Systems Change Leadership: Redefining Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

The Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship and the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business will host a “Systems Change Leadership: Redefining Social Entrepreneurship” lecture on Monday, April 23 from 6–7:30 p.m. at the Gleacher Center, Room 100. Almost all social and environmental problems exist as part of a system of interconnected communities, actors, and incentives. And yet, often when we set out to tackle problems, we don’t start by understanding the complete system in which we are operating. On April 23, join educator and entrepreneur Daniela Papi-Thornton to hear how she is working to change this approach. She will share innovations designed to explore how a deep understanding of social and environmental systems can lead to better solutions, and as a result, lasting change.
In this talk, Papi-Thornton will share lessons learned from both her time running a social enterprise in Cambodia and her work at the University of Oxford’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. She will share her Impact Gaps Canvas, a practical system mapping tool designed to help people better understand and contribute to tackling their chosen challenges.
In her work at the University of Oxford’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Papi-Thornton found that in order to create positive social impact, “we need to help people work toward collective impact, give them the tools, accolades, and incentives to apprentice with problems they didn’t live before asking them to solve them, and support people to understand and build upon the existing efforts of others rather than ‘innovating’ in a vacuum.”