Ensembles, Not Soloists: My New Interview Series

Over 30 years of backing and working alongside entrepreneurial problem solvers from all walks of life and sectors, I have learned one lesson that rises above many others: Heroes are essential, but they are not enough. That may sound jarring, because we live in a country where often CEOs and other executive leaders have held mythic status in the public mind, but it’s true given the size and complexity of the challenges we face.

As I wrote in one of my first LinkedIn pieces – Solving The World's Biggest Problems Takes Ensembles, Not Soloists – “No single individual, organization, corporation, foundation, or nation can solve the significant problems of the world. So let’s stop looking for heroes to address the important issues of our day. Instead, let’s focus on the bringing together the teams of organizations and individuals that must collaborate to address problems.”

The leaders we need today, whom I call ‘system entrepreneurs,’ put a premium on collaboration, learning, and adaptation. They are just as likely to be program managers as CEOs. They are practitioners, public voices, and advocates for change. And all along, they humble themselves to the collective purpose, so that their teams can be successful. That is what my new “Ensembles, Not Soloists” interview series on LinkedIn will be about.

My first interview features Sam Silvers, who as Deloitte’s US Markets and Relationships Leader oversees the social impact activities of tens of thousands of professionals in communities across the country. Silvers has played a lead role in recent efforts to reshape Deloitte’s approach to driving measurable impact through its new Corporate Citizenship structure, the Deloitte Foundation, and the Monitor Institute by Deloitte. This includes the organization’s collaboration with New Profit, the venture philanthropy organization whose board I chair, to provide Fortune 500-caliber advisory services to social sector organizations. Deloitte was most recently listed as #6 on FORTUNE’s list of Best Workplaces for Giving Back and honored by Points of Light as one of the Civic 50 as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the US.

Jeff Walker (JW): Deloitte is a huge organization with a large portfolio of social impact work, but let’s start with a micro example to give people a sense of your approach. What recent projects have you taken on that started small, but have big systemic change potential?

Sam Silvers (SS): I would say that all of our social impact work starts with collaboration, both internally and with our external relationships. It takes a team. A great example is the recent work we did with New Profit to support Enlearn, a personalized learning technology organization that has an incredibly powerful machine learning platform that adapts to each learner’s needs. They were wrestling with tough decisions about where to focus their product to have the greatest impact on equity in education. We put together a case team of Deloitte professionals to work with New Profit and EnLearn’s leadership, and eventually helped identify a new strategic direction focused on remediation (helping underprepared students catch up on subjects) in public community colleges. The approach helps address a serious problem that prevents too many students from succeeding. The new strategy we worked with EnLearn to build positions the organization effectively to enter a market where its learning engine has significant potential to be optimized and scaled to improve college persistence and graduation for thousands, if not millions, of students across the country.

JW: What does that project say about Deloitte's overall approach to social impact?

SS: We focus on addressing pressing social issues that affect where we live and work, and where Deloitte’s capabilities can have a significant impact. That’s true across multiple social impact entities in the firm: Deloitte Corporate Citizenship, which facilitates and coordinates our organization-wide social impact efforts; the Deloitte Foundation, whose mission is to help develop the talent of the future and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation; and Monitor Institute by Deloitte, a social change consultancy that works with innovative leaders and organizations on their most pressing social impact strategy and execution challenges.

All of this is driven by our people, who increasingly expect our business to have a purpose, and to have the opportunity to work on projects they are passionate about. To that end, we recently embarked on an organization-wide effort—the RightStep Impact Venture—to help improve college readiness by mobilizing 10,000 of our professionals as volunteers and targeting Deloitte’s capabilities and resources, both cash and pro bono services, to impact 500,000 underrepresented students over the next three years. By 2020, 65% of jobs are expected to require post-secondary education or training, but the stark reality is that only 1 in 4 students are prepared to enter college. We are leaning into that gap.

JW: What goals are driving your work, both from a social impact perspective and a business perspective?

SS: Impact is our north star, as I noted above, but talent is also a big driver. Deloitte is a large organization located in multiple markets, so we intentionally provide diverse social impact programs that give our talent a way to be better connected – to each other, to the core values of the organization, and to their communities.

We are also increasingly hearing from our clients on their interest to engage on social impact projects. Recently, for example, we collaborated with Salesforce to build out their Pathfinder Training Program, a workforce development program designed to provide participants without college degrees with the technical skills and business training they need to obtain technology jobs.

JW: What insights can you provide to other companies, large and small, that are trying to align impact/purpose with value/profit?

SS: In just the past few weeks, we’ve seen changes in long-held assumptions of corporate social impact as purely a business expense to one that is in service to a sustainable business strategy. We’ve catalogued six ways businesses can drive value from their social impact strategies, including: mitigation of business risks, brand differentiation, increased access to capital, operational efficiencies through reduced resource consumption, innovation and opportunity creation, and talent attraction, engagement and retention.

 Three actions for any company to consider include:

·     Clarify your company’s social purpose strategy and consider how it comes to life – not just in your CSR or Foundation office – but across your entire business.

·      Craft your unique breakthrough narrative to highlight your company’s commitments in the workplace, at point of sale, and in the world at large. 

·      Disrupt old models of business and philanthropy to be truly impact first. In addition to transforming your narrative, as noted above, this might require evolving past traditional notions of philanthropy and looking beyond 501c3s to invest in new models of partnership, social enterprise, and innovation.

JW: In your wildest dreams, what does the future look like in terms of the way companies and social impact organizations work together for a better world?

SS: We see powerful opportunities for business leaders and social change innovators to build broad based coalitions that address deeply rooted systemic social and environmental challenges. Business has an essential role to play in helping solve social issues, and we envision a world where companies work to integrate social impact into their core business strategies and forge powerful partnerships with social impact organizations.

The “How?” question is a big one too, and we explored it deeply in a recent report, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, called PARTICIPATE: The Power of Involving Business in Social Impact Networks. We identified and analyzed over 50 social impact networks that involve both civil society and the private sector working together on a critical issue—from the global seafood supply chain, to deforestation, to market-based solutions for a more sustainable food system. All of these collaborative efforts demonstrated ways to deliver both business value and drive social impact. Fundamentally, the study found that to best support more cross-sector collaborations, we have to get better at crossing sectors.

JW: Thank you all for reading and stay tuned for more system entrepreneur interviews in my Ensembles, Not Soloists series.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.