change as the Living Lab develops and new people are invited, or others leave, affecting the skills-base. Being inclusive also means being aware of stakeholder preferences. Some will prefer engaging just in feedback or providing occasional advice.
Engage skilled and knowledgeable facilitators
This is an essential element of a successful Living Lab. It is not possible to provide details of the ideal facilitator since the ideal depends on the needs of stakeholders in a particular context. However, openness to ideas, adaptiveness and good knowledge of context, stakeholder relationships and specific issues were particularly valued in AgriLink and helped to build trust in the process.
Adapt, learn and be open
Being flexible, learning about and adapting to the context, situation and concerns of stakeholders means that Living Labs can be ‘comfortable’ spaces for stakeholders and promotes confidence in joining and sharing and progressing issues. Be aware of assumptions about what is needed and the right way to do it.
Monitor and reflect to keep track of progress and ideas
From the outset and as the Living Lab develops, keep track of everything that happens, and use these data and your experiences to constantly re-evaluate your approach. Consider developing a structured monitoring and evaluation plan to do so.
Assess resources and capacities
As part of the realities of running a Living Lab, resources and capacities must be assessed from the outset and thereafter on a continual basis. Living Labs are time-consuming and often become a complex process involving multiple stakeholders, which requires careful management of people and financial resources and capacities.
Communicate
This takes place on many levels. Honest and open communication between Living Lab facilitators and monitors is essential. Being able to talk openly about issues and possible resolutions can address problems before they become major obstacles and also helps to maintain creativity, avoiding ‘treadmill’ thinking and practice. While it is important for participants to contribute ideas and suggestions, communication also requires active listening with the intention of learning.
Develop skills and practices
Living Labs are innovations themselves and have particular requirements in terms of time, resources, skills and practices. While some aspects, such as facilitation, may be generic skills, the particular cross-cutting concerns of a Living Lab may require new sets of skills and training requirements for individuals or groups. Regular reviews and support from other Living Labs and training sessions (as in the case of AgriLink) can be helpful in sharing problems and ideas as well as learning new skills and practices.
Coordinate the process
It is a truism that stakeholder-based processes do not run themselves and Living Labs are no exception. Coordination is needed at many levels to ensure the Living Lab develops on a solid foundation of stakeholder support and trust. Use of design thinking as well as an understanding of the enabling conditions coupled with a robust monitoring and evaluation process will contribute to coordination and, ultimately, learning arising from and within the Living Lab.
Dos and Don’ts of Living Labs