Policy Change vs. Organizational Change as a Driving Force for Impact

Undoubtedly policy changes in governments around the world could maximize the potential for impact for many technologies and innovations. Michele Jolin in the article "Investing in Social Entrepreneurship and Fostering Social Innovation,” says that the way to scale innovations and technologies that drive impact is through changes in our policies. While I agree with him that many laws and policies prevent impact maximization especially for for-profit, socially-minded organizations, I wonder if there is another route to changing the amount of impact a socially-minded organization has on the world. Governmental bureaucracy prevents policies from being enacted in a timely manner. By the time policies are validated and applied to society, many things may have changed that render the policy ineffective and out-of-date.

Just as developing a solution to no particular problem can be detrimental to an organization, a solution that is developed without the proper analysis of various associated policies can be just as detrimental. Maybe instead of trying to change existing policies, organizations could develop solutions that work best with the policies already in place. So instead of trying to re-work the system, so to speak, organizations could rather try to fit into the system.

Now this is not to say that policy change should come to a stop by any means. This is merely a potential solution to addressing the slow change experienced in government and policy implementation. There are existing policies that are out dated and that must be changed to fully foster innovation and growth, but in the meantime it may be best for organizations to develop solutions around policies to ensure they have the most impact on society. It is in essence turning the problem on its head and approaching it from a different direction. In a sense, organizations could "beat ‘em or join ‘em".