Catalysts are substances – in chemistry – that enable reactions without themselves being used up.  Like local leaders, perhaps, they create ‘pathways’; speed up a reaction; lower the energy needed to get a change started; shift the balance in the direction of a particular type of change.

There are two types of catalysts, defined by the way they work:

• heterogenous catalysts tend to provide a physical surface or sharp points against, or at, which reactions can occur.  In human terms, you might imagine them as hosts, providing a venue and introducing people or as the kind of people who can ask an insightful question that makes other people think in different ways.
• homogenous catalysts tend to enable reactions by combining chemically with chemicals taking part in the reaction and then recombining so that they return to their original form.  In human terms, you might see them as people who are involved in many different networks and who can make connections between them.

What sort of skills and experience do you think would make a local leader able to act as a catalyst  in social innovation?  What might be the drawbacks, or challenges, of acting as a catalyst?

Head back to looking at who does social innovation?