Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Week 2: Social Innovation at the Micro-Level - Coggle Diagram
Week 2: Social Innovation at the Micro-Level
Part 1: Being a social entrepreneur
"Individuals who apply business logic in a novel and entrepreneurial way to improve the lives of those in need and incapable of changing their situation"
Entrepreneur vs. Social Entrepreneur
Both are strongly motivated by the opportunity they identify, pursuing that vision relentlessly, and deriving reward from the process of realizing their ideas
Critical distinction lies in the
value proposition
Entrepreneur: VP is organized
to serve markets
, designed
to create financial profit
Social Entrepreneur:
Aims for value in the form of large-scale transformational benefit for a significant segment of society or to society at large
Main Characteristics
1. Passion and idealism
Innovative thinking and Cross-sector creativity
Risk-taking and resilience
4. Visionary and long-term leadership
5. Socially aware and empathic
Part 2: Some dark sides of social entrepreneurship
TOMs "One for One"
Underlying assumption
: Kids in Africa need shoes
Unintended Consequences
: Destroyed local economies, reinforced dependencies and white saviors, stigmatized others through "poverty porn"
Girls on their period
Underlying assumption
: Girls do not attend school while on their period because they don't have pads.
In reality, they did not have underwear
Part 3: Design Thinking + "Design Thinking Simulation
Why design thinking?
To
address the needs of the people
who will consume a product or service and the infrastructure that enables it - human-centred approach
It
uncovers biased assumptions and problem definitions
that block more effective solutions from emerging
Solutions are relevant to a unique cultural context and will not necessarily work outside that specific situation
The origins of design thinking
Design thinking was conceptualized by designer Nigel Cross in 1982 in the Design Studies article "Designerly Ways of Knowing"
Approach was later used and made popular by IDEO, a global design consultancy, designing Apple's first mouse
Definitions of design thinking
"Design thinking is a
human-centred approach
to problem-solving that places
empathy at its core
. It
seeks to understand the needs and experiences of people
to create
innovative and impactful solutions
.”
"Design Thinking is the single
biggest competitive advantage
that you can have, if your customers are loyal to you—because if you
solve for their needs first
, you’ll always win.”
Applications of design thinking
Useful for social innovation: tackling grand challenges
Consulting: promising approach to complex problem-solving
Why do Brown & Wyatt, 2010 refer to
Spaces of Design Thinking
rather than steps?
"The design thinking process is a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps
Not always undertaken sequentially
5 Steps of design thinking
Inspiration Space
Problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions
Empathise
Gaining a
deeper understanding of the needs
of people affected by the problem by
talking, observing and engaging
with them
This process of
immersion
is crucial to check assumptions and to uncover different facets of the problem
Ideation Space
Process of generating, developing, and testing ideas
Define
Use the results of the first step to state
what exactly the different facets of the problem are, and for whom
Identify meaningful or surprising
new insights
Ideate
Challenge existing solutions and brainstorm radical new ideas
Use different ideation techniques and embrace
multidisciplinarity
(“architects who have studied psychology, artists with MBAs, or engineers with marketing experience”)
Come up with as many ideas as possible, group and sort them
Implementation Space
Path that leads from the project stage into people's lives
Prototype
Creating solutions with the aim to identify the most useful or viable solution by experimenting with a very
inexpensive or small-scale draft of the idea
Embracing experimentation and failure
Test
Trying solutions out in an iterative process
, which often leads back to Step 1 of the process to further
refine and specify the needs
Design Thinking vs. Conventional Problem Solving
Conventional Problem Solving:
Based on the assumption that the problem and the solution are clear
Innovations focus primarily on what could be sold
Follows a linear approach that considers failure as setback
Requires large investment upfront and extensive testing in simulated environments
Requires certainty
Design Thinking:
Considers the evaluative nature of the problem to be solved
Innovations focus first on what is needed, second on what could be sold
Follows an iterative approach that considers failure as part of learning
Requires small initial investment and real-world prototyping
Embraces ambiguity
Part 4: The Challenge of running a Social Enterprise
Main Challenges
Managing both
social and economic goals
=
Tensions of hybridity
Developing suitable business model to secure
funding to scale
Tensions of Hybridity
Dual mission: Social & Economic
Hybrid Spectrum
Traditional Nonprofit
Nonprofit with Income-Generating activities
Social Enterprise
Socially Responsible business
Corporation practicing Social Responsibility
Traditional For-Profit
Businesses experience tensions of hybridity if they engage in corporate social responsibility
NGOs experience tensions of hybridity if they engage in income generating activities
Social enterprises face severe tensions of hybridity because they sit right in the middle
4 Practices
to deal with tensions of hybridity
Setting and monitoring social goals alongside financial ones
Structuring the organisation to support both socially and financially oriented activities
Hiring and socializing employees to embrace both
Practicing dual-minded leadership
Examples
Fairphone
: Tensions of hybridity affect Fairphone's resource allocation and recruitment strategy
FORWARD.INC
: Challenge and barrier to scale and growth is the lower venture investments to female entrepreneurs