Our race is not with someone else – it is with ourselves,
with our own ambition to be the best in something that
sets us apart from everyone else.
The result that matters
We have three possible ways to move ahead:
• stay put – remain the same as before and accept a
vision that doesn`t include us as a major factor;
• step backward – try to be like everyone else and
compete with everyone else;
• move forward – be different, remarkable and impressive.
If you think that the first two options seem reasonable,
you can stop reading any further – you won`t find
anything about them further in the text. I will only talk
about the third case, which to me is not only our best
option but the only viable one. We have no other chance
to move ahead but to find our own niche and develop it
in a way that will put us in a leading position.
Bulgaria can become remarkable if it commits itself to
solving interesting problems. Bulgaria can become a true
number one destination, when it starts solving interesting
problems in an interesting way.
Reforming the educational system is not an interesting
problem (“Do you want me to serve you another tasty
strategy for higher education, Sir?”). How to encourage
children to become leaders of change and meet new
challenges is an interesting problem.
Rolling out classes for presentation skills is not an
interesting solution to stimulate leadership. Engaging
students to rethink the learning process and offer them
the opportunity to apply their ideas in their own schools is
an interesting solution.
The difference in the approach makes the difference in
value. In their essence, these problems are quite similar –
the question is how do we perceive them and find
solutions for them.
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What are we
the best at
Chaos with a + sign
And now, a small exercise for the mind. Imagine that
everything we have so far considered as an obstacle
becomes our greatest advantage.
We have never had a truly functioning economy.
We have never had well-established institutions.
We have never had deeply rooted laws and regulations.
These are very serious problems. But at the same time
they create a wide-open field for hundreds of social
experiments. Some of them can easily be part of a low
budget horror movie; others can save human lives. But all
of them are as valuable for us as for everyone else.
If you draw a parallel with business, at the moment
Bulgaria is managed as a startup company – one that has
attracted several million users and has yet to prove
whether it has a successful business model which can keep
them using the service (or find out they are still using it
simply because it`s interesting or there is no other choice).
This is the territory of continuous experimentation.
And this is our biggest chance.
Nothing truly works here, so anything
might work here.
If right now we decide to implement a radically new
educational model that did not originate in a top-level
strategy and instead was formed in a particular school in
the village of Khan Asparuhovo with a predominant
Romany population, we can make it happen. In many other
countries with functioning institutions this would take
years, even decades, because it will mean a slow and
gradual change in a system of laws, regulations and
established practices.
Here the logic is reversed – a specific change in a
particular place can easily exist under the current rules (or
the lack thereof) and subsequently be implemented on a
larger scale by laws, regulations and established practices
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because it has been tested and it works. The lack of strong
foundations is our greatest advantage.
Bulgaria as number one
Bulgaria has perpetually been in social transformation –
whether it has been good or bad, controlled or
disorganized, constructive or destructive, against someone
or together with someone.
Bulgaria is a land of experiments – an untapped field for
social change. It is time for us to become aware of this
potential, bring it to a new level and become the number
one destination for social innovation in the world.
Social innovations are new solutions (products, services,
models, designs, markets, processes), which meet concrete
social needs and problems more effectively than previous
ones. Moreover, they increase society`s ability to function
better in the long run.
One example from Seth Godin: if you ask the people who
deliver food to the school canteens what school lunch is
for, most likely the answer will be “to feed as many kids as
fast and as cheaply as we can, given the limited resources
we have.” But the answer could also be "to educate kids
about healthy food and help them to make nutritious
choices for a lifetime." The first approach brings material
benefits to the food manager at the expense of the
children, whereas the other brings social value for both
groups and society as a whole.
Social innovation refers to implementing ideas that are
valuable not only because they are new, but because they
lead to social change and directly influence the quality of
life of people and communities. They are the answers to
unresolved problems, which can be answered with the
active participation of the people affected by them. They
don`t merely serve as a safety net for people and
communities in need, but act as tools for long-term
change.
Pick one year. If 2020 seems too early and 2050 - too
late, we can decide on 2035 as a middle ground.
In 2035 Bulgaria will become the
number one destination for
social innovation in the world.
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