TOR149 ― Rethinking The Social Sector with Paula Kravitz of the Social Progress Imperative

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There is a beautiful simplicity to the commercial sector. Anyone can create products and services that satisfy a real or perceived need in whatever market(s) they want. Then, with the right marketing and (hopefully) added value from the “”better mousetraps”” people create, the business can realize a profit. And that, ultimately, is the measure of your success. Unfortunately, finding the same simplicity in the social sector is difficult. While social enterprises, non profits and charities are on the constant lookout for, or purposeful invention of, products and services that satisfy real (or perceived) needs, rather than seeing profit as the end game, the social sector seeks an overall improved human condition. This presents something of a conundrum because we still have so much trouble, as a human community, agreeing about what improvement means. I know there is a lot to unpack in this seemingly simple distinction. But, fortunately, that is exactly why I am so excited to introduce my guest for the 149th Terms of Reference Podcast. Paula Kravitz is a Strategic Advisor for the Social Progress Imperative – a Washington, DC based enterprise dedicated to redefining how the world measures and achieves social progress. Before SPI, Paula spent a decade at the Skoll Foundation where she directed and curated the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Said another way, Paula has been at the forefront of thinking on the social sector for the last 10 years. And, if I’m completely honest, as I hope comes out in our conversation, Paula is tapped into what is essentially the reason behind why I started Aidpreneur and this podcast in the first place – the need for a shake up of the social sector in order to redefine and align what it is we’re all trying to achieve as a collective body dedicated to human flourishing. Watch Michael Green explaining what the SPI is: [ted id=2134] You can connect with Paula here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-kravitz-b167a/

IN TOR 149 YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT

Paula’s transition from corporate consulting to the radically different (yet not so much) international development world
What the Skoll Foundation is, the Skoll World Forum and the Skoll Award
Why the Aid & Development sector is due for a (radical) tune-up, and why it might be better off coming from the communities organizing across the US as we speak
Lessons from Sally Osberg, Paul Collier, Michael Green, Matthew Bishop, Michael Porter and Michael Green
The Social Progress Index as a GDP alternative. How does your country, district or community fare?

OUR CONVERSATION FEATURES THE FOLLOWING

Names:

Topics:

Social Impact

Social-Corporate relations

Places

San Francisco, CA

EPISODE CRIB NOTES

First, a recap of a former life

00:04:14,360

I was working in the private sector for many years
I worked in different industries as a consultant
brand, business strategy
12 years ago I just decided to get into the meaningful space
whatever it is that happens to people that makes them want to take that leap
I joined Skoll
a unique organization in the world of philanthropy and impact space, very entrepreneurial
I took on the Skoll World Forum and built it
that put me at the intersection of a lot of different companies and actors
many of whom have received the Skoll Award
when I was in business it was very easy to orient myself
I knew which industry I was in. I could get the landscape I could define the space
when I got into the social arena it was just a much different animal
lots of people come and have that experience
about two years ago Sally Osberg wrote a book called Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works
it breaks down approaches of social entrepreneurs and what distinguishes them from other kinds of actors in the ecosystem
one of the ways she talks about it is that they disrupt the status quo
they’re not just making things better, they’re actually adapting their solutions to the complexity of the problem
they’re solving it in a way that shifts the status quo in a permanent way
Saif Ali would always say: you have to understand that system in which you operate
the social space is growing faster than any other
there’s more actors, there’s real money there’s more institutions coming on board
there’s more interest and yet it’s still really hard to understand how it operates
why do we tolerate this dysfunction

But if we all follow our passions, won’t the line between business and social blur?

00:09:36,880

the private sector obviously turns massive wheels of innovation and human flourishing
that’s why we measure GDP
I was working in industries where we’d spend a million dollars at a sales meeting
enormous amounts of money being spent
and then just watching other things that seem so important kind of dying on the vine or scrapping for pennies
that pursuit of the profit motive ultimately it does create massive innovation change
I am firmly committed and rooted in the social arena
when I look from that vantage point sort of back to business
we work with a lot of social entrepreneurs who are partnering with businesses
we have to acknowledge that it’s still very nascent all of us in the social space
social entrepreneurs working on oceans and sustainable fisheries
Walmart needs them now because how else are they going to get 20 million pounds of fish per year
it’s such a disruptive time for the space because now business has to come to the table
activities within business are creating problems faster than we can solve them
a sort of informal marketplace of the social arena is picking up the pieces
so that’s a kind of an interesting dynamic
we’re trying to pick up the pieces down here with not enough resources
and a fragmented kind of a disordered marketplace
Walmart has to invest in sustainable fisheries, otherwise their business model fails
at the end of the day Uber is going to have to invest in sustainable cars
or their business model will fail

From a world of intricate jargon to another

00:13:53,410

Sally Osberg kind of challenged us to look at the space itself
all of a sudden we’re in that quandary
how do we put a boundary around it?
is it the social space, is it civil society
people draw different boundaries
is it global, is it broken down by countries
we had to start somewhere
the needs of people
it was really about charity, families, churches, communities
we moved into this world of philanthropy in the 1890s
the Carnegie Foundation, they’re still here giving away money
they really haven’t evolved all that much
get into the 1930s, how are we tending to more people’s needs and then we get into the big systems of welfare in Europe
in the US this is when the Depression happened
then you get into the development era in the 30s
with all the big institutions, the Marshall Plan
Paul Collier calls that the “development buzz” versus the “biz”
the do-good feel-good stuff versus the big development infrastructure
then we get into the big social movements in the rise of civil society
Paul Hawken wrote a book called Blessed Unrest
he documents this rise
massive amounts of nonprofits and philanthropies and social enterprises
born to handle the needs of humanity, the things that are falling through the cracks
now we’re here in the 21st century
we still have welfare
we have developed but we still have a million nonprofits
we have big philanthropists
Michael Green and Matthew Bishop wrote a book called Philanthrocapitalism
documenting this rise of massive billionaire kind of entrepreneurs who are now jumping into the social arena
and then there’s the rise of social innovation
in many ways came up out of this sort of failings of the development era
we have a space that is burgeoning
now business is getting involved
real investors coming in with real money
big philanthropies, tiny little ones
not to mention this emergence of the sort of techies and Millennials who are coming in
in business we always look at the externalities whenever we’re coming up with strategies
we need these innovators to be able to advance on social outcomes
and yet we have this space that’s packed and people are starting to run into each other
social investors coming in with very different attitudes
starting to clash against some of the long-term actors

Booming field and an equally booming threat environment

00:20:32,130

I’m scared and I’m excited
I’m afraid for all the reasons that any of us in this arena are afraid
pressures of humanity on the planet
climate
food
water systems
shocks
migrations and culture clashes
social inequality which is clearly part of what’s driving this rise of populism
I think that should be a signal to us
the other thing that’s scary is that the reaction to these sort of pressures is to turn backwards
to entrench even more on an economic growth trajectory
The Social Progress Index
it strips away all of the economic variables so you’re able to see very clearly where a country is doing
how they’re doing economically, socially
when you look at the US we released the first SPI
Michael Porter was interviewed by Fareed Zakaria
it was kind of a shock to see how well we’re doing economically and yet red marks everywhere on our social outcomes
economic superstars with low SPI scores
if you’re not delivering on social outcomes and you’re only delivering on economic outcomes you’re kind of on a house of cards
the message of the of the US election was “we’re in pain”
we are a people in pain
at what point do we wake up
our space should be having a strong voice, coalescing and mobilizing power because we actually do stand for social progress
SPI asks very different questions than GDP
Michael Greene’s TED Talks
SPI is the complement to GDP
if you want strong societies you have to care as much about social progress as you care about economic progress
country leaders prioritizing social outcomes as much and on par with economic outcomes
otherwise you’re going to have social unrest

SPI Primer

00:25:04,200

SPI was developed to bring that mission forward
it consists of three interrelated strategies
one is the framework itself. It actually sets out to
define what social progress means
it asks several questions: does a country provide for its citizens most essential needs?
does everyone have nutrition, water, shelter, personal safety
and then it asks another question: Are the building blocks in place for individuals and communities to enhance and sustain well-being? Does everyone have access to the basic knowledge to information and communications? Do they have healthcare? Is their environment sustainable?
the final question is: Is there opportunity for all individuals to reach their full potential? Do they have rights, do they have access to higher education, are they free, do they have choices, equity and inclusion in their societies
we have to put these kinds of questions in these kinds of measures and we have to manage these kinds of outcomes
it’s a really kind of a robust framework
it’s something that everyone can align around
at the global, national, community level
these same questions matter for everyone
the other strategy is to provide these tools and one is: can I measure these things?
SPI measures across all of these dimensions across 133 countries
it provides scorecards so you can see where a country is doing along these measures
it has another strategy in networks
real people on the ground adopting this and rallying around it
pushing for better outcomes along those
if you don’t define what you mean it’s really hard to align people
Darren Walker at the Ford Foundation is pushing an agenda around equality

Could the sector ever agree on a unified jargon

00:28:13,230

the status quo in our space is that we have a lot of different institutions and brands speaking different languages
defining things differently
fragmentation in the space
we have a social change industry that has a poor business model
even the entities that should be collaborating and working together to achieve impact aren’t
we have these historic international agreements which we’ve never had before
the Paris agreement
and now we’re nervous because of this new world order
shaped by these populous kinds of uprisings

I’m also excited

00:29:51,749

the social arena is so populated with real money and real actors
we’re actually struggling for very mundane reasons
I’ve talked about it in my TED talk and whatnot
this is a time of unprecedented wealth
literally trillions of dollars just in the US
there is new wealth being created at an unprecedented rate
there is an interconnectedness happening at a scale and speed that nobody can keep up with
it’s breathtaking
yet we keep finding ourselves bumping up against these knowable, solvable problems
from like a classic MBA, Wall Street, Chicago school perspective: how is this not going to the people who are who have wealth and power?
we need to spread this out
how do we have that conversation that really is the “change the world” conversation
one of the things that has to happen is that social progress as defined within a framework that we can all agree upon
social progress has to be a global priority alongside economic progress
we have to bring visibility, order and comprehension to this opaque social change industry
if I’m a billionaire into the social arena, I actually don’t know how to do this efficiently
the first thing that the Zuckerberg did was they set up their own thing
there’s millions of outlets for him
the fundamental problem with philanthropy is that it does what it wants
not necessarily what needs to be done
if I’m a billionaire I’ve oriented myself in business
I come into this arena and it’s it’s all about the issues
what do I care about? women and girls, water, climate?
there’s no functional industry to tap into
there’s no comprehensible value chain
a lot of really important conversations and policies get hammered online
so that business can flourish
I’m not sure where are we doing that in our space
unless we come to an understanding that the space itself needs significant reforms
I don’t think we’re going to get there
much of the problem is the leaders in the space don’t know this is a problem

Remind me again why we’re optimistic

00:41:09,520

in our professional, commercial lives we need to move towards that place where we see a sustainable future
where it’s not just sustainable but actually
people ask all the time about these environmental problems
I’m like, “look, if it were up to me” and it’s not
why isn’t somebody approaching this particular conversation
why aren’t we framing these questions around stuff that we can really get behind no matter where you come from
when I listen to Darren, Paula, Sally Osberg, you just want to believe the world is going to be a better place
they do represent a different brand of leadership
the coalescence of leadership and power in this space can start to drive a counter-narrative to economic growth
and fear
one of the things that I really appreciate about Skoll is that not only do they invest in a folio of innovations and systems changers
but they are also pushing for the enabling environment, to consolidate really important actors and ideas
there’s a vacuum with the Clinton Global Initiative
where is that center of gravity that coalesces its power?
there are a lot of things in the social arena and a lot of things that aren’t working that just keep existing because of the status quo
unless there’s a power base you’ve got leaders out there on a limb

What you’d do, if only

00:49:13,800

I would focus in the immediate term
we have one of the most mature flourishing social arenas on the face of the earth
here we are as a country faced with these threats
if the leaders in this country could organize around a framework around a counter-narrative
and start to combine forces at the leadership level,
I think that would be a really powerful model that then could be globalized
why not start it here? there’s proximity, maturity

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