Youth Designing the Future
This summer GOODdler Foundation collaborated with the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership to offer one of the first accelerator programs that help youth explore what it takes to redesign entire social realities for a better world. This unique program puts social entrepreneurship in a larger context and reveals often overlooked possibilities to address systemic root causes of local and global issues.
While using market mechanisms is a requirement for all projects, participants can choose whether they want to work on building a socially responsible business, make social impact through a social enterprise, or start an evolutionary initiative that uses entrepreneurship in combination with other activities to catalyze systemic change.
For the first two tracks the emphasis is on understanding limitations of conventional social responsibility and social impact models, developing the capacity to identify and address negative systemic consequences of such models, and designing ventures that play a positive role in the time when fundamental shifts are required in the very fabric of our civilization. Participants who choose the third track take a deep dive into the theory and practice of systemic change. This is the most challenging and demanding track but also one that is most suited for those who want to be at the forefront of social innovation.
Besides working on their projects participants get support in identifying, understanding, and building on their strengths using CliftonStrengths Assessment and developing some of the Evolutionary Leadership Competencies. With the growing recognition of systemic change as a necessary alternative to failing models in philanthropy, policy, and social entrepreneurship, we need to connect youth with cutting-edge thinking and practical experience of redesigning social realities for a more just, sustainable, and flourishing civilization.
Not only is it much needed for the people and the planet today, but it also helps young people — as more institutions of influence become open to the idea of systemic change — follow their passion for a better world: for example, one of our pilot cohort participants was named an Ashoka Fellow, as she claims, to a great extent because of the understanding of systemic change that she gained through the program.
Our participants, in their own words, are future and emerging leaders and social innovators from 13 to 23 years old who are passionate about creating a world where every human being can grow up to reach their full potential. They want to spread happiness, to bring positivity and kindness to those around them, and to address pressing challenges of today through technology, policy change, entrepreneurship, community building, and other domains. All of them are willing to use entrepreneurship as a starting point in their exploration.
Some participants come to the program with an idea, others find their idea along the way or join forces with their peers who have an idea. Not everyone is expected to keep working on their projects after the program — many participants will concentrate on their studies. The main purpose of the program is to offer cutting-edge knowledge, frameworks, and a felt experience of creating an entrepreneurial initiative for a more just, sustainable and flourishing world with guidance from experienced mentors. However, some participants stay committed to their projects beyond the duration of the program and keep working on them with our support that ranges from connections to potential investors to advice from thought leaders in systemic change.
The acceleration process is based on three core elements: in person workshops, mentoring sessions, and activities that teams do on their own. After initial context setting and leadership development sessions participants form teams, choose their tracks and issues or ideas they will be working on. Then they do research that include track-appropriate activities ranging from stakeholder mapping to customer discovery interviews.
The results of this research help participants design the first iteration of their business model and test it with customers and other key stakeholders. The feedback harvested from testing is then used to develop a Go To Market Strategy. The last three weeks of the program are dedicated to additional iterations of previous steps (especially if the team had to pivot) and preparation for the final presentations.
At the end of the program participants present their work to a panel of judges that consists of two investors, two social impact experts, and two thought leaders in the field of systemic change. Presentation guidelines include — among quite a few — such questions as “Who are your customers and what problem are you solving for them?” for the first track, “What is the social or environmental issue you are addressing and what symptoms of this issue are painful for your key stakeholders?” for the second track, and “What issues are you addressing, who are the key ecosystem actors, and what cultures, institutions, and worldviews are perpetuating these issues?” for the third track.
Accelerating a pilot cohort this summer was a great first step. According to our post-program survey, the median score that indicates perceived value of the program for personal and professional development was 9.5 out of 10 (extremely valuable). The majority of the participants appreciated how this program helped them learn about social entrepreneurship and systemic change, better understand their strengths, articulate who they are and what they want to do, have a support structure that kept them on track, get out of their comfort zone, and have fun in the process.
When asked to reflect on their experience with the program, some participants specifically mentioned a “loving environment” and how they “felt loved and supported”. Among many takeaways they named the ability to understand different aspects of a problem to develop a solution that is truly encompassing and can truly make an impact. They also realized that there is no magic bullet solutions to complex problems and learned about systems thinking, impact of actions on a larger system, and the critical role of teamwork.
Participants also learned that the dynamics of a team depends not only on the behavior of team members but also on the broader context in which the team operates. They learned about how interconnected systems are, how to think systemically and understand the dynamics of human behavior, how the rules work, why they exist, and how to use this knowledge to create change.
They realized the importance of going with the flow and changing their strategy depending on how everyone is moving and thinking. They learned that coordination needs to be built upon trust and confidence and that vulnerability needs to be incorporated in relationships in order for them to function well. These takeaways were among many others shared directly by participants through surveys, journaling, and conversations.
Based on this pilot program GOODdler Foundation and the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership are working together to offer a more in-depth program based on the same structure and content — this time extending it for 6 months from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2019. If you want to learn more about the program, become a sponsor or apply, see the latest information on the GOODdler Foundation website.
In the meantime here is some advice from our pilot cohort to future participants:
Work as hard as you can. Take responsibility for what is happening in your team. Be prepared to have open communication with others and be really open minded in this collaborative space. Do your best to spend at least 2 hours a week with your mentor and at least 8 hours or more to do research and testing between mentoring sessions. Make sure you learn from others well and practice, practice, practice. Interview, interview, interview!!!
_______________________________
About us: Gooddler Foundation is a 501(c)3 US Charity that aims to create a resourceful networking platform for young people from all socioeconomic backgrounds to grow with the desire to contribute to common good and inspire them to become a part of solutions to the most pressing global issues and issues plaguing communities they live in by giving them tools to create sustainable and profitable businesses.
To provide participants with cutting edge thought leadership and support that includes insights and frameworks from top-level academic research, real-life case studies, and rigorous mentorship, the Gooddler Foundation partners with the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership (IEL) — a California-based social enterprise that helps individuals, teams, and communities intentionally drive systemic transformation towards a more just, sustainable, and flourishing world. Through its educational services IEL has been enriching, transforming, and co-designing educational programs, fellowships, and incubators with strong focus on addressing deep systemic root causes of complex global and local challenges. IEL’s modules have been ranked top 1–2 compared to social innovation modules provided by Stanford D-School, OpenIDEO, and other prominent organizations in the field.
