Resiliency is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as the capacity to recover quickly from setbacks and unplanned circumstances.
We can all agree that 2020 gave everyone a rude awakening for unplanned circumstances…
The year brought to the discussion preparedness of organizations for resilience in moments of abrupt or extended difficult periods., it is the fact that business models for organizations must constantly be tested with changes for seasons that come with drastic changes, and COVID-19 has brought to the fore discussions about how organizations must be resilient in moments of difficulties.
It is at the backdrop of this narrative that the Ghana Hubs Network, Ashesi Design Lab with funding support from GIZ Ghana and MAKE-IT organized a three-day workshop for innovation hubs on resiliency.
Node Foundation Africa ( HO Node Hub) was selected with three other hubs in the Southern sector ( ISpace Foundation, Africa Skills Hub, DiV) for a three-day workshop in developing resiliency programs for implementation. During the three day session, the participants were guided in identifying and developing new competencies during difficult moments. The session also addressed the Business models of Hubs and how that affects operations in attaining resilience. Constantly, Hubs are encouraged to be on the lookout to revising operations models in order to keep activities and revenue models resilient.
As part of the session, participating hubs were taken through the steps to express business models using the BMC canvas, this as intended was to help understand how hubs operated before the pandemic. After the BMC, the trainer assisted the hubs in identifying new competencies in periods of challenges, the session also introduced hubs on the best ways to test the minimum viable products based on the projects developed during the identification of new competencies,
At the end of the three-day program, the hubs with the support of facilitators designed a project MVP model for implementation, with verifiable assumptions and hypotheses. It is expected that one of the participating Hubs will get the chance to effectively implement the MVP at the local level to test the projects models against the resiliency.
We are grateful for GIZ and MAKE-IT for funding the program and to the Ghana Hubs Network and Ashesi D-Lab for the wonderful teaching sessions.