Introduction
I have been a member of a volunteer Think Tank since 2007
that is wrestling with a lot of complex issues related to exploring new methods
of delivering service through Rotary in a meaningful and sustainable manner
with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty. I recently spoke at
Kathy Stutzman at TEDxHoracePark about some of my experiences related to our work.
A statement which I wrote at the beginning of my involvement
in this was “Think Big, Stay Focused” since we were dreaming of
changing/impacting the world. Since then several sayings that have been helpful
to me are to remember also include: “You eat an elephant one bite at a time”,
and “Pick the low hanging fruit.”
I am currently in the process of writing a “Lessons Learned”
book which will describe many of the experiences and lessons that we
encountered during this process, and there are many articles and presentations
written about the work we are doing that I will reference as we go along.
The purpose of this particular series of articles is to
process and interconnect the work of the Think Tank and a class that some of us
from the group are taking from Acumen
Acumen
called “Making Sense of Social Impact: Acumen’s Building Blocks for Impact
Analysis.” There are nine of us taking the class as a cohort, each week; we get
our lessons and study materials from Acumen, work on our own to prepare for the
class doing homework and then we meet weekly for four weeks. At the end of each
lab or cohort class, we write a report and submit that report to +Acumen so
that we can receive our certificate at the end of the class.
As I was writing my report I realized that many of the
concepts and thoughts I was reflecting on and writing about relate directly to the
work that I am doing in my professional life and so will post my reports and
thoughts about Social Impact here. Enjoy, ask questions, and send feedback. I
invite vibrant discussion!
Making Sense of Social Impact Report from Lab 1
Our group is a volunteer, committed, think tank that has
been working on new models of delivering service through Rotary in a meaningful
and sustainable manner following emerging concepts and ideas resulting from the
introduction of “The End of Poverty, the UN Millennium Project and then
subsequent study, activities and research.
We know very clearly what we do not want, after seeing years
of our strategic priorities imposed upon others, “doing” project to others, and
not engaging the community on which we were focusing in the planning,
implementation and evaluation. We have seen millions of dollars thrown at
projects that made us feel good when we created them, but ultimately, were not
grounded in true sustainability. What we don’t want is often used as a baseline
to describe what we are doing although we have created a vision and goals; they
are ever evolving as we learn more and engage new partnerships complete with
new sets of lessons learned.
1.
One of the first lessons learned is to develop a
common set of definitions to describe our visions, dreams and ideas and that is
one of the goals for this class: our group will work to develop some common
definitions to better describe the breadth, depth and focus of the work in
which we are engaged and the concepts we will define include:
·
Capacity Building
·
Sustainable
And then – what are we evaluating
(evaluation measures) when looking at:
·
Breadth of Impact;
·
Scope of Impact and
·
Focus of Impact
Several aha’s from the class this week included:
2.
Each “partner/group” needs to come to the table
with their own set of goals and visions and then work together to explore and
define the intersection of those visions on which they will move forward
together. Developing a common set of goals where within the intersection does
not mean letting go of each individual set of goals, but enhances and
strengthens the partners’ goals.
3.
Each individual brings to the table their own
perspective and frame about how we are measuring success and all are important
and need to be acknowledged and captured; understanding that some successes
support the individual partners’ goals and some demonstrate successes of the
intersection.
4.
Capacity building is the foundation of
sustainability. We need to get very clear about the components of capacity
building that are driving the sustainability of the project because both
concepts are often mis-represented and mis-used.
5.
Several of the key components of capacity
building include:
·
Being detached to outcome;
·
Supporting resources, tools and skill
development for empowerment of the focus community;
·
Patience to give time and opportunities for the
focus community to learn, develop and practice new skills for empowerment and
sustainability;
·
Creating choices and opportunities in a manner
that supports dignity, and does not undermine established empowerment;
·
Developing relationships by being present;
·
Coming to agreement as a group about timelines
and evaluation measures;
·
Delivering, engaging in and creating resources,
skills and tools that can be left behind and continue after the
interventionists are gone.
6.
This is complex and difficult work and there are
no easy fixes; even listing the components implies simplicity, which would not
be accurate – each component is a study within itself.
7.
We are on the right track, there are huge
successes and extremely important lessons learned that we have captured, now
the task is sifting through the seven years of work and sharing the stories in
ways that are meaningful, replicable and sustainable.
8.
There is much left to be done. Just because we
are seven years down the road and have achieved a high level of success, this
is our time to continue to press forward and this class provides a great
foundation to do just that.
As a group we came to consensus about tabling what to “name”
ourselves. The initiative with which we have been engaged needs a more clear
identity and it is hoped that through the course of this study we will be able
to determine a name that best describes our work.
No big conclusion here, lots of work left to be done and
yet, there are many committed, talented people prepared and ready to do so –
can’t wait for next week.
Useful Group Exercise
After our lab class watched the video of Sasha Dichter
http://youtu.be/KzdrRqXswas about Acumen’s
investment model, our group was asked to share a little about what social
impact meant to us and when we had experienced/learned about it. We are a
diverse group with a broad perspective of life and educational experiences and although
we are all focused on the topic that drew us together, we each described our
first experiences of observing social impact. Interestingly, our perspectives
covered the gamut of the 3 parts of social impact; breadth, depth and focus.
From storytelling, school-based learning and the beginning
stages of volunteer engagement – all of us shared what social impact meant to
us and how we learned about it. I can’t wait to plot each of the experiences
and stories into a chart of the 3 parts and start looking at that (I am a
visual learner).
For organizations and groups that are beginning to talk
about social impact; the lives reached, jobs created, the impact on the lives
being served, and increases in well-being – a great “get-to-know-you” exercise
is to watch the Acumen video
http://youtu.be/KzdrRqXswas
, reflect and then share your experiences. This exercise helped me understand
the framework from which each participant drew upon. Of course, the best thing
you could do is to register for the class the next time it is offered, but
until then – enjoy the lessons learned of those of us who are currently
participating.
For me this contributed to the greatest ah-ha moment: an
understanding about why it is so hard to capture the impact in one or two
sentences – there are so many measures (successes) within each of the
components of social impact, that coming to a common understanding and
definition of the components of the framework and then charting those
successes within the framework – will create a broader impact understanding;
first among our group, and then the greater community.
Respectfully submitted – Kathy Stutzman, M.A., M.A.
No small task, but this group is up to the challenge. Seven years later, it is important for us to stay focused and select the variables for the matrix carefully and intentionally otherwise we will overwhelm and be overwhelmed with data and outcomes. I am pretty excited at being this close to being able to tell the story and begin replicating the model.
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