Derrick Feldmann, millennial and cause influence researcher and author, discusses how to engage in a social movement for good. Many are belongers in social causes. The goal is to move people from belongers to believers. Leaders design social movements where believers can self-organize and engage others to gain momentum and social change. Business leaders can build community with millennials, gen Z, and across generations, a necessary leadership skill in today’s social cause orientation.

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Jess Kutch co-founded Coworker.org in 2013 as a platform for employees to advocate for change in the workplace. She saw the opportunity to provide digital tools to workers allowing them to launch their own campaigns and affect change in their work lives. She shares her perspectives on “the fourth industrial revolution,” or a new labor movement enabled by the internet. Jess is an advocate for giving workers economic power to counter the extremes of capitalism and rising wealth inequality. 

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Professor Sharon Nepstad’s research covers topics including social movements, and nonviolence and civil resistance studies. She notes that business leaders play important activist roles in communicating societal values and promoting change in areas such as gun control, immigration, and climate actions. She discusses the concept of leadership capital and its impact on leading change in business and society. Business leaders often have resources for social change that grass roots activists lack.

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Professor Francesca Polletta researches the role of storytelling in social movements. She says stories can do three things: get us to care about an issue, create or jump-start a movement, and tell new stories about issues in fundamentally different ways. Social movements’ most important impacts are in changing opinions, beliefs, values, and behaviors. Professor Polletta’s focus is on people who are affected and influenced by movements and bring those ideas and values into their workplaces.

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Greg Satell managed a news organization during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and saw the power of social movements. The same principles underlying successful social and political movements are present in corporate transformations, such as networking, creating a vision of shared values and consciousness, and keystone change. Through cascades, small groups that are loosely connected but united by a common purpose, a company can be transformed, an industry disrupted, or an entire society reshaped. 

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Dr. Jerry Davis, professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and associate dean for Business Plus Impact, is finding more ways for business to contribute to social betterment. Information and communications technologies now make corporate activities very public, and in turn, force companies to understand their values and what they stand up for. Dr. Davis believes activism should be encouraged, as risk taking, innovation, and passion can serve the businesses’ interests.

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We are excited to share with you thought-provoking conversations with people engaged in social change as it impacts business.

Do you consider social entrepreneurs as activists, or are you curious about how social movements can create a roadmap for business change? Many discuss storytelling, but have you thought about how stories and their characters can change history? In Season Six, we will explore all these questions and more. We'll mix business and sociology, creating ways for business leaders to set an example in achieving business and social change, and reach for a new standard in capitalism.

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Solstice deploys “community solar,” enabling households to subscribe to shared solar farms. Co-founder and CEO, Steph Speirs, highlights their business model to achieve greater energy equity. Solstice addresses inclusion issues in the solar industry, works to democratize access to clean energy, and focuses on accelerating the transition to clean energy. Listen to our conversation on how Solstice as a social enterprise is changing business and demonstrating a new generation of leadership!

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Applying entrepreneurial principles to serve the poor and protect the planet is the definition of social entrepreneurship at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship Santa Clara University. Dr. Thane Kreiner, executive director, discusses the Global Social Benefit Institute for accelerating for-profit, nonprofit, and hybrid social enterprises. Our conversation explores the business model of social entrepreneurs – persevering through challenges to achieve greater social and business value.

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Loren Rodgers, NCEO’s executive director, shares his perspectives on employee-owned companies as the basis of a new economy focused on broad-based prosperity, limited wealth inequality, shared sense of ownership, and responsibility for communities and workplaces. Learn about employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), the main vehicle for broad-based ownership in the U.S., a retirement plan that invests primarily in company stock and holds its assets in a trust, in accounts earmarked for employees.

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