Guest Post: Compass-Guided Ghanaian Social Startup Wins Award

We’re delighted to share that food security startup Soyko Agro Food has won an innovation cash prize for their Compass-guided work.

They share more in this letter to their CorpsAfrica mentor Garrett Mason that founder Jerone Agyapong has kindly allowed me to share, and on their LinkedIn page.  

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Dear Garrett,

My team, Soyko Agro Foods, has just won the Kosmos Innovation Center Agrictech Classic Challenge! We're a small startup, and this win is a huge milestone for us. We took home a prize of $2000 USD, which will go a long way in helping us grow our business.

Our team produces a unique flour formula using locally grown tubers, nuts, and legumes. I'm thrilled to say that our success is in large part due to the tools and methodologies you taught us, particularly the Innovator's Compass and ABCD. Your guidance and mentorship have been invaluable to me. Myself and team are grateful for the impact you've had on our journey.

To answer your question, here's how we used the Innovators' Compass and ABCD…

We started by identifying the problem using the Innovators' Compass:

1.⁠ ⁠Who: We looked into the lives of people in the central region of Ghana, particularly those affected by malnutrition.

2.⁠ ⁠What: We observed that malnutrition was a common problem, not just in rural areas but also in urban centers.

3.⁠ ⁠Why: We discovered that the root causes were high cost of nutritious food options and limited availability of nutritious foods compared to processed foods.

4.⁠ ⁠What matters: We asked ourselves what mattered most to our target persona and realized they wanted nutritious, tasty, and affordable food options that were multipurpose.

5.⁠ ⁠What ways: We generated many ideas, narrowed down to three: a flour, a plant-based yogurt, and a plant-based drink.

To refine our ideas and pick one, we used the ABCD approach: We considered the assets and strengths of our community, including:

•⁠  ⁠What food crops were readily available in the south and how these crops stood out in terms of nutrition.

•⁠  ⁠How to get the crops at what season and cost.

•⁠  ⁠How much impact the product would have on the smallholder farmer and the average consumer.

From there, we asked the people what they really wanted and how they wanted it. We then started experimentations, taking feedback until we arrived at our end product.

Thank you again for your support and guidance. We're excited to see where this win takes us, and we look forward to staying in touch.

This story was originally published in the Spring 2025 Innovators’ Compass newsletter.

Guest Post: The City of Somerville’s Compass-Fueled Collaborative Turning Point

The banner at “https://voice.somervillema.gov/cultural-capacity-plan”

Daniel Koff, adjunct professor at Olin College and founder of Solomon Office, shared this story about the Compass' impact on a city’s collaborative rebirth—a powerful why for this work. In Daniel’s words…
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I'm galvanized that I got to play a key role in realizing a turning point for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts: its first-ever cultural plan—co-created with city residents, Forecast Public Art, and Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, and leveraging the long history of this work by the Somerville Arts Council.

The Somerville Cultural Capacity Plan engages the local arts and culture community to explore ways to strengthen and improve access to Somerville’s cultural assets. 

It was grounded in community conversations around the Innovators’ Compass questions: what’s happening in the arts and culture community and why, principles to guide development, ideas to preserve and grow opportunities, and experiments to try right away. 

Local Ambassadors, identified by a citywide survey, worked with Ela to create a discussion guide, then hosted thirty community affinity groups, totaling 195 participants: arts groups (media, visual, performing, etc.) and other residents (newcomers, elders, parents, etc.) for the initial conversations. 

Community conversations in art studios

The City held a “Citywide Forum”, an open house sharing the 150 resulting easel Compass pages, typed Ambassadors’ notes (via QR codes), and synthesized themes with the entire Somerville community for further input. The Ambassadors continued to collaborate on the Plan’s development. 

Dan Koff giving a community update and inviting collaboration

Two of the Ambassadors displaying their community conversations around the Citywide Forum

A community member looks at the overarching themes

Already the Plan is having an impact. In one of the first in-person hearings Somerville hosted since the pandemic, over 135 people signed up to testify about changes to zoning for Arts and Creative Enterprise uses. The vast majority were in favor -- as long as the City makes those changes after a Community Benefits Agreement is signed with a major developer. This Hearing, plus additional upcoming convenings hosted by an Ambassador who was first engaged through the planning process, show how the Compass has helped to galvanize a community around making structural changes to their city that will incentivize the preservation and growth of the arts and culture sector. 

As Mayor Katjana Ballantyne shared at the citywide forum, “The success of the plan lies in our collaboration and co-creation. It lies in our ability to be inclusive more than we have ever been before in our outreach and engagement to ensure that all voices are represented in the plan…Participants have come up with some bold and transformational ideas. That kind of expansive thinking will better enable government and residents to work together to maximize our resources for the Community.”

Beyond the Plan, one Ambassador continued to use her platform to communicate with and convene musicians, pointing to the opportunity to continue enabling Ambassadors’ ongoing work supporting their respective slices of the Somerville community.

This story was originally published in the Spring 2025 Innovators’ Compass Newsletter.

Guest Post: A Powerful Community Case Study from CorpsAfrica Kenya

With gratitude to Corps Africa, I am republishing this story here in the Innovators’ Compass blog. Find a PDF of this wonderful case study here.

This story was originally published in the Summer 2024 Innovators’ Compass Newsletter.

Guest Post: "Innovators' Compass: My Swiss Army Knife of Choice"

(Compassing changing roles at work and home)

By Ginger Rowher

Ginger Rowher Compass-navigated a newly created education+business leadership role in a statewide STEM network. Along the way, she improved programs with educational staff, coached an executive…and saved Christmas with her family. In her words…

Human-centered design is a process designed to foster innovation and creativity, and the Innovators' Compass is my tool-of-choice when applying this approach to challenges in my professional and personal life.  I was introduced to design thinking in 2018 at a workshop at Grand Valley State University. I had just started working for a statewide STEM network after 21 years of teaching mathematics, and I didn't realize at the time how valuable human-centered design would be in this newly-created role.  

The STEM network had been recently formed and consisted of sixteen regions across the state.  No one had done the job before, and one of the focus areas was integrating education and business - something that I didn't have experience with.  While some skills from my former role of teaching undergraduate mathematics translated to this new position, much of the work was new to me.  The iterative cycles of the design thinking process became an invaluable process for navigating my way through figuring out effective ways to do the work.

A few months later, GVSU invited Ela to lead a series of presentations on the Innovators’ Compass and how it supports creative problem solving.  I invited my son, Isaac, who was a freshman in his first semester at GVSU.  He graciously agreed to attend, and during the session, we were asked to identify a situation where we felt stuck.  Isaac and I chatted for a few minutes, and because it was the end of November, the topic of how our family celebrates Advent came up.  Our family had developed traditions for celebrating Advent that began when our kids were toddlers, and now all of them were adults.  I had been holding on to the traditions despite multiple protests, and we were stuck.  We brought the challenge to the rest of the family and used the Innovators' Compass to find a new way forward.  Now our family spends time preparing our favorite meals together, with my kids taking the lead.

The Innovators' Compass has been a tool for way-finding in multiple contexts over the last six years.  The staff I work with at the Regional Math and Science Center at GVSU has used the Compass for improving multiple projects, including this STEM summer program, and I have used the Compass to facilitate an improvement cycle for the Michigan Girls Future Flight Challenge, hosted by the Women of Aerospace Industry Association of Michigan (WAIAM).

A few years ago, the Executive Director of a statewide organization that our Network works with asked me if I would be willing to meet with her in a consulting role.  She had noticed a particular organizational tool that I had been using in our interactions and wanted me to teach her how to use it.  I suggested that we use the Innovators' Compass instead, with the challenge being, "How might I get more organized and efficient at work?"  While my organizational system worked well for me, I wasn't sure that it would be the best solution for her, and I knew that the Innovators' Compass would reveal possible solutions that centered her priorities

This story was originally published in the Winter 2024 Innovators’ Compass Newsletter.

Drawing Pictures to Discover Principles

"A picture is worth a thousand words.”

That’s not just a popular saying, it’s a tremendously powerful practice in anything you do—whether you’re fully seeing the people involved, detailing your observations of what’s happening, sensing and symbolizing what matters most, exploring ideas for ways forward, or creating an impactful first experiment.

But I’d love to spotlight one of those here: using pictures as we explore principles—what matters most.

We see this all the time in motivational posters—the artist uses an image to convey the principle and help it inspire us in a lasting way.

Personal principles in pictures

Exploring personal principles through pictures began for me long ago, when I was overwhelmed as I led a stressful global project for IDEO.

The mental soup of all of my best-and-worst moments that I’d observed suddenly simplified into a pair of simple sketches:

VS.

My takeaway: to focus more on the people involved, and less on the "stuff." This principle, with its picture, has remained powerful for me since, no matter what the stressful situation or stuff involved might be.

Much later, as I began doing daily compasses, a few other pictorial principles arose, such as:

A heart with ears—for unconditional love and listening with people in my family, work, and community.

A little starburst, for focusing on a few simple things—in my life, in a workshop, whatever—and letting them shine powerfully.

A peace sign with little clock marks around it—for dividing my time intentionally and being at peace with what happens.

A body that radiates—for self care.

Clearly these don’t have to be “picture-perfect” sketches! Even seeing these chickenscratch sketches on my desk daily helps me reset what matters most at any moment much more quickly and vividly than words.

Pictures tap into more of our human “processing power” to see what matters most amidst complexity

Our 10+ Human tools

What’s more, drawing and seeing pictures also engages our head, heart, gut, eyes, and hands—more of our 10+ human tools—in ways that words do not. Mustering more of our processing power is critical when we’re making sense of complex information and situations.

That’s the reason drawing pictures to find what matters most, or points of leverage, is a focus of Systems Thinking, which understands complex human or natural systems so that we can make things better.

Credit: this great Medium Article by Leyla Acaroglu

In many fields, including design, drawing pictures to identify what matters most is known as frameworking. This proved to be my personal superpower at IDEO, and I teach it to my design students. Innovators’ Compass, Our 10+ Human Tools, and Playing With Punctuation are three simple yet powerful frameworks that I created and are the foundation for the practices of innovatorscompass.org.

Another of my favorites, however, is a visual framework that one of my own mentors, Kate Schreiber, created for a project about what mattered most to 16-24 year olds we met around the world about health and nutrition (essentially nothing—until something that does matter to them is at stake!):

Many more examples I love of showing what matters most with pictures can be found in the books below (and the latter author’s amazing daily pictoral blog).

And the TEDx talk Draw Your Future focuses on visualizing principles that matter most about your dream future.

Your examples of Compassing principles with pictures

Many of you draw what matters most as you Compass in any situation—here are a few you’ve shared.

Karmelann Egan’s Ottawa kindergarten students exploring principles of kindness with their peers:

And below, participants in an Innovators for Purpose workshop used stickers provided by the MIT Museum to help explore and express princples for rethinking who designs AI:

Finally, my own students in a “pandemic edition” of my life design class, pulled in pictures they found online as they explored principles about their immediate and long-term life.

Whatever you’re planning, unsticking, or reflecting on, I hope you’ll play with pictures in any way to explore and express what matters most—your guiding prinicples for that situation.

A Popular Place to Practice Resolving Conflicts—The playground.

The fact that so many Innovators’ Compasses have been created about conflicts on school playgrounds might seem trivial. 

But, short-term, there’s a tremendous impact on kids’ social-emotional well-being and ability to thrive in school. And, on teachers’ sanity!

And starting to hone our compass for conflict resolution early in life can go a long way in our grown-up conflicts, too. 

Here are a few ways I’ve seen these playground and other conflict-resolution Compasses play out in different media, from young kids to older ones:

Talking prompts at a preschool peace table

At this preschool (unfortunately no longer open), children brought conflicts to a “peace table”. Among the simple prompts to help them talk were individual cutouts of the Compass shapes and feelings emoji on the Compass website.

When teachers use these in class as well—like holding one up and asking “Who has an observation/idea/experiment?”—kids are ready to use these powerful tools in their talking toolbox when it’s time for them to do some DIY peacemaking.

Pre-emptively practicing with picture-based Compasses

An Ottawa, Ontario teacher Karmelann Egan shared how her kindergarten class Compasses to find kind ways through problems and conflicts. In this example she shared, the kids talked and drew through how to help a puppet friend Suzy who was frustrated because her tower of blocks keep falling down.

Karmelann drew attention to the empathy coming through on the faces, and how supporting each other and working together clearly come through in what matters and in their ideas. She said they use a show of thumbs for which idea they want to try first, knowing they can go back and try another idea. I can’t help but notice that ice cream is also a solution—hey, it works for my kids, too!

Adult-facilitated conversations

I see a lot of conversations where a teacher or administrator is facilitating as a group of students tackles a playground challenge. Principal Dawn McWilliams in Aurora, CO offered a this 40-second narration of one such playground Compass, shown at left, on the very last week of school. You can see that the students were able to take some lovely high-level perspective about what mattered most—at least for the rest of that year! Her then assistant-principal, Mitch Davison, is leading the conversation on the right; while he’s writing, the students’ bodies show they’re fully engaged.

Student-created compasses

I treasure the stream of Compassing photos Meghan Ewaynk’s fifth-grade classroom in Syracuse, NY, has posted as they “problem solve and take ownership of their classroom & school community” and “improve classroom culture.” These have included difficulties at recess and in the cafeteria.

A silent Compass?!?

Finally, I do think this story, emailed by principal Dawn McWilliams in Aurora, CO, might take the cake: students Compassing silently!

I had to share this story!

I went into this situation completely blind. I was brought two fifth-grade girls who had some sort of problem on the playground yesterday. Neither one of them would talk to me. I could barely get head nods from them to indicate any information. I knew that they both had problems with someone who was being mean to them, but neither would say who the student was that was being mean.

The IC is a perfect non-verbal tool! I had them list on sticky notes what was happening with this other person, keeping both themselves and the other person in mind. They put up their sticky notes, but neither spoke. I supported them in grouping the notes somewhat. Then we went to priorities (principles) and next to ideas. When I asked them how they would implement their ideas, they said maybe at lunch. I asked how they would get this other girl involved in the conversation since they hadn’t written any ideas up for how to draw the other girl into the conversation. They exchanged a look, and I realized that the girl they were each having issues with was each other. At that point, I asked if they wanted to have some time to talk together now so that they could follow through on their ideas. They both agreed. Three minutes later, they came to me with smiles. Problem solved!

Once again, the Innovators’ Compass saved the day!

Follow your Compass! Do whatever works!

Now, I’m no stranger to this playground phenomenon. Early on, when I was experimenting and observing rabidly in every possible setting—from classrooms to corporate conference rooms—I was invited to observe several classrom-conflict sessions with classroom teachers. One was my own daughter’s kindergarten class! And another (which I cowrote a “5 Questions That Get Us Unstuck” kids book with her the next year when she was remote schooling during the pandemic learning to write “all about” books, and also with Tom Vander Ark in Education Week) took place in a different Boston area school.

The teacher invited the students to explore each part of the Compass in a different way—the first time I’d seen that, and I loved how it helped give each its own distinct feel:

• The students wrote sticky notes on their own for What’s happening and why? (Observations): Talking. Playing. They always play tag. People keep telling on people. They xclood[sic] me. People standing on the bottom [sic] of the slide.

• The teacher scribed what they said for What matters most? (Principles): They beautifully illustrated how we have competing principles that define our challenge “fun, running” AND “safe”; “free choice” AND “people listen, being included, agree on our own rules.”

• The students drew pictures on paper for What ways are there? (Ideas): they imagined new games, rules, props and signage.

• And for What’s a step to try? (Experiments), they quickly made their ideas with whatever was handy and headed out for…recess of course! As they played, they again noticed “What’s happening?” and, like the boy below adding pictures to his originally text-only sign on the slide, made changes.

The quiet “xclood"-ed child also used the tool privately to explore his experiences. With his permission, the teacher engaged the class on topics he raised, including the “Why” they’d left unexplored above. It was shared with me that afterward, the student found his own voice in class.

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My tremendous gratitude to all these educators, and everyone who shares Compass stories!

May your playgrounds be peaceful!