Ecosystems For Change

Today I’m catching up with April Rinne in Portland, OR.

I wanted to have a conversation with April because her book, Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change is exactly the kind of thinking that changemakers and systems thinkers need to not only keep their heads above water, but to actually thrive in our constantly changing circumstances.

A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and ranked one of the “50 Leading Female Futurists” in the world by Forbes, April Rinne is a change navigator: she helps individuals and organizations rethink and reshape their relationship with change, uncertainty, and a world in flux. 

She is a trusted advisor to well-known startups, companies, financial institutions, nonprofits, and think tanks worldwide, including Airbnb, Nike, Intuit, theWorld Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, NESTA, Trōv, AnyRoad, and Unsettled, as well as governments ranging from Singapore to South Africa, Canada to Colombia, Italy to India. April is the author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The challenges and opportunities of having outdated scripts why our new scripts have to account for a world in flux
• How technology can actually make us less adaptable to change 
• How scripts for a world in flux layer up from the individual to the systemic
• Two different aspects of trust and why they are critical for navigating change 

Learn More About ​​April Rinne:

• AprilRinne.com
• Flux Mindset
• Instagram: @AprilRinne
• Connect with April on LinkedIn
• Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

Resources:

• The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, Alan Watts
• Design from Trust
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck

In today's episode, we make our way to Sacramento, California to hear from Jeff Bennett.

Jeff talks about servant leadership, the importance of co-writing a new narrative with our communities and the frustrations that come with shifting a system.

I don't know many people who have worked so tirelessly to move our field of ecosystem building forward and Jeff talks openly about the toll that this work has taken on him. 

Jeff Bennett has been working to build ecosystems at both the local level and the field level. He is the co-founder and president of StartupSac, a small, scrappy nonprofit in Sacramento, California that informs, educates, and connects founders and innovators. He also works to connect and inform ecosystem builders and advance the field across the nation as the co-founder of Ecosystem Builder Hub, an online resource for ecosystem building news and stories. He has written extensively on the topic of ecosystem building and has worked with the Kauffman Foundation, helping to advance the work of ecosystem builders.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why short-term solutions are like playing Whack-A-Mole with the news cycle and why we need education and awareness of systems thinking
• The kind of leadership required in a systems-focused world
• The power of storytelling and narrative to help catalyze systemic change in our communities 
• How we got stuck in a reductionist paradigm and how we can begin to think in complex adaptive systems
• Why cultivating patience, equanimity, and realistic expectations is necessary for ecosystem builders

Learn More About ​​Jeff Bennett:

• Ecosystem Builder Hub
• StartupSac
• Twitter: @DigitalSplash
• Medium

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

Resources:

• The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway
• The Dawn of System Leadership
• Frederick Taylor
• How the Ecosystem Metaphor Influences Entrepreneurship, ESHIP talk by David McConville, 2017
• Systems Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results, David Peter Stroh
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter M. Senge

In today’s episode, we’re headed to Kansas City, Missouri, to talk to Lauren Higgins.

Lauren has been working with systems thinking for more than half her life and today she shares her journey to becoming a systems thinker and talks about how she remains anchored and sane in the wild dance with systems. 

Lauren Higgins, co-director of Democracy Together, is active in civic conflict resolution and restorative justice efforts in her current home of Kansas City, Missouri. For 10+ years she has facilitated multi-stakeholder projects and produced large scale events focused on social innovation, public imagination, and the new economy. As senior staff at the Impact Hub Network, she developed democratic governance convenings to help 100 communities align their collective impact. Currently, at the Kauffman Foundation, she designs innovation and capacity building programs to advance systemic approaches to inclusive prosperity.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The relationship between linear thinking, urgency, and reactivity
• Why systems change requires a foundation of genuine relationships based on curiosity, mutual, respect and trust
• How the concept of emergence helps us think about complex adaptive systems and nurtures change
• How systems thinking can get tangled with mechanistic models, and why it won’t actually help you predict and control outcomes 
• How de-centering herself helps Lauren balance awareness of pressing global issues with what she is capable of contributing

Learn More About ​​Lauren Higgins:

• Democracy Together
• Twitter: @LoHiggs
• Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

Resources:

• Margaret Wheatley, A Simpler Way
• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown
• Octavia Butler
• Colectivo 1050°
• Dave Snowden
• Donella Meadows - Dancing with Systems
  
  

Today, we are headed to a small village in the south of France to talk to Madelynn Martiniere about her work in designing, activating, and scaling open innovation ecosystems for a more equitable and sustainable future.

In our conversation Madelynn and I talk about the importance of finding community and belonging, what role technology can play in driving systemic change and what it means to design an ideal world.

Madelynn Martiniere is a global strategist and facilitator working with innovators, entrepreneurs and executives to design, activate, and scale open innovation ecosystems for a more equitable and sustainable future. She is currently Managing Partner at Armillaria, an ecosystems design lab working to co-create critical digital infrastructure for a more thriving world. An avid permaculturist, when not working on systems change, she can be found working in the garden.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How technology’s desire to simplify concepts impacts our ability to see interconnection and complexity
• Why we can’t enter a community looking to validate a hypothesis
• The tension in recognizing our locus of control
•  The challenges in wanting it done and wanting to be the one to do it

Learn More About ​​Madelynn Martiniere:

• Armillaria
• Twitter: @mmartiniere
• Connect with Madelynn on LinkedIn
• Design Principles for Systems Change: Cooperative
• Design Principles for Systems Change: Humanity-Centered

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

Resources:

• Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, Priya Parker
• Sphaera
• Roxann Stafford
• Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds, Arturo Escobar

In season two of Ecosystems for Change, we’re talking about the slow and complex nature of our work.

For the longest time, I didn’t understand this concept. 

I just knew I was banging my head against the wall. It felt like nothing ever changed and like I was constantly running uphill, trying support entrepreneurs in my community and nobody would see it the way I saw it.

Today, I know that’s because I had no idea how complex adaptive systems really work.

I know “complex adaptive systems” sounds highly conceptual, theoretical or hard to access. That’s probably why I didn’t dive into it until years into being an ecosystem builder.

But that’s exactly why I’m dedicating season two to this topic.

My goal is to break open “complex adaptive systems,” and to talk to practitioners who can help us all understand how we can think and act more in these systems in order to support entrepreneurs and build thriving ecosystems in our communities.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Defining complex adaptive systems
• The 4 early lessons about thinking and acting in systems
• Why entrepreneurial ecosystems resist orderly hierarchies
• The elements of culture, temperament, and personality that impact how systems interconnect

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

Resources:

• The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway
• National Center for Economic Gardening
• Dancing with Systems, Donella Meadows
• Thinking in Systems. A Primer. Donella Meadows.
• My conversation with Sharon Chang, Guild of Future Architects
• Center for Social Innovation
• Mars Discovery District

I have been writing monthly Logbooks ever since I started Social Venturers.

It’s been my way of keeping myself accountable and sharing with other people what I’ve been working on the month before, what I was planning, and how people could get involved.

So I’m continuing that tradition here on the podcast.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Three big projects that are wrapping up
• Professional shifts and my role at the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund
• What’s coming up in Season Two of Ecosystems for Change
• An invitation for a community conversation and to be co-creators of the podcast

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• My last written logbook 
• The Keystone Program
• Shenandoah Community Capital Fund
• Ecosystems for Change S01E02: How to Build Up Community Capital to Nurture Your Ecosystem with Debbie Irwin
• Zebras Unite and my storytelling campaign Zebras in the Wild
• Zebras in the Wild: Anika Horn
• April 14: Burn both ends, register here and tell your friends!

If there is one takeaway running through each episode of season one it’s this: Ecosystem building is a mindset.

Almost all of the six ecosystem builders I spoke with this season professed to be introverts or having been shy as children, yet they are out there every day building relationships and communities.

But, as Charlton Cunningham noted in Episode 3, the introvert-extrovert continuum is really about where you get your energy and how you recharge, and many ecosystem builders I know are excellent at building and nurturing genuine, meaningful relationships, regardless of whether they get energy from working a room full of people or prefer to converse one on one.

All six interviews showcased what it means to put the needs of entrepreneurs at the forefront of their work and what we’re up against when building for the greater good.

But there were three main themes that really stood out to me and today, I’m revisiting my conversations from season one to illustrate those essential points.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why customer discovery is as essential for ecosystem builders as it is for business owners
• How an abundance mindset opens the door to building with and not for your community but has its drawbacks and heartbreaks
• Why building trust in your community is the best place to start
• How to define entrepreneurial ecosystems

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• Ecosystem Building 101 Masterclass

Resources:

• The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway
• Startup Junkie
• The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley, Victor W. Hwang and Greg Horowitt
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
• The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Strategy as a New Paradigm for Economic Policy: Principles for Cultivating Entrepreneurship, Daniel Isenberg (2011)

In today’s episode, we’re headed to Quito, Ecuador, to sit down with Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter.

When season 1 took shape I knew I had to have Michelle on the show so it’s only suitable that she is closing out the conversation series of this pilot season!

Michelle talks about how she left her career and professional identity as a human rights lawyer in Geneva, Switzerland, to return to Latin America. About 8 years ago, Michelle set out to fight loneliness for changemakers in Ecuador and ended up building Ecuador's first coworking space for Impact entrepreneurs with her co-founder Daniela Peralvo. Since then, Impaqto has become Ecuador’s first B Corp, expanded to five locations, and has grown into much more than a coworking space.

Today, Impaqto works regionally in 17 countries through their consulting services; Michelle and her team also provide entrepreneurial education and are building their first impact investing fund.

I’m so excited for you all to meet Michelle and learn about her holistic approach to building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why being an introvert is an asset to Michelle as an ecosystem builder
• How the loneliness among changemakers led Michelle to a systems approach and the creation of Impaqto
• How the business has evolved from a co-working space into a full-fledged support system for impact-entrepreneurs in Ecuador
• Why ecosystem builders need multilingual resources
• How becoming a parent has taught Michelle to say no as a founder

Learn more about Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter:

• Impaqto
• MichelleAC.com
• Instagram: @MichelleAtImpaqto
• Twitter: @MichelleAC1
• Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• Ecosystem Building 101 Masterclass

Resources:

• Global Good Fund Fellowship
• The Overstory, Richard Powers

In today’s episode, I’m taking you to Lincoln, Nebraska, to meet Christina Oldfather.

Christina is a seasoned ecosystem builder and economic developer.

We talk about the shared objectives and differences between economic development and ecosystem building as approaches to fostering entrepreneurship. And Christina spills the beans on how her ecosystem convenes and how they support founders post-acceleration.

We also discuss the power of small communities and taking a mindset of giving before you get. And hey, if you’re looking for a new exercise regimen this year, we got that covered too!

Christina Oldfather is the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. In her time at LPED, Christina has created and built a wide variety of entrepreneurial support programs, including the LaunchLNK program, a grant program for early- stage startups, and StartupLNK, a digital platform to help people navigate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lincoln.

She also is the lead organizer for 1 Million Cups Lincoln and Techstars Startup Week Lincoln. Christina also serves on the NMotion Board of Directors and has helped bring the NMotion Accelerator to its current status as an investment-based studio accelerator. In addition to NMotion, Christina serves on the Board of Directors of Startup Champions Network, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem builders, the Child Advocacy Center, and Rabble Mill.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How economic development, ecosystem building, and legislative action have influenced Lincoln’s entrepreneurial culture
• Why Christina developed the LaunchLNK program specifically to support early-stage entrepreneurs
• Why building trust and listening to the community’s needs have been key for building Lincoln’s ecosystem
• How Christina uses her Jazzercise classes to carve out time for herself

Learn more about Christina Oldfather:

• StartupLNK
• LaunchLNK
• Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development
• Facebook: @cjoldfather
• Twitter: @CBinLincoln
• Connect with Christina on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• Ecosystem Building 101 Masterclass

Resources:

• Startup Champions Network Summit
• Echo Collective
• The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway

Today, we’re going on a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas.

I want you to meet Darlisa Diltz who runs the North Texas Entrepreneur Education and Training Center.

Darlisa shares what happens when the work you’ve been doing for years suddenly becomes all the rage, but powerful players don’t take the time to truly understand their communities’ needs.

Darlisa also talks openly about bad actors in the ecosystem who–instead of partnering with her–outright copied her programs. And she shares with us how she unwinds after just one of those days.

Hear what advice Darlisa has about nurturing community and becoming a truly inclusive ecosystem builder.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why Darlisa and NEETC focus efforts on “wannapreneurs” and early stage entrepreneurs by building connections and community
• How Darlisa copes with having her work replicated by other organizations
• Why ecosystems builders need to focus on inclusivity over influence
• What major players get wrong about building truly inclusive ecosystems

Learn more about Darlisa Diltz:

• North Texas Entrepreneur Education and Training Center
• Facebook: @NTEETC
• Instagram: @NTEETC
• Connect with NTEETC on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator
• Ecosystem Building 101 Masterclass

Resources:

• The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway
• Sparkyard