For many of us at YSEC, David Bornstein’s book, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, was one of our first introductions to social entrepreneurship.
As a result, we were thrilled to have David as the keynote speaker at our recent conference, re:Vision 2010. (For some great reflections on Bornstein’s remarks, read the following posts by Nathaniel Whittemore (one of our other exceptional keynotes), Cheryl May, and Ruby Ku).
David’s newest project is Dowser, a multi-media site committed to exploring, “Who’s solving what and how?”, which profiles the ways in which people are making a positive impact on the world.
Recently, Nogah had the opportunity to ask David some questions about his new book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know.
Below are David’s insights on his book, current trends in social entrepreneurship, and his advice for young social entrepreneurs:
In the introduction of your new book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, you describe the current social entrepreneurship landscape as ’social entrepreneurship 3.0′, which focuses on the “change-making potential of all people and their interactions.” Do you believe anyone can be a social entrepreneur?
I don’t believe that everyone should be a social entrepreneur. You know what they say about too many chefs in the kitchen. There is a clear role for the entrepreneurial author in any change — but there are hundreds of other roles that must be played or nothing happens. However, everyone can be a changemaker and be a powerful one at that if they see the possibilities and learn the skills.
You also describe social entrepreneurship as “contagious”, claiming that “every person who starts a social change organization emboldens others to pursue their ideas and solutions…” What role does inspiration play for social entrepreneurs?
Inspiration is overrated. You obviously have to care very very deeply to cause a change, because it usually takes years to get something big done. When people engage in prolonged, concerted action, it’s usually grounded in a connection rooted in relationships, experiences and ethical values — often influenced by childhood teachings. Inspiration can add energy, but it’s not enough.
Most young people I speak with tell me, ‘Please don’t inspire us. We’re already inspired. We want to change the world. We want to know how to be effective.’
So the more important role is to demonstrate the pathways that exist for people to act on their ambitions and have impact. These career paths are opening up but we need to make them more visible.
In your book, you claim that ’social entrepreneurship 3.0′ is “concerned with building platforms that enable more people at every age to think and behave like changemakers and to help them work together powerfully in teams and in teams of teams.” What do these building platforms look like / consist of?
The platforms are ahead of us. We don’t know exactly what they look like. We need to imagine them. We can refer back to platforms of past generations and see how they got people to work together effectively.
For example, in the 1990s, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines brought hundreds of groups together globally using what was then a relatively new technology: email. These groups aligned and coordinated their efforts and produced the first international treaty in human history pushed through by citizens. They even overcame opposition from the United States and other governments – and they did it in a year. How did they do it? And how did they do it so quickly?
The Microcredit Summit Campaign figured out all the pieces that had to come together for microfinance to become a truly global movement. They recognized roles for practitioners, governments, funders, multilaterals, banks, academics and others, and they got thousands of groups to coordinate. They got individuals to work together as teams, and then got them working as teams of teams. As a result, the Microcredit Summit Campaign which had the goal of reaching 100 million poor families with microcredit, was one of the only global summits to actually achieve its goal, and now it has expanded on that goal to reach 175 million families.
Today with the vastly expanded reach of technology, especially cell phones and handheld computers, as well as crowd-sourced language translation platforms, it’s impossible to imagine how much farther people can go working together.
Why do you think teams and teamwork are crucial to this current phase in social entrepreneurship?
So many changemakers are emerging in so many different fields at once around the world. For example, one group may be teaching empathy to kids, another may be improving math education in middle school, another may be focusing on college access, another may be creating new Green Job pathways. And so on and so forth. To create whole solutions, we need to integrate many different solutions being developed independently. And we have to get everyone working across sector and cultural boundaries, too.
What new or different opportunities for social change did ’social entrepreneurship 2.0′ bring to the table?
If you think of the business services that popped up in the 20th century, we really figured out how to build great for-profit institutions. They may not always behave wisely, or with kindness, but they function well, and they often improve as they grow, which is different from many social and government organizations. What the business sector hasn’t figured out is how to achieve social benefit as a primary objective, rather than a secondary objective. So business and social entrepreneurs have something to teach one another.
Do you think there are any downsides to social entrepreneurship?
The downside is the way it is often interpreted. People see it as a celebration of the individual. What is not fully appreciated is that it is less a story of individuals than a description of a process.
What I mean is that for people to come together to create a new social configuration — something that can add value to the world — you need at the outset a very strong focus, great energy, and a deep belief that something is possible before the evidence is in. A social entrepreneur provides these things, which is why they’re essential for getting things going, building the momentum, and navigating change, especially in the early years.
But social entrepreneurs don’t cause change. Lots of people together cause change. We miss the point when we focus on social entrepreneurs as rock stars as opposed to social entrepreneurship as a process by which people come together and align their efforts.
Do you have any advice for social entrepreneurs who are trying to pursue their ideas and/or launch their own social enterprises?
The most important thing is to know this history of the problem you are solving. How have other people tried to solve it? What are they doing today? What are the 3 or 5 most innovative ideas in the world today in your area of interest? There are very few ideas that are wholly new. Usually, the key question is, ‘What are you doing differently than the people who tried this before you?’
The second is to realize that everything that gets built in the world gets built because of relationships — strong, enduring relationships that are based on deep connections, mutual affinity, respect, and trust. One caveat: there are people who go out with an eye to ‘network.’ Networking can be very crass if it’s done in an opportunistic spirit. Better to live in the world and be open to finding your true colleagues – people who care about the same things you do and whose ideas compliment yours. People who you want to be part of your life. That’s building community. It’s a different way of looking at things.
Why write this book? Why now?
We’ve gotten so many requests from students and professors for a general introduction to social entrepreneurship. We saw there were many people who didn’t necessarily want to be social entrepreneurs. They were in business, or policy, or journalism, or other fields. But they wanted to understand how social entrepreneurship would be relevant to their lives and why they should learn about it.
We think that social entrepreneurship is going to influence society from every angle. It’s going to change government and business, to be sure, but it will also affect the professions: health, education, law, etc. So we thought that a general introduction that doesn’t take up too much time to read would be a valuable addition. We also wanted to make it affordable, so it’s only being published in paperback.
Anything else?
There are so many opportunities that will be emerging in the next 5 to 10 years. Career paths that we can’t even envision will be coming up. It’s like when the internet took off in the mid 90’s. Nobody imagined the landscape of new work that would come. Who could have foreseen people with full time jobs advising companies how to use Twitter?
The field of social entrepreneurship will make it possible for large numbers of people to pursue careers that blend their interests, values and talents and really have an impact. And they won’t have to be entrepreneurs themselves to do that.
So if you’re a writer, a researcher, an academic, a computer programmer, a film maker, there is a role in advancing this field, where you can work with colleagues who turn you on, do work that is challenging and fun, and help improve the world. It is a hopeful time and an exciting time to be embarking on a career.
David Bornstein’s new book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know will be on sale at the YSEC MeetUP on April 22, 6 -8 pm at the Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina Ave., 4th Floor).
