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• What is societal anchoring?
• Why are many experiments not followed up?
• How can I promote anchoring?

What is societal anchoring?

By (societal) anchoring we mean the process, and the associated activities, for transforming individual and local experiments into a social movement in which the new practices become business as usual. A crucial element of the process is that the regime, which obstruct the system innovation, also changes. By regime we mean things that perpetuate the business as usual, for example the formal legal and financial rules, excisting practices, culture, roles and identities of organisations, existing actor configurations (who matter, who don't) and the physical infrastructure. See also 'About Transitions'. 

Why are many experiments not followed up?

Some of the reasons for this are:

• Transition projects do not fit in with the existing regime (the formal rules, routines, protocols, knowledge, culture, roles and identity, the usual allocation of tasks between or within organisations)
• The management does not see the need for or urgency of institutional change
• Changing the regime outside the organisation is beyond the capacity of those who have taken the initiative for the project. Other individuals in other environments should take over from them but do not automatically take the ideas and experience any further. Even organisations that would like to experiment do not, for example because they do not know how to or there is no money for a follow up
• A different government policy is needed to facilitate the wider adoption of the new practices (such as new conditions for subsidies, specific environmental rules, changes in government rules for the care sector), but the government is not yet prepared to change policy.

How can I promote anchoring?

As the leader of transition project, your openings for following up the project may be limited. But there are some things you can still do. A general strategy is to arrange for the involvement in the experiment of parties that could later help to anchor the practices. These parties can then discover for themselves how they obstruct or facilitate the desired innovation during the experiment.

Other methods

Other suggestions for societal anchoring your experiment are:

• Formulate good arguments (preferably with other innovators) to support the need for the system innovation; this will increase the legitimacy of follow-up activities
• Clearly identify regime bottlenecks in your experiment. Discuss them with other innovators, because together you can send a stronger signal about the need for a transition (and the regime change it requires) than you can alone. On this point, see also the cluster ‘Producing an action plan'
• Prepare a social business case. This is a structured cost-benefit analysis of experiments or practices that constitute a system innovation. The analysis should reflect the cross-domain nature of system innovation and provide a projection of the economic and social usefulness of the innovation that has been estimated as carefully as possible and quantified by experts. Business cases are particularly useful for discussions about structural financing, which in fact often reveal the need for new financial arrangements. On this point, see also ‘Examples': new financial arrangements
• Disseminate your ideas in lectures at conferences, on radio and television programmes, in books, in articles in professional journals, on a website, etc. This is also something you may be able to do with fellow innovators. This will increase the status of your experiment and the changes you are making, which could in turn help you to secure the support of management or the interest of others in your organisation
• Approach the education sector: investigate whether your views and experiences could be incorporated in the curricula for relevant courses
• Look for sponsors to promote regime change at the appropriate level. Apart from management and board members, these could include members of parliament and other politicians
• Secure the commitment of management. Discuss structural obstacles. When evaluating the experiment suggest solutions for bottlenecks, which might include:
  • Knowledge that your own organisation does not posses
  • o Protocols or routines that prevent the new practice from becoming the standard in the organisatio
  • Changes that are needed in the competences and/or views of employees
  • Changes in financial rules/funding stream
  • Changes in formal tasks that prevent your organisation from adopting a new identity or role (see also the example about new roles and identities
  • Distribution channels that are no longer adequate or the need to change the organisation's target markets
  • The need to change the organisation's network
  • The formal and informal culture
  • The physical aspects of the organisation (where it is located, the type of accommodation, its ICT network).

A general suggestion is: think big. Even before the end of the experiment investigate the possibility of making the leap to the level of a programme. In a programme you can combine experiments. A programme also provides more scope to work on regime change.

See also the role of the programme manager under ‘Societal Anchoring'.