Recommended Reading: How to change the World
Title: Manifesto for a Moral Revolution — Principles and Stories You Can Use to Change the World
Who: Jacqueline Novogratz is the New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Sweater and founder and CEO of Acumen. She has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast, and one of the world’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes, which also honored her with the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Published: 2020
Why: Should you have the desire change to the world, what would inform your approach to investing in a project? Would it encompass an inclusive, ethical, sustainable solution beyond mere kindness and charity, yet not bound strictly clinical approach of short-term profit?
Jacqueline demonstrates how investments of “patient capital” to reclaim our dignity, can bridge that tension between charity and profit. She shares, personal, inspirational and poignant vignettes from experiences at Acumen that have resulted in massive transformations, empowering people (herself included) and communities around the world.
Reflecting on the lessons learned, she articulates a compelling and authentic narrative, informing a manifesto that resonated at several levels: through (a) my observations and best practices in social development, (b) my understanding of the SBU DAO ethos, and (c) projects that are close to home in Kenya (among many others).
What: This book is about cultivating a moral imagination focusing on human-centered capitalism.
Jacqueline draws inspiration from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who co-authored the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The manifesto is the result of exploring and articulating a contemporary set of guiding principles that are informed by her journey to change the world. The approach is underpinned by the notion that restoring one’s dignity is a central element of poverty alleviation, and that poverty is not simply measured in economic terms. She notes that We decide on how to define “success” incorporating elements of inclusion, sustainability and community.
The lessons learned, begin with sobering encounters as a young American woman in several West- and East-African countries, unaware of nuances of the socio-cultural context while sincerely attempting to help others. The book offers many examples of how to solve problems in challenging situations: (a) across various boundaries including that of geography, gender, race, culture, and wealth; and (b), working with a variety of organizations including CSO, NGOs, government and private enterprise.
Jacqueline’s experience has been about living into a sense of purpose rather than attempting to plan it from the sidelines. Purpose is something that grows with you, and success is waiting for us to live into it. “The question isn’t just what problem do you want to solve, but how do you want to spend the next forty years of your life?”.
Her ethical framework for problem solving is based on the notion of moral imagination that that recognizes our common humanity and insists on opportunity, choice, and dignity for all of us and essential to ensure that our future solutions and institutions are inclusive and sustainable. It is the lens through which to see the world’s potential, recognize its disparities, and work to address them.
The synthesis of salient points and wisdom, reflected in the selected quotes (next section), inform the courses on moral leadership offered at the Acumen Academy. These include but not restricted to:
- Listening with “all of our selves” encompassing dimensions of what we see, the emotion we sense in the other, our knowledge of their history, of their very identity. Listening effectively can influence the way we perceive others in all directions.
- Identity: navigating the layers of our own identities while expanding awareness may take a lifetime. “In doing so, we can avoid the temptation of labels and the demonization of others, and search for common ground in those who might seem different at first blush.”
- Moral courage: the will to face fears and to fight for those who are unlike us, especially those outside our own families or tribes.
- We must have the kind of audacity that drove a new generation to build technologies that changed the way humans interacted across the globe. And we must balance that audacity with a new humility that considers and is accountable for the unintended consequences of our actions.
- It is incumbent for moral leaders to hold opposing values without rejecting either.
- Conformity: if you dare to act on dreams of change, you must find the guts to stand apart while also building the relationships needed to design better systems.
- Do your homework to understand a person’s character rather than be swayed solely by charisma or connections.
- Accompaniment: The simple act of showing up and connecting with another’s humanity can help a person rekindle hope in ways they might not otherwise have dreamed of doing.
- Learn to tell the stories that matter, stories that unite and inspire, reinforcing our individual and collective potential, and paint a picture of the future that we can build and inhabit together.
- “Beauty is an expression of human dignity. Remember that in the struggle, there is a beauty that endures. Remember that there will be beauty in moments of tragedy as well as in times of shared celebration. But most important, remember that beauty is inside you, if you let it be.”
Sample Quotes:
We must have the kind of audacity that drove a new generation to build technologies that changed the way humans interacted across the globe. And we must balance that audacity with a new humility that considers and is accountable for the unintended consequences of our actions.
Those who see the role of business as solely to make a profit often employ either-or thinking. But presupposing that profits alone signal the existence of social good limits our ability to think creatively, collaboratively, and constructively, not to mention realistically. The mirror image, relying solely on charity or government, is limiting as well. In a world of interdependence, we will flourish only if we move to “both-and” thinking, integrating purpose and profit, generosity and accountability, the community and the individual.
Our shared humanity is strong and vast enough to encompass our beautiful diversity. Think of yourself as a bridge extending forward so that others might walk across. Commit to stretching beyond your comfort zone to meet those whose realities are different from your own. You might be surprised at what you find on the other side.
In a world of extreme inequality, what kind of economic system is just? … We are the ones who choose the kind of economy and society we inhabit. We can continue to play by tired rules that work only for the few, at the expense of the many, or we can imagine and build new rules that work for everyone. It is all within our individual and collective grasp.
Solving humanity’s toughest problems requires no single hero, but a system of people, companies, organizations, and government that rally around a common enterprise.
The moral leader elevates, providing pathways to redemption and meaning. We will not build strong institutions or confident, capable people if we don’t tell the whole truth.
I believe you become the story you choose to tell. If you want to inspire courageous acts of integrity, celebrate those who act with courage.
Other media:
A selected list of podcasts for those who choose to listen to Jacqueline. (Sorted by date, most recent first)
TED Talk — What it takes to make change (9/2020): What can you do to build a better world? Sharing stories from her pioneering career dedicated to tackling poverty, Jacqueline Novogratz offers three principles to spark and sustain a moral revolution. Learn how you can commit (or recommit) to creating big, positive change in your lifetime — and give back more to the world than you take from it. “It is in the darkest times that we have the chance to find our deepest beauty,” Novogratz says
On Being Podcast with Krista Tippett (5/2020) Moral reckonings are being driven to the surface of our life together: What are politics for? What is an economy for? Jacqueline Novogratz says the simplistic ways we take up such questions — if we take them up at all — is inadequate. Novogratz is an innovator in creative, human-centered capitalism. She has described her recent book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, as a love letter to the next generation.
Jacqueline Novogratz on Rich Roll Podcast (1/2022) Today’s guest — a woman who has made an extraordinary impact on improving the lives of millions of people across the developing world — has dedicated the better part of her life to answering this question with actionable, sustainable solutions.
Prof G Pod Inclusive Capitalism & Moral Leadership — with Jacqueline Novogratz forward to 16 minutes (date?) Jacqueline shares her ideas around moral leadership and how to use capital and networks as means, not ends, to solving the issues of poverty.
Talks at Google (2017) Moral Leadership Founder and CEO of Acumen. Acumen is a non-profit venture fund tackling poverty in the U.S., Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Together, Prasad Setty and Jacqueline discuss how Acumen’s patient capital model has impacted over 232 million low-income people in 13 countries, how Google has provided critical support to their investees, and how Googlers can use their skills to innovatively build the social sector.
TED Talk: A third way to think about aid (2009). The debate over foreign aid often pits those who mistrust “charity” against those who mistrust reliance on the markets. Jacqueline Novogratz proposes a middle way she calls patient capital, with promising examples of entrepreneurial innovation driving social change.
TED Talk- An escape from poverty (2009): Jacqueline Novogratz tells a moving story of an encounter in a Nairobi slum with Jane, a former prostitute, whose dreams of escaping poverty, of becoming a doctor and of getting married were fulfilled in an unexpected way.
