A Social Innovation

System
Principles, Steps, and Tools Anyone Can Use to Create Social Change, Raise Money, or
Sell a Social Change idea
The Issues

STIFF COMPETITION FOR DESIGNING EFFECTIVE SELLING NEW DEVELOPING NEW WAYS
DONORS’ TIME AND INTERVENTIONS BEHAVIORS OR TO GET RESULTS
ATTENTION ATTITUDES TO A
DISTRACTED PUBLIC
The Solution

Tools and techniques that help social changers do better upfront A framework for analyzing problems, generating ideas, and
planning, design better programs, and generate more funding making decisions
more reliably is the solution
Five Principals

Think Focus on
Be systematic
scientifically marketing

Look for Search for

leverage opportunities
Seven Steps

Decide what
Explore your Study your
counts as a Look for ideas
challenge environment
good idea

Design or Evaluate and

Implement
brainstorm improve
Some social innovation tools

LATERAL THINKING – PMI, ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMATIC CREATIVITY – EXPLORING A CHALLENGE

PROVOCATIVE SCANNING – SWOT, OT MORPHOLOGICAL – PROBLEMS VERSUS
OPERATIONS, RANDOM MATRIX ANALYSIS, SCAMPER SYMPTOMS, 5 WHY
INPUT TECHNIQUE
 • Write it down
• If there is a problem to solve, consider causes and
Exploring Your symptoms. What will you focus on? Why?
Challenge • If multiple causes or symptoms…try ranking them
based on Impact, Resources, Knowledge, Concern
(RICK)
 • Resources – Do you have the money, people, and technical skill
needed to address this factor? Try to estimate of the money and labor
power you might need.

• Impact – What activities or behaviors contribute to the trash

problem? Brainstorm four or five plausible factors and write them
down.
RICK Explained
• Concern – How much do people seem to care about each of those
factors?

• Knowledge – Do we know how to address that factor? Is there peer-

reviewed research or evaluation research or a model program that
you can use or not?
 • Need equals demand
• Audience knowledge
• Objections – why they don't do X or support Y
Check Your
• Motivation
Assumptions
• Lack of knowledge is the root of the problem.
• The most important single cause of a problem
 • Write down your challenge.
• Open a dictionary at random.
• Pick the first noun you see.

Brainstorming – • Now, take the essence of your challenge and compare

it to your noun.
Random Input
• Take two minutes to write down the characteristics of a
lizard.
• Take five minutes to force comparisons between the
two things.
 • Pick a real challenge facing your cause, movement, or
nonprofit.
Exercise
• Do the random input exercise and spend five minutes
writing down your thoughts.
 • Better than what exists?
• Compatible with beneficiaries’ experiences, values,
lifestyles, needs?

Five Principles of • Simple to use (or do) and understand?

Good Design • Testable without having to commit to it?
• Observable, so that others can see the benefit of
adopting it?
Applications

Fundraising Advocacy Programs Social Operations

Marketing
Next Steps

•1. Read Serious Creativity or Thinkertoys, and practice what you learn there.

•2. Apply what you learned in this mini-course to a challenge.

•3. Connect with me on social media.

•4. Get on the waiting list for my full Course in Creative Social Change,
coming in January 2020.
 • 64 slides and 7 exercises
The Complete • More nonprofit and social activism examples

Course on • A private Facebook community

Social • Fillable PDF worksheets for exploring the environment,

defining a challenge, brainstorming, design thinking, and
Innovation evaluating ideas
• A free PDF copy of The Creative Change Book
Connect with Me

chesterdavisphd@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/chesterdavis
www.chesterdavisphd.com