About Us
Run-of-the-mill, rigid, and hierarchical approaches to problem solving are too often inadequate for addressing complex challenges faced by organizations, and our world today. That’s why we created Action Lab.
We create space to think and do differently and then make good ideas happen.
There isn’t anything quite like Action Lab in western Canada.
We are part of a social innovation ecosystem in Canada that is engaging in fresh ways of tackling some of the most complex challenges we’re all facing in society today. The Action Lab space was designed for hosting diverse collectives who need to tap into the deep knowledge in their community, look at issues from unique perspectives and generate strategic possibilities. The Action Lab experience promotes creativity, offers tools to help tap into collective wisdom and helps people and systems to prototype proposed solutions. Our skilled, creative team is ready to help you steward your next project, strategic planning workshop or deep dive system change exploration.
Our Story
Action Lab is a social enterprise of Skills Society, a not-for-profit disability rights and service organization in Edmonton that has always been committed to innovation in supporting marginalized community members to find belonging and lead rich, inclusive lives.
Back in the mid 2000s leaders at Skills Society started to explore how to foster more creative thinking and innovation in human service systems. Emerging from these early explorations was a ‘think tank process’ that engaged creative problem solving and early human centered design thinking methodologies to help connect people with disabilities to meaningful roles in the community. After years of experimenting, iterating, and honing, this think tank process lays the foundation of Action Lab’s approach today. Finding success with the process in the disability sector (like MyCompass Planning that is now scaling across Canada), we started to get requests to help other sectors and systems to tackle complex challenges. Fast forward to today and our approach and work is now internationally recognized.
Mission Driven
When you work with Action Lab you also support the employment of people with disabilities, innovative social change initiatives of Skills Society, and subsidize community groups who can’t afford our full rates.
Action Lab is meant to be a safe zone where people from all walks of life can come together and work on some of the most complex and tough issues facing our society today - issues like truth and reconciliation, climate justice, disability rights, health inequities, and more.
It’s important to us that the space, activities, and learning that happens within and from Action Lab reflects our commitments to valuing diverse perspectives and experiences and being good treaty relatives. We ask all our collaborators to bring this spirit of inclusivity, warmth, and friendship to our work together.
Jennifer King, Action Lab Host:
“My job means a lot to me. I just love doing it and it makes me happy. I like meeting new people and being able to make some money.”
Our People
We’re a small team that delivers big results
Collectively we have deep knowledge and experience in social innovation, human centred design, systemic design, ethnographic research, design methods, participatory research, developmental evaluation, creative problem solving, critical approaches, and disability studies.
Ben Weinlick, MA
Executive Director, Skills Society
Ben was instrumental in developing the Action Lab and has been deeply involved in systems change work through stewarding think tanks and social innovation for the last 15 years. He is the founder of an innovation consultancy network called Think Jar Collective, and co-founder of a tangible social innovation called MyCompass Planning that is scaling across North America. Ben is passionate about helping people, organizations and systems to get better at navigating complex challenges together.
Paige Reeves, PhD (c)
Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation, Skills Society
Paige consults, designs, facilitates and leads workshops & innovation labs around complex challenges. She brings deep knowledge of participatory research methodologies, and has diverse experiences with facilitating human-centred design approaches. Paige has a unique perspective in being in both the academy and grounded in community based research for systems change. Her graduate research centers around ways of fostering communities of belonging. Paige has also been mentored by some of the best in the world (Mark Cabaj) in developmental evaluation and applies this in longer term labs she stewards to help collectives ensure learning and outcomes are helpful and relevant for our clients. Paige is passionate about making real systems change happen for people and communities that need it.
Rebecca Rubuliak, MA
Senior Leader of Continuous Improvement and Innovation, Skills Society
Rebecca balances the complex tension between centering human relationships and big picture system pressures as she helps teams, organizations and community to navigate complex challenges. Rebecca works on both internal systems change at Skills Society as well as external leadership in co-designing, facilitating and leading innovation through Action Lab. Rebecca’s graduate research focused on co-designing with school children how to support deeper belonging of marginalized community members. In her approach she brings together facilitation skills, qualitative research, systemic design methodologies and developmental evaluation.
Anthony Bourque, MA
Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation, Skills Society
Anthony has a diverse background in construction, fitness, playwork, social innovation and human-centred design. After working abroad in South-East Asia, Anthony completed graduate research focused on understanding perceptions of risk in unstructured play to understand better the obstacles families face in their communities. He brings his qualitative research and facilitation experience together with playful methods like Lego Serious Play. Anthony consults, designs, facilitates, and leads workshops & innovation labs around complex challenges.
Miranda Kimber, MA
Operations Coordinator
Miranda's academic background fueled her interest in human-centered and equity-oriented systems thinking. She leads the enterprise development and coordination of the Action Lab. Miranda’s graduate work focused on maternal health among people who experience disability. During her graduate studies, she developed a deep interest in co-constructing stories and themes from data through participatory methodologies. She brings her continued learning to the Action Lab to coordinate and evaluate service delivery and growth.
Network Of Systemic Design Practitioners
We also tap into a rich community of systemic design practitioners we have mentored and worked alongside over the years. These team members are often hired as contractors for specific labs we steward and help with coaching lab teams through our lab processes.