Center for Social Innovation

The New Year is a great time not only for personal resolutions, but also for social and institutional ones. Right around now we typically see renewed energy for the pressing social and environmental problems of our day, and that is a great thing. With this increased energy I have also witnessed an amplified focus on new incubators, launch pads, idea fests, hubs, and institutes. These are all worthy endeavors, but I issue a word of caution: More resources and talent focused only on the “the idea generation stage” of social innovation unfortunately is not enough. Real change comes from making the slow and monumental climb up the social innovation hill.

A while back I saw one website that captures the problem. “After 5 weeks of intensive incubation and skill training, each fellow will be given 5 additional weeks to ‘run’ with their idea. They will have all the tools, skills, marketing materials, and strategic plans they need to be effective. All that remains for them to do — is execute.”

That's all? Just execute? Piece of cake, right?

We all know that’s not the case. At the Center for Social Innovation we have looked at what it takes to drive social innovations forward. The difficulty comes after idea generation, piloting, and prototyping — when organizations face the prospect of taking the enterprise to scale. It’s at this point that many fall into the chasm, unable to grow in a way that creates a meaningful impact. Making it over the chasm is a very different process than generating ideas. It requires different skills, new resources, innovative partners, and much more.

SOCIAL INNOVATION CONTINUUM
The Truth Behind the Hype

Source: K. Deiglmeier

Simply put, getting a new solution to a significant number of people is hard. It also takes time and patience, as a couple of real social innovation growth stories reveal. Take Fair Trade. The model was started essentially in 1949, when a program of the Church of Brethren began importing cuckoo clocks from Germany to Maryland to help refugees in Eastern Europe recover from World War II. Within ten years this organization established a U.S. church network for direct sales of such imported handicrafts. Shortly afterward, the Mennonite Central Committee began selling handicrafts by Puerto Rican artisans. But it’s taken 62 years, and much sweat, for the movement to gain real, worldwide momentum.

Then there’s microfinance, the “poster child” for social innovation. While Muhammand Yunus did not invent the idea, he’s the one who really put it on the map, starting in 1976, when he designed an experimental credit program to serve the poor in Bangladesh. Despite his success, bankers refused to take over the project at the end of the pilot phase. Yunus had to turn to donors to create his own bank, Grameen, in 1983. It now serves more than 4 million borrowers and has catalyzed a new approach to addressing poverty, but the road to its creation was not always easy, and it has taken 35 years to get to this point.

So, as we think about how we’re going to turn our ideas into reality, we need a whole new approach. The discussion could fill an entire book. For now, I offer a few suggestions: Never mistake a clear view for a short distance. As past social innovations highlight, it is critical to think about the long term and be willing to be patient. Play outside your sandbox. Build your network of allies, and work with enemies, competitors, and partners alike. Lastly, take a cross-sector approach to all you do. It is going to take the best of business, nonprofits, and government working together differently to get to real scalable solutions. Ideas are “sexy.” But these less glamorous steps lead to the changes we all want to see.