Social Engineering Soap Opera Style

Population Communications International (PCI) has a very intriguing tagline: "Telling Stories, Saving Lives."

PCI, an American non-profit based in New York City, takes on the biggest, hairiest, most intractable problems. These are the issues that are so huge that should really be added to the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: HIV/AIDS, women's rights, population control, environmental degradation and global sustainability.

The main weapon in their arsenal is perhaps the most powerful social force in the world today, second only to religion and Hip Hop... the soap opera.

PCI has worked in over twenty-five countries worldwide since 1985, and together with local partners has produced eighteen soap operas in fourteen countries. PCI consultants work directly with writers and social workers in local markets such as the Andean highlands, Kenya, Central America, and China. According to PCI's website, their programs "address the societal factors that limit people's ability to make choices that will improve their health and educational prospects."

These serial dramas motivate individuals to adopt new attitudes and behavior by modeling behaviors that promote family health, stable communities, and a sustainable environment. Each series is written, performed and produced by the creative talent in that country. The media stretches across tv, radio and print.

Mónica en busca de amor
(Monica in Search of Love)

This Spanish-language comic book, by Population Control International, provides Latino teens in the Los Angeles area with information about some common risks that adolescents face, including dating violence, early pregnancy, and STDs. Published in collaboration with a group of Latino teenagers and Gregory Molina, an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the comic reflects life for Spanish-speaking youth in some of the city's most difficult neighborhoods. It has been distributed extensively in Southern California by health and social agencies. more>

For more, check out the On the Media story, "The Soapbox":

In the late 1970s, Mexican telenovela writer Miguel Sabido invented the “soap opera for social change.” Since then, awareness organizations around the world have used Sabido-style soap operas to broadcast their message to millions of viewers. Brooke speaks with New Yorker contributor Hanna Rosin, who recently wrote about consciousness-raising through TV-storytelling.

> Listen to podcast or read transcript

Launch of Social Innovation Conversations

As series producer for Globeshakers, with host Tim Zak, I am excited to introduce you to the Conversations Network's new podcast channel: Social Innovation Conversations.
Our goal is to create a popular channel on the Web, a place that provides an engaging and provocative dialogue about the most effective ways we can improve society and the environment. We'll do this by recording conferences, speeches, and interviews from around the world, to bring you the voices of those at the forefront of creating social change.

The Conversations Network has grown out of the explosive response to Doug Kaye's IT Conversations, which now continues as a channel on the Network.

Social Innovation Conversations is made possible by the concerted efforts of the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Business, and the Pittsburgh Social Innovation Accelerator... three organizations dedicated to improving society and the environment. To become a member is free and it's easy to register.

As part of the launch, we've chosen to re-broadcast two conversations with Tim Zak host of Globeshakers...

Ethan Zuckerman, Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Ethan Zuckerman addresses the direct question: "Why should we care about Africa?" As a technologist, Ethan has spent much time on the ground working with the new generation of African entrepreneurs, programmers, organizers, and young people who are hooking up the continent to the web. These new netizens are changing the way that villagers and urban dwellers learn, organize, network, and face the challenges of poverty, AIDS, political strife and making a living.

David Bornstein - How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas.
An accomplished journalists, David is a leading expert in the global rise of "social entrepreneurism." In this program, host Tim Zak asks how we would even know a social entrepreneur if we saw one on the street. More important, why should we even care? Who invests in social enterprise and what is at stake for our world if we don't?

Alex Lindsay - The Next Generation of Digital Craftsman
As "Chief Architect" of PixelCorps, Alex Lindsay merges the very old idea of a guild system made up of independent craftsman with the demands of mastering new and emerging media. PixelCorps serves as "a guild for the next generation of craftsmen--digital craftsmen." They are currently transfering skills in digital imaging and animation to regions in the developing world, so that those citizens can capitalize on the coming media revolution.

Zach Warren - Laughter in a Time of War
In the Fall of 2005, Zach set the World's Record for running the Philadelphia marathon--while juggling! In 2006, he is gunning to set another world's record for the fastest100miles on a unicycle--a record that has stood for almost 20 years. In the summer of 2005, Zack Warren, a native of West Virginia, traveled to Afghanistan to work with children as part of the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children. All this while a student at Harvard Divinity School.


Bill Strickland - Manchester Craftsmans Guild
As one of the world's great social innovators, Bill Strickland is head of both the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Bidwell Training Center, located on Pittsburgh's gritty north side just down the street from where he grew up. Strickland has created a youth development and adult training center like no other, in approach and results. Over nearly 40 years, he has melded an environment surrounded by stunning art, the sounds of jazz, beautiful orchids, and brilliant architecture with programs that get kids into college and adults a job with a future.

Digital Vision Fellows

Here is a great podcast on IT Conversations that serves as a simple introduction to social enterprise:

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Stuart Gannes the Director of the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford, as well as this year's Digital Vision Fellow. We'll hear about global projects with a humanitarian bent -- from citizen journalism on simple cellphones, to telemedicine for developing nations, and multimedia for the street kids of Rio.

Listen to podcast >>

Abby Joseph Cohen on the Power of Going Green

Investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen ranked 19th on Forbes magazine's list of the world's 100 most powerful women. When she talks, businesses around the world listen. One of the things she's telling businesses these days is that thinking green can be good for business.

Cohen, a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., reports that environmentally and socially conscious investing has increased fourfold since 2001. She estimates that this style of investing already accounts for roughly 15% of the U.S. stock market. Cohen spoke with Earth & Sky's Eleanor Imster in March, 2006.

Full interview>>

Storytelling Sundance Style

Jim Fruchterman at the Skoll World Forum: Story Telling, Sundance style

The Accelerator's president, Tim Zak, is returning to Pittsburgh after a week of inspiration at the Skoll Foundation conference in Oxford.

Senior Venture Advisor Al Mercer spotted the above post by another attendee who found inspiration in the Participant Productions:

One of the major themes of working with the Skoll Foundation is the focus on stories. That's what Jeff does with Participant Productions, and a big piece of the Foundation's efforts are around helping us tell stories. Many social entrepreneurs actively avoid telling stories about themselves: they tell stories about other people more easily.

Rent-A-Bio-Beetle

[Thanks to Amanda Durand in LA!]

Give the planet a vacation the next time you take one ... Rent a Bio-Beetle!

Cars fueled by *100% Biodiesel, a clean-burning diesel fuel, made from 100% natural, 100% renewable sources. The First all biodiesel Eco Car Rentals in the world! Now open in Los Angeles California!

It's about time! The cars get 400-800 miles per tank, so finding a refueling station besides the Culver City headquarters is usually not an issue. Bio-Beetle is in the process of getting more fueling stations set up in the Los Angeles area and on Maui.

Biodiesel is a cleaner-burning diesel fuel, made from 100% natural, 100% renewable vegetable sources. Here are just a few of the vegetable oils that can be used to make biodiesel - mustard, rapeseed (aka canola), palm, olive, peanut, soy bean, safflower, sunflower, castor, etc. On Maui, all biodiesel is made from used cooking oil.

Fossil fuel is the primary cause of pollution in the world whereas Biodiesel offers those who want a clean environment the option to make a significant beneficial impact by using a renewable fuel. The question is: "Sustainability? Or business (pollution) as usual?"

Biodiesel dramatically reduces particulate matter emissions and other federally targeted emissions while helping to stabilize greenhouse gases. Biodiesel is also non-toxic, biodegradable and free of sulfur.

Companies like Grassolean are driving the biodiesel revolution. See Darryl Hannah on The O'Reilly Factor describing the benefits of driving a "grease car". In her case, it is a normal GMC diesel truck that has not been specially modified in any way. She gets a 55-gallon drum of biodiesel (essentially recycled cooking oil and alcohol) delivered directly to her home.

LEARN MORE

Out Of Small Comes Big

A few weeks ago, I was in Miami to speak (along with my friends at Community Wealth Ventures) at a social enterprise conference hosted by the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness. Although the weather was unseasonably cloudy (as luck would have it only for the two days that I was there!) the mood among the 100+ nonprofit executives in the room was surprisingly sunny.

Sure, there was the seemingly universal angst among sector insiders about impending funding cuts combined with the ever-increasingly demand for services ... difficult jobs looking even more imposing in the months and years ahead. But I also detected a ray of hope that got brighter as I presented a no-holds-barred overview of the perils and promise of social enterprise and sustainable entrepreneurship in the social sector. Many for the first time learned about the global movement and how it is injecting more innovation into mission-based social programs while providing more diversified, unrestricted funding streams to nonprofits. Some had already dipped their toe in the water and were encouraged enough to learn more. But throughout the group was a gritty resilience and determination to adapt to the many changes currently buffeting the social sector and to "raise the bar" of performance and professionalism by borrowing from the most relevant practices of the private sector.

I don't know if my impression of the receptivity to social entrepreneurship in Miami is a leading indicator of a shift among nonprofits more broadly or just a sunny time on an otherwise cloudy day. But I do know that out of small things, big things can come. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see future "stars" in social innovation coming out of South Florida. I just hope I get invited back when the real sun is shining as brightly as the audience.

The Freedom Toaster

I found this really cool project in South Africa and I was reminded of a song my father used to sing:

You take a piece of bread.
You put in a slot.
You push the lever down
And the wires get hot.
You get toast. Yeah! Toast!

Except you put a blank CD into this slot and a few minutes later it spits out a toasty copy of your choice of Open Source software. In a country with few financial resources, fewer technological ones and a poor telecommunications infrastructure, this toaster seems like a interesting solution to getting technology into the hands of the people.

More Than Just A Game

First, let me set the tone early -- GO STEELERS!

I haven't watched a single profile, highlight, or pre-game analysis for the two week's leading up to tomorrow's Super Bowl XL (and, yes, it will be X-tra large). One part of me wants to save up all my anxiety and nervous energy for the big game. But another part of me seems genetically predisposed to ignore the hype, the pomp, the pageantry that passes for football coverage now-a-days. You see, Pittsburgh is part of my very core -- all of my grandparents and parents were natives. One grandfather worked in a steel mill. The other was a shot-and-a-beer joint bartender "dawn-tawn". And I doubt very much that any of them would have spent a whole lot of time listening to the cliche-laden analysis from that passes for sports coverage today. It's enough to make you choke on your "Arn" City Beer.

In today's New York Times, Holly Brubach, a former style editor for the Times' Magazine and a Pittsburgh native captures the spirit of the city and it's unique connection to the team that personifies it in an opinion piece called Gridiron City. It made me think back to when I was in elementary school, living closer to Philly than The 'Burgh, and bearing the brunt of outfitting myself in a Steelers jacket, gloves, and hat every winter. Even though my loyalty was easier to bear since the Steelers were the Team of the '70's ("Oh yeah, how well did the Eagles do this year?"), I would have done it even if winning didn't become a habit. In my family, no matter where you lived, living and dying with the Steelers was just something you did ... proudly.

The day after the AFC Championship Game, one of my friends asked if I was excited that the Steelers were in the Super Bowl and my immediate response was that the city needs it. It needs a championship, a reason to get its chin up, look around with a less jaundiced and critical eye, and realize that we still live in one of the world's great mid-sized cities. Oh sure, other cities (or even us natives) can point to the facts and figures that would point to a city still in transition, struggling to put to rest past industrial glories and to find a future that fits. But it's a place that has what no other place in the world can claim and, while I can't quite describe it, I know that it is good and I know that it has something to do with a bunch of guys who will be strappin' it on tomorrow night.

Why Ask Why?

There is a concept in lean manufacturing (think Toyota and its vaunted excellence in production) called the "5 Why's". Those of us who have kids can relate to its value. They're curious about why something is the way that it is and they keep asking "why" until satisfied with the answer. By "peeling back the onion" of a problem, they (and we) can get to the "root cause" and thoroughly understand not only how things work but the underlying assumptions (facts?) and variables that, if changed, could lead to a different result.

I was in a meeting with some of Pittsburgh best and brightest nonprofit execs last week when I realized that we not only needed to ask more "why's" but that it's pretty tough to get at the root cause of anything without some credible facts. We were discussing an innovative, technology-based method of prioritizing social service needs (e.g., poverty, hunger, violence prevention, environment) in the region at an upcoming conference and the nonprofit sector's ability to "sit at the table" with corporate and government counterparts to mobilize resources to address them. It became apparent (at least to me) that the nonprofit sector has lots of statistics about various social ills (e.g., "X% of people in Allegheny County are homeless") but a lot less certainty about how we match up relative to other cities our size across the entire set of issue areas (e.g., "X% of people in Allegheny County are homeless and that is almost twice as high as the other 24 cities around the world that we compare ourselves to and compete against economically, for population / talent, and global mindshare).

It seems clear to me that, without this kind of fact-based, unbiased, holistic (even at the 30,000 foot level) view, it's not only going to be tough to sit at the table with key decisionmakers from the other two sectors on how to address key social issues (systematically able to ask enough "why's" to understand key change levers) but it will be impossible to rationally allocate the resources -- time, $$$, and energy -- necessary to make meaningful progress. In a time of significant reductions from many traditional sources of nonprofit funding, it is likely that any resources proactively increased in one social area will be at the expense of another (e.g., more resources for homelessness could mean less for the environment) with a relative change (positive and negative) in community impact. These trade-offs (I heard a famed financier on the Charlie Rose show a few weeks ago call this social arbitrage) obviously have huge implications for every single citizen in the region.

Until we can agree on some facts about the region's social condition relative to other cities our size, we'll always be using only emotional, anecdotal, qualitative arguments to allocate resources largely controlled by the private and public sectors. And, I'm afraid, we'll never get to asking enough "why's" to really make a dent in areas we need to improve on to become the "Best and Most Admired Mid-Sized City in the World."

Big Changes in Little Meetings

On the last morning of the IAJE conference, in a little conference room a few floors above the din of thousands still drinking in a myriad of formal sessions, concerts, and impromptu gatherings, leaders of the nascent National Jazz Platform met with a group of influential jazz presenters and educators (e.g., Monterrey Jazz Festival, Berklee College of Music) to elicit more support for initiatives to raise market share for jazz. In contrast to the gloomy, raw weather in the windows outside, the mood in the room was upbeat and warm. And, while there were lots of probing questions and some trepidation on the part of "veterans" who had "heard some of this before", everyone seemed genuinely interested in figuring out how to make it work.

I've been consistently struck by the commitment and urgency voiced to the industry by the likes of Nancy Wilson and Dr. Billy Taylor to innovate, not only to withstand the technological and cultural changes faced by all kinds of music but to "keep jazz alive" for generations to come. (I was delighted that Dr. Taylor warmly greeted me at his conference booth the day before after spending just a couple days at Wingspread together nearly a year earlier ... gracious and generous). Jazz has its foot in two camps -- the historical / traditional "art form" camp staked out by the likes of classical music and the contemporary / experimental camp that is firmly owned in mindshare by rap and hip-hop. Like any first year b-schooler will tell you, the "middle" is tenuous place to be in any industry because it's easy to get overwhelmed by the giants and cut off at the knees by upstarts.

The annals of business history are littered with meaningless meetings interspersed with a few watershed events, usually in or set-up by the kind of intimate session that characterized this morning's get-together. I hope that someday we can look back on a meeting held in a sterile hotel conference room on a raw New York City Saturday morning and marvel at all that followed.

In The Presence of Giants (and Midgets)

Last night at the annual conference of the International Alliance of Jazz Educators, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its '06 class of NEA Jazz Masters. Among those honored included the likes of Tony Bennett and Chick Corea.

At the end of the evening, conductors of the two big bands that provided most of the evening's entertainment invited any NEA Jazz Master in the audience to come up on stage and play along. While hearing legends like Latin jazz king Paquito D'Rivera was a real treat and the level of excellence and creativity borne from decades of practice and performance was obvious, I thought that a 10-year old trumpet player that snuck up on stage and was given a shot at the mic stole the show. Not only did he play great but it was clear that he would have been happy to play all night long ... one of the bandleaders literally took the instrument out of his hands to give the rest of the masters some minutes!

As the two bands played with a host of masters (there were probably 40+ musicians on stage by the end of the night), I turned to Marty Ashby, Executive Producer of MCG Jazz (an Accelerator venture), and pointed out how the actions on stage represented much of what companies around the world will need more of the in the future -- creativity, improvisation, teamwork, individual mastery, respected leadership, joy, passion, enthusiasm ...

Hmm, now if you could just bottle that up and get it out to the masses ...

Legends and Luminaries

What do Nancy Wilson, Tom Scott, Clark Terry, Doc Severinsen, and Dr. Billy Taylor have in common? Besides being among a select group of living jazz legends, all were in attendance at the opening gala for the International Alliance of Jazz Educator’s annual conference, this year held in Midtown Manhattan. Why was I (can't sing, can't dance, can't play an instrument) there? As a guest of MCG Jazz, one of the leading ventures in the Accelerator's portfolio and, as a division of the acclaimed Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and Bidwell Training Center, a globally recognized social enterprise supporting youth education and adult workforce training programs with its mix of jazz concerts and album releases.

MCG Jazz, along with IAJE through its independent subsidiary Jazz Alliance International and a host of "mavens, connectors, and salesmen" (to use Tipping Point terminology) in the industry, are leading the charge to build awareness and market share for jazz while creating a sustainable business model that fulfills both social impact objectives and $$$ requirements in the long-term. The questions being confronted by the jazz industry are similar to, say, NASCAR more than a few years ago: How do we tap into an existing and rabid community of fanatics to create a bigger revenue "pie" while not ruining what attracted fans to the sport in the first place? How can we best introduce the "product" to people not familiar with the concept or who have preconceived notions about it so that a new generation of fanatics will emerge? How do we prioritize our options and opportunities in light of (at least initially) limited resources? Who are the key players to enlist in both the strategy and tactics to harness such a substantial amount of latent potential?

The artists, industry insiders, and other attendees of last night's gala couldn't have been more visibly dedicated to the music, the personalities that shaped it, or to perpetuating the genre for generations to come. All of that passion and ability to improvise will come in handy as the very entrepreneurial work of reshaping the business side of jazz unfolds in the months ahead.

Red Roads and White Roads

Sometimes getting sick can be a blessing in disguise. After being surrounded by the ill and infirmed throughout the holidays, it finally caught up with me at the start of the new year in the form of a mostly irritating (as opposed to debilitating) head cold. Taking it as an early test of my intent to slow down and do fewer things better, I stayed in bed (instead of trying, literally, to work through it) and attacked the rising stack of books beside my bed.

One book that I'd been dying to get through for a while was
Raising the Bar by Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson. As a cycling and outdoor sports fanatic, I've tried just about every bar and supplement on the market and I'm an unabashed Clif Bar loyalist. But there's always been some elusive "something else" that has always connected me to the product and, by extension, to the company. An authenticity, a simplicity, an engaging Horatio Alger story perhaps ... "something else".

The book helped to clear up the "something else" by using a map metaphor of "red roads" and "white roads" to describe the company's distinctiveness. A company on the red road:

"... believes business is about the destination ... [it's] primary reason for being, its destination, is maximizing shareholder value. When shareholder value and the bottom line become the reasons for being in business, everything else feeds that agenda."

Alternatively, on the white road, the moment -- the journey itself -- matters most. There is no set or final destination. The trip could end anywhere. As Erickson points out:

"We plan like any company does, but we center our discussion on what roads we'd like to travel and the type of business we'd like to become. The road, not the destination, drives Clif Bar."

I think that there are some fundamental societal, cultural, demographic, and global trends that portend the rise of a different kind of enterprise, one that can do well and do good. One that inspires passion in employees, is low-drag in operations, and intimately connected to, as Erickson puts it, natural demand in the marketplace, not demand generated by expensive marketing campaigns driven by guilt or inadequacy or materialism for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses. Sure, there will always be a role for red road companies in the marketplace -- after all, sharks are part of the ocean's ecosystem for a reason. But I have a feeling (and it's not much more developed than that right now) that the 21st century will demand a model for earned-income generating organizations (both nonprofit and for-profit which, after all, are mostly just a legal designations) that is radically different than what we expect one of these enterprises to look like and act like today.

I guess trying to figure out what that model looks like and putting it into practice with our ventures is my white road. The Clif Bar story is as good a place as any to start looking for some answers.

What Is "It"?

Innovation (n.): "The intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of social and economic value."

You can't pick up a business magazine without reading about it. Or listen to an executive interview nowadays without hearing about it. What is "it"? Innovation. Yeah, you want your organization to reflect "it". You want your products to embody "it". Heck, you hope you have "it". I know I've been talking a lot about "it" lately and hope that the Accelerator and our ventures have "it". But here's the $64,000 question (and believe me, winning $64K was a big deal a generation ago): What, exactly, is innovation? What does it look (smell, taste, feel ...) like? Can it be developed to grow in people, organizations, or even communities over time like a muscle can be trained to get stronger and more useful? Is it like air or can people/ organizations/ communities live without it for a long time?

I don't have all the answers but I do know that I've been spending some quality time trying to wrap my head around the essence of innovation. My gut tells me that our organization, our ventures, and for sure our community will need bigger and bigger doses of it and now my head is demanding that I get closer to figuring out what "innovation" means in the context of our efforts to support a more entrepreneurial, vibrant, and impactful social sector. If there's one theme that's come through loud and clear so far, its that there can't be an innovation without engagement with the real world to test if a great idea really works, that is, has a tangible impact that is readily apparent.

After all, Edison's work with the light bulb would have been an interesting science experiment if it hadn't been tested in the real world and a host of other, supporting, innovations and the development of standard practices hadn't followed. And, even though Edison was recognized as the originator of the innovation, he didn't control its on-going development. For example, his use of direct current later lost out to the alternating-current system developed by the American inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse.

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me ...