Unit 7 Paper

Shock and Shake!

Hisham El Sherbini

AMSR7

Team 2

January 2018
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1

2. Second-Person Inquiry into Business & Change ............................................................................. 1

3. Part 1 of the Plan – What can we learn from Yunus’ Social Business endeavour?......................... 2

4. Part 2 of the Plan: Gradual vs Shock Change .................................................................................. 4

5. Conclusion, Reflection and Next Actions ........................................................................................ 5

6. References ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Hisham El Sherbini Unit 7 Paper

To create change, you need to shock people

(Douglas McMaster, a promoter of the concept of zero-
waste cookery)

1. INTRODUCTION

For most of my Adult life (assuming that I am an Adult), I have believed in gradual change,
that you cannot build a house out of nothing in an instance, you have to lay your bricks one
by one, you have to go up the ladder step by step.

But, for the last 5 years or so and especially throughout the AMSR programme, I’ve been
having doubts. They say, “Change needs time” and “Time changes things” and I often
believed in that but do we have time? Is the planet going to wait for us to sort out our
insane consumption and waste? Are Syrian mothers and children going to wait for us to sort
out humanitarian and medical aid and, perhaps, peace? Are the homeless going to wait for
us in freezing conditions to provide a solution for them? Did time help resolve the injustice
inflicted on the Palestinians for 70 years now?!

In this paper, I want to inquire into an example of what can be considered “gradual change”
and, some can argue, has parallels with the “Three Horizons” framework (Sharpe, 2015).
The examples I am referring to is “Social Business” (Yunus, 2011)

Yet, even though, initially, I received the Three Horizons framework with open arms, I am
also keen on examples of “shock change” (it doesn’t seem to be a thing but a close one
could be “shock therapy”? (Murrell, 1993)).

2. SECOND-PERSON INQUIRY INTO BUSINESS & CHANGE

As might have been obvious in the last 2 papers and the additional piece of work from Year
1, I have been trying to strictly follow AR cycles using guidance from Coghlan & Brannick
(2014), for example. The 1st step of this cycle that I used involved naming the general
objective which is: I want to consider the effectiveness of new ways of doing business and
bringing about change and whether and how they could possibly be replicated. I also
wanted to explore a potentially different approach to change, besides gradual change.

With regards to the 2nd step in the AR Cycle, the “plan” was 2-fold, both of them were
pursued in light of a framework such as “Three Horizons” (Sharpe, 2015):

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Hisham El Sherbini Unit 7 Paper

1) Critique Social Business

2) Co-inquire with a group of people about gradual and traditional vs other means of
change

3. PART 1 OF THE PLAN – WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM YUNUS’ SOCIAL BUSINESS ENDEAVOUR?

In 2006, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen
Bank ‘for their efforts to create economic and social development from below’ (Nobel
Media, 2014a).

Yunus has been a professor of Economics since 1972 at the University of Chittagong. When
Bangladesh suffered a famine in 1974, Yunus wanted to do more than just teaching so he
decided to give long-term loans to people who wanted to start their own small enterprises.
This initiative led to the establishment of Grameen Bank in 1983 with the mission to ‘grant
poor people small loans on easy terms - so-called micro-credit’ (Nobel Media, 2014b).

Yunus has attempted to address many issues in society including, not just poverty but,
Women Empowerment, a cause that typically appeals to the Left, I personally very much
believe in and would be proud to associate with. Perhaps it’s not surprising that 97% of
Grameen Bank’s small loans were going to poor women. I genuinely agree with his 5 reasons
for that: Women make better use of small loans than men, Women have a better track
record when it comes to repayment, Women are a huge untapped labor pool, Women have
the right to access capital and Women who receive loans adopt healthier lifestyles and are
empowered (Esty, 2014).

Yunus’ work also appealed to the Neoliberalists as they saw this as a way of redistributing
wealth from the poor to the rich based on the basic principle of “credit” that Grameen Bank
employed (Chavan, 2011).

Etsy (2011) compiled the lessons learned in ‘Leading Long-term Change’:

1. Set forth an inspiring vision and stick with it.

2. Innovate. Challenge the prevailing wisdom.

3. Build a team that owns the dream.

4. Communicate. Relentlessly communicate within and beyond the organization.

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5. Be Flexible. Change strategies, goals, and tactics as needed.

6. Be patient and persevere. Sometimes you have to wait.

7. Embed your values into the organizational culture.

8. Brand yourself and your organization.

I found parallels with the Three Horizons framework in terms of his entrepreneurial take on
Capitalism which could align with the 2nd horizon while still aiming at visionary changes,
typical of the 3rd horizon.

Figure 1 - Three Horizons Framework

(Sharpe, 2015)

At the same time, I was struggling to see how Yunus’ work was “Transformative” since, as
Sharpe (2015) suggested, ‘Transformative innovation is change with requires re-patterning
of our collective lives rather than an extension of the current pattern”. He brought
Capitalism to the poor, he branded it as a “New Kind of Capitalism” (Yunus, 2011) but is it?
And, if it is, is it any better? I often argued, starting from my first paper whether Capitalism
is sustainable in its current form, whether it’s sustainable in any other form or whether it
totally is not!

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Hisham El Sherbini Unit 7 Paper

Unsurprisingly, Yunus, Grameen Bank and the whole Microcredit endeavour did not escape
criticism. A lot of research has challenged the effectiveness of Microcredit. Roodman (2012),
for example, argued that, although small loans caused more families to start micro-
businesses in Hyderabad, India, the data tracked over 12 to 18 months revealed no change
in bottom-line indicators of poverty, such as household spending and whether children were
attending school. Karim (2008) found that ‘although the majority of loans were made to
women, they were often acting as collecting agents for their husbands. Women had to
accept responsibility for repaying the loans that men had spent’ and she argued that
Microcredit did not have a positive impact on gender relationships. In addition, Grameen
Bank typically charge a 20% Interest, which is high in itself (just the mention of the word
“interest” angers me!). In other parts of the world, interest rates can go up as high as 70%
(Korten, 2011). Just absurd! How can that alleviate poverty? When the main cause of
poverty is debt?! I do appreciate that the Grameen Bank’s model could have been hijacked
by investors who wanted to maximise financial returns but, still, interest enslaves, all the
time, every time! Korten (2011) indeed warned that ‘the transformation of microcredit
institutions from a model that serves communities to a model that is sucking blood from the
poor in the name of poverty alleviation’, a statement that was echoed by Bangladesh’s
Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina (Barth, 2011) (not that I am a fan; she’s, arguably, drowning
in corruption, misrule, and indifference towards the Rohingya crisis).

4. PART 2 OF THE PLAN – GRADUAL VS SHOCK CHANGE

In actioning the second part of the plan, which is the 3rd step, I explicitly used Torbert’s Four
Types of Speech to ‘provide a simple and useful framework for analysing the case’ (Reason
& Bradbury, 2008) as follows:

1. Framing: At the beginning of the conversation, I brought up and described the

traditional way of bringing about change which is gradual over a period of time.
2. Advocating: I raised with them my concern about the effectiveness of such an approach
when “time” is also leveraged by the “other side” to bring about their agenda.
3. Illustrating: I shared examples of “delayed justice”. One example was the genocides of
Bosnia which was over 20 years ago and only bringing some of those responsible for the
atrocities to the ICJ (International Court of Justice), only in the last few years and

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without even a decisive verdict that gives people justice. Oh, and one of them
committed suicide to avoid a 20 years’ sentence (Bowcott, 2017).
4. Inquiring: I encouraged the participants to challenge my views and introduce theirs in
terms of options for change and effectiveness of each one especially in light of current
issues and challenges.

The outcome of this cycle, the 4th step, was remarkable! The very first person I inquired with
immediately, as if they were waiting of this opportunity to open up, burst out saying ‘I used
to believe in gradual change but cannot see it helping anymore and that the world is
heading to a really big bad thing’. She could see us heading rapidly towards the edge of a
cliff. Having said that, she didn’t lose her hope and managed to bring up such a fascinating
example of a “shock change” that no mainstream media would ever report as “news”, let
alone “Breaking News”. It was a peaceful revolution, by all means, against the system –
against corruption, capitalistic establishments and right-wing racist bigots. It was the
Icelandic Revolution (Martino, 2013). ‘During the financial turmoil of 2008 and 2009, the
people of Iceland forced their government and banks to resign’. Bankers were jailed not
bailed! An assembly was chosen to write a new constitution. It was made of 25 citizens, with
no pollical affiliation. They employed new means of selecting their leaders – they just need
to be and Adult and have over 30 people supporting them. In the Parliamentary elections of
2016, Iceland's four main parties which have usually enjoyed 90 percent of the vote
dropped to just 55 percent (Juliusson, 2016). Their current Prime Minister, Katrín
Jakobsdóttir, the chairman of the Left-Green Movement (which was not even one of the top
4 historically) is not even 42 years’ old yet (Althingi, 2017).

5. CONCLUSION, REFLECTION AND NEXT ACTIONS

Although the idea of Microcredit is not new, the first example of an organized microcredit
institution is generally attributed to Grameen Bank and his founder, Yunus (New
Internationalist, 2016). I was not expecting this but my humble inquiry into that experiment
opened yet another can of worms, so much so that I was planning to also inquire into
another example of change, the Social Labs (Hassan, 2014) but was overwhelmed with
worms. It seems that worms are commonly correlated with Capitalism (in reference to my
very first paper)!

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Hisham El Sherbini Unit 7 Paper

I feel that Yunus was sincere and genuine in attempting to alleviate poverty and address
many other societal issues. However, I keep doubting and perhaps this is another example
that Capitalism is indeed unsustainable. Also underestimating, miscalculating or failing to
understand the effect of “Politics” was a big mistake. Hasina mounted an increasingly
aggressive campaign against Yunus which culminated in his ousting from the bank in 2011.
Not only that he hasn’t been able to return up till now but he’s been branded as the
‘country’s enemy number one’ (Hall, 2013).

That takes us to the Icelandic adventure. The people of Iceland did exactly what the
“system” has always been working hard for us not to do – unite! It continuously divided us
in order to conquer us. Politicians in the UK, for example, continuously divided the society
between hard workers and lazy people so that the hard workers would look with anger,
disgust and blame on the so-called “lazy people” who could possibly be receiving benefits
and not working. By doing that, we get occupied with our infighting and we don’t hold the
state accountable for what we are all going through. So, the trick is in “Unity”. I recall,
during the atrocities that Aleppo was experiencing, I told a fellow AMSR team colleague
that, if we all go to the streets right now, the fighting will stop on the spot!

If we would learn anything from the Icelandic experiment, it would be that ‘things can
change quite dramatically in a very short period of time’ (Juliusson, 2016). We just need to
take that “illusion” that it’s impossible out of our heads, an “illusion” that everyone keeps
trying to convince us with. If we unite, take a stand and refuse to back off, change can
happen immediately!

That does not mean that, in some situations, where time could be a factor, the Three
Horizons framework (Sharpe, 2015) can indeed help us work through, what is usually, tough
conversations within an organisation or a system. It can help us ‘connect our ‘today’ with
‘possibilities’ in the future’ (Hobcraft, 2015). I used to be at peace with embracing a future
with many uncertainties and I enjoyed that feeling.

In reflection, I felt so satisfied with the Icelandic experience, shock changes can happen. I
am conscious that other examples of policy making by using the shock therapy process had
failed (eg the transition process in Russia and Eastern Europe) (Murrell, 1993; Marangos,
2004). My next action would then be to deeply understand the context, how it worked, and
how it could possibly be replicated. I immediately started communicating with members of
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the Left-Green party in Iceland and will also pursue connections with the other
revolutionary parties that were part of the new coalition such as Independence and Pirates
parties. At the same time, another participant in my inquiry highlighted how a similar
attempt did not fly in Portugal which got me also quite interested in inquiring into failed
attempts (not just apparently successful ones).

Nevertheless, my excitement about the Three Horizons framework did not recede and I am
keen, as I have mentioned in my Project Scope and Feasibility Papers, to employ it in helping
to bring change within the context of my research. I can also see myself bringing deeper
inquiry into the Microcredit experiment into my project. We cannot really let the worms
wonder freely now and take control, can we?!

6. REFERENCES

Althingi. (2017). Katrín Jakobsdóttir. Retrieved 15 January, 2018 from

https://www.althingi.is/altext/cv/en/?nfaerslunr=109

Barth, C. (2011). Fired Nobel Peace Prize Winner Loses Court Appeal Despite Elite Support.
Retrieved 19 January, 2018 from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/03/08/fired-nobel-peace-prize-winner-
loses-court-appeal-despite-elite-support/#7a869da91e0a

Bowcott, O. (2017). Bosnian Croat war criminal dies after taking poison in UN. Retrieved 15
January, 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/nov/29/un-war-crimes-
defendant-claims-to-drink-poison-at-trial-in-hague-slobodan-praljak

Burke, J. (2011). Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus ousted from Bangladesh people's
bank. Retrieved 19 January, 2018 from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/02/muhammad-yunus-grameen-bank

Chavan, P. (2011). Microfinance under Neoliberalism. Journal, 1(2), 227-236.

Coghlan, D., & Brannick, T. (2014). Doing action research in your own organization. Sage.

Esty, K. (2011). Lessons from Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. OD Pract, 43(1), 24-
28.

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Esty, K. (2014). 5 Reasons Why Muhammad Yunus Focuses on Lending to Women. Retreived
19 January, 2018 from https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2014/01/5-Reasons-Why-
Muhammad-Yunus-Focuses-on-Lending-to-Women#.WmJCo6hl9PY

Hassan, Z. (2014). The social labs revolution: A new approach to solving our most complex
challenges. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Hall, R. (2013). 'What did I do wrong?': Why the banker who helped millions of Bangladeshis
out of poverty became his country’s enemy number one. Retrieved 19 January, 2019 from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/what-did-i-do-wrong-why-the-banker-
who-helped-millions-of-bangladeshis-out-of-poverty-became-his-8899838.html

Hobcraft, P. (2015). Using the Three Horizons Framework for Innovation. Retrieved 15
January, 2017 from https://blog.hypeinnovation.com/using-the-three-horizons-framework-
for-innovation

Juliusson, T.S. (2016). Iceland's not-so-quiet revolution. Retrieved 15 January, 2018 from
https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/135666

Korten, D. (2011). Microcredit: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Retrieved 19 January, 2018
from http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/microcredit-the-good-the-bad-and-
the-ugly

Marangos, J. (2004). Was shock therapy consistent with democracy?. Review of Social
Economy, 62(2), 221-243.

Martino, J. (2013). Why did the media keep the recent peaceful Icelandic revolution quiet?
Retrieved 15 January, 2018 from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/01/11/why-
did-media-keep-the-recent-peaceful-icelandic-revolution-quiet/

Murrell, P. (1993). What is shock therapy? What did it do in Poland and Russia?. Post-Soviet
Affairs, 9(2), 111-140.

New Internationalist. (2016). Microcredit and Grameen Bank. Retrieved 19 January, 2018
from https://newint.org/books/reference/world-development/case-studies/poverty-
microcredit-grameen-bank/

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Nobel Media. (2014a). The Nobel Peace Prize 2006. Retrieved 19, January 2018 from
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006

Nobel Media. (2014b). Muhammad Yunus - Facts. Retrieved 19 January, 2018 from
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-facts.html

Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2008). Sage Handbook of Action Research: Participative inquiry
and practice. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications.

Roodman, D. (2012) Microcredit doesn’t end poverty, despite all the hype. Retrieved 19
January, 2018 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/microcredit-doesnt-end-
poverty-despite-all-the-hype/2012/01/20/gIQAtrfqzR_story.html

Sharpe, B. (2015). Three Horizons: the patterning of hope. Journal of Holistic

Healthcare, 12(1)

Yunus, M. (2011). Building social business: The new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's
most pressing needs. Public Affairs.

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