Giving Compass' Take:

• A report on systems change solutions provide five recommendations geared toward social entrepreneurs that want to make an impact.

• What makes systems change innovation different from other approaches that social entrepreneurs might normally implement? 

• Read about what a systems change approach would like in action.

Beyond Organizational Scale: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Systems Change presents an insightful report on how social entrepreneurs are “fundamentally, and on a large scale, changing the way a majority of relevant players solve a big social challenge, such that a critical mass of people affected by that problem substantially benefit.”

The report recommends that social entrepreneurs who want to increase their impact beyond the limits of their organization’s ability to grow should:

  1. Embrace complexity and adaptability
  2. Build their evidence base
  3. Create, convene, and coordinate coalitions
  4. Engage government
  5. Shift systems with humility

Systems change involves changing the participants, rules, or goals of the game in a lasting way. It is this kind of system-changing innovation that empowers truckers to become witnesses of human trafficking in an industry often blamed for complacency, enables companies to value the unique skills of people with autism, and ensures the water management system in rural Mexico realizes the right to access potable water for everyone.

Now more than ever, it is critical to accelerate the pace at which society spots, supports, and connects system-changing new ideas and the entrepreneurs who have the ability and commitment to realize those ideas.

Read the full article about creating systems change at Ashoka