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May 24, 2011 | The first time Paul Bloom tried to complete a triathlon, he wasn’t prepared. He didn’t have a wet suit. He didn’t have a good bicycle. He didn’t know how to pace himself. He dropped out.

Many social entrepreneurs, he said, make the same mistake when they try to scale -- or expand and increase the impact -- of their organization.

“Everybody seems to be trying to [scale], but the success stories are limited. So a lot of people are making mistakes,” said Bloom, faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and an adjunct professor of social entrepreneurship and marketing at Duke University.

“You have to be prepared. You have to have starting resources in terms of human, financial, social, political and technological capital,” he said. “If you’re really weak on most of those starting resources, then you shouldn’t even try to scale because you just don’t have the resources necessary to do it.”

Bloom, who has gone on to complete hundreds of triathlons and run 16 marathons, researches the best way to scale social entrepreneurial organizations. He co-edited the 2010 book, “Scaling Social Impact: New Thinking”, a collection of original papers written by various scholars about scaling successfully.

Bloom spoke to Faith & Leadership about what he has learned about how to scale social entrepreneurial organizations, the capabilities that social entrepreneurs need to scale, and the difference between scaling an organization and scaling for impact. The following is an edited transcript.

Q: What does it take to scale successfully?

I’m a triathlete, and I liken scaling to preparing for a triathlon or a marathon. The first time I tried a triathlon I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t have the resources or the capability, and I didn’t have all the equipment I needed to compete as a triathlete. I didn’t have a wet suit; I didn’t have a good bike; I didn’t know how to swim with a whole bunch of other people swimming in the water around me; I didn’t know how to deal with steep hills or sharp turns on a bike course; and I didn’t know how to pace myself and eat food while competing. In order to scale a challenge like that, whether it’s a triathlon or a marathon, you really need to be prepared.

The same applies to organizations looking to scale: You have to be prepared. You have to have starting resources in terms of human, financial, social, political and technological capital. If you’re really weak on most of those starting resources, then you shouldn’t even try to scale because you just don’t have the resources necessary to do it.

The other thing that matters is your theory of change.

Q: What do you mean by theory of change?

Your theory of change may dictate what is most important for driving your success. What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to disseminate an idea or an approach to doing something or to change a behavior or a recommended change in behavior?

If you’re not all about changing laws and regulations or you’re not all about labor-intensive services as part of your theory of change, then the drivers of staffing and lobbying may not be very important for you to be successful at scaling or having impact.

If you want to persuade people to change their behavior -- like they shouldn’t smoke, drink or abuse their spouses -- that can be labor-intensive, but it also requires very strong capability in communicating. You’ve got to be able to develop messages and campaigns in order to persuade people that they should behave differently.

If you think you’re going to accomplish social change by providing some very innovative but very labor-intensive service to people, then that means you’ve got to worry about your staffing capability more.

Q: You mentioned the capabilities of communicating, lobbying and staffing. What are all the capabilities that organizations need to scale?

You need organizational capabilities in the seven areas defined [in the book “Scaling Social Impact”] as SCALERS: staffing, communicating, alliance building, lobbying, earnings generation, replicating and stimulating market forces.

“Communicating” and “alliance building” are self-explanatory. This term “staffing” is broader than just how do you find your staff. It basically has to do with your human resources and how well you perform in attracting and retaining important people to deliver your products or services, to manage your organization, to volunteer for them, or to sit on your board or advisory group.

“Lobbying” is broader than just lobbying. It has to do with advocacy and trying to persuade governments and public policymakers to support what you’re doing either financially or with new laws and regulations that could benefit you.

“Earnings generation” does not just mean earned income activities. It means being good at your business model and developing various sources of revenue that exceed your expenses.

“Replicating” can mean a lot of things having to do with delivering on your theory of change in new settings or with new populations. That can involve a whole range of approaches from franchising and consignment to growing your organization with new offices, branches or even affiliates.