PADM-GP 2132: ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Time: Tuesdays 4:55-6:35 (Our Tuesday September 24th class will be rescheduled for
Saturday the 28th at 11:00 a.m.)
Location: Meyer 261
Professor: Paul C. Light, Paulette Goddard Professor Of Public Service, Robert F.
Wagner School Of Public Service, New York University
Email: paul.light@nyu.edu
Phone: (301) 642-4150
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00
OVERVIEW
This course is designed to provide a deep introduction to the challenges facing social
agents in the quest for a more just, tolerant, healthy, equitable, and educated world.
Although the course will focus more deeply on organizational dynamics, its primary
focus is on social change.
The course starts with the premise that social impact is the product of a simple logic
chain that runs from:
1. The world as it is (which contains a variety of inputs such as your own purpose,
work style, and the problem that you care about) 
2. The world as it should be (which contains a variety of activities for change such
as the tool you pick, the way you imagine the future and handle uncertainty, and
the intervention you choose for changing the world) 
3. The world as it will be (which contains early outputs such as how you will test
your intervention, decide where to strike for maximum impact, scale to greatest
impact, and deliver on your promises) 
4. The world as it must be (which contains outcomes such as the proof that your
intervention is working, your strategy for defending your success from inevitable
resistance, and your eventual decision to pass the torch).
These four worlds frame the many discrete steps in the cycle of social impact that will be
covered in this course.
The field of social change, if it can be called a field at all, has long focused on celebrating
success, which is a perfectly understandable strategy for calling problem solvers to
action. But the lack of a control group of less successful efforts has limited the pursuit of
leverage points that either accelerate or block impact. As a result, the field has generated
long lists of recommendations for creating new worlds, some of which are no doubt
important, and others that have no statistically significant relevance.
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This course will search for rigorous recommendations regarding creating social change as
leaders begin the difficult journey to impact. Students will explore these issues through a
variety of readings, and their own project work on a problem they wish to solve.
Readings will be tailored specifically to show students how they can make a difference,
and what they need to know and do to create the world that they imagine.
This search for ways to make a difference will anchor the final paper. Students will focus
on a single idea for addressing a problem—large or small, local or international, domestic
or foreign policy directed, etc.—that they seek to address. The paper will examine the
first two steps of social impact by design: (1) the world as it is, and (2) the world as it
should be.” As such, it will focus on each student’s personal view of the world, the
evidence to support an effort to change the world (complete with statistics on the
research, and the cause  problem chain), the choice of a path to change, and the
intervention. Students will organize the paper around the first eight sections of the course
by answering each question in order. The paper will be due on the last day of class, and
should not exceed 20 pages (4,000 words).
BOOKS
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship (Full PDF available on
NYU Classes)
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation (Complimentary copy provided by Professor
Light—pick up your copy the week before class from Jessica Holmes at Wagner
3rd floor)
GRADES
Final grades will be based on three class deliverables.
1. 20 percent for full participation, including attendance (unless excused in
advance) and active engagement in class discussions.
2. 20 percent for a final exam in the form of a letter to yourself that I will mail to
you in five years.
3. 60 percent for the final project paper.
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READINGS
All readings are on dropbox.com and NYU Classes. All readings are required. You do
not need to understand every statistical equation in the academic articles, but should read
the introduction, literature review, discussion of findings, and conclusion. You should
also try to understand the main statistical findings to the best of your ability.
Session One/September 3: Course Mottos
Course Mottos
1. It Depends
Jason R. Pierce, and Herman Aguinis, “The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in
Management,” Journal of Management, 2013
Margaret E. Ormiston, and Elaine M. Wong, “License to Ill: The Effects of
Corporate Social Responsibility and CEO Moral Identity on Corporate Social
Irresponsibility,” Personnel Psychology, 2013
2. Form Follows Function
Emma Green, “Innovation: The History of a Buzzword,” The Atlantic, June 20
2013
3. Organization Is Just Another Variable
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapters 1 and 2 (Pick up your copy from
the front desk at #3 Washington Square Village—corner of Bleecker and
LaGuardia Place)
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on
organizations)
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THE WORLD AS IT IS
Session Two/September 10: Committing to Change (Why do we care?)
Paul C. Light, Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on
entrepreneurs only)
C. Daniel Batson, Nadia Ahmad, and Jo-Ann Tsang, “Four Motives for
Community Involvement,” Journal of Social Issues, 2002
Matthijs Baas, Carsten K.W. De Dreu, and Bernard A. Nijstad, “Creative
Production by Angry People Peaks Early On, Decreases Over Time, and Is
Relatively Unstructured,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011
(Browse for main findings)
Matt McGue and Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., “Genetic and Environmental
Influences on Human Behavioral Differences,” Annual, Review of Neuroscience,
1998 (Browse if you have time)
Session Three/September 17: Cause and Effect (What is the problem? What is the
cause? What have we already tried? And why do we need something more or
different?)
1. What is the problem? What is the cause?
Government Accountability Office, Prospective Evaluation Methods: The
Prospective Evaluation Synthesis, 1990, preface, chapters 1 and 4
2. What have we already tried? Why do we need something more?
Paul C. Light, A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Pubic Service and
How to Reverse It, chapter 1
Paul C. Light, “Government’s Greatest Priorities of the Next Half Century,”
Brookings Institution, 2001
Session Four/September 28: Confronting Reality (What stands in our way?)
(This class will be held on Saturday, September 28 at 9:00 a.m. in Rudin)
1. The Problem with Problems
Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, “Dilemmas in a General Theory of
Planning,” Policy Sciences, 1973
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2. The Current Crisis (Browse if you wish)
Frank Rich, “The Stench of Washington,” New York, 2013
Thomas E. Mann & Norman J. Ornstein, “Finding the Common Good in an Era
of Dysfunctional Governance,” Daedalus, 2013
Russell J. Dalton, “Citizenship Norms and Political Participation in America: The
Good News Is…the Bad News Is Wrong,” Center for the Study of Democracy,
Occasional Paper 2006-01, 2006 (Read for an alternative view of the state of the
world)
3. The Global Context
Paul C. Light, Global Trust in Government, Memo prepared for the Volcker
Alliance for Effective Governance, Salzburg Seminar, fall, 2013
Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi, “The Worldwide
Governance Indicators: Methodological and Analytical Issues,” September 2010
(After reading about the indicators and aggregating methodology, visit
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/mc_countries.asp, and see how the
indicators work by selecting countries, regions, and/or the world to examine the
ratings
4. The Social “Ecosystem”
Paul Bloom and Gregory Dees, “Cultivate Your Ecosystem,” Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 2008
Session Five/October 1: Managing Uncertainty (What does the future hold?)
Paul C. Light, The Four Pillars of High Performance, chapter 1
Arnoud De Meyer, Christoph H. Loch and Michael T. Pich, “Managing Project
Uncertainty: From Variation to Chaos,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 2002
Muhammad Amer, Tugrul U. Daim, Antonie Jetter, “A Review of Scenario
Planning,” Futures, 2013
THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE
Session Six/October 8: Design Thinking (How do we dream?)
Tim Brown, “Design Thinking,” Harvard Business Review, 2009
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Andrew B. Hargadon and Yellowlees, “When Innovations Meet Institutions:
Edison and the Design of the Electric Light,” Administrative Science Quarterly,
2001 (Browse and note similarities to Brown’s “Design Thinking” and timing—
ask whether Brown “borrowed” without attribution?)
Mary Bryna Sanger and Martin A. Levin, “Using Old Stuff in New Ways:
Innovation as a Case of Evolutionary Tinkering,” Journal of Policy Analysis and
Management, 1992
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapter 4
Session Seven/October 22: Four Tools for Social Change (What tool do we need?):
(1) Social Exploring, (2) Social Inventing, (3) Social Advocacy, and (4) Social
Delivery
PICK AT LEAST THREE OF THE TOOLS LISTED BELOW AND READ THE
ENTIRE SET OF READINGS ACCORDINGLY:
SOCIAL EXPLORING
(We need to learn more about the problem and the solutions)
1. Get the Facts Right: Social Fact Checking
Brendan Nyhan and Jason Riefler, “Misinformation and Fact-Checking: Research
Findings from Social Science,” New America Foundation, February 2012.
Paul C. Light, “Investigations Done Right and Wrong: Government by
Investigation, 1945-2012,” Brookings Institution Issue Brief, December 2013.
Paul C. Light, Government by Investigation: Congress, the President, and the
Search for Answers,” Brookings Institution, 2014, chapters 2 and 3.
2. Build a Better Measure: Estimate the Social Value
Melinda T. Tuan, “Measuring and/or Estimating Social Value Creation: Insights
Into Eight Integrated Cost Approaches,” paper prepared for the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, 2008
Melinda T. Tuan, “Profiles of Eight Integrated Cost Approaches to Measuring
and/or Estimating Social Value Creation,” slide presentation, 2008
3. Speak Data to Power: Measure the Impact
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Robert D. Behn, “Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require
Different Measures,” Public Administration Review, 2003
Mary Bryna Sanger, “From Measurement to Management: Breaking through the
Barriers to State and Local Performance,” Public Administration Review, 2008
Warren S. Stone, and Gerard George, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While
Hoping for B: Measuring and Rewarding Agency Performance in Public-Sector
Strategy,” Public Productivity & Management Review, 2007
PICK AT LEAST TWO OF THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDIES AND READ
ACCORDINGLY:
Jonathan Bauchet, et al., Latest Findings from Randomized Evaluations of
Microfinance, Poverty Action Lab, December, 2011
Mark D. Anderson, “Does Information Matter? The Effect of The Meth Project on
Meth Use Among Youths,” Journal of Health Economics, 2010
Doug McAdam, and Cynthia Brandt, “Assessing the Effects of Voluntary Youth
Service: The Case of Teach for America,” Social Forces, 2008
4. Search for Answers: Social Impact Reporting
Lisa Lynch, “We’re Going to Crack the World Open: Wikileaks and the Future of
Investigative Reporting,” Journalism Practice, 2010
Brant Houston, “The Future of Investigative Journalism,” Daedalus, 2010
Nicholas Smith, and Erica Dawon, “Climategate, Public Opinion, and the Loss of
Trust,” Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Edward W. Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf,
American Behavioral Scientist, 2013
5. Protect the Independent Voice: Public Opinionating
Amitai Etzioni, “Reflections of a Sometime-Public Intellectual,” PS, 2010
Henry A. Giroux, “Higher Education Under Siege: Implications for Public
Intellectuals,” Thought and Action, 2006
Laura Bettencourt Pires, “Public intellectuals—Past, Present, and Future,”
Comunicação & Cultura, 2009
Ellen Barry, “Battling Superstition, Indian Paid with His Life,” New York Times,
August 24, 2013
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6. Imagine It First: Preotyping & Prototyping
Alberto Savoia, Preotype It: Make Sure You Are Building the Right IT before You
Build IT Right, electronic edition, 2011
Jeffrey A. Drezner and Meilinda Huang, On Prototyping: Lessons from RAND
Research, 2009
7. Confront the Bias Against Creativity: Find the Concealed Barriers
Jennifer S. Meuller, Shimul Melwani, and Jack A. Goncalo, “The Bias Against
Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas,” Psychological Science,
2012
8. Understand the Chaos: Social Sensemaking
Sally Maitlis, and Scott Sonenshein, “Sensemaking in Crisis and Change:
Inspiration and Insights From Weick (1988), Journal of Management Studies,
2010
Lars Fugsland, and Jan Mattsson, “Making Sense of Innovation: A Future Perfect
Approach,” Journal of Management & Organization, 2011
Tom Stannard, “A ‘Fruitless Obsession with Accuracy’: The Uses of
Sensemaking in Public Sector Performance Management,” Local Government
Studies, 2011
9. Shape the Solution in Real Time: Formative Evaluation
James A. A. Gamble, A Developmental Evaluation Primer, 2008
10. Track the Advocacy: Evaluating Advocacy
Steven Teles and Mark Schmitt “The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy,”
Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2011
Ivan Barkhorn, Nathan Huttner, and Jason Blau, “Assessing Advocacy,” Stanford
Social Innovation Review, 2013
11. Scrape the World Clean: Exploit the Big Data
Purdue Big Data Working Group, “Challenges and Opportunities with Big Data:
A Community White Paper Developed by Leading Researchers Across the United
States,” November, 2012
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United Nations Global Pulse, “Big Data for Development: Challenges &
Opportunities,” May, 2012
SOCIAL INVENTION
(We need a new idea)
12. Create A New Combination of Ideas: Social Entrepreneurship (Invention)
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 1
Peter A. Dacin, M. Tina Dacin, and Margaret Matear, “Social Entrepreneurship:
Why We Don’t Need a New Theory and How We Move Forward From Here,”
Academy of Management Perspectives, 2010
13. Let Business Do It: Philanthrocapitalism
The Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, “Philanthrocapitalism:
Savior or Emperor? A Debate,” 2009
Michael Edwards, Just Another Emperor, Demos, 2008, chapters 1 and 2
READ THROUGH THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AS A CASE STUDY ON
PHILANTHROCAPITALISM:
Ataur Rahman Belal, Stuart Cooper, “The Absence of Corporate Social
Responsibility Reporting in Bangladesh,” Critical Perspectives on Accounting,
2011
Stephanie Clifford, and Steven Greenhouse, “Fast and Flawed Inspections of
Factories Abroad,” New York Times, September 1, 2013
14. Let Funders Do It: Venture/Strategic Philanthropy
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, REAL RESULTS
Why Strategic Philanthropy is Social Justice Philanthropy, NCRP, 2013 (Short
introduction to the concept)
Karen Mass, and Kellie Liket, “Talk the Walk: Measuring the Impact of Strategic
Philanthropy,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2011
David Bornstein, “The Real Future of Clean Water,” New York Times,
Opinionator, August 21, 2013
Marc Parry, Kelly Field, and Beckie Supiano, “The Gates Effect,” The Chronicle
of Philanthropy, July 14, 2013
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Christian Seelos & Johanna Mair, “Innovation Is Not the Holy Grail,” Stanford
Social Innovation Review, 2012
15. Let a Miracle Worker Do It: Lone Wolf Inventing
Pino Audia and Christopher Rider, “A Garage and an Idea: What More Does an
Entrepreneur Need?” California Management Review, 2005
Jasjit Singh, and Lee Fleming, “Lone Inventors as Sources of Breakthroughs:
Myth or Reality?” Management Science, 2010
Elizabeth Watson, “Who or What Creates? A Conceptual Framework for Social
Creativity,” Human Resource Development Review, 2007
16. Build an Idea Generator: Structured Creativity
A. Brennan, and L. Dooley, “Networked Creativity: A Structured Management
Framework for Stimulating Innovation,” Technovation, 2005
Doris C. C. K. Kowaltowski, Giovana Bianchi, and Vale´ria Teixeira de Paiva,
“Methods that May Stimulate Creativity and Their Use in Architectural Design
Education,” International Journal of Technology Design Education, 2010
Teresa M. Amabile, Sigal Barsade Jennifer S. Mueller, and Barry M. Staw,
“Affect and Creativity at Work,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2005
17. Let Collaboration Do It: Collaborative Social Entrepreneurship
A Wren Montgomery, Peter A. Dacin, M. Tina Dacin, “Collective Social
Entrepreneurship: Collaboratively Shaping Social Good,” Journal of Business
Ethics, 2012
Grace Davie, “Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action,” OD
Practitioner, 2011
18. Build the Right Team and Run the Team Right: Social Teaming
Jennifer S. Mueller, “Why Individuals in Larger Teams Perform Worse,”
Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2012
Julia Minson, and Jennifer S. Mueller, “The Cost of Collaboration: Why Joint
Decision Making Exacerbates Rejection of Outside Information,” Psychological
Science, 2012
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Anto J. Villado, and Winfred Arthur, J., “The Comparative Effect of Subjective
After-Action Reviews On Team Performance on a Complex Task,” Journal of
Applied Sociology, 2013
19. Create a New Voice: Social Alliances
Priscilla Wohlstetter, Joanna Smith, and Courtney L. Malloy, “Strategic Alliances
in Action: Toward a Theory of Evolution,” Policy Studies Journal, 2005
Christine Mahoney, “Networking vs. Allying: The Decision of Interest Groups to
Join Coalitions in the US and the EU,” Journal of European Public Policy, 2007
20. Create a New Kind of Business: “B Corps”
William H. Clark, Jr., and Larry Vranka, et al., “The Need and Rationale for the
Benefit Corporation,” 2013, published by bcorporation.net (Spend a few moments
visiting the website to get a sense of the movement)
Visit www.bcorporation.net and read the sections titled “What are B Corps,”
“Why B Corps Matter,” “Why Become a B Corp,” and “B the Change.” Then
drill around to find “How to Become a B Corp” and “The B Corp Declaration”
21. Increase Accountability: Measure and Improve Ethical Conduct
Gael M. Mcdonald, “An Anthology of Codes of Ethics,” European Business
Review, 2009
John C. Lere, and Bruce R. Gaumnitz, “Changing Behavior by Improving Codes
of Ethics,” American Journal of Business, 2007
Eric D. Raile, “Building Ethical Capital: Perceptions of Ethical Climate in the
Public Sector,” Public Administration Review, 2013
22. Embrace the Standard: Adopt ISO 26000
ECOLOGIA, Handbook for Implementers of ISO 26000: Global Guidance
Standard on Social Responsibility, May 2011
Zdenka Zenko and Matjaz Mulej, “Diffusion of Innovative Behavior with Social
Responsibility,” Kybernetes, 2011
Janet Jacobsen, “The Quality Professional’s Role in ISO 26000,” The Journal for
Quality and Participation, 2001
SOCIAL ADVOCACY
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(We have the right idea, but it needs to be adopted and diffused)
23. Strengthen the Soft Wiring: Activate the Empathy
Francis B. M. de Waal, “The Antiquity of Empathy,” Science, 2012
Stephanie D. Preston, and Frans B. M. de Waal, “Empathy: Its Ultimate and
Proximate Bases,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2002 (Read main article and
browse responses)
C. Daniel Batson, “The Naked Emperor: Seeking a More Plausible Genetic Basis
for Psychological Altruism,” Economics and Philosophy, 2010
Sara H. Konrath, Edward H. O'Brien and Courtney Hsing, “Changes in
Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A MetaAnalysis, Personality & Social Psychology Review, 2011
24. Change the Story: Social Narrative
Christina Tangora Schlachter, “The New Transformation of the Public Sphere:
Discourse through Documentary,” The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 2009
Watch the Norman Lear Center’s TED talk on Food, Inc. at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb0FZPzzWuk&feature=youtu.be
Ignite Good, Ignite Good Core Team Training: Public Narrative as Leadership,
Team Workshop Participant Guide, 2013
PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDIES AND READ
ACCORDINGLY:
Sargent, James D, “Smoking in Movies: Impact on Adolescent Smoking,”
Adolescent Medicine Clinics, 2005
Christopher E. Clarke 1, Jeff Niederdeppe, and Helen C. Lundell, “Narratives and
Images Used by Public Communication Campaigns Addressing Social
Determinants of Health and Health Disparities,” International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, 2012
25. Use the Network: Social Media
Sebastián Valenzuela, “Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest
Behavior: The Roles of Information, Opinion Expression, and Activism,”
American Behavioral Scientist, 2013
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Clay Shirky, “The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public
Sphere, and Political Change,” Foreign Affairs, 2011
Pew Research Center, Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, 2013 (Browse for
key findings)
26. Change Public Opinion: Social Persuasion
Shannon K. Vaughan, and Shelly Arsneault, “Not-for-Profit Advocacy:
Challenging Policy Images and Pursuing Policy Change,” Review of Policy
Research, 2008
Alan S. Gerber, James G. Gimpel, Donald P. Green, and Daron R. Shaw, “How
Large and Long-lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads?
Results from a Randomized Field Experiment,” American Political Science
Review, 2011
27. Agitate the Status Quo: Social Protest
Gene Sharp, “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action,” 1973
Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century
Potential, 2005, chapters 1-3
Doug McAdam, and Sidney Tarrow, “Nonviolence as Contentious Interaction,”
PS (Political Science & Politics), 2000
28. Turn Up the Political Heat: Social Lobbying
Andreas Dür, and Gemma Mateo, “Gaining Access or Going public? Interest
Group Strategies in Five European Countries,” European Journal of Political
Research, 2013
Frederick J. Boehmke, Sean Gailmard and John W. Patty, “Business as Usual:
Interest Group Access and Representation Across Policy-Making Venues,”
Journal of Public Policy, 2013
David C. Kimball, Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, Beth
L. Leech, and Bryce Summary, “Who Cares about the Lobbying Agenda,” Issue
Groups & Advocacy, 2012 (Browse the tables and conclusion)
29. Sell the Idea: Framing for Impact
Conor McGrath, “Framing Lobbying Messages: Defining and Communicating
Political Issues,” Journal of Public Affairs, 2007
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Alan S. Gerber, James G. Gimpel, Donald P. Green, Daron S. Shaw, “How Large
and Long-lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads? Results
from a Randomized Field Experiment,” American Political Science Review, 2011
Dennis Chong, and James N. Druckman, “Dynamic Public Opinion:
Communication Effects over Time,” American Political Science Review, 2010
30. Launch a Netwar: Social Swarming
David Ronfeldt, John Arquilla, Graham E. Fuller, and Melissa Fuller, The
Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico, RAND Corporation, 1998, chapters 1 and 7
(Browse 2-6 to get a sense of how the Zapatista conflict was fought and won)
Steven Metz, “The Internet, New Media, and the Evolution of Insurgency,”
Parameters, 2012
John Arquilla, “The New Rules of War,” Foreign Policy, 2010
31. Put Change on the Legislative Calendar: Agenda Setting
Jeffery A. Jenkins, and Justin Peck, “Building Toward Major Policy Change:
Congressional Action on Civil Rights, 1941–1950,” Law and History Review,
2013
Michelle Wolfe, Bryan D. Jones, and Frank R. Baumgartner, “A Failure to
Communicate: Agenda Setting in Media and Policy Studies,” Political
Communication, 2013.
32. Put Change on the Judicial Docket: Social Litigation
Peter D. Jacobson, and Kenneth E. Warner, “Litigation and Public Health Policy
Making: The Case of Tobacco Control,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and
Law, 1999
Bethany Blackstone, “An Analysis of Policy-Based Congressional Responses to
the U.S. Supreme Court’s Constitutional Decisions,” Law & Society Review, 2013
Mary Anne Case, “Are Plain Hamburgers Now Unconstitutional? The
Equal Protection Component of Bush v. Gore as a Chapter in the History of
Ideas About Law,” The University of Chicago Law Review, 2003 (browse
just for an interesting take on Bush v. Gore)
33. Put Change in the Headlines: Impact Journalism
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C.W. Anderson, Emily Bell, and Clay Shirky, Post-Industrial Journalism:
Adapting to the Present, Columbia Journalism School, Tow Center for
Digital Journalism, 2012, Introduction, Sections 1, 3, Conclusion.
SOCIAL DELIVERY
(We need to implement and fine-tune the ideas we already have)
34. Start with the Basics: Teach for Engagement
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools Campaign for the Civic Mission of
Schools, Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools, 2011, entire
John R. Rachal, “We’ll Never Turn Back: Adult Education and the Struggle for
Citizenship in Mississippi’s Freedom Summer,” American Educational Research
Journal, 1998
35. Learn and Do: Service Learning
Commission on Youth Voting and Civic Knowledge, All Together Now:
Collaboration and Innovation for Youth Engagement, Report of the Commission
on Youth Voting and Civic Knowledge, 2013
Christine I. Celio, Joseph Durlak, and Allison Dymnicki “A Meta-analysis of the
Impact of Service-Learning on Students,” Journal of Experiential Education,
2011
Sara E. Helms, ”Involuntary Service: The Impact of Mandated Service in Public
Schools,” Economics of Education Review, 2013
36. Put Your Assets in Play: Invest in Social Impact
Antony Bugg-Levine, and Jed Emerson, “Hype or Promise,” (Social Impact
Investing), America’s Quarterly, 2011
Sasha Dicter, Robert Katz, Harvey Koh, and Ashish Karamchandani, “Closing the
Pioneer Gap,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2013
37. Do Well While Doing Good: Embrace Corporate Social Responsibility
Sandra Waddock, “Building the Institutional Infrastructure for Corporate Social
Responsibility,” Harvard University Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative,
Report 32, 2006
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Herman Aguinis and Ante Glavas, “Review and Research Agenda: What We
Know and Don’t Know About Corporate Social Responsibility,” Academy of
Management, 2012
Ataur Rahman Belal, and Stuart Cooper, “The Absence of Corporate Social
Responsibility Reporting in Bangladesh,” Critical Perspectives on Accounting,
2011
38. Spread the Invention: Social Diffusion
Everett M. Rogers, Arvind Singhal, and Margaret M. Quinlan, “Diffusion of
Innovation,” in Don Stacks and Michael Salwen, eds. An Integrated Approach to
Communication Theory and Research, 2008
Atul Gawande, “Slow Ideas: Some Ideas Spread Fast. How Do You Speed the
Ones that Don’t?” New Yorker, July 29, 2013 (Excellent story-telling)
39. Strengthen the Nonprofit Delivery System: Capacity Building
Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie R. Crutchfield, “Creating High-Impact
Nonprofits,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2007
Paul Light, “The Spiral of Sustainable Excellence,” in Paul Light, Sustaining
Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Prove It, 2004
40. Faithfully Execute the Laws: Redesign Government
Paul C. Light, A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Pubic Service and
How to Reverse It, introduction, chapters 1-5
Paul C. Light, Endeavors, Achievements, and Breakdowns, Memo prepared for
the Volcker Alliance for Effective Government, Salzburg Conference, 2013
41. Get Better Together: Bond and Bridge
Robert D. Putnam, “The Strange Disappearance of Civic America,” American
Prospect, 1996
Robert D. Putnam, “Bowling Together,” American Prospect, 2002
Thomas H. Sander and Robert D. Putnam, “Still Bowling Alone? The Post-9/11
Split,” Journal of Democracy, 2010
Robert D. Putnam, “Crumbling American Dreams,” New York Times, August 3,
2013
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The Saguaro Seminar, Better Together: The Report of the Saguaro Seminar, 2006
(Browse for evidence and recommendations)
42. Put Yourself in Play: Run for Office
Cherie D. Maestas, Sarah Fulton, Sandy L. Maisel, and Walter J. Stone, “When to
Risk It? Institutions, Ambitions, and the Decision to Run for the U.S. House,”
American Political Science Review; May 2006
Richard L. Fox, and Jennifer L. Lawless, “To Run or Not to Run for Office:
Explaining Nascent Political Ambition,” American Journal of Political Science,
2005
Richard L. Fox, and Jennifer L. Lawless, “If Only They’d Ask: Gender,
Recruitment, and Political Ambition,” Journal of Politics, 2010
43. Grow the Impact: Social Scaling
Christiana Weber, Arne Kröger, Kathrin Lambrich, “Scaling Social Enterprises: A
Theoretical and Empirically Grounded Framework,” Academy of Management
Annual Meeting, 2012
Sarah H. Alvord, L. David Brown, Christine W. Letts, “Social Entrepreneurship
and Societal Transformation: An Exploratory Study,” The Journal of Applied
Behavior Science, September 2004
Session Eight/October 29: The Intervention (What is our solution?)
Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on
ideas)
The Copenhagen Consensus Center, Guide to Giving, 2010, “Introduction,”
“About This Guide,” and browse one of the problem chapters of your choice
(“Combating Hunger,” “Child Health,” or “Education and Empowerment”)
Session Nine/November 5: Testing Assumptions (Will it work?)
James Dewar, Assumption Based Planning: A Planning Tool for Very Uncertain
Times, chapters 1-6
THE WORLD AS IT WILL BE
Session Ten/November 12: Creating Leverage (Where will we strike? And do
“punctuations” matter?)
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Paul C. Light, The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4 (Section on
opportunities)
David S. Meyer, “Protest and Political Opportunities,” Annual Review of
Sociology, 2004
Frank R. Baumgartner, “Some Thoughts on Reform Miracles,” paper presented at
the Reform Miracles International Seminar, May 27-28, 2005
James L. True, Bryan D. Jones, and Frank R. Baumgartner, “PunctuatedEquilibrium Theory Explaining Stability and Change in Public Policymaking,”
draft chapter to appear in Paul Sabatier, ed., Theories of the Policy Process, 2007
(Browse for main points, avoid statistical analysis)
Session Eleven/November 19: Building a Base (Where will we work?)
Fariborz Damanpour, “Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis of Effects of
Determinants and Moderators,” The Academy of Management Journal, 1991
(Browse for main findings)
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapter 6
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Nonprofit Performance, chapter 6
Session Twelve/November 26: Scaling (How will we grow? And what is growth
anyway?)
Gregory J. Dees, Beth Battle Anderson, and Jane Wei-Skillern, “Scaling Social
Impact,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2004
Paul Bloom and Brett Smith, “Identifying the Drivers of Social Entrepreneurial
Impact: Theoretical Development and an Exploratory Empirical Test of
SCALERS,” Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 2010
William Foster & Gail Fine, “How Nonprofits Get Really Big,” Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 2007
Peter Kim & Jeffrey Bradach, “Why More Nonprofits Are Getting Bigger,”
Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2012
Session Thirteen/December 3: Execution (How will we deliver on the promises we
make?)
Paul C. Light, Sustaining Innovation, chapters 7 and 8
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Paul C. Light, The Four Pillars of High Performance, chapter 4 (Warning: very
long chapter; give yourself enough time)
J. Gregory Dees, “Enterprising Nonprofits,” Harvard Business Review, 1998.
THE WORLD AS IT MUST BE
Session Fourteen/December 10: Proof (How will we know we are successful if we
are?
Geoff Mulgan, “Measuring Social Value,” Stanford Social Innovation Review,
2011
Christopher Deeming, “Trials and Tribulations: The ‘Use’ (and ‘Misuse’) of
Evidence in Public Policy,” Social Policy & Administration, 2013
Lisbeth B. Schorr, “Broader Evidence for Bigger Impact,” Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 2013
Session Fifteen/For Final Exam: Defense (How will we defend our gains?)
Paul C. Light, “From Endeavor to Achievement and Back Again,” in Stephen
Conn, ed., The Case for Big Government, 2012
George Packer, “Change the World: Silicon Valley Transfers Its Slogans—and Its
Money to the Realm of Politics,” New Yorker, 2013
Session Sixteen/For Final Exam: Succession Planning (How will we let go?)
Frances Kunreuther, Phyllis Segal, and Stephanie Clohesy, The Leadership in
Leaving, buildingmovement.org, 2008
Robert C. Giambatista, W. Glenn Rowe, and Suhaib Riaz, “Nothing Succeeds like
Succession: A Critical Review of Leader Succession Literature since 1994,” The
Leadership Quarterly, 2005
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