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Lean + Bootcamp Workout for A Social Impact Project

14/3/2014

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I attended a Lean Impact Workshop by Leanne Pittsford of Start Somewhere where we used the Javelin Board to practice the Lean method on a social impact project. 

Within an afternoon, we identified a problem with customers (as distinguished from problems without customers that are not as ideal for a lean business!), tested assumptions with customers and pitched a prototype idea with potential customers.  

The most valuable parts were: 
  • thinking with a diverse group of people about how to apply the Lean method: who is the customer, what does the customer need, what is the riskiest assumption and determining what assumption to test 
  • applying Leanne Pittsford's  method to build lean tests by getting clear on vision (belief), mission (what you want to do), strategies (how will you do it) and goals (specific what you want to do). 

Lean Workout: A Prototype

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I designed this Lean Workout by hacking exercises from Eugene Eric Kim's Changemaker Bootcamp Watercooler* and Leanne Pittsford's Lean for Social Good workshop. This Lean Workout was a prototype to see how these two approaches might complement each other in order to accelerate social impact.   

Renee Frissen (right) and I prototyped the Lean Workout with our social impact projects.  Renee founded a Netherlands-based social enterprise Social Tech and I kickstarted OpenQRS.  Erin Beitel (left), a rockstar Teach for America alum, budding digital diva and OpenQRS team member facilitated the Lean Workout.


Why A Lean Workout? 

Prototyping favors action over perfection. The goal is learning- even if it results in the "failure" of an idea. I learned about prototypes and human-centered design working on the product development team for two ehealth startups with David Karshmer who led IDEO's health care practice in the 90s. A rough prototype tested with real customers offers a rapid way to disprove bad ideas in order to get to great ideas faster. We tested every idea immediately with customers in order to iteratively design our product/service offerings.  The Lean method applies this rapid learning approach rigorously.  

I love the premise of Eugene Eric Kim's Changemaker Bootcamp: preparing for effective collaboration is akin to sports training and results from practice!  The Bootcamp workout model aligns with my sense of how to effectively build the capacity and skills for sustainable leadership, collaboration, and rigorous learning.  It struck me that the Bootcamp workout model might also lend itself well to learning-through-applying the Lean approach for social entrepreneurial problem solving.  

In the Lean for Social Good workshop, we didn't have a chance to apply the Lean method to our own initiatives.  I was curious to test how the approach would work if two social enterprise teams paired to work through the Lean method on their respective initiatives. My hypothesis was that having people external to one's project join in this thought process would yield better results, faster.  

  1. How does the Lean method work when two companies pair up to apply Lean to their businesses
  2. How does the Lean method work when applied to a social impact project?  What are the edge of its usefulness?  
  • Many social impact projects have multiple customers (those that pay and those that benefit may or may not be the same).  How does that alter the model? 
  • Lean is predicated on an environment where risk is possible and failure can be afforded.  Many social impact projects are risk averse due to funding concerns and/or sensitive issues.  How does this culture difference influence the application of lean in these organizations/contexts?

Our Lean Workout

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After a quick check in, we did some workouts on our respective projects. 

{Workout #1 Check In: presence, shared understanding}

I shared the OpenQRS story then presented the vision (belief), mission (what you want to do), strategies (how will you do it) and goals (specific what you want to do). 

{Workout #2 Listening: presentation skills; listening}

We adapted the 100 Question Workout from the Changemaker Bootcamp.  15 minutes of rapid fire question generation. One question per post it.   The questions revealed the gaps in storytelling, surfaced assumptions, forced clarity and generated new thinking about the project. 

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Then, we clustered the questions into themes. OpenQRS will use these questions as prompts for blog posts next month. 

{Workout #3 Asking Generative Questions: listening, synthesizing, critical and creative thinking}

We ended with a Q&A to get answers needed for feedback to refine the vision, mission, strategies and goals. Then we switched projects and we did a repeat of the same workout for Renee's.  


{Workout #4 Dialogue: listening, synthesizing, responding in real time}

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While it was still fresh, we put Renee's project through the Javelin Board.  We discovered that her multi-prong approach to move forward meant that she had multiple potential customers.  A common feature of social impact projects is that the beneficiary is not always the same person who pays. Both are customers. Teasing out the different potential customers to determine a lean test was a great learning process. 

{Workout #5 Javelin: clarifying, refining, designing tests, getting out of the building, talking with customers}

Ongoing Practice: Lean Workouts  

Consistent with the Changemaker Bootcamp model that emphasizes these skills benefit from regular practice. Renee and I will continue our Lean Workouts in weekly check ins.  

Here is our weekly Lean Workout Agenda:
Check In 
1. My greatest success/win from last week:
2. My priority for the week is _____
3. My most inspiring moment last week was ______
4. Here's what I'm struggling with ______
5. _______ is on my 1 month horizon 
6. _______ is on my 3-6 month horizon 
7. Lean test from last week report back
8. Lean test for this week
9. (optional) My topic for 15 min brainstorm/open issue discussion

If requested, clarifying questions & reflections. 
Listener jots notes for the speaker.  
Repeat.


Key Learnings from our Lean Workout Process:

  • The 100 Question Workout was a high yield activity and a highlight of the day. (Thanks Eugene for sharing it and Changemaker Bootcamp Alum Eugene Chan for telling me about it!)
  • An external partner in this process surfaces assumptions and forces the implicit to be explicit
  • Helping the other enterprise provides the opportunity for great insights on one's own project even when the businesses are completely different!
  • A 3rd party process facilitator keeps the flow and provides a fresh perspective

Ideas for Future Iterations: 
  • Add a 5 minute reflective discussion just after the pitch. The listeners "sensemake" what they heard immediately after the pitch. The speaker listens to how the listeners understood the project: the way they talk about it, what words stuck, what things were unclear and learn from the gaps, questions, interpretations. (Renee's suggestion- great idea!)
  • Prompt participants to maintain a "cross learning" notebook/paper to jot down reflections for their project as they work on the other project.  Alternatively, build 3 min reflection breaks after each workout to capture ideas/lateral thinking from working on your own/the other project. 

Lean Learnings:

  • Clarified use of the Javelin Board
  • Identified the multiple customers for a social impact project
  • Trimmed the project to its bare essentials to an MVP that can be tested iteratively
  • Surfaced critical riskiest assumptions that narrowed the focus for MVP testing

Acknowledgements/Resources

Here is our full agenda including our notes from the Lean for Social Good Summit (These are unedited and may include Dutch and English).

Grateful to Eugene and Leanne who inspired this Lean Workout!  For more in depth resources, please follow up with Leanne Pittsford of Start Somewhere and Eugene Eric Kim of the Changemaker Bootcamp and Faster than 20. 

*Disclaimer: I've not participated in the Changemaker Bootcamp. These activities reflect my interpretations of exercises from the Changemaker Bootcamp Watercooler.  


Have you done something similar?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this approach.
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Our Knight News Challenge Submission: OpenQRS - a reflection on Open Contests

10/10/2013

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KNIGHT FOUNDATION NEWS CHALLENGE: HEALTH

On August 19th, Knight Foundation launched its latest Knight News Challenge, an open contest to win part of $2.2M for funding a project that responded to this health challenge: How can we harness data and information for the health of communities? 

This challenge presented the perfect catalyst to turn the idea shared in my TEDx: Integrity by Design from April 2013 at TEDxBarcelonaChange into a funded initiative. An enthusiastic team formed, and we submitted a proposal: OpenQRS: Open Source Tools to assure the Quality, Reliability and Safety of Health Care Devices on September 17th along with 650 other proposals!! 

We are humbled and excited by the enthusiasm since our submission posted.  The "applaud" and comments on the platform, tweets and FB posts, have been overwhelming.  Within a week, we have over 1000 views for our project. The Knight News Challenge reviewed the entries, and selected 39 semi-finalists. 

WAITING...

On a late dash from Manhattan to Newark, I checked my email every moment that I could ... on the train, on the tram, in the security line... awaiting the email announcing semi-finalists.  Nothing, nothing, nothing.  On the plane, one last look before powering down for the 5 hour flight to San Francisco. I checked again.  Nothing. I sent a text to a friend "We haven't heard anything from Knight yet.  It'll be a long 5 hrs."  I refreshed and found this message:
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SEMI FINALISTS

 \o/  We made it to the semifinals! With one week to refine our proposal, we got busy preparing this 30 second video and responses to their questions and  to feedback we had received from people.  On October 2nd, we submitted our refined proposal.  It's been an incredible journey, and we are excited to build on this momentum! 
 
Please check out our submission: bit.ly/openqrs  We welcome feedback to strengthen the proposal!  

OpenQRS in 30 Seconds from Kate Ettinger on Vimeo.


We welcome feedback to strengthen the proposal,
please contact us at www.openqrs.org or @OpenQRS 



A REFLECTION ON OPEN CONTESTS 

We are grateful to the Knight Foundation for this exciting opportunity to share our proposal publicly.  Generally, funding applications to foundations are internal, closed processes. Open contests like the Knight News Challenge fuel the democratization of ideas (enabling small projects or new initiatives the chance to be seen not only by the foundation but also by others), democratization of participation (allowing applications from an open pool of applicants rather than just "people in the know") and democratization of philanthropy (providing opportunities for others to discover and contribute to projects in ways beyond monetary).  Most importantly, they provide participants with an opportunity to find collaborators, contributors and additional funders; thereby, making the investment to participate in the challenge beneficial to the initiative regardless of whether they win the "purse."  

Open contests have critics. Valid concerns include that the voting system will be gamed by special interests or that the public may not have sufficient understanding of the issue to determine feasibility.  Knight News Challenge balances opening the door for new, small and under-resourced initiatives at the outset with a rigorous due diligence process informed by experts during the final phase.  This approach affords fresh ideas a chance to be discovered while only funding initiatives that demonstrate a responsible use of philanthropic investment.  Knight Foundation's leadership in "Open Contests" provides a framework for philanthropy to engage collaboratively with the public to identify and develop solutions to pressing social issues. 


We were thrilled to participate in the Knight News Challenge and 
we are grateful for the tremendous interest, support and enthusiasm!  



UPDATE: October 17: Although we were not selected as finalists, we are thrilled, grateful and enthusiastic about our experience with this open contest.  Following posting the project, OpenQRS gained two new phenomenal advisors for our project, Benjamin Stokes, co-founder of Games for Change and Rachel DeSain, Lead Consultant of Flaxworks specializing in emerging technology for health IT.  


A snapshot of our success from the Knight News Challenge:  in one month, we received over 2300 views of the project and 65 applause!  We are excited about interest from appropriate technology device makers and we will be hosting prototype QRSLab game sessions with these product teams over the next two months.  Stay tuned at www.openqrs.org and thanks for your support and interest! 
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Integrity by Design for Appropriate Health Care Technology: TEDxBarcelonaChange

1/5/2013

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Let's harness the power of 21st Century technology 
to assure the quality, reliability and safety of 
health care devices for everyone, everywhere...



On April 3, 2013, I gave my first TEDx: Integrity by Design at TEDxBarcelonaChange: Positive Disruption in Global Health
part of TEDxChange sponsored by the Gates Foundation

Join us as we build integrity by design to positively disrupt global health: http://www.integritybydesign.org

It was a humbling and brilliant experience. I am grateful to the #TEDxBarcelona team who hosted an outstanding, fun event and to my fellow TEDx speakers who inspired everyone! (Full speaker line up here: http://ow.ly/kAldv )

Thanks to our outstanding organizers Aurelie Salvaire Perrine Musset Johanna, rockstar coach Florian Mueck & the #TEDxBarcelonaChange team!  Very special thanks for ubuntu from my community whose contributions were invaluable. 
Let's positively disrupt the status quo! 
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5< 5:  Cereal Conversations on SocEntStrategy

30/4/2013

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This post is one in a series of 5<5 posts that document pilot/prototype projects with the format 5 things that I wish someone had told me before I started in <5% of the time spent on the project.   

Cereal conversations was a 5 week pilot project to convene legal practitioners and strategy consultants at the intersection of law and business in the social enterprise sector.   

Background

In March 2011, I ran a HubLab on "For Profit or Not-for-Profit" with Inder Comer, Esq. at HubSOMA.  Intended for social entrepreneurs, the HubLab was also attended by lawyers, who often advised clients through this decision nexus.  Intrigued by this "unexpected" participant group, I kickstarted a "pilot" of breakfast conversations.  "Cereal conversations" gave legal practitioners at this nexus of law and enterprise for social impact a forum to discuss practice experiences and concerns.  Social enterprise law is largely unchartered legal terrain- full of "open" legal issues, which means that a court has not yet 'ruled' to decide the "law" on many issues that are emerging from social innovation.  Legal questions about liability and tax implications in the sharing economy, regulation of food production for microenterprise, employment status and compensation for passion equity, etc.  Typically, good legal advice steers a client away from uncertainty in favor of what is known, what is certain, and what is "settled" in the law.  Uncertainty is risky and potentially very expensive.  However, until people- clients and lawyers- push the edges of "certainty" into these open, untested areas- the status quo in business will not change.  

Cereal conversations brought practitioners together for peer learning and aimed to build a community of legal practitioners who want to push the edges of the law.  Drawing on a model from clinical medicine where clinicians make decisions even amidst uncertain outcomes based upon a bioethical, principled justification, I opined that perhaps a similar values-driven approach to decision making could govern and guide legal practitioners, provided that the involved parties gave fully informed consent to the risks.  My assumption was that if we built a community and developed a shared knowledge base, it would be sufficient to support legal practitioners ready to take this risky step to shift the status quo in how business operates.  My hope was to identify the key 'ingredients' necessary to seed a local legal community pf practice, to design a DIY 'cookbook' that other communities could use to kickstart local chapters globally, and to build a 'recipe' braintrust to which local practice groups could contribute that would inspire innovation in legal practices at the intersection of business for social impact. 

5 Things I Wish I Knew About Community Building Before I Started:
  • 8am is too early for a meeting in San Francisco
  • Building a community takes time.  5 times just gets things started.
  • Meetings need to take place regularly.  To get work done- weekly is effective, to build community- monthly is sufficient. 
  • Get a small group to share the organizing responsibility (2-3 is enough)
  • For niche communities, keep the audience focused in order to maximize value to early participants. Here, it was more productive to have a majority of lawyers with only legally savvy strategy consultants, rather than a meeting with social entrepreneurs who seek information for their specific venture. 

Ultimately, cereal conversations was a prototype of a potential model.  It was a pilot test of assumptions.  The Bay Area group was the inaugural "Lucky Charms" group who pioneered the (ad)venture.  We learned a lot and we hope that the fruits of that learning shared here will strengthen the global community of legal practitioners active in this area. 

Why did we do it?
  • To develop a community of practice to strengthen practice in the legal grey areas of this sector.
  • To develop a format that provided value to satisfy the depth needed by legal eagles and practicality for social entrepreneurs
  • To strengthen the social enterprise community's access to new paradigm approaches by engaging the legal community in conversations with social entrepreneurs, impact investors and business consultants.
  • To kickstart a grassroots community generated knowledge commons on these emerging legal issues.
  • To create a forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing among legal practitioners

Methods

What did we do?
A breakfast club to "Map the Terrain" and build an initial community of legal practitioners. In this 5 week pilot, we met over cereal for conversations to map the legal landscape at the intersection of business and social impact.  The topics that we covered included: the business judgment rule, new CA corporate forms, mapping issues, social enterprise partnerships, and alternative dispute resolution and conflict management in the socent sector.

Our short term aim was to have one concrete, practical project from each pilot.  Proposed projects included:  
  • a model "founders/partnership agreement" for social entrepreneurs 
  • a map/quick guide to identify how/when social impact focus may generate new/different legal issues
  • a tactical considerations guide for the varying corporate forms
  • an article on the role of ADR in social enterprise

Our long term aim was two-fold:
1. To develop a cookbook "how to start a SocEntStrategy community of practice in __(your area)__" 
2. To develop a grassroots, knowledge commons on these issues at the intersection of law, business and social impact

Our core commitment that all resources developed will be provided open access under a creative commons: attribution/non-commercial/share alike.  Any revenue generated from this initiative would be reinvested in the initiative's educational mission.

Who participated?
An open invitation was made to colleagues in this sector. We were generously hosted by HubSOMA. The SocEntStrategy Founding Alliance included:
Kate Michi Ettinger, Chef Converger of Cereal Conversations
Natalia Thurston, Social Venture Law Group 
Tony Lai, Law Gives
Inder Comar, Comar Law
Lina Constantinovici, President, Biomimicry Incubator


How? 
Doors open 7:45 (security can take awhile)
8 - 9 Legal Eagles Hour
30 min: in depth on legal topic + case presentation
20 min: discussion
10 min: map discussion and networking

9 - 9:30 Law for SocEnts
15 min: legal topic presented for Social Entrepreneurs
15 min: discussion

Results
  • Of open invitation to 10 people directly and 10 people indirectly, we had a founding group of 5 people.  
  • We met consistently for 5 weeks.  
  • We shared knowledge, practice experience and developed a shared understanding of open issues within the sector.
  • We identified opportunities for collaboration within the group; those collaborations continue to manifest.
  • We experimented with and learned about technology that could support the group's work.  
  • For details: Weekly Posts: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5  (currently in publication)

Learnings & Opportunities
  1. There is a need for a community of practice among legal practitioners in this area.
  2. The social enterprise ecosystem will benefit from having the legal community that serves it strengthened.
  3. Building a community of practice takes time. Consistency is critical.  
  4. Critical mass generates movement.  Self organization may be overrated. 
  5. Engage one community at a time.  Clarity of purpose helps to respond to the diverse needs of why people show up.  If targeting lawyers, stick with lawyers to keep the focus on issues that yield value to attendees. 
  6. Use the work products of the primary community to engage secondary communities.  
  7. Choose technology that you can manage or have access to tech resources to administer the technology you want. 
  8. 8am is too early for many people and does not accomodate the geographic diversity of SF Bay Area, where traffic prohibits participation by practitioners not in the specific location. 
  9. Ideas take awhile to seed: People are ready now for an idea from 2 years ago that was prototyped 1 year ago.  
  10. Business law and corporate structures are domestic/state law issues.  This invites a creative glocal solution to building this grassroots community. 
  11. The effort to bring Cereal Conversations to Berlin resulted in identifying of a different doorway into the legal issues: case studies of pioneering social enterprises.  These case studies provide a simple framework through which to identify the open issues and to respond with how each could be addressed within one's jurisdiction.  These "Cases" become a common ground of understanding between geographic regions governed by different laws.  We are working to inspire the passion of the university students in law to explore social enterprise and business for social impact. 
  12. The effort to bring Cereal Conversations to London/UK resulted in the idea of a legal "briefhack," by the brilliant Polina Hristova. The IDEA: One weekend at Hubs around the world. Gather local law students, attorneys and social entrepreneurs.  Have students interview social entrepreneurs to identify legal issues at the edges.  Students confer with social enterprise attorneys who review the cases collectively in a panel format.  The law students then "brief" the legal issues raised by the social enterprises.  The net result is law students have the "brief" as a work product to show future employers.  The social entrepreneurs have an understanding of the issues they need to address.  The attorneys deepen their practice around these open issues and contribute to building a the glocal knowledge base.   

Long Term Outcomes 
  • Impact Law Forum, co-founded by Natalia Thurston of Social Venture Law Group and Zoe Hunton of Hunton Law, hosts a monthly meeting with speakers to strengthen the community of legal practitioners who work at the intersection of law and social enterprise. ILF rotates around the Bay Area.  
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5<5: Social Enterprise Ethics #socentethics

30/4/2013

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This post is one in a series of 5<5 posts that document pilot/prototype projects with the format 5 things that I wish someone had told me before I started in <5% of the time spent on the project.   


Background

Mission-driven and double/triple bottom lines demands accountability to multiple stakeholders.  Even with the best intentions and planning, most situations that one encounters in business cannot be predicted.  Doing "business" at the intersection of money and meaning requires navigating uncertainty and making tough decisions in complex conditions. 

SocEntEthics provides a framework to navigate these kinds of decisions by adopting an analogous approach to clinical medicine.  In medicine, physicians and clinical teams often face difficult decisions that require balancing benefits and harms, reconciling patient preferences and clinical options, and determining how best to proceed amidst uncertain outcomes.  Bioethical frameworks guide clinicians in navigating these difficult situations.  SocEntEthics empowers social entrepreneurs to create values-based frameworks and strategies to navigate uncertainties, to take effective action in complex situations and to negotiate values conflicts. 

Key Learnings
  1. Finding leaders who have insight that good intentions may not be sufficient to navigate the uncertainty and value-laden decisions at the nexus of money and meaning is rare.  
  2. It is JUICY when you meet someone who has the courage to build a vision of robust principled decision making into the operations of the enterprise/product from the outset! 
  3. Selling "certifications" makes it easy for enterprises to justify budget allocation for this kind of capacity building and peer/social pressure may drive adoption that creates a viable market for the "certification" product.  Duly noted that the viable business here may not transform how decisions are made and/or cultivate the capacity to make deliberate decisions-- so buyers and sellers should be aware whether they are opting for an approach that satisfies "compliance" and "checklist" needs or whether they are baking change into the core of their operations.  
  4. Waiting until integration of an ethics-driven framework is recognized as "necessary" may be too late.  A social mission enterprise that adopts a principled approach after things go wrong and/or after well into operations will have to fully integrate this approach throughout its operations and will need both bottom up engagement and top down commitment.  The effort and investment to rebuild trust and reformulate culture may be challenging and significant at this stage.
  5. Open source methods and strategies provide a template and idea source, but every enterprise is unique with its own culture and benefits from building its own values-driven framework that suits its operations. 
  6. At some point, when working through the "values" that underpin a socially-driven enterprise, there is a murky phase in the process.  It feels uncomfortable and nebulous.  People who like to "execute" get antsy.  This is a good time to take a break.  Normalize the inclination for "action" and "outcomes" and underscore the importance for the group to sit in the messiness of this uncertainty.  Go out for dinner, have drinks, take a walk, go on an outing to a museum. Tell people that it's normal to feel unresolved. Actually, it's essential. 

SocEntEthics Applied:

  • Operations: Policy Advisory Board


A social enterprise recognized the importance of this issue for its pioneering venture from prior to launch.  A policy advisory board was formed to support the team navigate these "tough" decisions.  The policy advisory board included multi-disciplinary professionals who represented the diverse stakeholders and constituents of the enterprise.  All policy advisory board reports and methods will be shared with open source/cc license. (currently in publication)

  • Operations: Conflict Management for Coworking Space
A social enterprise encountered challenging at a growth stage.  The enterprise chose to build a principled approach to conflict management into its operations. The team developed a set of principles to govern community engagement and invested in capacity building for staff and interns.  The methods and training resources will be shared under creative commons license. (currently in publication)


Original posts from Posterous at www.socentethics.com when this idea was initially launched can be found consolidated here. 

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SE 101: Overview of Posts on Social Enterprise

5/8/2012

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SE 101: What is a SocEnt? What is Social Enterprise?

What does social enterprise mean?  How do I get engaged?

Cool Projects

Cool SocEnt Projects: On My Radar
Leveraging the Private Sector for Social Impact
Ecosystem supporters for Social Enterprise and Social Change
Tech for Good
Next Edu Paradigms


Changemakers

Innovators and Funders of Social Change
Get the Buzz on Changemakers
Changemakers as Jobseekers



Special thanks to social impact catalyst Amy Chou for keeping SocEnt 101 Resources on Ideas that Impact up to date as of Jan 1, 2014.
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8-i SF for InSTEDD

30/4/2012

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On March 30, 2012... in cities around the world, designers and creatives met in teams to donate 8 hours overtime for a good cause as part of 8-i, a self-organizing event kickstarted by New Guard designers in the NLs in 2004... learn more about 8-i

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We joined teams of creatives all over the world (Netherlands, Berlin, London, Vienna, New York, Rio) ... in an 8 hour sprint to solve a communications challenge.  San Francisco participated for the first time. Live from Studio 305 in the Best Foods Building, a team of creatives solved a communications challenge for the non-profit, InSTEDD (innovative support technologies for emergencies, disease and disaster). Learn more about InSTEDD's amazing tool suite at instedd.org


This short video shares our design process and the storyboard that we created for InSTEDD- enjoy! 

  

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Thanks to rockstar SF Creative Team!

Betty Chen
Lina Constantinovici
Kinnari Desai
Brooke Estin (InSTEDD)
Kate Ettinger
Taema Mahinui
Benjamin Packard (Retainer Media)
Aviva Raskin (Bloxes)

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HubLab: To be For Profit or Not-for-Profit, that is the question...

29/3/2011

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HubLab Notes: 


In March 2011, I provided a HubLab with social enterprise attorney, Inder Comar at San Francisco's Hub. HubLabs are workshops for social entrepreneurs who are members of the Impact Hub, a global network of shared work places where social entrepreneurs go to work. These are the notes from our session.  Hope this resources help others trying to decide whether to be for-profit or not-for-profit! 


My usual disclaimer:
'I am trained in the law, but I am not a lawyer.  
Nothing that I say should be considered legal advice.  
Please consult with a real lawyer.' 

Following which, people usually respond:
'gosh, you sure sound like a lawyer.'


Key considerations when determining a corporate structure:

Purpose: Structure needs to align with the enterprise’s mission. Consider whether flexibility to adapt to changing conditions is important.

Method: Structure may shape, support and/or limit the enterprises’ activities.  Consider how structure influences the enterprise’s ability to fulfill its purpose.

Funding: Structure needs to suit the investor/funding needs of the entity

Growth: Structure needs to support growth/scale to achieve the operating goals of the enterprise.

Tax: Structure needs to optimize taxes both for the venture and for the funders/donors.

IP: Structure may need to support IP ownership

Location: Corporate laws are state based. Consider what state has the most advantageous corporate law for your enterprise based upon what, where and how the venture will fulfill its mission.

Risk tolerance/Accountability: Structure determines control and accountability. Consider governance and stakeholder interests. Newer legal structures are not legally “tested,” creating more uncertainty for an enterprise.

Location: Corporate laws are state based. Consider what state has the most advantageous corporate law for your enterprise based upon what, where and how the venture will fulfill its mission.

Liability: Structure may influence one’s eligibility for insurance and likelihood of litigation. Consider how structure will influence employment obligations and human resources.

Costs: Structures have different legal and administrative costs at the outset and related to ongoing maintenance. Consideration of the benefits of the structure should include evaluation of the resources necessary to create and maintain the entity and the potential barriers/costs associated with the need for potential structural changes at a future time.


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Spectrum of Emerging Business Models

Traditional Structures:  Accounting firms often produce good overviews of tax implications and value of different business structures:
* Non-Profit 501(c)(3): charitable purpose, tax exempt not for profit organization
* Sole proprietorships (bulk of business run by individuals where personal liability is low - think flower shops)
* LLCs (cheap to file, flexibility in allocating profits and losses)
* S-corps (just like a publicly traded-firm but with a cap on the number of shareholders - e.g. dozens, not millions)
* C-corps (expensive to maintain and really only helpful if you want a global company that is going to launch on a stock exchange).

Emerging Business Models

LC3: social charitable mission + limited liability corporation
B-Corp: social/charitable mission + full corp tasked with balancing social/env/profit (more expensive, better for large ventures expecting large investment capital)

Hybrids:
A) Non-profits w/ For-Profit Subsidiary (Taproot) --> for generating revenue for NP parent *tricky due to the potential for unrelated earned income to jeopardize non-profit status http://www.sdlaw.com/files/Download/subsidiaries.htm

B) For-Profit with NP-Foundation (Google/McKesson) --> for dispersing revenue For a thorough review of advantages and disadvantages for each type on this continuum, please see: Fruchterman, J. For Love or Lucre, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2011, p. 42-47.

In "For Love or Lucre", Benetech founder Jim Fruchterman proposes these 4 questions:

• What are your motivations for starting the venture?

• What market are you targeting?

• How do you plan to raise capital?

• What type of control do you want over the venture?

For a downloadable version and full references.  Please see this handout from the HubLab March 2011

With thanks to San Francisco Hub/Bay Area Hubs for inviting this HubLab and especially to my skillful cofacilitator and social enterprise attorney Inder Comar of Comar Law for contributions to the "key considerations" list.  Thanks to our session attendees- we had fun! 

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Learning Journey Report: A Visit to the Scotland Project of the International Futures Forum

14/3/2011

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In January 2011, after a journey that included an adventure into New York City after Newark had a power outage and closed all flights amidst a snowstorm, I arrived in Scotland for the first time. I spent two fascinating weeks learning about the various Scotland Projects of the International Futures Forum.  The full report is included here.  A series of posts featuring each individual project precedes this post.  Comments and feedback welcome! 


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"My Favorite Things" Couture Store for Social Good {idea post}

24/9/2010

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I wonder if in the future, people will curate their own Couture stores of favorite things.  Imagine if each person created a "couture" store of stuff they like... It might work like this:

Sasha, a busy mom of 2, has just discovered an instant organic Vietnamese brown rice noodle soup that is a life-saver when she needs a quick dinner after a busy day; it's healthy and the kids love the noodles.  In the past, she would tell friends that she runs into, but now she can take her superfan evangelism for
Happy Pho to a new level and places it in the food section of her Couture store, where she also features her favorite baby shower gift- a baby blanket set from Ambajam.  Much like the easy "do-it-yourself" features of Weebly (this is a weebly site), Sasha creates a stylized design for the Couture store of favorite things a bit like ebay, except Sasha doesn't have to fulfill any of the orders.  Orders are fulfilled via the business directly.  In this case, Ambajam (a web-based business located in Denver) fulfills its own orders and Happy Pho (available in Whole Foods in person, or online via Amazon) would be fulfilled by Amazon. 

Sasha might be looking to upgrade the kitchen and knows that Suki, an interior decorator friend, has great taste and a gorgeous kitchen. Sasha starts by going to Suki's Couture shop to see what Suki recommended in home furnishings. When Sasha makes a purchase, Suki gets credited with superfan evangelist points for the referral. Sasha benefits from Suki's advice without interrupting Suki's work flow and by generating referral credit for Suki, Sasha honors the value of Suki's expertise. 
Referrers receive credit points for a referral and a referral into sale.

And when Frank goes to his Couture interface to find a baby shower gift for an office worker, he searches baby shower gifts and Sasha's Ambajam recommendation pops up because Sasha and two other people in his extended network recommended it. When he clicks on the link, Sasha and the others get credited with the referral.  The search returns items prioritized by the frequency of recommendations within Frank's extended community and collective referrers receive credit.  

Benefits for Everyone
This Couture model allows businesses that benefit from superfan evangelists to identify and engage with their superfans.  Most superfans evangelize from passion, not for monetary gain, but the companies receiving referrals benefit from this marketing.  Most of the "shopping for good" sites sign on big businesses, but this system would be design to make it easy for smaller businesses to access and engage in the referral marketplace.  Businesses could develop relationships with their superfans with previews, discounts, and love for spreading the love.  (Fascinating blog post on how Zynga does iterative design testing with superfans)  The Couture system charges a small fee to the business for access to the referral platform (like Open table for restaurants) and the Couture system passes a % of its profit back to the superfan as points for charitable donation (Credo model). 

Ecosystem Purchasing
The ranking of recommendations is based upon collective referrals. While actual dollars paid for referrals would penalize the referrers of great business by diluting their percentage and/or costing the most recommended businesses a lot of money. This model gives everyone who successfully refers a credit.  The business donates a percentage (33%) of its profit to charitable ventures that get distributed based upon the ranking of its referrer community. (Credo Model) 

A key factor of this platform which distinguishes it from past platforms builds on our knowledge that people are more likely to change a behavior when other around them are adopting the behavior; this includes purchasing what others in their social circle are purchasing.  So, this platform builds on an individual's existing social network as an ecosystem that support purchasing, then takes the profit from that purchase and reinvests/distributes it back to the collective community.  It's a different angle on the Groupon and leverages access to referral markets for small business whether they are local or remote. 

I see this as a mashup that includes the Couture store with a 3D interface of Second Life, an application for small businesses that like Open Table allows easy access to customers and the referral system, the community/network access, the insight of LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter with the unique trackback & stat capabilities of Hootsuite and the community good distribution model of CREDOMobile.  No one said, creating the architecture that facilitates doing some good would be simple or easy, but it sure could be a lot of fun to make it easy for people to do more good! 

This idea sprang from a series of articles that I stumbled across in the last week couple of weeks- including Beth Kanter's graphic on how non-profits can leverage social media (the Superfan Evangelist concept) + a Slate article on the Death of the Salesman (the internet as the disintermediator of the "salesman" in the US) + a report on a recent MIT study about social media and public health behavior change that could be applied to purchasing behavior. 

If you know someone in this space already, do tell!  What do you think?

*These are not paid advertisements, but I am a superfan evangelist of these products- enjoy!
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Inspiring & Celebrating the work of SEs

31/8/2010

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What if we created an Awards show for Doing Good .... like TED meets the Academy Awards for SE awesomeness!

Categories might include: Best SE Innovation, Best Sustainable Project, Most Promising Idea, Most Urgent Problem, Most Creative Approach, Best Producer of Collective Good, Best Funder of Change, Best Team Captain (male and female lead), Best SE Technology, Best Social Enterprise, Best SE (Hybrid), Best Sustainable Venture for a NPO, Best New Talent (30-18), Best Rising Star (<18), Best Collaboration, Best Venture to Scale, Best in Crisis, Best Humor: Making the Best of the Worst Circumstances, Best Creative Campaign for Good.  

the 5 nominees for each category get a 30 second video to pitch their project and the winners get a 2 minute pitch + a 90 second acceptance speech ;) ....

Let's show the world how glamorous, sexy, fashionable, cool & inspiring our SE world is, so that kids all over the globe will want to grow up to DO THAT!  ... to honor those who fall, to celebrate those who succeed ......

To lessen the "popularity" contest of many recent approaches to funding that benefits those larger organizations with a strong base, the Academy of Social Entrepreneurs would be comprised of members and voting members.  Voting members would be invited and nominated based upon their experience .... A school whose admission reflects a true "meritocracy" where experience counts because a failed venture for good has far more value more than a degree!

What do you think?
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#socentethics {originally on Posterous)

9/6/2010

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SEE Change: SocEntEthics (splash-landing page)

After incubating this idea for awhile, I am jumping in feet first - splash!

For #socentethics, we are designing a method that allows flexible, precise action adaptable to the diverse core values of social enterprises. 

Our aim is to empower social entrepreneurs to act with integrity at every step from start up to scale.  We want your inspired action to calatyze your investors, funders, supporters, and customers so that you can grow your mission to change the world!

Join us in be the change, so that we can SEE the change:

 #Excellence

 #Trustworthiness

 #Humility

 #Integrity

 #Collaboration

#Socialchange

Next steps:

1) Funders/Collaborators: Who should we talk to:

  • Are there funders who want to support building the foundation of integrity in the new marketplace?  We have lots of great intention and a flow of passionate, patient capital- our aim is to maximize the benefit! 
  • Who else is in this space and how can we work together to leverage our expertise & passion?
  • Are there ventures already off the ground that whose market we complement? Please connect us!
2) Partners/Referrals: Please refer social entrepreneurs or social enterprises for crisis consultation and/or to work with us as a case study as we  proto-type the SocEntEthics method

3) Questions/Comments: More posts to follow on the opportunity, the method, and the plan forward... let us know what you want/need to know to get on board with SocEntEthics .... together, we will SEE the change.

About SocEntEthics

empowering social entrepreneurs to act from core values when faced with tough decisions

SocEntEthics, supports social entrepreneurs negotiate the tough decisions inevitable when doing work for the greater good with limited resources.

As a social entrepreneur and a health care ethicist, Kate Michi Ettinger values a concrete, pragmatic approach to ethics.  With SocEntEthics, Kate cross-pollinates her passions for innovation, social enterprise, systems-level analysis, and ethics into a synthesized approach for social enterprise ventures to express their values in their action.  SocEntEthics is developing as L3C (low-profit limited liability corporation), in order to demonstrate by example and learn with its users as a "greater good" venture with a sustainable revenue model.

Our aim is to build a platform that guides SEs through a systematic analysis of a dilemma, allows SEs to share frameworks and strategies for negotiating ethical dilemmas, enables SEs to collaborate on tackling challenging dilemmas of scale/setbacks/geo-political origin, and empowers SEs to identify ways to transcend dilemmas while remaining true to their SE's mission. Re-envisioning ethics in a proactive, integrated approach allows a SE to act with iterative process and moved beyond judgements of right-wrong/good-bad. The SocEntEthics Method asks tough questions and explores uncertain terrain while emphasizing ethical dilemas in their narrative, integrative, collaborative and empathic context.

A robust ethical underpinning is integral to the fabric of social enterprises. SocEntEthics aims to empower social enterprises with the tools, skills and resources to:

  • act in alignment with your core values & social change mission 
  • excel in social change impact without compromising your ideals
  • negotiate tough decisions inherent in social change with integrity and compassion
  • steward your social capital resources with trustworthiness 
See here for more information on: our services, in the news, support our venture.



SocEntEthics Team

Ethical dilemmas benefit from multiple perspectives.  As an ethics consulting service, SocEntEthics is building a global team that includes social entrepreneurs, social change agents, artists, integrated leadership experts and ethical expertise.  Together, our team, is designing a SocEntEthics model that can serve as an ethical foundation for any social enterprise venture although our initial focus will be on social enterprises for health.

Team includes: 

  • Kate Michi Ettinger, JD, managing ideator for SocEntEthics consulting team, brings expertise in bioethics, law and conflict resolution combined with product design experience as a social entrepreneur. These lenses shape her perspective in creating this ethical advisory resource for social entrepreneurs.
  • ADVISORY BOARD: Putting together an advisory board to be our external agitators & conscience.  If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please drop us an email at: info @ [domain] .com
  • CONCEPT CREATORS: Building a network of passionate innovators, social entrepreneurs, social venture investors and multi-inter-cross-disciplinary change agents to help us build the platform & move this forward.   If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please drop us an email at: info @ [domain] .com
  • TECH & DESIGN Team: Looking for developers, artists & designers to assist us getting this up and running!  If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please drop us an email at: info @ [domain] .com
We are building our team.  To get involved please follow us on Twitter @socentethics  #socentethics. 



SocEntEthics Services


SocEntEthics is developing an innovative platform for navigating ethical dilemmas and implementing a sustainable approach to our ethics consultation services.  We partner with our clients to deliver an integrated ethics program tailored to your social enterprise venture.

We offer consulting through appointments and drop in office hours to discuss issues you have encountered and those you are facing.


Our consulting services are flexible and may combine any services:

1. SocEntEthics Core Integration
  • SEE Integrated Optimal Action Plan 
  • SEE Decision Impact Audit


2. SocEntEthics Issue Specific & Crisis Consultation
  • Issue Specific/Crisis Consultation


3. SocEntEthics Tools, Skills, Resources
  • Tools
    • SocEntEthics Method
    • SocEntEthics Platform
  • Skills Training
    • Navigating Uncertainty
    • Skillfully Applying the 3Ps (Power, Privilege, Position)
    • Negotiating Values Conflicts
  • Resources


The SocEntEthics Method/Platform  is in development.  At the outset, we will work with 10 social enterprise ventures as case studies.  If your social enterprise would like to partner with SocEntEthics as a case study, please DM us on Twitter with a link to your venture and/or email address. 


Sustainability

Our economic model aims to model the ethos of this endeavor with a fierce commitment to Excellence, radical Transparency, daring Humility, and to challenge the status quo of current assumptions about Integrity, Collaboration and Social Justice.

Our goal is to develop a sustainable revenue stream to support the technology platform and to drive innovative applications for #socentethics. We will measure success by accountability and activity. Our aim is to impact the greater good and redefine ethics --> #socentethics. Ou commitment is to model our message and demonstrate our products.

In order to promote integrity & accountability and to provide high quality services at a lower cost with broad impact, social enterprise ventures who partner with us for consulting services will be invited to release learning from our consulting services that can be provided in a redacted form as case studies.  The redacting process allow clients anonymity including sector and geographic changes while allowing SocEntEthics to leverage its talent for maximal benefit of social enterprises.  


Details

SocEntEthics Core Integration

  • SEE Integrated Optimal Action Plan 
    • Facilitate outcome-focused integrated ethics plan across all levels of SE
    • Provide skills & resources for optimal actions
    • Support SE through implementation
    • Issue-specific consultations
    • Ethics Quality Improvement
      • Deliverables:
        • Integrated Optimal Action Plan
        • Skills & resources to achieve OA
        • Implementation & Crisis Support
        • Outcome Evaluation & QI Planning
  • SEE Decision Impact Audit
    • Facilitate analysis of decision impact on relevant stakeholders
    • Identify strategies for action that align with integrated OA plan
    • Explore alternative options, reasoning, impact, opportunities
      • Deliverables: 
        • Facilitated Decision Impact Discussion
        • Decision Impact Report
2. SocEntEthics Issue Specific & Crisis Consultation

  • Issue Specific/Crisis Consultation
    • Facilitate identification of the issue
    • Identify strategies for action that align with SE values
    • Explore alternative options, reasoning, impact, opportunities
      • Deliverables: 
        • Facilitated Issue Discussion
        • Issue Consult Report
3. SocEntEthics Tools, Skills, Resources

  • Tools
    • SocEntEthics Method
    • SocEntEthics Platform
  • Skills Training
    • Navigating Uncertainty
    • Skillfully Applying the 3Ps (Power, Privilege, Position)
    • Negotiating Values Conflicts
  • Resources
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SE 101: Changemakers: Innovators & Funders  [1 of 3]

12/11/2009

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Changemakers....innovators & funders of social change


Innovators of funding social change
  • kiva ...... loans that change lives
  • a better place ...... connecting people in need of support with people who want to help 1:1 worldwide
  • Resource Generation ...... organizing young people with financial wealth to leverage resources and privilege for social change
  • Tipping Point Community ...... making poverty preventable, not inevitable, in the Bay Area
  • Pipeline Fellowship... changing the face of angel investing by empowering women to be savvy angel and venture investors



Drivers of Social Change ... funders leading the edge.... this is the beginning of a growing list!
  • Ashoka Foundation
  • Acumen Fund
  • Echoing Green Fellows
  • Skoll Foundation
  • Tides Foundation


What funders and changemakers are you excited about?   
Leave a comment below or send us a tweet @ideasthatimpact
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SE 101: Cool Projects.... Modeling Change: Next Edu Paradigms (5/5)

10/11/2009

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New Educational Paradigms Links on Pearltrees

Education in On my Radar / Social Enterprise: Design, Innovation, Strategy / Mural Institute

"Real learning is the disruptive technology" - IFF Prompt Card


Dynamic Map of Next Education Projects

Important considerations for new paradigm edu:
Occupation of Knowledge TEDxRamallah Munir Fasheh
Schooling the World

Learn about the latest great projects in these two Facebook groups:
Presente (educators looking to bring new/next edu paradigms into the system)
New Educational Paradigms (mostly Gen Y engaging in alternative edu projects)


Programs for changemakers: 
Knowmads, Netherlands
Kaos Pilots, DenmarkMycelium School, USA (see founder Matthew Abrams TEDxNewHaven: 21st Century Education)
Follow a new education activist-in-learning-action: The Eduventurist

Promising Education Initiatives
Transformative Innovation in Education by International Futures Forum
 
TED: 1000 best minds in Technology, Education & Design .... many talks that address issues related to social entrepreneurship
         - See also RSA : Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) "a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action"

UNU (United Nations University) OpenCourseWare

Social Edge, supported by Skoll Foundation, by Social Entrepreneurs for Social Entrepreneurs 

World University

last updated 1 Jan 2014
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SE 101: Cool Projects Tech for Good  [4 of 5]

8/11/2009

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Technology to accelerate Social Change  (examples.... *happily* the list is growing)


openIDEO a global community that will draw on your optimism, inspiration, ideas and opinions to solve problems together for the collective social good.

Click to give ..... the hunger site.... leveraging the "clicks" for social good

Room to Read ......world change starts with educated children- expanding literacy around the world

Social Innovator (Social Innovation Exchange) ... connecting social innovators for social change



Promoting Technology Innovation for Social Change

Social Innovation Camp:    (Originally UK, now global, look for one near you!)

Net Squared: remixing the web for social change 

techsoup - the technology place for non-profits

benetech


Once interesting but seem to be gone:Idea-porting ... platform to share ideas for impact within and between countries
Do The Right Thing ......  where good ideas grow: consumer input for companies to "do" good


What are your favorite apps for social impact?  Who is building tech for changemakers? 
Please leave a comment or send us a tweet @ideasthatimpact
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