On 9-10 October 2025, we gathered 18 friends of SIX for a roundtable discussion on the role of social innovation in the world today. We wanted to understand how other organisations from different sectors in Europe are navigating this challenging moment and how they are responding. By understanding where the gaps are, we can direct our efforts where we are needed most. Whilst most of the participants were based in Europe, many work across the world so there were multiple perspectives in the conversations.
We’re all coping, acting, navigating and preparing for the changes that are happening now. Some of
the participants were dealing with the immediate effects of destruction of our systems, some were
supporting transformation of existing institutions and others were creating new systems and
movements. Together, we explored some of the different roles organisations and people are playing in different parts of the change process.
In our discussion notes, we summarise seven things we could all do to repair and rebuild.
- The first step to repairing and rebuilding is acknowledgement.
- Balancing pessimistic and optimistic viewpoints
- Balance the global and local
- Get more organised and focussed — Step 1: Create islands of sanity
- Be more radical and embrace politics
- Reframe and rethink motivation
- We need to be more ambitious
You can download our discussion notes (on the left).
