To kick off the discussion, Jill Minkoff talked about the volumes of text regarding innovation in the Jewish tradition; it is really an imperative. After the fall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, for instance, it took many people many years of groundbreaking work and deep thought to reconstitute the religion into one that could exist in the absence of a central focal point for worship, a truly innovative shift (and one done in a "nonprofit" setting before that term ever existed). Or take the layout of the Talmud, a "linked" conversation that happened across time and space, cataloging the evolution of a people. Innovation is in our DNA.
The group then moved to the broader topic. The plenary included a diverse panel of thinkers from the nonprofit world. Thankfully for us, it was recorded and is available for viewing here.
The group watched a select piece of the panel (approximately 38:00-48:00), which addressed the question "Why is it so hard to for nonprofits to be innovative?" Here are some of the big ideas that came out of this portion:
From Brian Reich:
- we need to look at the context of innovation - where and when it is happening, what are the external factors
- organizational innovation vs. issue innovation
- the idea that nonprofits should be working to "put themselves out of business"
- innovation doesn't come from organizations, it comes from individuals
- we need to be failing, learning, and trying new things in real time - be bold and experimental, blow up our whole line of work and start afresh
- the nonprofit space doesn't have the market forces acting on that for-profit businesses do, which changes the nature of the game
- innovation comes from collaboration
- the onus is on philanthropists to start investing in innovative projects
From Meg Garlinghouse:
- we need to start releasing ideas in beta, testing them with our constituents, learning from the results - create that feedback loop
- iterate, make incremental change
The group came out with several big thoughts, including the following:
- There is a semantic disagreement among the panelists, but also a philosophical one. Some seem to argue for big, immediate change, while others are in favor of a more incremental approach.
- What is the definition of innovation? One understanding is the process of implementing a new idea, putting it through the system.
- Organizational culture inhibits individual innovation. If we relate this concept to physics, it's comparable to inertia - a body at rest tends to stay at rest; a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Things don't change unless a powerful enough force acts upon the body. The quicker the change is needed, and the more mass that body has, the more force required for change.
- How do large, established organizations change? Take the example of the railroad, which avoided going out of business because the companies knew they owned not just the tracks, but the land on either side of them. So when it came time to lay other kinds of cables that would stretch across the country, railroad companies had the answer. Or, to take another angle, think about the light bulb, which had to be made to look like a flame so that it felt comfortable, enough like what folks were already used to doing, to make the shift.
- Central agencies have typically been in the business of wholesale, while the organizations we work with are the retailers. What happens to this model in a world where, increasingly, companies go direct to the customer?
- Are "traditional" Jewish organizations innovating? It would be difficult to find an example of a successful synagogue, for instance, that is doing "business" the way it always have; they've changed at some point along the way.
- What if Jewish organizations are putting themselves out of business by not changing, what is our responsibility? Do we try to help them, make them aware? Do we let the free market decide? Will folks go to the organization offering the best product/experience, or will institutional loyalty reign supreme?
- The Pizza Problem: people want pizza. They don't even know that they want what we have. How do we demonstrate that?
- Almost all of the models of innovation come from the product world. It's time to shift the model, look for examples of change that change lives.
- How do institutions work with free agents, creative folks out there doing good work who aren't connected to a pre-existing system?
- Issues outlast the changing tools. No matter how fast the tools change, use the ones that help make an impact.
How do we focus the conversation on nonprofits and innovation moving forward? How does this affect the way we think about our work and our impact in the world?
