Sharing the goodness
It is a glorious Tuesday filled with sunshine, opportunities to connect, meaningful work and mind-blowing ideas. My cup runneth over. So let me please share some of this goodness with you.
- Pragmatic Idealist: How can you NOT be inspired by someone who approaches world-building in such a beautiful and common sense way? I had the pleasure of hanging out with my very talented kindred spirit Ruby Ku yesterday evening. She is always enlightening and crazy smart. I have (not-so) secretly dubbed her one of The Incredibles. Anyhow, you will want to read about her. I am hoping she will delight us with some snacks from her adventures in Austin at kind of a design for change bootcamp. We shall see.
- The “Bono” way: I attempted to post a comment 3 times in response to this post but alas, technical difficulties… So I shall add my thoughts here but go to Wonderment Woman’s blog first:
Many of the “superheroes” I know are not sitting in ivory towers pondering the world’s challenges or advising global leaders. They live in towns/cities that most of us would have trouble pointing to on a map. I get to meet them via platforms like Sprout (www.sproutecourse.org) or more generally through the online community that is Taking IT Global (www.tigweb.org) or via international networks like Pioneers of Change (www.pioneersofchange.net) Other “superheroes” are people in my own communities who are transforming the mainstream by doing things differently within their organizations, workplaces, schools, homes and neighbourhoods. I have no doubt that many would consider the work of the “superheroes” I have described above as small potatoes. Bu then it is truly amazing what small potatoes can accomplish.
There are some great platforms helping to shine a light on those who are on the ground solving real issues and building better communities in their home nations in developing regions. I take your point about Bono’s role in illuminating those who are creating change out of immediate necessity. However, let’s not come to rely on Bono and his “rock star status” to do that because then it seems to be no better than relying on “white guys with MBAs who launch start-ups” to pave the way.
- What’s in it for me?: I came upon this thought-provoking piece written by John Elkington (possibly best known as the Father of Sustainability). But what really got the wheels-a-turning was a comment by Hermant Puthli which addresses the 800 pound gorilla in the room. No one wants to answer the one question that sits under the surface hindering efforts towards social change: what’s in it for me? Here is an exerpt from his comment but I encourage you to read the whole of it by following the link above.
One of the factors inhibiting scalability of social change is the fact that it has till date been driven by selflessness in some shape or form – call it charity or philanthropy or altruism or whatever. ‘Social Enterprise’, in most cases, is just the new avatar of the familiar 20th century non-profit / NGO type of activity. In exceptional situations (and there have been many more of these in recent times), social enterprise is actually more business-like in its approach and practices, in terms of ascribing legitimacy to the self-interest of the entrepreneur.
The tipping point will come when the question “What’s in it for me?” gets a meaningful answer when it comes to activities that drive social change. In other words, when the motive to act towards social change is clearly visible as delivering benefit to self, more people will act, and act on a larger scale. Till that happens, we will only have sporadic exemplars whose efforts everyone will laud, a few will follow and try to replicate, but not all will embrace en masse.
There are two pre-requisites to reach that tipping point, and they both need to go hand-in-hand. One is the recognition of ‘sustainability’ as a design goal for a healthy and prosperous society – the recognition that the common good is a higher goal than short-term narrowly defined self-interest, not from an emotional / moral / religious perspective, but from a very practical point of view. And the other is of course, technology.
- The human story: You can talk to me in terms of percentages and demographics and I will listen. You can talk to me about ideologies and dogmas and I will listen. But if you really want me to hear you, tell me a human story. It is in those human stories that truth is illuminated. Case in point: Renjie Butalid (another of The Incredibles) posted a powerful story yesterday that allowed me to hear the thumping of all those human hearts we encounter every day on the bus, at the grocery store, walking down the street, etc… Go read it. Maybe you too will hear hearts thumping and be reminded of what connects us all.
- Planetary alignment: I attended the Acumen Fund Toronto Chapter launch last night. I learned quite a bit about this non-profit social venture captial firm but wondered why I was really there. What was to be my role in this Toronto Chapter should I desire to be involved? Well I soon realized that my presence there was possibly a result of planetary alignment or some other equally intangible thing. I got to connect – by chance – with some of The Incredibles and get introduced to new people doing fabulous work to begin even more fabulous conversations.
- OpenAgile: Today I have the great pleasure of meeting up with David Parker of OpenAgile to discuss this innovative process for organizational development. One of OpenAgile’s fundamental tenets is truthfulness. I am trying to encourage my Sprout participants to be open and honest about where they are in the process of their project and personal development as social entrepreneurs. I am also trying to remind myself to do the same with mountains of work under which I am slowly getting buried. I have been thinking a great deal about the importance of truthfulness in communication after having attended an event earlier this month that left me feeling slightly ”swindled” or at the very least was misrepresented (hopefully, unintentionally?). At any rate, this is worth sharing and should you want to know more, you can learn more here.
Filed under: Changemakers
Wow, Kristle, thanks so much for the kind words. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. Funny thing is, I can’t stop telling people how amazing and incredible you are after chatting with you yesterday!
I love this post in many ways. I also read the piece written on Wonderment Woman. I totally agree with you that relying on Bono’s rock star status might not be any better than the white guy with a MBA launching a social venture”. But the frustrating thing is that it works – in the sense that the Bonos and the white good-looking celebrities CEOs in the world did indeed help create so much awareness for the people who would have never come across these issues. I am not the biggest fan of organizations like charity water and Tom Shoes. All the branding and marketing of “poor people” and “poverty’ makes me uncomfortable. At the same time though, taking what Nicholas Kristof always says – “hey, whatever works”.
Have you read this piece? It’s another interesting read. http://aidwatchers.com/2010/04/can-the-west-learn-from-china-in-africa/
I know you’re already so busy with all the projects going on with Inspired Practice, so thank you so much for continuing to share your journey and walking the talk of being open, honest and truthful!
[...] (much-delayed) post is a bit of a Part 2 to the Sharing the Goodness post from last month. In April and early May, I had the great pleasure of connecting with a number [...]