BUS 374 Reflections

      Wow, a lot to think about this week! This week's lessons focused on getting down to the root of a problem, which is hopefully obvious from the title of this post. We learned about a couple of different diagrams, The Five Why and The Fishbone, that force you to look at the multiple problems that contribute towards an issue.      We had to apply one of these diagrams to an issue that we care about. I picked low literacy rates in the United States. And I had to really look at all of the contributing factors that cause and perpetuate illiteracy. And boy oh boy, I learned a ton. Illiteracy is caused by a multitude of factors, including a lack of parent engagement, a lack of resources in the home, a lack of school resources, which honestly all of these ended up being connected to the cycle of poverty in one way or another. I found it both interesting and sad how interconnected these problems are. I also found it a little overwhelming,  one person ...

      To summarize the teachings in BUS 374 this week, there was lot of information about normal people can contribute to social innovation. Within social innovation, there are different things a person can be, a social entrepreneur, a social implementers, and volunteers. Not everybody can be a social entrepreneur, and that's ok. The world need people to do the work of carrying out the mission of businesses or non-profits trying to implement social change. It's all valid and relevant.      Something that stood out to me this week was an assignment I had, called "Be the Change" which required me to reflect on where I fit in the different areas of social innovation. It caused me to realize that I want to do a lot more in my life to help people. I used to work for a non-profit that helped disabled children, I got to work one on one with these kids and help them build life skills. I miss the feeling of purpose that occupation brought me. I work a desk job ...

      This weeks topic during class explained what social innovation is, and how it can effect the world. If I were to summarize what social innovation is in extremely simple terms, it is the ways people can both do things that are a net positive for society and make money. For example, investing in ethical companies that do good for the world is one way the everyday person can participate in social innovation. Companies that hire disabled or other disadvantage workers is another form of social innovation. Starting your own business that assists local communities is yet another form of social innovation.      Part of my studies this week included watching a few videos about social innovation, the one I'm going to discuss talks about BYU's The Ballard Center.  Link to the video here . What really surprised me while watching this video was how creative the solutions to problems the students were. I found the young man who discussed his solution to t...