Lean methodology can help us design and deliver better products and services, as well as boost their scale and impact. But one great solution is not enough. To address the world’s toughest challenges we will need to move beyond delivering individual interventions to transforming entire institutions and ecosystems.
Market and policy failures can result in dysfunctional dynamics that impede adoption or, even worse, reverse progress. The rigid funding mechanisms that we depend on can be at odds with the agility and flexibility that is at the core of innovation. Cultural norms within our organization and beyond can produce antibodies to a new way of working. And, at the same time, so much talent, money, and resources are being left on the sidelines. No one said social impact would be easy.
It can be extremely tempting to keep our heads down and focus on what we can control. But if we don’t collectively grapple with the broader headwinds, we will all continue to make far slower progress than is possible, and than is needed. While Parts I and II of this book focused on the process of innovation for a particular solution, Part III will turn to the context for innovation – how to put the wind at our backs.
Chapter Ten will delve into the all‐too‐frequent market and policy failures that exist as well as how we can work collaboratively to address them. In Chapters Eleven and Twelve, we will tackle the elephant in the room – funding – head on. How can social entrepreneurs more effectively navigate the contradictions between available funding and what is needed to innovate? And, perhaps more importantly, how can funders of all stripes reinvent their mechanisms to be more dynamic, allow for risk taking, and embrace an increasingly hybrid landscape? Chapter Thirteen looks inside organizations and focuses on building a high‐performing culture that embraces change and the possibility of failure. Finally, Chapter Fourteen looks to the future, and how citizens, nonprofits, companies, foundations, investors, and governments can come together more seamlessly to maximize benefit to all.
We are relying on nineteenth‐century institutions using twentieth‐century tools to address twenty‐first‐century problems. It’s time for us to stop acquiescing to the old rules of the game and create new ones. Transformation is a journey that can only succeed if we come together.