New Site: The Search for Transformative Social Innovation

At the beginning of May I submitted my draft thesis on social innovation. So, while I had a couple of weeks before I needed to prepare for my presentation, I decided to revamp this site by creating a new one! The new site is http://www.searchforTSI.com/

My goal was to make the information on this site more accessible and use it as an attempt to better articulate some of the ideas I have been wrestling with over the last two years. The current version is very much a draft (there are a few sections still needing text) and I would value your comments.

I will delete this blog in the next few weeks – and thank you for all those who subscribed to my erratic posts and provided feedback and support. You are more than welcome to subscribe to the new site - http://www.searchforTSI.com/blog/

Many thanks

Graham

Power of Social Innovation Webinars – April 2011

The “Power of Social Innovation Webinar series” has two new webinars this month that look very interesting….and they are FREE!

1. School Reform in Detroit: Critical Lessons in Building Community Support

April 13th, 2011 from 2:00 - 3:00 pm (ET)

“The panel will explore the important role that civic leaders—both outside the public school system and within—can play in engaging and mobilizing the support of parents, neighbors and others in an effort to turn around an education system.” See details and register.

• Archon Fung (moderator) – Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Harvard Kennedy School
• Michael Tenbusch – Vice President, United Way for Southeastern Michigan
• Johnathon Matthews – Principal, Cody Academy of Public Leadership

2. Social Innovation as Economic Development: Incubate and Grow Social Enterprises in Your Community

April 19th, 2011 from 2:00 - 3:00 pm (ET)

“This webinar will explore the potential impact of, and lay out some key strategies for, supporting local social enterprises as a practical and effective means of encouraging business development, job growth and wealth creation”. See details and register.

• Anthony Williams (moderator) – William H. Bloomberg Lecturer in Public Management, Harvard Kennedy School; former two-term mayor of the District of Columbia
• Christopher Gergen - Co-founder and Executive Director, Bull City Forward
• Bo Menkiti – Founder and CEO, The Menkiti Group

To get a feel for the quality of these webinars check out previous events here.

Spaghetti & Social Innovation: What should stick?

A few days ago a good friend of mine referred me to a recent set of articles on social innovation in the Philanthropist. After the link, he wrote:

“Seems a bit like throwing spaghetti at a wall to me, but I know you love a challenge.”

I wasn’t too sure what he meant but my response was to rattle off an email presenting an argument for social innovation – I threw in a definition, told him why I thought it was important and, for good measure, said that if social innovation was spaghetti then that was nothing compared to the subject he studied (true Christmas spirit there).

Over the last 48 hours I’ve thought more about my defensive response – what had the connection between spaghetti and social innovation triggered?