What are we truly incentivizing?

Week 6: Creating Policies and Ecosystems for Social Innovation

The articles this week reminded me of a TedX talk I watched awhile ago. Romeo Dallaire—the former UN Force Commander in Rwanda who stayed against UN orders during the Rwandan Genocide—was talking about the role of NGO’s in addressing social ills. He talks about continued growth and change, that governments structures must continue to grow, “there is no way you can sustain status quo—it’s simply not sustainable. You will regress.” He goes on to discuss how NGO’s are the future of solutions to major social issues and I think it aligns beautifully with the readings.

As a whole, social innovation exists at the intersection of the existing sectors, and is emerging as a unique field. It requires dynamic thinking, and I really appreciate that it is taking hold in pockets of our culture.

It makes sense to me that social innovation would draw from the emerging tenants of open innovation. It reminds me of Bill Joy’s famous statement, “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people in the world work for someone else”(Fedscoop.com). I’ve heard Joy speak a number of times, and one of the things that I really appreciate about this statement is it is really discussing the underlying assumption that people with good ideas don’t always end up in the field for which their ideas will have the greatest impact. So, in particular, I appreciate that the White House along with a number of major foundations are willing to outsource brainstorming for it’s major social problems to the general public.

This is a form of flexibility, I will admit when I first heard, that I did not expect from my understanding of government bureaucracy.

Though, I’d like to draw out a specific point—what is the impact on our social value of incentivizing behavior with “prizes”? I appreciate that it allows us to look at issues we wouldn’t otherwise, but how do we then create an effective long term implementation? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6q0aA0KiA4

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/innovating_the_white_house

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/prizes-with-an-eye-toward-the-future/?_r=0

http://www.economist.com/node/16789766

http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2007/12/pdf/social_entrepreneurship.pdf