Charlie Howard on ideas not organisations
Michael Little from Ratio in conversation with Charlie Howard at a public event at Somerset in November 2017.
Michael Little: “Why are you here tonight?”
Charlie Howard: “To abolish organizations.”
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Charlie has been exploring new ways of finding, nurturing, funding and scaling ideas put forward by young people. One of these ideas, problem solving booths, has captured a lot of attention internationally. It also led to an idea for something called ‘street to scale’, which relies on a new model of trust-based funding. As Charlie observes, this approach challenges traditional methods in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector:
What normally happens is we have an idea, so we set up an organisation around it. Put it in a box. We then apply for a grant to fund that organisation. Ten months later maybe we get the money, by which time the community member who had the idea is pissed off. They say: ‘This is like everything else, it’s bullshit. You tell us we can do things, we can’t, there’s no money.’ By the time the grant comes, they’ve gone and you think: Actually, what is this structure that we’re putting around these ideas? What could the world look like if we could wrap networks, ideas and resources around ideas that come from the streets from real people and do it quickly and fluidly?
In this premier episode of the R Talks, Michael talked to Charlie about this work — its successes and failures — and what it says about the future of innovation. Listen to it now on iTunes or SoundCloud here:
