What is unfair balance?
By: Sergei P.
Tags: Social Enterprise, Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development, Social Entrepreneurs

You already know that social entrepreneurs are often called Changemakers — creators of change and revolutionists. However, in order to achieve large or small changes, it is not necessary to always call for radical measures. You need to have an excellent sense of balance and understand the laws of social system’s development. Why do some problems can be solved quickly while others stay unresolved for decades? That’s what I want to start talking about.

Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus described a clear order of action that should be followed by a social entrepreneur:

1. Find a stable but unfair balance.

2. Find a solution that will make a difference.

3. Set a new fair balance.

What balances are we talking about? An unfair balance means discrimination against a group that lacks the resources and influences to make a difference. Harassment or problem exists for a long time and in this sense it is stable. Society may not know about the problem, or may consider harassment normal (for example decriminalization of LGBT’s in some countries). In any case, the problem is reproduced and not solved.

The task of a social entrepreneur is to find a solution that can change the existing order of things. It requires offering a new approach to the problem, testing the solution, making sure it works and then scaling the results.

The results need to be perceived as a new norm, a self-evident value, as a fair balance. When it comes to everyday practices and rituals, the majority of people need to treat minorities in a different, non-discriminating way.

To put it bluntly, social entrepreneurs eliminate familiar practices which at the same time are not fair. When something becomes familiar, we start to consider it normal. We are used to plastic pollution, climate change, nightmare news in press, growing gap between rich and poor. We get along with it, although we understand that it’s not right at all. This is an unfair balance. The situation is not pleasant, but people reproduce it and don’t try to change. In words they may resent, complain, demand, but they don’t take actions in order to change something. Let us look at the example of education. I will talk about my country — Russia, as I know its situation best.

Current model of russian education kills creativity in children. Schoolchildren are focused on tests, exams which don’t prepare them for a real life in today’s complex world. Bans, discipline, tests, unification of everything. The system is too complicated and archaic. The Ministry of Education is making plans, management is rushing to meet indicators, teachers are swamped with paperwork. Meanwhile, parents earn money for children’s education, and children pretend to learn. Such a huge simulation by so many people gives the impression that everything is working. This is an unfair balance.

To change the situation, you need to understand that it has developed and is being reproduced due to the behavior of all parties involved. After all, it benefits everyone. The Ministry of Education reports, teachers are paid, parents fulfill their duty to children, and children are free so they can concentrate on other activities. You don’t have to try too hard, think and look for alternatives. Somehow everything is working. Poorly but it is.

Most of us are not revolutionaries. We play by the established rules, seek to successfully master them and move somewhere. This is the power of social inertia, fed by the silence consent of the majority.

What is the first natural desire? Burn everything to hell, and build a new model of education. Students could be home schooled or attend online courses. The impulse is clear, but the solution is bad because it touches only the surface not the core of the problem.

A true social entrepreneur, must immerse himself in a problem, keep emotions under control and understand the principles which keep the balance stable. If you simply consider your opponents to be obscurants and abyss, you deprive yourself of a huge amount of very important information. Complex systems are always contradictory, so it is so important to dig to the essence of the opposite point of view. Only by understanding someone else’s logic you will be able to see effective ways to change it.

Simply negating an unfair balance, often brings in a reverse effect. Those who already are in the system will maintain their status quo as a response to the attacks from the outside. Don’t forget, for them it is a natural order, a norm, and your attacks look like provocation or foolishness. But you need these people, because only they have the knowledge which is necessary to understand the essence of equilibrium. The more you communicate with representatives of the system as partners, the better you will understand the causes of the current balance and the conditions that keep it stable.

I often say that a social entrepreneur should first “fall in love” with the problem, or at least respect those with whom he strongly disagrees. It is a hard mindset to achieve, but without due respect you will not take their arguments seriously, your analysis will be weak and the proposed solution will not be optimal. Take the position not of an expert, but of a student, with an unbiased view of the world, who wants to understand the topic. Deep dive into a context will make it possible to see the foundations of the unfair balance.

When you understand the true reasons, you will be able to concentrate all your resources for an accurate strike on them to disrupt the balance and lean the scales to your side. We will talk about it later.