So... I'll try to keep this post somewhat short... ok, not short, but shorter than it could be, because there are a lot of thoughts running circles in my head after the Ideation conference. Each or some of these topics may get expanded into additional posts. I learned a lot, but in a lot of ways the conference served to make a lot of the ideas I had more concrete, backed up with more evidence, and more people thinking about things in ways that build my ideas.
The format was pretty cool - a day of intensives (I went to one on Collaboration and the main focus was on Chicago!) In any given day there'd be 2-3 sessions of workshops and 2 Big sessions. The big sessions primarily had 15 minute sessions where you heard a lot of ideas and the presenters tended to be hosting workshops later in the day - so if you were "double booked" for a workshop, you still got to hear at least a snippet of the presenter, which was very cool. And everyone was SO accessible - you'd see the presenters in other sessions, and they were very available to talk to - the conference was about 250 people. Awesome.
22 Hacks from Ideation12
If you don't want to read my words, but want to read someone else's, this is a
good succinct summary of the conference takeaways.
Doing Well at Doing Good
One of the biggest thoughts that kept bouncing around was that so few non-profits know if they're doing well at doing good. There's a distinct lack of measurements, KPIs, and metrics. In a for-profit world - it's easy to talk about ROIs - what value comes out of a $10 investment, what's the return? This doesn't happen enough in the non-profit world. Further conversation needed with Eric Stowe of
A Child's Right.
Transparency
Also from A Child's Right - talking about transparency. When their website shows children served, that's the most accurate as close to real time information as possible - when a well is not actively providing clean water, those children impacted come out of the number served. When a water treatment solution gets taken over by the gov't (good, sustainable) those numbers of children served get taken out. Ultimately, the goal of a non-profit is to put itself out of business (to end the need for help towards the cause because the mission has been completed). I don't think enough non-profits think this way. Lots of non-profits start because someone has a big heart for a valuable cause. In a lot of cases those with big hearts aren't or haven't been prepared to be system thinkers. Which makes the need for partnerships even more important.
Talking about Failure
The most successful entrepreneurs talk about their failures outright - they talk about why and how they screwed up and what they learned from it. Because learning is big. You won't make the same mistake again if you can talk about why you failed and how to avoid it in the future. And so many non-profits hide their failure (and I would posit, make the same mistakes again). Owning up to your failure and talking about it shows... personal transparency, maybe. It makes you more human. It makes you more trustworthy (especially as a leader). No one wants to follow someone superhuman.
Heck, talking about issues
One of the big takeaways I had from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computer was that people just needed to start talking about women in technology and the challenges that women face. The first step to addressing a problem is talking about it, and recognizing it. Towards the end of the ideation conference the last 3 speakers were amazing, and were all women. One of the speakers brought up that being a leading woman gets to be difficult, because there's a lacking community of other leading ladies to join. It was interesting because in the first two days I was actually thinking that discussion of women leading orgs was missing (but in a sneaking back of the brain kind of way) - and then there it was!
Social Entrepreneurship vs Entrepreneurship
In 5 years, there won't be a difference - every good venture will have a social cause at the back of it. Because that's what the consumers will want and how they will make their decisions.
I do think this is one of the things that will carry more women in to leadership positions as those with heart find a way to make their passions and their causes profitable.
Chicago as the center of Social Entrepreneurship
There have been several articles about how Chicago will never rival for Silicon Valley for something that boils down to "difference in work ethic". But I think Chicago will thrive in the world of Social Entrepreneurship because of the midwestern values. This was the closing thought from Patty from Groupon for Good, and it rocked the conference.
Reciprocality of Discussion, Openness
Some of the best discussions I had involved going up to the speakers in total "fan girl" mode - just being so impressed with the speaker that I needed to talk to them. And somehow those discussions ended up being the ones where I felt that I was also contributing something. The speakers had questions or asks of me that totally changed the conversation. Very cool.
Humor
In a lot of cases, non profits and social impact
organizations deal with really serious issues. It's hard to be serious
all the time - it just gets you down. The easiest way of dealing with
that? Humor. Also, when you make people laugh, you have them in your
hand, you have power over them. Especially if you can get them laughing
about serious things. (Check out
Ben Morrison and his personal experience with Chrone's Disease).
Personal Development
For now, I'll leave this at "this is a reminder to myself to write about my personal experience in more depth". Sorry.
Innovation in Non Profits
Read the above. This is a longer post.
Awesome People and Orgs:
I met so many amazing people working at amazing organizations and changing the world around them. So. Awesome.
And I ended the conference out seeing
Ben Morrison do standup and then drinking with fellow conference goers until 1:30 am. Watching someone lick someone's face and then say "It was an In Kind donation"- Yeah, it was a good conference.
