Today’s headlines are flooded with news of high poverty and unemployment rates, failing schools and political gridlock. But American innovation has painted a bright spot in an otherwise grim picture with the help of community leaders, social innovators and entrepreneurs.
Though chances of making it big in social innovation are far and few between, the sheer amount of ambition to drive national progress gives Americans a renewed sense of hope and something to look forward to, according to social innovation expert Kim Syman.
Syman is a managing partner at New Profit, where she focuses on innovative and high impact social enterprise strategies.
“What’s notable today is that we are now seeing pathways from small-scale progress exemplified to full-scale impact with the potential to meet the huge needs that still exist among our fellow citizens,” Syman said.
By focusing on seven key principles, Syman writes in Fast Company, social enterprises can unlock the key to success:
Growing Smart
Scaling has historically been the primary concern of growing nonprofits, but Syman contends that organizations are now leveraging distribution partnerships to obtain a greater reach. Health Leads, which focuses on health systems, and Single Stop USA, which helps low-income families with social services, have both used partnerships to grow their strategies.
Embracing Data
Data is undoubtedly reshaping policy and strategy across both public and private sectors, becoming one of the single most important drivers in successful social enterprise. The Family Independence Initiative’s model embraces data to help its clients set goals and track their progress out of poverty.
Empowering Constituents
“Power to the people” is just as relevant in today’s cultural landscape. By empowering constituents, social innovators and community leaders are engaging people to be a part of shaping the change they seek. For example, LIFT is an anti-poverty organization that uses its recipients as advocates.
Harnessing Technology
Aside from data, using technology to connect and create has increasingly become more important to nonprofits. By using platforms, software and other modes of technology, social enterprise can play a greater role in the digital world. Y Combinator, a tech incubator that supports social startups, is one example of harnessing technology for the greater good.
Creating Marketplace Demand
More innovators are understanding the need to create a demand (and a market) for a problem they wish to solve. “This encourages the market to nurture and catalyze solutions that work, to create new pathways to social innovation financing, and to grow previously untapped opportunities that drive social impact,” Syman said.
Nurturing Ecosystems
Cross-collaboration has become an important tool in today’s social innovation sector. By combining stakeholders such as lawmakers, philanthropists and business leaders, social enterprise can leverage more resources and strategies to address a problem and find a solution that works for everyone.
Driving Policy Innovation
While part of social innovation is to work around political gridlock, creating policy at the local, state and federal level can lead to finding new ways of solving problems in some of our social programs. The bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is currently in Congress and could lead to better outcome-oriented approaches, according to Syman.
These seven principles will not drive progress alone, but injected with more optimism and commitment, social innovation has the potential to pave the way for a better and brighter America.
For more on Syman’s pathway to social innovation success, check out her Op-Ed here.
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Tag: big data
Why Local Governments Are Becoming More Data-Driven
It’s no secret that data analytics and an emphasis on machine learning are easy ways to fast track efficiency when it comes to navigating the daunting processes of bureaucracy. That concept is gradually catching on, but in the wake of budget cuts and economic recovery, government officials in Indiana are understanding the important role data can play in saving costs.
Earlier this year Indiana Gov. Mike Pence used an executive order to create a Management and Performance Hub (MPH) to streamline and increase the use of data services across state agencies. In an effort to increase productivity and transparency, the MPH uses performance management tools and an analytic platform to identify to examine where agencies can improve and how to save money.
Supported by the governor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT), MPH stands to serve as an example of agency coordination and cutting out some of the drawn-out, bureaucratic procedures that have long been in place. The state’s vast pool of data is now organized in a central place within the IOT, according to Paul Baltzell, chief information officer.
“We are seeing boosted productivity from standardization and cleaning of data, and also from new technology purchases,” said Sara Marshall, the MPH project director for OMB. “For example, a complex query that takes ten minutes on an SQL server takes less than one second on our new in-memory computing platform.”
The reorganization and clean-up of procedures also limits opportunity to corrupt data, Marshall adds. With few steps involved in a query, there’s less of a chance of error. That also adds to a better workflow.
The state agencies are also exploring more ways to implement a data-driven government, including improving real-time statistics on drug and alcohol abuse for local authorities as well as keeping up with updating resident addresses.
The success of Indiana’s implementation of the site is due in part to strong support from state leadership. The city of Chicago is another example where leadership backing has helped foster a successful model. The city’s Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), which helps streamline data use across departments, has had strong support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. The agency is dedicated to identifying problems and making data-driven decisions through use of machine learning and analytics.
For example, the city recently completed a pilot project to predict rodent infestations for the Department of Streets and Sanitation. The department was then able to target areas where it should use rodent-baiting, saving on cost and time.
With more support from government leaders, data analytics can vastly improve the frustrating procedures that hamper government productivity. Perhaps Indiana’s success can serve as a future model for more states to get on board with the power of data.
A Software Program Yelps About NYC Restaurants That Violate Health Code
The five boroughs of New York City boast a wide range of food options — from halal street food to world famous culinary cuisine. With help of online review sites like Yelp, residents can navigate the overwhelming number of dining options.
And as it turns out, these user-generated commentary sites can be used for more than figuring out where to book a table on a Saturday night.
As New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene figured out, these online reviews are an important source in discovering restaurants violating health code.
Using a software program created by experts at Columbia University, the city mined 300,000 Yelp restaurant reviews (between July 2012 and March 2013) where patrons complained of vomiting, diarrhea, or other details following a meal that could signal food-borne illness, according to the New York Times.
Their findings? Out of 893 possible cases that needed further investigating, 56 percent illustrated an incident akin to food-borne illness, according to a recent federal Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Though the method is not entirely accurate — there’s no way to tell if the food poisoning came from somewhere else — health inspectors were able to find three restaurants in violation of code.
One eatery was discovered to have bare-handed contact with ready-to-eat food, while another failed to properly clean work surfaces and was found to have cross-contamination of ingredients in the refrigerator. Health inspectors found evidence of cockroaches and mice at a third restaurant as well.
“With food-borne illnesses, it’s much better to reach people sooner,” medical epidemiologist Dr. Sharon Balter told the New York Times. “When investigating an outbreak, we want to know what people who got sick ate, who else was with them and what items they all ate together. If you wait, people forget.”
During the pilot program, officials culled potential cases using a week’s worth of Yelp data at a time, but now experts are combing through the data daily in attempt to prevent future outbreaks. Officials are encouraging other online review sites to contribute to the project to benefit public health.
And while the innovative, cost-effective experiment is fair from perfect, it goes to show that social media can be used for far more than just to #humblebrag or #tbt.