Innovation for Social Change

Chapter 3Stretching the Imagination

While the previous step—“what's desirable?”—helped us to surface hidden needs and form some rough ideas to address those needs, in this step we'll be asking “what's scalable?” to help us stretch the idea and our imaginations a bit further.

Far too often, we sell our ideas short. Instead, we can ask, does a seemingly small idea have larger ramifications?

To illustrate, take a look at the following examples from the Nature Conservancy and Feeding America. What's the difference between each organization's first and second options?

Nature Conservancy

1. Protect and set aside 10,000 acres in Kansas as a tallgrass prairie land reserve. Or,
2. Conserve 650 million hectares of healthy land, 30 million hectares of freshwater, and 4 billion hectares of oceans around the world.

Feeding America

1. Establish a food bank in Phoenix, Arizona, to distribute 275,000 pounds of food to people in need. Or,
2. Create a network of 200 food banks across the country to feed 40 million people at risk of hunger, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors.

If you noticed that the difference is a matter of scale, you are right. Comparatively, the first option represents incremental change, while the second represents exponential change.

Let's also be clear that bigger isn't always the optimal strategy in every case. Let's consider a third example, the Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Employment, Inc. For almost 100 years, this nonprofit has been providing ...