CaNeo Labs Learning Circles
The CaNeo Labs Learning Circles ran in early 2025 led by LLio, and in collaboration with Social Innovation Canada, Action Lab, and Maison de l’innovation sociale. The idea was to build on past gatherings and try a different format, one that could create space for lab practitioners across Canada to reflect together on impact and the core elements of lab work.
As Jimmy Paquet-Cormier, Director at LLio, put it, the goal was to create space for meaningful discussions about impact while testing a method that could help labs learn from one another.
What was done
The project unfolded through four online Learning Circles followed by an in-person gathering in Halifax. Each online circle worked like a one-month sprint: setting an intention, trying out a co-design exercise, testing ideas, and then deciding what to do next. That way, the process stayed responsive to participant needs rather than following a fixed agenda.
About twenty participants joined in each circle, representing different sectors and lab types. Between sessions, the team took feedback and used it to shape the next round. The Halifax event then brought people together to focus on strengthening bonds across the ecosystem.
What was learned
The Learning Circles showed how much variety there is across Canadian labs and how challenging it can be to talk about their impact in simple terms. In Circle 1, participants compared how labs define their missions and saw that even the perception of impact can look very different depending on maturity, context, and type of lab. In Circle 2, the conversation turned to societal challenges, and people noted how funding structures, collaboration, and inclusion shape the kinds of impact labs can realistically expect to make.
By Circle 3, the group started mapping ripple effects and tested a framework for looking at impact through elements like experimentation, relationship building, inclusivity, and transformational learning. These became useful entry points for asking how different forms of change show up in practice. Finally, Circle 4 raised a core question for the field: who are we measuring impact for? Is it for funders, for communities, or for practitioners themselves? That conversation surfaced both tensions and opportunities in how labs tell their stories.
Taken together, the circles highlighted that impact is multi-layered and deeply contextual. What counts as success depends on enabling conditions like funding, participants, and the scale of the challenge. The learning also pointed to the importance of building shared language, while still leaving room for variation across different kinds of labs.
The in-person workshop in Halifax built on these threads. Nearly 50 people joined to explore how labs can balance ambition and capacity. Through a playful “pollination” exercise, participants connected with others in the ecosystem, named their ambitions and constraints, and surfaced tensions between what labs hope to achieve and what they are actually resourced to do.
Pollination exercise during the in-person workshop in Halifax
Pollination exercise artifact
Video of the pollination exercise during the in-person workshop in Halifax
Hopes for what comes out of it
For Jimmy and the partners, the aim is to create something that supports labs beyond the life of this project. “If in the end we can coordinate better, share initiatives, and build something together, that would be the best outcome,” Jimmy said.
There is also interest in making the outputs useful to a wider audience. That could include short guides, videos, or interactive media alongside the full report, giving people different entry points into the work.