SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

My daughter gave me a book for Christmas that helped me understand myself and my health promotion colleagues a little bit better. The book is How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, by David Bornstein.

Social entrepreneurs are people who apply their intelligence and drive to address the social problems of the world, rather than build businesses to make money. Bornstein’s book focuses on superstars, living and deceased, who have achieved high visibility from efforts ranging from bringing electrical power to remote rural areas of Brazil, transforming the profession of nursing from a scorned avocation to a well respected discipline, establishing basic human rights for disabled people in Hungary, providing care for AIDS victims in South Africa by attracting girls out of prostitution with training in home health care, creating a social service agency for street kids and run by street kids, to a foundation that discovers and supports the work of social entrepreneurs all over the world. As I read the book, I thought about a couple people in our profession who might qualify as social entrepreneur superstars, but many many more who are doing fabulous work in transforming their workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, and clinics into communities that value health. Each one of them is improving the quality of life of hundreds of people and inspiring students and children to carry this message forward. Thinking about them made me proud to be their friends and proud to be part of a profession that attracts so many of those people and nurtures their instinct to be of service. Professional life has not always been easy for many of these health promotion professionals. They have the intelligence, drive, and education to secure jobs with more stability and higher pay, but they have chosen instead to serve people.

Space prohibits doing justice to the many concepts Bornstein articulates so well but I can share some of his observations about outstanding social service organizations and social entrepreneurs.

He has discovered the following qualities in innovative social service organizations:

1. Institutionalize Listening. These organizations constantly listen to the people they are serving to make sure they are addressing the right problems with the most effective strategies.
2. Pay Attention to the Exceptional. Strategies are built on the programs that produce outstanding results, even when those results were not expected.
3. Design Real Solutions for Real People. These organizations understand the intricacies of human behavior and their programs address them.
4. Focus on Human Qualities. They hire people who want to serve others and are capable of serving others; academic qualifications are sometimes not as important.

He also recognized six qualities in outstanding social entrepreneurs:

1. Willingness to Self-Correct.
2. Willingness to Share Credit.
3. Willingness to Break Free of Established Structures.
4. Willingness to Cross Disciplinary Boundaries.
5. Willingness to Work Quietly.
6. Strong Ethical Impetus.

Reading about Bornstein’s social entrepreneur superstars was inspiring in and of itself, but the most exciting chapter of the book for me was the last chapter, “The Emergence of the Citizen Sector.” Bornstein described the emergence of social entrepreneurship programs in many of the leading MBA programs in the US and Europe, foundations created by business entrepreneurs to support social entrepreneurs, and a flood of successful business people starting second careers in social service agencies. The future looks brighter for people who want to devote their careers to social service, and more importantly for the people who need our help.

Michael P. O'Donnell, PhD, MBA, MPH
Editor in Chief, American Journal of Health Promotion