Rooting Social Ventures in Communities they Serve
Entrepreneurial ventures with a central societal mission are critical for solving problems that cannot or are not addressed by traditional businesses, government, or non-profit organizations. Rooting these ventures in communities ensures relevance, develops trust, and builds the foundation for long-term social impact.
If you run a mission-driven organization, you may have encountered an all-too persistent challenge — planting deep roots in the community you’re serving.
Why is that? What is keeping you at a distance from the community? From planting roots?
One common challenge is that so many of the stories told about entrepreneurship tend to focus on a single person — typically the person that leads the organization, who is presented as the savior or hero of the narrative.
But where is the community in this narrative? After all, even the most seasoned executive or visionary leader can’t accomplish anything without a robust team around them — and deep engagement with their stakeholders, whether it’s a base of customers or stakeholders in the community they’re serving.
At its best a social change journey must be a team effort — a collaborative cross-sector adventure, engaging communities seeking change, stakeholders that are affected (positively or negatively) by change, as well as the organizations and interventions that support the change effort.
Anatomy of Change
At their heart, social ventures need to root their work in community. You can think of a social venture as a tree.
The branches stretch to the sky, every year growing and bringing forth new buds. Their leaves inhale and exhale in partnership with the change seekers, and provide sustenance to continue the journey across seasons. Each of these branches represent the change we seek and the vision we have laid out of the future.
The trunk enables communication between the branches and roots. It enables sharing of resources during the summer months, and storage of energy in the winter months. It helps the branches reach the sky and marks time and growth throughout the years of the effort. The trunk represents the listening and communication we all must do for the change we seek.
The roots dig into the ground. They seek out water and nutrients and carry them back to the trunk. With the trunk, the roots hold the tree stable through the storms. The roots represent the values and decision structures that ground all change work.
Stages of Growth
Social ventures can spark ideas and foster frameworks to test out interventions — in other words, they can provide seeds. And as any gardener knows, seeds are picky. They need the right conditions to grow. Yes, water and dirt, but also the right climate, amount of sun, dirt microorganisms — and, yes, good neighbors.
Social change efforts must arise from a community to drive organic, sustainable, and enduring change. It’s ultimately up to the community to imagine what kind of trees it wants — or what kind of change it seeks. The community knows about the local soil and climate conditions, and brings their culture and values to choosing what seeds to plant.
That isn’t to say that the community can do it all on their own. The outside perspective of the social venture is still invaluable, in particular when it comes to the landscape — clearing some space to plant the seedling, scouting what is over the next hill, establishing partnerships with other organizations that might (or should) care, and innovating solutions to problems or challenges might affect growth of the tree. The venture can help to make these connections and foster the growth of the tree.
The Power of Listening Sessions
Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand the impact of beginning major projects and initiatives with the simple step of organizing listening sessions. This is a tactic that even incoming CEOs and elected officials rely upon to ensure they have a strong pulse on the sentiments of the people they are tasked with leading.
Through listening sessions, we can gain a better understanding of the landscape — what is already being done, which stakeholders are engaged and which ones need to be, as well as what approaches will be welcomed — and when.
Pace of Change
Many of us involved in change work are understandably impatient. We have often entered the space in frustration over the glacial pace of change, and are eager to make an impact ourselves.
We thrive in uncertainty, we enjoy making connections, we seek opportunities to disrupt equilibria.
Communities, on the other hand, tend to prioritize stability: knowing families are safe, trusting food sources, enjoying good health, and displaying mutual respect.
Social entrepreneurs must find a way to disrupt while also providing a stable path for communities to tread during the change process. Think of the countless failed ventures in every part of the world in which a well-meaning consultant, development worker, or aid expert parachuted into a community and rushed to a solution — before first building significant relationships with the community, and understanding their priorities.
No doubt this can be time-consuming and intensive work. But this journey of relationship building can also be the most satisfying aspect of community-oriented enterprise. Building deep partnerships and relationships can be accomplished through the careful design of interventions — products and services — and ongoing interactions and iterations.
This evolutionary process has social, technical, and political components that all need to be addressed. It is messy. It can be exciting. It is often frustrating.
But we must keep in mind that we are planting a tree — one that will become part of a forest ecosystem. And if we have the perspective to zoom out to a longer time horizon and a broader perspective, we can ensure that we don’t miss the forest for the trees.
If you are interested in learning more, here is a short video.
