Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Obvious.

by Nathaniel Whittemore

categories: all day buffet, Competitions and Fellowships

Published October 02, 2009 @ 08:44AM PT

Society is not always quick to understand game-changing innovation. In fact, according to MIT professor Lant Pritchett, there is a very particular pattern of acceptance and understanding we go through that can be summarized as "Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Obvious."

This is what I spoke about this morning at the beginning of The Feast's Kitchen event. The Kitchen gives nine very cool startups the chance to pitch in front of interested observers and excellent judges representing groups like Investor's Circle and Union Square Ventures. The winners will get free brand consulting from a top agency and a number of other supports.

I had the chance to kick off the event, and wanted to light a fire. I think that Pritchett's idea of crazy, crazy, crazy, obvious is dead on, and that we're living at a time that's often right on the cusp of that third crazy and obvious.

I told the story of three innovations that were once crazy but have become obvious. I told the story of Thomas Clarkson and his band of former slaves, Quakers, women, press-ganged naval officers, and other misfits who launched the British Abolitionist movement and within the span of one generation had transformed Britain from the greatest slave owning nation in the world to the first to ban the trade entirely.

I told the story of Muhammad Yunus, who at a time when no banks would make loans to poor people began the global microfinance movement with a $27 loan to women, who he recognized would apply social pressure within their communities to get the loans repaid. Particularly since Yunus won the Nobel Prize in 2006 and as Kiva approaches $100 million in loans, the value and importance of microfinance is increasingly obvious.

I told the story finally of Twitter. While for many, Twitter is still in the "crazy" category, the ability to distribute messages rapidly across our networks is, I'm confident, here to stay. We've seen in Iran and during earthquakes in China just how powerful and disruptive this medium can be.

So what is it that's increasingly obvious, particularly for people in our space? It's obvious that something has gotta give. The earth and society are heaving under the weight of climate change, health care costs, and dozens of other problems.

It's obvious that waiting for the rest of "them" to solve our problems is a bankrupt strategy. Do we really think that the government - no matter how well intentioned - is going to be able to pass health care reform that solves all the problems that system faces?

It's increasingly obvious that the world is not going to change through a sequence of vertical interventions, but instead will be a network of related and complementary projects addressing related issues.

Finally, it's obvious that the power is shifting. Company's brands are exposed in entirely new ways, and consumers have more influence than ever. People can organize without organizations and are doing so to create new movements and new organizations for change.

Where I think it leaves us is with an obligation to push even harder. At the cusp of that last gasp of crazy, the forces that wish to uphold the status quo kick and fight even harder. The former gatekeepers will not leave without a fight.

We need to be even more bold, because at the end of the day, I don't want 20% better nonprofits with a fundraising strategy better optimized for online giving. I want disruptive change that rights wrongs and realigns incentives for a more sustainable, just future.

(Photo: Pixel Addict)