Our changemaking methodology: the Business Model Canvas
WE ARE THE CHANGE MAKERS
When developing our first project ‘The Forgotten Orchestra” we were very much searching and questioning. But that’s how it goes with learning, you are ready to jump into the deep end and after some hard work you are very much aware of what you do not know!
Audience development and people with dementia: how does one tackle this challenge? A project for this target group: what should it be like? And should we really be going in this direction, as a public library? These are only a few of the many questions we put on the table.
We had a rough idea to start from: why not get some vinyl records out of the library archives? The old collection could perhaps invite/ stimulate/trigger people with dementia to remember and share stories. We were struggling to find the right words. How do you call people with dementia: customers, members, patients? How does one find the right words to address them? And how does one stay professional when emotions get the most of you?
We were absolutely convinced that we had a lot of learning to do when someone mentioned Osterwalder. Alexander Osterwalder is a Swiss business theorist who worked out a model: the Business Model Canvas. A smart way to analyse and further develop your enterprise. Especially his approach on ‘value-proposition design’ has proven to be a very interesting tool to get the value between a customer and a product offer sharp. His methodology had proved to be very useful whilst working on a previous project, in which we worked on a format around digital reading and elderly people.
The method is quite straightforward really:
You put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Try to visualise their daily routines, this way you create clear customer profiles.
You try to map which elements in their life cause obstacles. Where could they use some support?
You focus on the products/services your organisation offers and figure out how these could be a pain reliever or a gain creator for your customer. How can these pains be turned into gains? The more links/fits you can detect, the more potential your project has the to succeed.
So we had a go at the exercise. We mapped our worries and our assumptions, we tried to imagine what it’s like to be a person with dementia, we tried to figure out how they feel about their situation and what is the most difficult part for them. Is it the fear of being excluded, anxiety, no longer belonging to the group, not being taken seriously? We also tried to imagine what a person with dementia might need. A safe place? And could this be the library? Does the way we run the library at the moment do for them, is this sufficient? And if change is needed, can we manage this as an organisation?
We worked out a list of questions to ask to experts: Foton vzw, an organisations based in Bruges that specializes in supporting people with dementia in a home-environment. They gave us the answers we were searching for. “You don’t need to give people with dementia a voice. You just need to listen. Give them a meaningful place in society.”