First things first: Understanding, the basis of sustainable innovation

We were evoked to set out on a quest to become social innovators, changing agents of the future, heroes of social justice. Using our collective intelligence and knowledge networks, I am convinced, we can bring about real change and social innovations that improve and facilitate people’s lives.

Innovating means finding a new way of doing things with the goal of positive change and betterment.

But in order to innovate sustainably you first need to know the way things work right now (and sometimes how the things have worked in the past). If you want to achieve social innovation you have to first:

“Understand by observing the environment, infrastructure, culture and lives of people by being there” and
along the same line:

“Go where the action is. Talk to people with the problem and Listen. Learn everything about the specific
content and not fight existing culture.”

In order to change the world you first have to get an understanding of the world. In order to solve a social problem, you first have to understand the underlying social reality, learn to see the problems from the perspective of the affected. If you don’t ‘do your homework’ properly you risk to start out the wrong way and waste resources and energy. The consequences of “blind activism” can be experienced everywhere. The solution to the problem has to be appropriate to the social and cultural reality in order to be sustainable, in order to be sustained by the empowered community. For example distributing free white mosquito bed nets to a community in which white is the color of death, may lead to parents not putting
their children to sleep under those bed nets. Thus the initiative fails to reduce the number of malaria-infected population, which was their designated objective.

Before taking the first step you should know the reality the people you want to empower face every day. Many intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations don’t succeed all too well in this endeavor. In many cases they stay in their affluent, shielded bubble of alternative reality, and fail to
build bridges to the common people and their every day life. So if social innovations are to be brought about they use ‘one size fits them all’ approaches, without realizing the potential of solutions adapted to the specifics of the community.

In order to drive sustainable social innovations you need to apply all of the 33 best practices, but first and foremost you need to UNDERSTAND before you want to CHANGE.

I am studying in Abidjan right now and I am at the same time studying Abidjan, attentively observing my surroundings, talking to people, hearing them outabout their (daily) problems and struggles and collecting various information in order to launch a small project to help (at least some of) the people in
this beautiful city.

“First thinking, than acting” – German Proverb