Ideas that make the difference: Emergence, resonance and pollination in practice is the fourth paper in our discussion paper series, developed with Ashoka. It explores how ideas that change systems spread from one place to another.

Social innovations usually spread the same way: package, copy, scale. In this discussion paper, Nolita Mvunelo, principal of cultural transformations at the Club of Rome, and colleagues from Ashoka suggest that ideas for social change spread like living things: pollinated into new places, where local communities shape how they grow.

Key findings: how social innovations spread and drive systems change

Emergence: When is a system ready for change? 

A system is ready for change when it reaches criticality, or a tipping point: a moment when a small push can set off a much bigger shift. Ideas can go unnoticed for years and then spread quickly once that moment arrives. The authors suggest keeping the idea alive in the meantime and learning to recognise when the system is about to move. 

Resonance and pollination: Six ways ideas for social innovation travel  

Ideas for social innovation travel beyond where they started when people in new places recognise them as their own, a process the authors call resonance.

Drawing on case studies of Ashoka Fellows who participated in the Globalizer Strategy Accelerator, the authors identify six ways these ideas have spread, each inspired by how pollen moves in nature:

• Wind: open release: Sharing the method openly so anyone can use and adapt it.
• Water: flow into the mainstream: Using channels that already exist, such as laws, standards and supply chains.
• Bee: patient targeting: Gathering evidence and going back to the same key institutions until they change.
• Hummingbird: the beacon: Making a model so visible and convincing that partners come looking for it.
• Bat: weaving across worlds: Connecting sectors that rarely meet, such as businesses, governments and communities.
• Farmers: growth capacity: Letting others take the lead, adapt the idea and train new people to carry it on.

Mutual metamorphosis: How can social change organisations multiply their impact?

Organisations multiply their impact by enabling others to grow. Inspired by the mycelium, the underground fungal network that helps a whole forest thrive, the authors suggest that organisations can measure success by what they help others achieve.

In almost every case, spreading impact meant letting go of something, from ownership of a method to the growth of the organisation itself. Both those who share an idea and those who take it up are changed in the process, which the authors call mutual metamorphosis.