► a network comprised of interdependent communities,
united by a shared vision and set of values, which has
harnessed changemaking network effects to outpace and
outsmart systemic social problems.
Overview
In the first network effects playbook for social entrepreneurs, Ashoka Board Member, Sushmita Ghosh, presents the five core principles and accompanying strategies for harnessing changemaking network effects. Sushmita distilled these conclusions from extensive interviews with Ashoka Fellows who have pioneered global Changemaking Networks. These networks have successfully orchestrated the coming together of several systems, their players, and concerned citizens to serve positive social change goals—such as “Zero Homelessness,” “Health Care Without Harm,” and “Holding Power to Account”—harnessing changemaking network effects.
Ashoka is delighted to share a must-read for every social sector organization, company, funding agency, student, or concerned citizen who cares about a new way of organizing mass changemaking to outsmart and outpace the world’s biggest problems.
Written for action-takers, it leaves every reader with a clear sense about how to get started on building Changemaking Networks. Today.
If you would like to organize for exponential positive social change and, therefore, want to know the behind-the-scenes specifics of how they ignited the interest of vast communities of actors to pool their creativity and savvy for continuous mountain-moving, in ways they may never have thought of on their own, then this playbook might interest you.
~ Sushmita Ghosh
The Five Principles of Changemaking Networks
What happens if these five principles are accomplished by Changemaking Networks?
They become gamechangers for all of society, not just the game each of them is ostensibly focused on.
They re-engineer social systems, evolve how members view their own core identities, and expand their impact beyond the networks and the systems they touch directly, to embrace all of society, changing prevailing social biases.
1. Change the whole game and become its biggest draw
STRATEGY: orchestrate an ecosystem to implement a shared vision of a solution that fits the scale of the problem
After assembling an ecosystem that can accommodate the vastness and complexity of a systemic problem, a Changemaking Network sparks and enables interactions between systems that are best done—and very likely can only be done—through the network.
2. Values, not rules, inform the playbook
STRATEGY: wire your network with shared values, don’t dictate them
A Changemaking Network needs to live certain values that support its game-changing vision down to the last member. This can’t be done through top-down dictation, but by everyone in the network owning these values.
3. Make it easy for everyone to play
STRATEGY: democratize changemaking by engaging all who care
A Changemaking Network provides both the foundation and the stairs to unleash the changemaking potential of all—not just the select few who have already given themselves permission to lead.
4. It’s got to be fun
STRATEGY: create a pathway from engagement to fulfillment
A Changemaking Network needs to help members experience a thrilling expansion of capacity and impact. So, it provides ladders of achievement and recognition for members, which help them evolve their ability to collaborate and innovate, celebrating every small victory.
5. Keep score
STRATEGY: open up network data to stay ahead in the game
Shared measurement of progress generates real-time collective learning for the network. And an open community scoreboard—which keeps track of community learning and of who’s ahead in the game—provides the gamesmanship and dynamic knowledge required in urgent mass changemaking.
It takes a network—one that learns, does, and shares constantly.
~ Sushmita Ghosh
“Why this book now? Because the world is entering the fast-moving turning point years that are ushering in a world where the approach to organizing Sushmita makes accessible here will be the new universal. Those who learn and act early will have a huge advantage because they will be leading us all to a far better future.”
Bill Drayton
CEO & Founder of Ashoka
“This book shows us that the sky’s the limit if we leverage the power of networks in a world where technology has enabled us to connect easily across geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries and has given individuals the greater power to create solutions.”
Anousheh Ansari
Entrepreneur & CEO of Xprize
“The book articulates really well what is the DNA of a network entrepreneur: how he/she builds powerful new ideas, articulates and leverages networks to create impact. [...] Changemakers, entrepreneurs, network builders, investors/funders will learn a lot from all the insights and how-to’s captured in the book.”
Sachin Malhan
Cofounder of Agami & Former Executive Director of Ashoka Changemakers
Ashoka Board Member, Former President of Ashoka, & Founder of Ashoka Changemakers
Sushmita Ghosh
Ashoka Board Member, Former President of Ashoka, & Founder of Ashoka Changemakers
Sushmita Ghosh went from a highly successful career in journalism, working with every major mainstream publication in India, to playing various roles (over two decades) at Ashoka: Everyone a Changemaker, an organization that has defined and pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship globally.
She began as Ashoka’s country representative for India in 1989, helped Ashoka launch its new programs in Latin America, directed its European fundraising efforts, and in 1992, founded Ashoka’s “Changemakers,” which she evolved from a magazine for social entrepreneurship to the first online platform for open-source problem-solving for systemic social ills. That service now offers instruction in changemaking for organizations invested in social change as well as ordinary citizens, ultimately aspiring to form a self-energizing community of changemakers.
Ghosh later served as President of Ashoka from 2000 to 2005, and is currently on Ashoka’s Global Board of Directors. She is passionate about how mass changemaking can be organized to stay ahead of constantly morphing, giant social problems. This fuels her interest in learning, defining, and building a learning community around organizing frameworks designed to innovate well into the future.
Ashoka
