Social innovation, introverts, and ideas

I’m currently exploring the idea of writing a book on social innovation and introversion. I’m reading everything I can find at the library on introversion, and see an opportunity to help introverts with fantastic ideas to share their voice in world of social innovation, which I find is so often crowded with self-promoters and media-seekers.

Susan Cain’s oft-cited TED talk on the power of introverts highlights the possibilities if all of the ideas floating around introverts’ heads are encouraged to come out into the world.

It’s not that extroverts don’t have good ideas. They do. And we hear about them.

Introverts, not so much. A balancing act needs to be struck among the importance of incubating thoughts, the ability to share well-formed ideas, and the necessity of bouncing less-than-perfect ideas with others in order to come to the best possible outcome. I don’t believe introverts need to be in the shadows of social innovation, while the extroverts present the talkative social faces of ideas. Part of the issues lies in North America’s default orientation towards extroversion; the other lies with introverts who don’t use strategies to move ideas forward.

If you know of a introverted social innovator, can recommend a resource, or have an opinion on the topic, please share!