Last week I was part of a team of bloggers at the Skoll World Forum and, in addition to the opening plenary piece, I was able to document a few more sessions.

Empathy: On the last day of the forum, I attended a session on Empathy by Bill Drayton of Ashoka and Mary Gordon of Roots of Empathy. Check out the summary if you are interested!

Closing Plenary: I wrote a quick recap of the closing plenary along with a list of the summary points by Stephan Chambers.

You might also want to check out the discussion/debate on the Focus on How video/blog from a few weeks ago. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue of donors fueling the WHY’s of NGOs and if/how this could be altered to inspire higher impact investments in development work.

I’m in Colombia for the next few weeks visiting a talented friend, Maria Perez, who has done design work for PEPY for many years. I look forward reconnecting when I am back but for those in Cambodia, Happy Khmer New Year!

I am at the Skoll World Forum this week and each of us are assigned to blog certain sessions. I thought blogging would be easy, having already done quite a bit of it, but getting a post out within an hour of the sessions is hard (and for this first attempt, I failed!). Anyway, here is the first of three #SkollWF blogs – this one from the Opening Plenary!

Enjoy!

http://skollworldforum.org/2012/03/28/top-6-take-aways-from-the-skoll-world-forum-opening-plenary/

PS – I love Hans Rosling!

Both “participatory development” and “design thinking” theories advocate for project planning to start with the needs of the end-user. It’s interesting to me that both concepts illustrate pretty much the same intuitive process, yet the naming of both makes them seem less broadly applicable. I guess maybe that’s because “Successful impact-for-the-end-user-focused-planning” is a much less sexy name!

I had dinner last night with a fabulous crew of Rhodes Scholars who are studying everything from love to girls education in Pakistan. In addition to learning about Heidegger, I learned more about the work some of them do with an Oxford based NGO which supports programs in southern Africa. Part of their role is helping to vet project proposals.

They mentioned that when a project was proposed to them they weren’t able to tell if the proposer had considered other alternatives as the only material available to them was their current hypothesis for success. Here is a little brainstormed list of some questions that they could put on their application form to both check for and encourage “design thinking/participatory” planning.  I’d love YOUR thoughts on what questions they could add or what things you would change!

Potential questions to ask in a project proposal application form to check for an end-user impact focus:

a)    What is the goal you are working towards?

b)   What alternative actions/plans have you tried or considered outside of the proposed project which you have rejected and why?

c)    Who are the stakeholders in your proposed project, how do you know/relate to them, and how have their needs/opinions shaped your project proposal?

d)   What is your proposed project?

e)    How can you measure success towards your goal through this project?

f)     What are some potential barriers to success for this project?

g)    Can you already anticipate some ways you might need to alter your given plan if your hypothesis is unsuccessful? What might some of those ways be?

We had previously been discussing the importance of NGOs marrying themselves to an impact goal rather than the hypothesis for success which is their “plan”. This is probably the same for a novelist, an entrepreneur, a parent….. all of us. We sometimes “think” we know how to reach a goal, and we continue down the path of trying to prove that plan correct until sometimes we reach the point of failure. We were discussing how it is important to flush out many possible paths to a goal before deciding which hypothesis to consider and then how important it is to be able to notice the signs of failure fast so that you can iterate and adjust quickly towards reaching a goal. If impact “success” is the goal, it might be achieved in this manor though the executed plan will likely look very different than the original proposal.

First off, do you believe that this type of thinking is important or not, and if so why?

And second, what questions would you add/change/remove from the list above to encourage and understand this thinking?

Hope to hear your thoughts!

Steve Jobs reminding us to be “unreasonable”.

“Here’s to the crazy ones.. the round pegs in the square holes… they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

Yesterday I started my journey from Cambodia to Oxford (via family home in NY) and I made a little video and goodbye note for the PEPY site. I thought I would re-post it here (as I sit in transit for a few more hours waiting for my final flight!)

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Today is my last day in Cambodia, at least for the time being, and I wanted to send out a THANK YOU and a GOODBYE and some LOVE to all of you for helping to create a better PEPY and a better me over the last six years. THANK YOU! I have learned SO much from working with, studying from, and following along with all of you. I already listed “20 Lessons I Learned at PEPY” but there are waaaaay more than 20. Every day I think of another – another thing I learned from one of you that has shaped this organization and will shape how I continue to live in the future.

One major lesson I have learned is that my life is better, and I am better, with PEPY in it. So, I might be heading across the world to study for a bit, but I am not “leaving” PEPY. I will still be a big supporter of this team and this work for a LONG time to come, and I hope you will be too. Check out this video to learn about a change in PEPY’s name (gasp!) and learn more about how you can join the PEPY Sustainers.

It’s not just our acronym that is changing. There have recently been and will continue to be a lot of changes at PEPY, and in this time of transition, we need the support from those of you who have built this family more than ever. We recently had a strategic planning retreat for our managers, board members, and outside consultants who all spent a week thinking REALLY hard about what PEPY’s best impacts could be in the future and what we needed to go do get there. (Read the next newsletter thoroughly for more updates, including a video from our recent planning retreat!). I am SO excited about the ideas this team put together, and I am now even more excited about our future impact than before (those of you who know me might think me having MORE passion for PEPY is impossible – but you are wrong – I do!) Take a sneak peek at our Core Values list if you want to know why I love this team so much!

I am committing to this team that I will make sure they have the support they need to reach our future goals… and I will need your help and commitment in this area as well. We’re looking to build up a team of PEPY Sustainers who are able to commit to being part of this in the long term on an ongoing basis. If you can commit to monthly funding, like $10 per month, GREAT! But it does not need to be through funding that you support us, as you know! There are always a LOT of things we need help with, such as graphic design, board membership, local events and awareness raising, and spreading the word about the educational & philanthropy travel options with PEPY Tours, etc. (For our board, we are specifically looking to replace two board positions of board members who are soon to finish up their tenure with us. We are in need of a treasurer – someone who can help oversee and monitor the monthly financial reports our CFO sends out, and also a board member to help us address governance and legal issues. Spread the word or let us know if you are interested in taking on a bigger role with PEPY!)

So, as you can see, there are many ways to help us sustain PEPY into the future. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see a large number of us who have contributed to and been shaped by our experiences in Cambodia continue to commit to supporting PEPY’s growth in the future.

Come visit me in Oxford if you come through the UK in the next 12 months, or better yet, come visit this amazing team in Cambodia (I know I will be!). If you want to connect to our Cambodian team, reach out to Anna McKeon who recently became our Communications Manager and is one of two foreign staff among our 47 Cambodian staff at PEPY (+ 2 foreign interns who are committing their time to help us grow!) So, drop her a note if you want to give her a high five (she put together this fun video!), offer support, or just check in on how the PEPY team is doing. You can reach her at: contact@pepyride.org

THANK YOU for being a part of the last six years and helping to create an organization I am proud to be associated with. Watch this goodbye video and check out our PEPY Sustainers page if you are interested in joining me in my commitment to make sure PEPY continues, whether we are in Cambodia, or far away. I hope to see you all soon, and am grateful that you are part of this stone soup at PEPY which continues to get tastier each year.

So much love & thanks,
Daniela

In many parts of Asia, it’s rude to brag about your kids. Actually, in Cambodia, you can’t even brag about other people’s kids, especially when they are small, as bad spirits might take them away for being too fabulous.  But moms…. can you brag about your mom? I guess, with countries that respect age hierarchies, I’d have to ask my mom if I could brag about her…. but she’d say no. (Actually, when she knew that I saw this article online she threatened to kill me if I wrote any form of cheesy comment on the comment chain.)

So, out of respect for my elders, and fear for my life, I will refrain from commenting on the site. Instead, I will post the link here.

Here’s an article about my mom, who just retired. She rocks, no matter if I am allowed to say it or not!

http://www.newcastlenow.org/index.php/article/new_a_tribute_to_mrs._pat_papi_first_grade_teacher_extraordinaire_retiring

When it comes to “investing time in people”, there is no better way to do that than as an educator, and my mom continues to model that for me, and so many others. If every person just invested in their own kids, and a few others around them, with as much love and time as she does with each student, we’d all believe we could be anything great in the world and then go out and do that….  So, go tell a kid you think they are BRILLIANT today (maybe no need to remind little girls that they are beautiful) – and help them open up to their own possibility of greatness!

Sorry for the delay in getting this up! I spent last week on a camping training trip with one of our partner organizations and some of our PEPY staff and then the last few days feeling sick and trying to get better!  So, better later than never we hope, we are some notes which were put together by some of us who attended the June 11th “Investing Time in People” meeting in San Francisco.  This first meeting was very ad hoc and one of the main lessons I personally took out of it is that it would have been great to have a variety of speakers/panels to add to our workshop-ing, which is something I am sure we will look into for future meetings.  In the meantime, read up, and please comment on if/how you’d like to see/be a part of furthering/improving this conversation in the future!
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Investing Time in People: Summarizing the First Meeting

On June 11^th, a group of us gathered in San Francisco for a meeting we entitled “Investing Time in People” (ITP). Here is the introduction slideshow used to open up the day:

We came with separate but united interests in seeing sector-wide pattern changes and growth in these two areas:

Organizations that ‘invest time in people’. Our beliefs hold that the best development work takes a flexible, adaptive, patient approach and devotes a substantial amount of human energy to the problem at hand. To change attitudes and actions and reach the global goals we have for the world takes more than things. For examples: Schools don’t teach kids. People do.

To achieve changes in attitudes and actions like fostering a culture of literacy, improving teacher and student attendance, or helping students gain more viable skills for future employment takes more than a focus on buildings and books. We believe in supporting models with a larger focus of “investing time in people” to put those things to use such as teacher training, leadership training for teachers and school directors, developing great curriculum, involving parents in the formal education of their children, establishing after school specialized learning programs, and of course working with the local government and communities to be the leaders in this change.

Many popular charity models focus on “giving things away”. For example, with water organizations, there are a number of groups focused on giving away expensive wells and pumps. This can create a lack of ownership, and the fact that deep-well parts are expensive often leaves them abandoned after they break. An ITP approach would be one supporting the development of affordable and locally sourced pumps and filtration options or one that invests time in helping people to acquire the skills needed to create well repair businesses. These type of model help ensure that even if the wells do break, there are local resources on hand to fix them right away.

We want to see more support for solutions that choose long-term approaches to sustainability. Financial sustainability is an easy concept to grasp. We also believe that long-term sustainability can be achieved when we help people acquire the skills, networks, systems and inspiration to create their own successful paths towards their goals.

Donors that funnel their resources to these types of high impact organizations. Recognizing that development work can cause more harm than good when not implemented properly, the meeting aimed to discuss how donors can be educated about effective development work, and what to look for when they make their donations. We don’t think the issue is as much about expanding the pie as it is about reallocating the already existing good intentions towards higher impact programs. (For more on this, see our “Why rating systems are probably not the answer” post coming out in the next few days!)

Our task was ambiguous and large-scale: defining the problem and exploring some ideas for how to make this philosophy a mainstream discussion and how to turn an idea into ACTION.

One of our main goals was to change the cocktail party conversation around international development work from:

Current conversation:

A: “I funded a school in Cambodia. See, here is a picture of it with my name on it!”

B: Oh, that’s nice. Maybe I should do that too!

to

Future goal:

A: “I am part of an organization that is committed to improving ABC situation. We do that by supporting to are leadership and all those who are also among those in ABC situation with the skills, resources, models, and supportive energy needed to help them reach their goals. Or goal is to help them achieve their XYZ goal in the changes of attitudes and actions* of people and we’re committed to monitoring and evaluating our impact as we test systems of reaching those goals.  *(aka X% improvement in literacy rates rather than  X # of books given away)

B: Oh, that’s nice. Maybe I should do that too!

Or

A: “I funded a school in Cambodia. See, here is a picture of it with my name on it!”

B: Ohhhh……. Ummm…… well, did you invest in people as well? How are you catalyzing improvements in the quality of education offered as opposed to just providing a place for people to gather? HOW will the learning happen and be improved?”

A: Oh! You already get the “Investing Time in People” model, that’s awesome! Well, let me tell you about how the community based organization we were working with is improving education in their community…..”

We started the meeting by framing the situation and goals:

We then came up with many potential paths to getting donors and NGO workers to focus on the idea of “Investing time in people” – instead of things. Some ideas included:

• Creating an online system for publishing information on different organizations
• Using transparency as an evaluation tool through an only platform
• Creating an independent advocacy group that was privately funded
• Grassroots information sharing through small private events made up of high net worth donors and foundations
• Creating an online commitment page
• An  “I ask questions” campaign aimed at encouraging dialogue and research before giving

So what are we going to do? We’re going to take it one step at a time. For now, we will set up a simple website, have meetings with some organizations we think can further this discussion and in the coming months, we’ll meet again.

We’re also going to create a paper asking thought and movement leaders (especially those who are putting together popular conferences) to consider adding more:

• Local voices to the conversation: speakers and panelists from communities who have been impacted by foreign “aid” to reflected on what is working and what is causing harm
• Debate and discussion around METHODOLOGIES rather than organizations and forums to share these lessons learned
• Publicize the danger of ‘hero worship’ in development work and encourage more focus on successful models so that social movements move beyond the cult of the personality
• Focus on highlighting market based solutions and capacity building initiatives

Our first goal is to gather a community of like-minded people and those interested in engaging in this debate and then finding how we can all add value in elevating this conversation globally. Think you’ve got a better approach or ideas to share? Then post your comments below.

In the meantime, those wanting to know more about ITP can check us out here (updates coming soon): www.investingtimeinpeople.org.