How to Cultivate Infrapreneurial Leaders

This will come as no surprise to many: I really like infrastructure. I get excited when I meet people who develop, connect, and improve the infrastructure that connects individuals, communities, and institutions working for lasting social change. Social infrapreneurship is a concept that I’m developing to further explore this group of people.

A few weeks ago, Victoria Vrana pointed me to this infrapreneurship challenge posted by Laurie Lane-Zucker on the Impact Entrepreneur LinkedIn discussion page. Laurie quoted Jed Emerson and Antony Bugg-Levine’s Impact Investing book, asking, “What can we do to cultivate the leadership required to build new SYSTEMS for impact investment to solve social and environmental problems at scale?”

I say we need to build a pipeline of infrapreneurial leaders who strive to solve social and environmental problems. We should define and solidify the infrapreneurship concept, identify and recognize social infrapreneurs, and then build opportunities for their growth and development.

It doesn’t take much time exploring the social entrepreneurship and impact investing field to realize that there’s a lot of emphasis on the leaders who create and finance new ventures. Fantastic organizations like Echoing Green and The Skoll Foundation identify, recognize, support, and fund social entrepreneurs. This process brings tremendous prestige to the field and encourages emerging leaders to aspire to become social entrepreneurs.

To cultivate people who will build new systems for social change – what I call social infrapreneurs – we need to identify, recognize, and fund leaders who embody the preneurial spirit with an eye for developing, connecting, and improving social change infrastructure.

The first step is solidifying the concept. Yes, infrapreneur sounds silly and it adds another word to the already-overrun social change jargon. However, I think there’s value in creating an identity to which emerging leaders can aspire, and in having a term to describe the work that so many have done their entire lives.

People respond to goals and incentives. If attaining infrapreneurial status excites someone, they will strive towards it. We should create awards and opportunities to recognize infrapreneurs and encourage people to showcase their work. With this work on display, hopefully others will be inspired to do the same. And perhaps most importantly, communities of infrapreneurs will form to support one another’s growth and development, much the way we’ve seen happen among social entrepreneurs.

In two UnSectored posts here and here I’ve started to work through the concept. It’s really new and needs a lot of work and push back. Through posts, comments, and in person and virtual conversations, I hope you’ll join me in defining and solidifying this concept so we can help recognize and support those who will build and improve the systems and infrastructure to solve social and environmental problems at scale.

Photo credit: Neighborhood Centers

http://www.thesavvydogooder.com/ Nadine

Thank you, Laura!

I have to admit: the term ‘infrapreneur’ does sound a bit silly to me. But at the same time, the concept it describes speaks to me.

The usual routes to changing the world weren’t working for me – I was a volunteer and donor, I applied to the foreign service, I was a professional community fundraiser. At some point, I realized that I never felt I could make the difference I wanted to. Something was always in the way; something artificial and unneccessary.

I finally realized that my problem was that I couldn’t help but analyze and re-think all the assumptions and ‘best practices’ of how good is traditionally done. I couldn’t accept things going wrong with a shrug and say “It is what it is”, like my superiors did. I wanted to tinker with the system, question the paradigms, and make it all work better.

I guess that makes me an infrapreneur, hey? I don’t want to create a new charity or service or new product. I don’t want to make do with the system as-is. I don’t feel driven to address any particular cause. My cause is making the social good sector work better. I want to poke and prod and question and stir the pot to find better ways, in spite of the old rules, structures and assumptions.

Because of this, I often feel a bit lost – it’s not a well-trodden path. It’s a bit weird. It challenges the old guard. I’m not really selling anything but my thoughts and ideas. No one else is doing it in my city. So I’ll be following this exploration of the infrapreneurial concept with interest, since it seems to identify the place I want to occupy within the social good space.

Nadine Riopel
The Savvy Do Gooder
- http://twitter.com/lauratomasko Laura Tomasko
  
  Nadine,
  
  Thank you so much for sharing! I’m glad to hear that the concept – although described by an admittedly silly word – speaks to you and resonates with your personal experience.
  
  When working in the social change world, it isn’t uncommon to be asked what’s the issue you’re most passionate about or what’s the one problem you want to solve. And of course it’s not that infrapreneurs don’t care about issues and don’t want to solve problems. As a process-oriented person, I see infrapreneurial work as a key step in an ongoing process. We lay the groundwork (the plumbing, the infrastructure, etc), develop connections, and improve systems to make it possible to solve any issue.
  
  As you said, it’s not a well-trodden path and is easy to feel lost. I hope that we can use UnSectored as a platform to bring together infrapreneurs and form a community. Think of the exciting systems-work we can accomplish together across sectors and across borders!
  
  I’m excited to hear that you’ll be following the exploration of the infrapreneurial concept and look forward to your ongoing comments and feedback.
  
  Laura
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http://twitter.com/dkix Diane Tran

Hey Laura,

It’s been a while since you and I first met in NYC, but I’m delighted to have stumbled across your blog posts on UnSectored today! Despite the terminology, I certainly identify as an infrapreneur and can think of another friend or two who fit the bill.

There are a couple of us actively brainstorming about how to build systems for connecting and collaborating across our generation in Minnesota (http://www.minnesotarising.org/), using our blog, Un/Conferences, and a Cascading Conversations Tour to get the ball rolling. We know there’s much that will emerge as we continue pursuing the question of what we can accomplish in the future if we can begin now to leverage trust, relationships, and a shared vision for the future of our state.

Thanks for your sharing insights and I look forward to our infrapreneurial paths continuing to cross!
- http://twitter.com/lauratomasko Laura Tomasko
  
  Diane,
  
  How nice to hear from you! It sounds like you are doing awesome work in Minnesota. Perhaps we can share infrapreneurial ideas and see if we can’t get connected and collaborating communities to connect and collaborate with other communities. Meta-infrapreneurialism!
  
  Laura

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