CO·NECTA is a self-led learning guide developed by Nesta and the IDB. It helps teams of creative entrepreneurs in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean to align ideas, develop new ways of working, expand and foster relationships, establish strategies, and work together towards a sustainable future.
Capacitación de capacitadores
CO·NECTA has been designed for creative teams, which can take many shapes: from an informal group of freelancers who regularly join forces to collaborate on projects to a team of employees within a conventional studio or agency.
It can also be used by workshop facilitators who work with entrepreneurs as tutors or trainers.
CO·NECTA is made up of three modules, and each one includes three or four sections.
The teams will reach the learning objectives through:
- Guided activities;
- Structured templates to formulate and record ideas;
- Information sheets that provide a deeper understanding of the topics;
- Discussion prompts to host a team conversation;
- Reflection questions to agree and commit to next steps;
- Additional resources that link to other examples and further reading.
- Inspirational stories from established creative enterprises from across Latin America and the Caribbean to demonstrate the benefits of these methodologies.
The modules provide creative teams with best-practice inspirational stories, proven innovation methods, and user-centered resources to strengthen different areas of their project or enterprise.
CO·NECTA responds to challenges often faced by creative teams:
- Lack of alignment among team members regarding the vision and future needs of their project or enterprise.
- Limited access to tools that boost creativity and exchange of perspectives among team members.
- Lack of strategies or a clear way forward to identify new opportunities or strengthen their project or enterprise.
CO·NECTA is a resource that can be used in many ways depending on the needs of each team or business.
Teams can dip in and out depending on what is most relevant for them at the time. Each module, section, and even learning objective has been designed to stand independently from one another.
There is no right or wrong way to use CO·NECTA. It was laid-out as a sequential learning journey, with three suggested learning pathways to help teams reach specific goals. However, such learning pathways are just a starting point. They are not exhaustive.
Teams may already be familiar with some of the concepts in CO·NECTA. It is, therefore, not only an invitation to try new ideas but also to revisit pre-established practices.
CO·NECTA is made up of three comprehensive modules:
BUILDING
YOUR CREATIVE TEAM
This module encourages team members to reconnect with one another. It helps teams to get reacquainted as individuals, create a healthy team culture, and design better working habits. This module includes three sections and eight learning objectives, as follows:
Aligning as a team
- Map and recognise your competencies
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Define your personal and team values
- Understand how your team behaves
Building your team culture
-
Identify and improve your team interactions
- Design your team culture
- Practice reflection in your work
Working as a team
- Define your team’s purpose
- Structure your ways of working
Download
Also available in Spanish
BUILDING
YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
This module encourages teams to consider their enterprise from an external perspective. It helps teams speak to their audiences, understand how customers experience their enterprise, and identify the stakeholders in their ecosystem. This module includes three sections and seven learning objectives, as follows:
Understanding your customers
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Identify your customers and their needs
- Map your customers’ experience
Understanding your ecosystem
- Forge relationships in your industry
Tailoring your communications
- Articulate your brand promise
- Develop your communications strategy
- Speak to your audiences
- Build your marketing strategy
Download
Also available in Spanish
BUILDING YOUR
SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE
This module encourages teams to get under the hood of their enterprise and assess its inner workings. It helps teams design internal processes to get their product or service to market, mitigate risks, and prepare for the future. This module includes four sections and eleven learning objectives, as follows:
Defining your purpose
- Identify your enterprise values
- Set your vision and mission
Mapping your processes
- Design a project plan
- Map a workflow sequence
- Map your delivery points
Sustaining a healthy enterprise
-
Consolidate the building blocks of your enterprise
- Understand financial and funding basics
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Prepare for the expected (and unexpected)
- Manage your intellectual property
Exploring new opportunities
- Practice prototyping
- Diversify or scale your enterprise
Download
Also available in Spanish
CREDITS
Diana Hidalgo is a London based service designer with international experience across the Americas and Europe in innovation capabilities, design strategy, and user research. Her work explores utilising people-centred design and systems thinking approaches to create diverse and accessible user experiences. As a designer, she encourages people to have an experimental mindset, understand the value of design thinking and challenges attitudes and behaviours to improve ways of working within the third, private and public sector. Diana creates and develops tools, facilitates sessions and supports how people and organisations apply design and innovation in their work. She holds a MDes in Design Management and Innovation from the University of Arts London and a MA in Photography from the Universitat de Girona.
Kimberley Ballantyne is a London-based Learning and Development Manager at Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. She has managed learning programmes on creative and social entrepreneurship for a variety of global clients including Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank and the British Council. Before Nesta, she coordinated learning programmes on design thinking in New Zealand. She is driven by helping people to achieve their best. Her areas of specialisation include content design, programme management, professional development, train the trainer and design thinking.
Matteo Grazzi is a Senior Economist in the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division at the Inter-American Development Bank, where he designs and develops programs to promote innovation and the creative economy in Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a PhD in Economics and International Law from Bocconi University in Milan (Italy) and a Master’s in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in Brighton (UK). His main research interests are in the economics of innovation and creativity, green innovation, gender and science and ICT for Development.
Simone Sasso is an economist in the Innovation and Creativity Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) based in Washington DC. Simone holds a PhD in Economics of Innovation from the United Nations University (UNU-MERIT) in Maastricht (Netherlands), a Master’s in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics (UK) and a Master’s in Economics and Business from the University of Turin (Italy). His areas of specialization include innovation, higher education, local economic development, creative industries, and policies related to these issues.
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