The Social Labs Revolution: A New Approach to Solving our Most Complex Challenges

For those of us who are actively looking for ways to create change in emergent complex situations, Zaid Hassan’s book, The Social Labs Revolution offers some logical and routinely ignored steps to be considered when forced to envision a schema that is of necessity sketchy, pliable, and hopefully productive. His book gives the would be intervener, in a complex situation, a very real heads up about the difficulty and the nature of this experimental approach. His presentation is easy to read. It is for the most part a quick read, but offers helpful bits of information and cautions. I would certainly recommend it for anyone who is embarking upon a complex mission.If you are not familiar with the unpredictable nature of complex, not just complicated and challenging problems, Hassan offers the following three criteria. Complex problems are problems that are evolving on multiple fronts at varying rates of speed and are interrelated. The very nature of the complex situation is that it is constantly emerging and shifting. Complex problems are always at a deficit position relative to the possible availability of useful data. Because the production of data is growing with such great speed, it simply is not possible to know everything that is known at the time you are considering a course of action. And, finally people must be involved in all levels and sides of the complex situation, and people change. Maintaining an awareness of these caveats, which seem to be ‘impossibilities’ actually enriches the decision process because one is not diverted by the notion that somehow a different perception, if it can be found, will convert these ‘impossibilities’ such that they amenable to the planning process and, therefore, can be solved.Hassam assures the reader that attempting to use the planning process with both top down input and a prediction of future outcomes fails 90% of the time and yet, he explains why we continue to rely on this process, particularly and most disastrously, in times of crisis. He discusses the propensity to use a planning process in the context of muscle memory. It is the ‘go to’ method that we have been trained to employ.Hassam emphasized the absolute necessity of including the people effected by the complex situation as part of the exploration and experimentation of possible interventions. Further, he decries the use of samples, when populations are of concern.The very nature of the process that Hassan delineates in his book renders explicit detailing and any sort of manual-of-instructions in his presentation, an impossibility. Critics of his book are overlooking the main point. This is innately and necessarily an experimental approach. Not a laboratory experimental approach, but on the ground, on-going evolutionary, experimental approach. He does a very good job of sorting out the major issues of concern.

Four stars for the central idea of applying innovation techniques to the social space. I especially liked the skewering of 'planning' as increasingly irrelevant in complex fast changing times and the role of the 'expert' in demise with it (especially ironic / scary since I am a planning consultant). On the downside, I am not sure the author has fleshed out the next generation of social labs fully enough. There seemed to be some unexplored process problems from both the malnutrition and food lab to do with issue complexity and facilitating stakeholders, especially with entrenched viewpoints (and who doesn't?). Next generations of social labs will either need heavy-hitting mindset change technology for incumbents or start with fresher, independent participants to create the kernel for paradigm change. I would also like to see a better framework for problems and / or opportunities that lend themselves to social labbing.

With social labs emerging all over the globe, Hassan makes a timely and insightful contribution to the field. Drawing on personal experience he moves the discussion beyond hypothetical claims and convincingly establishes why traditional planning-based approaches provide woefully inadequate responses to complex challenges.By nature, strategic planning is predictive, formal and detached. Its processes rely on linear trajectories - design, implement, evaluate - and path-dependency is created through the investment of resources into the tactics proposed. Complex challenges involve emergent situations, that generate a constant flow of information which must be negotiated, requiring actors to continually adapt their behaviour (p.19). In this context, the predictive focus of strategic planning is highly problematic, as is the reliance on rational experts one-step removed from the issues and from the political realities of implementation.Social labs are positioned as 'platforms' that are purposefully configured to address the unique characteristics of complex challenges, taking a prototyping-based approach to developing responses. Hassan defines social labs as involving teams of diverse participants (social), that generate ongoing and sustained efforts (experimental), focused on addressing the root cause of the issue (systemic) (p.3). Social labs draw on a range of techniques and tools, but it is the interaction of these three elements that set them apart as a truly strategic model.In making the case, Hassan draws on considerable personal experience with several social labs. Providing rich food for thought, his accounts include discussion of the difficulties, failures and learnings - a generous sharing, true to the iterative and experimental nature of social labs. The 'seven how-tos' of setting up a social lab (Ch.8) provide further practical insights.The balance between conceptual discussion (why) and useful practical content (how) make this a 'must read' for anyone working with complex challenges, and especially those that advise them.

I was hoping to find concrete labs structures and managing processes, but couldn't

Excellent and inspiring book.

Zaid Hassan's book is a good read and well-written. Contrary to the hyperbolic quotes on the back of the book and smattered online, it is not the quintessential guide to social labs. That is not a criticism of the book, just the PR.The book is not something that will give you an ABC of how to build labs, rather it will give you some idea of how to think about the lab process and whether it is right for what you want to do. What I loved the most about the book is that it provides an unvarnished view of the collaborative process of lab-making and living, which means there is a lot of overt and covert frustration mixed with hope and aspiration for the process. It's a wide-eyed view of what social change is about.What I would have liked was more evidence to support the oft-made statement about how labs "work" and what they do. There is some good tales to tell about what was done, but less about how those activities could be connected back to the lab. It's a hard charge, but something that could have more treatment.The last part of the book on recommendations is the least attractive. It feels like an add-on encouraged by the editor as if to say "hey, you need a X-point guide to give your readers." It's too bad, because the points are not well articulated or substantiated in many cases. That all said, this was an enjoyable book to read and worth the time investment (it's thin, and focused). It's a good addition to the literature on an emerging idea that is spreading worldwide.

Zaid Hassan's well written and accessible "Social Labs" deeply resonated with me on a personal level. No only does the book help us to find better solutions to a myriad of complex problems we face at the group, organization and global levels, but it also outlines a path to live an individual and impactful life of curiosity, courage and discovery. I feel more empowered to live a life of service and purpose; to ally myself with fellow collaborators; and continuously fail up until I reach my potential having read his book.

The book is neither particularly well-written, nor particularly relevant. Hassan doesn't appear to understand complexity at all. He talks about the global context but doesn't seem to understand that either. The book is now being used as the basis for a strategic planning 101 course where complexity is hammered into small boxes, using too many post-it notes and producing an outcome that satisfies no one. I work in the field of international development and I attended one of his social labs workshops thinking it might offer more insights. The facilitation and content were terrible. Several people in the group complained and requested refunds. So many better alternatives are available and in use - e.g., Otto Scharmer's Theory U and Presencing Institute - save your money for one of those.