Innovate, Scale, Impact
Charting the Course for Social Change
Chris Bernard President / CEO
Hunger Free Oklahoma
Objectives
• Understand the concept of scalability in the context of social innovation and its importance in addressing complex challenges.
• Identify barriers and challenges to scaling social innovations and explore strategies for overcoming them.
• Gain insights into the role of leadership and governance in driving the scalability of social innovations.
Scale ≠ Replication
Scale in social innovation means expanding reach and/or impact while maintaining or improving effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectiveness & Efficiency
Efficiency Effectiveness
Process Focused Outcome Focused
Comparison of output to effort
Measure of productivity
Comparison of actual outcome to desired outcome
Measure of quality
Effectiveness & Efficiency
Credit: Benchmark Six Sigma
It is critical to consider scale when solving complex challenges.
Six
Credit: Benchmark
Sigma
Plan, Do, Study, Act
HFO Model
Can my idea scale?
Vital Sign
False Positives
Know Your Audience
What it means
Chef or Ingredients?
Spillover
Reflection Question
One successful test ≠ continued success Are the results conclusive or do I need to run this test again?
Understanding for whom this idea can scale for and if it aligns with the population
Is my test group representative of the population I am trying to reach?
Success that relies on a specific person or time and place is not scalable. What is driving my success? Will it scale?
Anticipate unintended consequences, avoid negative spillover, and engineer positive spillover What unintended positive impacts happened during your test? What negative ones?
Supply (capital) In business it means money; in nonprofit and government it means humans Can the intervention run with anyone delivering it?
Credit: The Voltage Effect, John A. List
HFO Example
Vital Sign
What it means
False Positives In one year, DUO increases F/V consumption by .25 servings
Know Your Audience Until 2022, DUO primarily operated in rural grocery stores
Reflection Question
Yes. .25 servings is significant. Data replicated over three years.
No. 1/3 of Oklahomans live rurally. Scaling requires success in urban settings. Test in urban.
Chef or Ingredients? The incentive model is simple. The technology is not Yes, limited. Scale in Oklahoma achievable. National expansion requires tech improvements.
Spillover Launched during EA’s. Was success due to DUO or increased
SNAP $?
Yes. DUO redemptions increased after EA's ended. Produce quality increased for all.
Supply (capital) DUO requires three full time staff. Once a store is launched, requires very little input. Maybe. Implementation requires significant skill/time from staff. Developing simplified implementation.
Credit: The Voltage Effect, John A. List
Apply to your situation
• What would you like to scale?
• Desired impact
• Geographic scale
• Stages of development
Considerations
• Resources
• Internal capacity
• Efficiencies
• Roles
• Data capacity
• Internal or external solutions
Collaboration for Scale
Partners
Duplication
Evaluation
•
•
•
System Change for Scale
• Laws
• Administrative agency regulations
• Government policies and procedures
• New systems
Funding for Scale
• Seed funder = Risk/reward
• Sustaining = Aligns with their long
o Saves them time and effort
Leadership
To cultivate an environment that encourages innovation and ensures impactful scalability, leadership is pivotal in both internal and external spheres.
Leadership: Internal Roles
• Build adaptability into the structure
• Create a company culture that encourages creativity
• Solutions-oriented
• Making space for mistakes
• Taking strategic risks
Leadership: External Roles
• Engage unexpected allies
• Relationships with decision makers and influencers
• Strength of convictions
• Make big asks
Governance
• Build a bold and flexible strategic plan
• Trust and support the leader
• Be comfortable with failure
Chris Bernard President / CEO Hunger Free Oklahoma Chris.Bernard@HungerFreeOK.org