“Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther”, Thomas Carlyle
Inspired by the web, we create Constellations (federated partnership programmes) that turn social, environmental and economic impact into business as usual. Based on evidence, we help deploy capital, humans and machines to address today’s challenges at scale.
Dgen Constellations are a ‘many-parts-loosely-joined’, collective intelligence network comprising over 80 dedicated experts with deep commercial, startup, government and NGO experience who have worked at international, national and local levels.
We bring together dedicated experts to deliver specific outcomes against a fixed deadline and budget.
Unlike a consultancy, we’re not here just to ‘point’. Unlike an agency, we’re not here to retain you as a client beyond our useful impact.
We are here to help achieve a 10-100x return on investment in social, environmental and economic impacts. We are unashamedly ambitious…and acutely aware of the challenges.
The way we work is similar to the way you’d run a movie studio (developing a movie you’d pick the script, the budget and the timeline). Working together, we help co-create the script, budget, and timeline, as well as hand-pick the team to meet the project needs and deliver. Sometimes we’re the Director, other times we’re the Producers.
If it doesn’t work (and halting criteria are key), we start again and do it better.
If it does work, we start again and do it better.
“I love how one only has to breathe gently on a web of makers and treasure manifests from among their neural networks”, Robert Weston
The Dgen Constellation includes freelancers, small and big companies, financiers, cities and governments.
The strategy is delivery. Our guiding principles are:
- Learn by making
- Connect, don’t consolidate
- Open by default
Our process is:
- Design
Co-create a briefing document; agree on success conditions and potential follow-on funding for projects assuming success; carefully co-curate a group of domain experts from commercial and non-commercial backgrounds, large and small organisations (and some wildcards); hold a one or two-day workshop to co-develop potential solutions; document the process, the outcomes and the investment process. - Implement
Co-create a delivery plan including budgets, timelines, indicators for performance, success and halting conditions; co-curate federated implementation teams; hold regular meetings to drive delivery; make things; document the outcomes. - Report, review and restart
Co-create analysis of what worked and what didn’t, engaging with all stakeholders; openly communicate outputs and outcomes; co-design next steps as relevant and reboot.
Gavin Starks (founder)