Hi Class!
I have been reading a book for another course titled "Solving Tough Problems", written by Adam Kahane, and find that his methods for solving tough problems are very relevant to early stage social ventures. I will briefly summarize his methods, which connect very closely to our Week 3 Topic: In search of a "Globe Shaker", and hope that others in the class may be able to use this approach in their ideation stage.
Mr. Kahane is a world renown negotiator and facilitator. He spent many years working in industry for Royal Dutch/Shell Corporation, Intel and PricewaterhouseCoopers before taking the problem solving skills he learned therein to work for the National Government of Canada (his home country) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. He honed his signature problem solving approach during his first internationally profiled challenge- helping negotiate the transition to an all-race democracy after the fall of apartheid in South Africa. His esteemed experience is impressive and he has clearly put his methods to the ultimate test in real world situations.
Mr Kahane divides problems into two general categories. The first, problems of low complexity, are easy to solve by re-using or re-hashing old solutions installed by previously established authorities. However the second, those with high complexity, like the situation in South Africa in the 1990's, require entirely new solutions created by entirely new authorities. His method presented herein applies only to the second type of problem, which also tend to be the problems targeted by social ventures. Issues like poverty, hunger, and slavery clearly can not be solved through old methods and the powers-that-be have been unsuccessful in their attempts. A new approach is needed, and social ventures are perfectly poised to fill that role.
Mr Kahane suggests starting by "Breathing In" the problem. This is what most entrepreneurs call "customer development", but Kahane insists that this must be done before any ideation of a solution starts. This way, the entire depth of the problem is understood before trying to solve bits and pieces of a larger systemic whole. All affected by the targeted problem must be interviewed and their challenges understood, as well as how their problems connect to the problems of others in the community. The landscape of the problem must also be mapped- what is the religious, cultural and political landscape on which this problem unfolds? What will be the constraints or promoters of change in this community?
Stakeholders and new authorities with power to enact change must then be brought together in workshops to "Breath Out"- or review the findings and begin discussing various scenarios that describe the possible solutions to the problem described. By exploring multiple (typically 4-10) solution scenarios at once (all tasked by different teams who present their scenarios to the larger group for feedback), comparisons reveal gaps or innovations that can be strengthened for an ultimately robust solution.
It is also important for all the actors to internalize and visualize all of the solutions scenarios so that they serve as mental guidelines for late problem solving "in the moment", not in facilitated workshops. Lastly, by acting out the scenarios as a group, the actors can begin to identify actions that they themselves can use to begin to enact real change, as opposed to generating a list of commands for how they want the rest of the community to change (for example, targeting a politician to change a specific policy that may or may not be possible). From here, the actors can return to the community to become champions of the issue and start solving larger systemic problems together.
I urge my classmates to read this book (which is very short and easy to read!) and get a more in depth grasp of the methods I have quickly parsed here. However, I would challenge my classmates to ask themselves how they may apply this method to their social venture concept. Surely, enacting this method on a full scale would be tough for students- a team hoping to solve childhood poverty will be hard pressed to host a workshop with Mayor Peduto, parents and the Director of the Board of Education, in the next few weeks, certainly. But how could you replicate this on a smaller scale to still capture some of the information? Are there student groups or non-profits in the community you could reach out to for interviews? Could you find a team of students to generate and act out a few scenarios of solutions over a free pizza? The information gathered will surely strengthen your ultimate solution.
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