#48 - Kingdom Centered Innovation - Tabitha Kapic of the Chalmers Center

In this episode, we bring to you another session from the 2021 Digital Ministry Conference. This session is from Tabitha Kapic, the Director of Innovation at the Chalmers Center. Tabitha shares with us practical ways to bring innovation into your ministry. Hasn’t Everything Been Done? How Can I Innovate?While innovation can be big things, like landing people on the moon, but it doesn’t have to be. In many cases innovation that impacts our everyday lives can be just as powerful. For example, we landed someone on the moon, before the innovation of adding wheels to suitcases. While it doesn’t get as much coverage you have probably used a suitcase with wheels, but never been to the moon. What Do Frogs Have To Do With Innovation?Tabitha shares a story about a time she was on a family hike. They encountered some other hikers coming out of a cave, carrying a frog. When she asked about it, the hikers said they found this frog and it was in the cave, and they thought they would “rescue” the frog by bringing it out where it was warmer. When Tabitha’s family got into the cave they found many of these same frogs, it was actually their natural habitat. The well-meaning family brought the frog out of its natural environment because they thought it would be more comfortable. When trying to drive innovation, it’s critical to listen to the people you are serving, because it’s more important to understand them, than it is to design toward your perspective.So when you start getting into innovation it will feel uncomfortable for you at first, but remember the frog!Listen, Make, TestThe Chalmers Center uses “Listen, Make, Test” as their model for innovation. This is a cycle rather than a linear path. Be sure to listen to the full episode to get practical tips and tools on how to tackle each step. Things like brainstorming with constraints, rapid prototyping, and designing to the edges. Resources:The Chalmers Center