Book Recommendation: Innovation and Scaling for Impact: How Effective Social Enterprises Do It.

Quick Summary: This book is a great overview to how social initiatives balance the drive for invention with the need to faithfully implement an already-proven solution. It examines the intersection of the time, monetary, labor, and material investments, which might not pan out, in service of identifying a new intervention or organizational rejuvenation, (an “innovation” process) and expansion based on existing strengths (a “scaling” process). Seelos and Mair identify pathologies that can derail initiatives, and identify innovation archetypes that in practice will help leaders sidestep these pathologies and blend innovation with scaling. This book is theoretical, evidence-based, features a useful model that any initiative can use at any stage,  and includes four in-depth cases that illustrate how the theories work in practice. (Christian Seelos & Johanna Mair. Stanford Business Books. 2017.)