Innovative Concepts

Willing to Fail
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‘Tis the season to receive glowing reports of the numerous successes in the social sector.  The End-of-the-Year Appeal letters go to great lengths to define the impact of the cause.  Online video cards arrive in our email inbox with emotional recounting of the organization’s highlights.  It is all about feel good and reconnecting to the best an enterprise has to offer.


 Why do so few causes acknowledge the failures and the lessons learned?  Is there a fear of being authentic?  Is the appeal being sent to those who are less than committed and may want off the cruise at the first sense that the ship sailed into a storm?  Why not talk about the ‘oops’ moments.  If you are an in athletics many a failure is catalogued in real-time and the competitor is asked to explain the event immediately after the competition.  These incidents are not to be avoided.  In my experience the social sector prefers to run the highlight real constantly.  We are taught that it is our elevator pitch.  It is easy and everyone feels good.  But I wonder why we are not willing to standout and share the real story of the organization’s year.  Tell the story of the summits reached and the journey in the valley of disorientation.  As always, Seth Godin has masterfully defined the difference between a failure and mistake .  His definition provides a powerful template for future communications.  I wish you much success is telling your enterprises real story.

Mastery

Some specializations are difficult to replicate so we engage the very few who have mastered the skill.  Want to go to the moon?  Your list of vendors with those expertise is quite short.  Hoping to hold an event featuring US Presidents?  There are only a few individuals who have held the title.  These skills and achievements cannot be easily duplicated.  Therefore it is much easier to seek the services of those who have the knowledge than to try and replicate them ourselves.  What if your cause was the outright leader in an initiative?  This does not mean your enterprise is the largest, fastest, or most dominate.  It means that everyone turns to your organization to show them the way.  What if your expertise were so remarkable that how you shared them was the real gift?  Most communities have the doctor, tutor, trainer, or mechanic that people recommend as the expert when all else fails and the consequences are most significant. What do you have offer?

Saving the Dust Bunnies!
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How do you decide where to donate at the end-of-the-year?  Is it the program with greatest presence?  The one on every corner?  The cause that serves the most people?  The enterprise that sends you an appeal letter with a note from a friend?  Or, the nonprofit that provided you with a direct service?  Do you have a comparison chart to measure the impact of each organization?  What metrics do you use?

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I project that we use a hybrid approach. Some gifts come from the arm-twisting of a friend.  Others are generated because we cannot say ‘no’ to the child making a personal appeal on our doorstep.  A few enterprises are on the annual dole.  The real question might be, which causes do you give to that make you feel proud?  The ones that you want to encourage other people to join you and contribute?  The ones that believe what you believe. Notice that not everyone shares your belief, which is the beauty of philanthropy.  There are nonprofits that offer sophisticated programs to rescue dust bunnies from extinction and others that aim to put an end to poverty.  They do not need everyone, just those that deeply share their conviction.

Failing to Succeed
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One of my great joys is receiving updates from individuals and causes with whom I have partnered.  I always hearing updates on their latest adventure.  Often these get-togethers include tales of new summits climbed and being lost in valleys of disorientation.  What I treasurer is the maps that each cause creates to find their own way.  Sometimes these adventures include finding a resource that is particularly relevant to their situation.


My friend Tara founded the remarkable enterprise, Create Common Good. When we met yesterday, she recommended the book Little Bets, by Peter Sims which I immediately started reading.  Peter suggests that many of the most entrepreneurial individuals look at opportunity through the lens of what they could afford to lose and not solely by thinking about what could be gained.  He points out that even the largest enterprises that continue to maintain their entrepreneurial spirit make little bets constantly.  A pitfall for those that gain a little success is that they being to focus only on big bets.

“There’s a natural tendency to think in terms of bigger bets as you get to be bigger”

Peter’s book explores some of the most successful individuals who continue to make small bets constantly before finding one success among many failures.  Comedian Chris Rock takes to a small comedy club stage with a notepad of bits that are very much in draft form and tries little pieces of his act many times before ever stepping in front of an HBO camera.  He is their to fail repeatedly but he is looking for the few lines that produce the laughter that seems to follow him everywhere when he takes his act to the big stage.


Tara’s cause, Create Common Good has been taking little bets for more than three years in its current form.  She knew that there was an amazing opportunity to serve and incorporate individuals and families from the local refugee population into the community.  The evolution of Create Common Good’s program is remarkable but was certainly not one that could be mapped out when they started.  It was only with this trial and error approach that they found themselves with a model that is now being recruited to other towns across the nation.  It is important to recognize the donors and volunteers who were equally willing to make little bets with their contributions.   They also recognized that there was a way to develop a partnership between those who needed the most support but in many ways had the most to offer the community in return.


What type of bets are you taking?  How does your enterprise respond to success and failure?  What is the best little bet your cause has ever made?

Intern

If your enterprise is committed to a stated purpose and authentic in its actions, people will want to work with you.  They will actually line-up and offer their services.  Imagine if there was a waiting list to be a board member or volunteer for your cause.  I recently came across David’s webpage in which he outlines why he would be an ideal intern for Khan Academy.  He starts by sharing his belief and then outlines his talent.


Who is stepping-up to join your cause?  Why?

Swarm & Blast


One of the gifts of watching FC Barcelona play was the patience they showed.  Often the player who made an unselfish pass early the sequence would be rewarded with a scoring opportunity from just a few meters from the goal.  This contrasts with the soccer I played in the states.  There was a propensity for all the players to gather around the ball as if they were a swarm of bees.  Inevitably somebody would take a shot on goal from just inside the penalty area.  The chance of success where marginal and the results were often discouraging.  This contrasts to the ball-control and certainty about ones role exhibited by a professional futbol team.  Just when you thought a player must shoot, he was able to manufacture a pass that lead to a high percentage scoring chance.  The ability to honor the duties that came with playing a specific postion kept the team spread out across the offensive side of the pitch and made them so hard to defend.


I believe the same is true for all of us.  When we swarm and blast we are desperate.  However, if we stay true to our purpose the results can be electric.