University Times

Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, won the 2012 Johnson Institute Exemplary Leader Award.

Editor’s note: Due to space limitations, this story was held over from the April 19 issue of the University Times.

The ability to create change increasingly will define success, said social entrepreneur Bill Drayton, winner of the 2012 Johnson Institute Exemplary Leader Award.

The Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership, part of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), presents the annual award in recognition of the accomplishments of highly effective leaders who demonstrate the values of accountability, ethics and responsibility.

Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, accepted the award and delivered the lecture, “How to Lead in a Rapidly Changing World,” last month at Rodef Shalom Temple.

Ashoka, which describes itself as the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, focuses on the philosophy of “everyone a changemaker,” promoting social change and problem-solving through 3,000 Ashoka Fellows worldwide.

In presenting the award, GSPIA professor and Johnson Institute director Kevin Kearns said: “This year our advisory board noted that social progress and even civil discourse is significantly challenged by ideological chasms and political polarization. This is true not only in Washington but in many other venues both domestic and international. The advisory board suggested therefore that we search for a leader who’s breaking down walls, bridging gaps, spanning boundaries — geographically, ideologically and substantively — to build a better world.”

Kearns added: “Ashoka creates opportunities for social entrepreneurs around the world to bring innovation and creativity to bear on some of the most pressing and intractable social problems. Ashoka identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs — somewhat like a venture capitalist who invests in promising business ideas. But unlike business investors, the impact is measured in social improvement and the goal is to leverage relatively small investments into significant social impact.”

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“Throughout history, human life has been organized around repetition,” Drayton said. “Our definition of growing up and education is mastering a set of knowledge and a set of rules — and then you’re fine, and that defines who you are: a banker, a baker or whatever. And then you just continue repeating that, and that’s what life is.”

Institutions are designed for efficiency in repetition, with a few people in charge and everyone else expected to conform to the pattern that’s been laid out, he said. Education is about how well students have done in passing the tests of knowledge transfer.

“There’s nothing about skills for a world that’s defined by change, not by repetition,” he said.

Citing ever-increasing rates of change, Drayton said, “This is the historical force that’s defining the world we live in and it is destroying the institutions. It makes nonsense of the old definition of growing up. Any parent who thinks they’re doing a good job, if they’re not making sure that their children have the skills for a world of change, is sadly mistaken,” he said.

“Where we’re going, the world is defined by change,” he said. “Change begets change just as much as repetition begets repetition. It’s a completely different set of skills and institutions here.”

Those who fail to master the skills will be left behind, he said. “You’d better be a changemaker.

“In this world you have to have a very fluid, constantly changing, widely interconnected team of teams,” he said, adding that to have a team of teams, everyone must contribute.

“The old institution can’t play that game. Those few people at the top aren’t enough; you need everyone to play this game.

“Most people don’t see it yet but it’s going to come very quickly,” he said, adding that the value of contributing to change increases with each passing year. “If your 15-year-old today isn’t practicing changemaking, where is she going to be when she’s 30? There aren’t going to be very many jobs for people who only can do repetition,” he cautioned.

The entrepreneur’s role

“Every group needs changemakers or it’s going to be in big trouble,” he said. However, a subset of changemakers  — the entrepreneurs who focus on systems change — play a crucial role.

“What is the most powerful force in the world? It is, and always has been, the big pattern change idea — but only if it’s in the hands of an entrepreneur,” Drayton said. “It’s that combination, regardless of the field, that drives history.”

Social entrepreneurs represent a special case. “These are people who deep inside are committed to the good of all, and therefore their work is,” Drayton said.

“We need this special type of entrepreneur very badly. We used to assume systems were stable. Forget that. They’re changing just as fast as everything else,” he said. In a world where systems are fluid and change in one influences others, “we need to have a very powerful group of entrepreneurs who are constantly pulling the changing systems back to the center — away from careening off in one direction or another,” he said.

“You’ve got to have a group of entrepreneurs who care about the good of all, who are very powerful, who can keep pulling it back to the center. Hopefully we will get to the point where everyone is pursuing that and this becomes instinctive, but right now this is a very critical group,” Drayton said.

Mastering empathy

Among Ashoka’s recent initiatives is an effort to ensure all children master the skill of empathy, which Drayton said is crucial for future success.

Through such collaborative entrepreneurship the effort could snowball within just five or six years, Drayton said. The organization initially is seeking 60 schools or school systems with a track record of leadership to form teams that will take ownership of the issue and commit to ensuring that the children in their community develop the skill of empathy.  “We’re not giving them a curriculum. We’re building a team of teams,” he said. “Once they’ve learned, they can help spread it.”

Drayton challenged audience members to assess their skills in such crucial areas as empathy and teamwork.

“How good are each of us at those? Are we actively building those skills?” he asked.

“Is this institution working on that? Is it part of the agenda? … What are we doing for the children and young people we care about?”

Drayton called his listeners to action to encourage changemaking in the young people around them, and to ensure that the institutions and organizations they care about are prepared.

“Every group now must make the transition from institution to a fluid team of teams and those that don’t are going to be in terrible trouble,” Drayton said. “Are you helping the institution or institutions you care about make that transition?”

A view of the future

“This new world we’re going to is an incredibly wonderful place,” Drayton said.

“You can’t have genuine equality when only a few people have the secret of being involved. … There is no equality when all the power is in the hands of a few and many others don’t even know there’s a game,” he said. “We want to have an ‘everyone a changemaker’ society where everyone has the power to give.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow