Kriss Deiglmeier
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Passions and Voice

Get to Know Kriss

 

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Kriss Deiglmeier is a dynamic board director, CEO, and thought leader who drives growth and innovation. Known for her strategic leadership and transformative approach, she has served on numerous boards, helping them evolve by recruiting new members, restructuring committees, and improving governance practices. Her extensive experience spans both public and private sectors, with a particular focus on delivering value across industries and geographies.

An avid traveler, Kriss's passion for adventure and love of learning has shaped her belief system and fueled her commitment to positively impacting the world. Her diverse personal and professional experiences inspire her to create a better future for everyone’s family, friends, and communities. 

fun facts

  • Kriss believes you grow when you “repot” yourself. She has worked in the corporate, philanthropy, nonprofit, social enterprise, and academic sectors. 

  • She has backpacked around the world and visited more than 50 countries and counting.

  • Kriss has presented nationally and internationally on, social innovation, stakeholder economy, ESG,  responsible AI, design thinking, and impact investing. 

  • Each year, she picks a “word for the year” and strives to live by it — believing firmly in keeping things simple.

  • Kriss’s core beliefs include:  “Learn something new every day” and “Be adventurous. Be afraid.”

  • She loves walking meetings and agrees with Nilofer Merchant that “sitting is the smoking of our generation.” 

  • She prefers research articles over what seems like an infinite number of “blogs” 

  • She co-authored the most cited article on social innovation, Rediscovering Social Innovation—with over 3,200 citations. 

  • Her family, friends, and colleagues bring her joy and keep her going. 

 

Social Media –– Revolutionary Movement or Enabler of “Slacktivism”?

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Many of us enjoy a good debate, and there’s an important one playing out on our doorstep. Some people say we’re in the midst of a revolution where the new tools of social media are reinventing social activism in vital ways. Others say that social media is a fad that does little more than enable “slacktivism”—that is, engaging in activities (mostly mouse-clicking) that make you feel like you’re doing good but actually amount to very little real change.

Where do you stand?

On one end of the spectrum are Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith, whose new book The Dragonfly Effect is a compelling testament to “the power of the new social media to do something that really matters.” The book is full of real, concrete examples where the power of social media led to changes—like 24,611 South Asians being added to the National Marrow Donor Program in 11 weeks, or $30 million in donations to worthy causes being generated through MyBarakObama.com. I attended the book launch recently and came away motivated to act.

On the other end is Malcolm Gladwell, whose recent New Yorker article argues that to take on powerful, organized establishments—as was the aim of the civil rights movement—you need hierarchical organizations, not merely “networks.” And he also makes the distinction that for people to mobilize when risks are high, it is necessary to be connected through strong ties. The instruments of social media are suited merely to making the existing social order more efficient, not to overhauling the status quo, he claims. His comments gave me pause.

How do we reconcile such different views? I suggest we focus not on debating, but on asking how we can leverage social media as a tool that truly contributes to ugly and difficult social problems over time. First and foremost, let’s not forget social change is slow, hard, complex, and, in many cases, risky. In contrast, social media is fast, easy, efficient, and not risky. Therefore, how can social media be designed to support our tenacity and patience with long-term issues? How can it be leveraged to contribute depth and understanding to our causes? I don’t think we have the answers to these questions . . . yet.

I leave you with one last example of how social media is particularly good at inspiring the unexpected. When the Center for Social Innovation created a podcast series featuring talks by a thought leader, we relinquished control over how that intellectual capital would be used. Miles away, a young academic was listening and decided to create the first ever social entrepreneurship program at a Chilean University. Unbeknown to us, the social enterprise revolution was about to start in Chile. By using social media, the Center magnified the impact of Stanford’s intellectual assets.

So in closing, is social media. . .

. . . a revolution? Not likely.

. . . a valuable tool? Most definitely.

. . . an opportunity to make a difference in the world? You decide.

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