Get Out of Your Own Skin

Effective social innovation at the bottom of the pyramid and effective advocacy work in general share a common principle.

Simply put, to be effective, you need to get out of your own skin, your own brain, and look at the situation from the perspective of the person you’re trying to impact.

Aleem Walji, a practice manager for innovation at the World Bank, eloquently explains this in this video.

Social innovation and advocacy are both about persuading people to change their behavior, whether it’s using a new type of water pump or adopting a vegan diet.

But to be effective, we have to overcome human nature itself. It is in our nature to only view reality from our own unique perspective. It requires conscious, and sometimes strenuous, effort to understand someone else’s perspective and to act accordingly.

When it comes to social innovation at the bottom of the economic pyramid, we as Westerners cannot even imagine all of the barriers to behavioral change among the world’s poor. Only by getting to know the people we’re trying to help can we design effective innovations.