The painful acknowledgement of coming up short
"So, what do we do next?" According to reports, that is the response Bill Gates offered upon learning that the Gates Foundation's $700 million polio effort had fallen short of stopping the disease from spreading throughout Africa. Indeed, instead of putting a once-and-for-all stop to the disease, an outbreak had struck and was spreading through some of the very countries targeted for eradication. At the moment I read his response, I felt his pain. Imagine putting up such a significant sum from the goodness of your heart, committing your time, the talent of people you admire and respect and putting yourself out there in a really big way to meet a really big challenge and then ... learning it didn't exactly work the way you'd planned for and the way you passionately hoped it would.
When I say I get this, I really get this. On a dramatically smaller scale, at the Case Foundation we've had to face our own hard moments when reality has set in and you realize that the big opportunity you were chasing is looking more like a really big challenge that is hard to overcome. Things don’t materialize as envisioned, and you fall short of your mark. It's easy to feel discouraged or even embarrassed. You can't help but worry about what people will think, or the price you might pay in the court of public opinion.
We experienced this recently, as we had to re-think our involvement in the PlayPumps initiative, which brings clean drinking water to rural African villages. When we were first introduced to the technology, we believed both the technology and the business model for its deployment had enormous potential and jumped in with both feet to help create PlayPumps International-U.S. as a US-based fundraising and marketing organization to support the initiative. As we’ve noted in the past, we’re proud of the successes the initiative has had - PlayPumps are now bringing play opportunities and improved access to safe water in hundreds of communities and schools in Africa. In addition, these efforts have helped spark a number of new play-related technologies now being offered by various organizations and the initiative has highlighted the important role that social entrepreneurship can play in global development. However, we also acknowledge that the organization has fallen short of the aggressive goals that were developed at the outset, and all involved have learned many lessons.
As I noted last fall, we learned that doing work on the ground in Africa is hard and humbling work, even more so than anticipated. We learned that PlayPumps perform best in certain community settings, such as at large primary schools, but they are not necessarily the right solution for other communities. And more broadly, we learned that however creative PlayPumps might be, they really are just one element in a larger portfolio of possible solutions that can be tailored to meet the safe water needs of specific rural communities. In addition, while there have been successes in implementing the PlayPumps technology, and we believe in the entrepreneurial approach of the PlayPumps model, a combination of factors made execution of the original model we envisioned when creating PlayPumps International-U.S. a significant challenge.
Of course, there really is only one appropriate response when things aren't humming along as planned, and it is the same response Bill Gates offered, "So, what do we do next?" Because just like in business ventures, personal undertakings and public sector initiatives, things often go wrong. The unexpected happens. Reality doesn't always play out like the business plan calls for. Look at any great business today and chances are their road to success was fraught with potholes - low moments that required fresh, new thinking and important course corrections. As a nation, I think we've learned that progress comes through trial and error, and much of what we enjoy today is because somebody somewhere was willing to blaze new ground.
In the case of PlayPumps, there were essentially three options. One was to stay the course, ignore the emerging realities, and stubbornly continue on a path that the growing evidence was suggesting was unwise. A second would be to pull the plug on the effort, and conclude that the time and capital was better invested elsewhere. And the third was to take a step back and regroup, and undertake efforts to go forward in a new and more effective way. For PlayPumps International-U.S., the third path was the right one. The belief that clean water was one of the great issues of our time hadn’t changed - but there were likely better ways to advance the initiative. In May 2009, the board of PlayPumps International-U.S. brought in a new CEO to identify a new path forward. Under his leadership, in October of last year, the organization announced a grant of funds and technology to Water For People, which now offers PlayPumps as part of a larger portfolio of solutions from which rural African communities can choose. At the same time, we announced an investment by the Case Foundation in Water For People to help the organization accelerate and expand its efforts in Africa. For nearly 20 years, Water For People has pioneered innovative approaches to safe water supply, empowering communities and utilizing local entrepreneurs for sustainable operations and maintenance, and we truly believe that their approach represents a step forward for the PlayPumps technology.
It sometimes feels like philanthropic efforts are held to a different standard than in the private or public sectors. All too often there is less tolerance for mistakes, which leads many organizations to become risk-adverse. And when mistakes are made, the tendency is to sweep them under the carpet - thus depriving the sector of important lessons learned. But in reality, the very nature of innovation requires that we try new things and take risks. Sometimes they will work, other times they won’t - but in all cases, we should learn from our experiences and strive to do even better in the future. Of course we would have liked PlayPumps to have achieved the reach and impact to date that we originally envisioned - it’s much more fun to talk about successes than disappointments. The bottom line is that hundreds of African communities now have greater access to clean water and the revised efforts working with Water for People will further improve its availability. Together with other sector efforts and replication of the concept, we do believe African communities will be better served and the interventions more sustainable because of the important course corrections we’ve put in place. Might we have to revisit the strategy again and adapt along the way? Maybe. Turns out innovating is hard work anywhere and anytime. In the developing world even more so. But if the philanthropic sector is transparent about mistakes and lessons along the way, and adapts as the situation calls for, hopefully we’ll all end up a little wiser and a little closer to solutions that can more effectively address the daunting challenges of our day.
service learning; microfinance; playpumps
I'm a first grade teacher with a personal interest/heart for microfinance. Also had a great uncle who worked for AID in what was then the Congo and grew up on his slides, letters, and stories of his agronomy and village development work there. Previously helped our students with a fundraising campaign for PlayPumps. Studying Africa this year and was interested to see the transition the project has gone through. Thank you for refreshingly honest assessment of the situation. Excited to develop new service learning project through Water for People. May the water flow! Sheryn Hodgson
- Sheryn Hodgson 24 Aug 10, 22:12Thanks for sharing what you
Thanks for sharing what you DID learn, hope Gates Foundation does the same.
First "mega-flop" was $500 million investment by Annenberg Foundation to transform public education in America.
Obviously, the project did not succeed, BUT we did learn that critical point where change can most effectively be made is at the school district level (vs. at the school or school system level).
This was a huge finding from the "failure" -- yet has gone relatively unrecognized and is therefore underutilized information.
Please continue sharing the unexpected findings from both success AND 'failures.'
Renata J. Rafferty
Author, "Smart Generosity: Everything You Need To Know About Charity, Philanthropy and Giving Wisely," Foreword by Paul Newman
http://www.SmartGenerosity.com
Twitter: @RenataRafferty
Sharing lessons is a moral imperative
Jean,
Thank you for your post. Sharing resources / tools / lessons has always been part of our nonprofit sector.
But, as you point out, often it is only the positive experiences that get shared broadly. The harder (and arguably more important) lessons are only shared with a few friends.
If more people shared more information AND shared it more broadly, we could all innovate faster and accomplish more mission impact. Thank you!
Scott
IdeaEncore Network
www.IdeaEncore.com
Jean, It sounds like your
Jean,
It sounds like your team has the humility, flexibility and intelligence to succeed in the long term. If you cannot acknowledge failures, you cannot address them and find new and better ways to do things (which it sounds like you have).
You have, as an organisation, had the courage and humility to put the people you are trying to help at heart of your decisions, rather than your egos.
Keep up the good work :)
natasja
Must Read Books + Maker Faire Africa
Great that you are willing to share what has not had quite the outcome you’d have hoped to have. Sharing what doesn’t work is as, or more helpful, than sharing what does work. For anyone I’ve met the last few years working in foundations working internationally I highly recommend reading: “Despite Good Intentions” by Thomas Dichter, “The Lord’s of Poverty” by Graham Hancock, “What’s Wrong with Microfinance” by many, and “Portfolios of the Poor” by Daryl Collins. For 24 other amazing books in the same “space”, please see http://www.ned.com/group/seeb/ws/best_social_entrepreneur_books/
As one of the five organizers behind last years first Maker Faire Africa (www.makerfaireafrica.com) in Accra, Ghana (and this year’s Maker Faire Africa 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya) I’ve seen first hand the amazing innovation, invention and creativity that exists within the African community itself. Local innovative solutions to local problems and challenges. Grassroots. Bottom up. Decentralized. Affordable. Creative. Over 100 inventors and innovators participated and over 1,000 people attended in Ghana. Amazing ideas and amazing inventions.
(Hi Cynthia, Hi Beth...small world)
Be well.
N: Mark Grimes
P: 503-502-0185
W: http://www.ned.com/
T: http://twitter.com/neddotcom
C: Ned - a better world, every day
====================================
Ned Goals & Milestones 2010
10,000 microloans, 3,000 ned members
4 thriving NedSpace locations: nedspace.com
300 happy NedWater customers: nedwater.net
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Ned Accomplishment & Deliverables
2009 7,213 microloans, 1,981 ned members
2008 1,799 microloans, 1,284 ned members
2007 59 microloans, 345 ned members
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Ned Microfinance: kiva.org/lender/neddotcom
Gates and painful acknowledgement : CASE
Honesty is always needed, esp. when major failures are acknowledged, so others will benefit.
- Itala T. Rutter 6 May 10, 10:20Honesty is not always present
Honesty is not always present when particularly needed. Thank you.
- Itala T. Rutter 6 May 10, 10:17Thank you for your honest and
Thank you for your honest and candid assessment. It takes courage and humility. Thank you!
- Randy Newcomb 6 May 10, 0:34"The only real mistake is the
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing," (John Powell) Jean, your heartfelt blog teaches us all some important lessons. I know your deep commitment to the water sector and I thank you for sharing so openly. I also hope that experiences like this don't limit risk taking or the search for innovative approaches in the sector going forward. We need to keep innovating if we are to reach the nearly 1 Billion people without access to safe water. Thanks for moving forward and being transparent about how you are working to strengthen an approach when a new model was called for.
- Monica Ellis 6 May 10, 0:15Thank you
I think mistakes or failure are our best teachers, but we need to remove the stigma so more people can embrace this!
- Beth Kanter 5 May 10, 20:45What a great service you've
What a great service you've done writing this thoughtful, beautifully written and honest piece. Yes, as you said, the very nature of innovation requires that we try new things and take risks. How could it be possible, then that things would not always go as we hoped? None of us can predict the future, or imagine the many variables that change as our programs effect change. Change begets change, but not always the way we imagined. That's how innovation works.
This made me immediately go and look up what you're doing. It's far more interesting to read real stories about what's really happening, and to see the real difficulties faced by those who try innovation, than it is to read about great projects that are in the planning stages. There are lots and lots of great programs and projects - what ever happens to them? This grabbed my attention.
It may be more fun to talk about successes than disappointments (and it sounds as if there were, in fact, many successes here, anyway) but it's so helpful - and makes it all so real - to hear about the disappointments. For everyone - funders, donors, board, staff.
Thanks for writing this, Jean.
- Alexandra Peters 5 May 10, 18:31Facing a problem at the Gates Foundation
On a much smaller scale than the polio campaign, the Gates Foundation recently abruptly terminated a grant they had awarded to IDRC to promote tobacco control in Africa when they finally reacted top my disclosure of the fact that IDRC's Chair was on the board of Imperial Tobacco Canada (a 100% subsidiary of British American Tobacco), a serious conflict of interest that IDRC had neglected to mention. I regret to say that the Gates Foundation promptly put the whole story under the carpet by deleting the previous information about this grant and only keeping a very short press release that does not address at all "what's next". I tried several times to ask them "what's next" and never received any answer. At 5.3 million dollars this grant is probably considered too small to be of real interest. It would have been very interesting and very important for all the people involved that the Gates Foundation be very transparent about this grant, how it had been managed, what would happen next, etc. But they put everything under the carpet :(
My personal impression is that Bill Gates is well aware of the difficulty of having honest feedback and the importance having frank conversations about mistakes. I am not so sure the staff is willing to step up. Afraid of Bill?
Consequence? No lesson learned.
Treatment Money
Gates was leading with billions and business. He seemed to be interested in curing the diseases and treating with medication. This was a good plan and Congress thought it was too. Everything seemed to go wrong after Congress tripled PEPFAR, which followed Gates, and opened it up to non treatment work for agencies and orgs that wanted PEPFAR/Gates money, but didn't do treatment and cures.
So, we ended up with cell phone ads and Peace Corps workers entire in country time paid for by PEPFAR for giving 'talks' about AIDS. This wasn't Gates going wrong it was greed. Congress tripled the money and opened PEPFAR up to everything with the intent of paying agencies and NGOs who don't do treatment.
Gates had the right idea, but Congress and agencies jumped on board for the cash and the result is treatment is the same or lower and the cash tripled. This is what happens when a business person has the right idea and tries to work with the government.
- Rowland 5 May 10, 16:48Thank you
Thanks Jean, for such an heartfelt and honest post. There is so much concern in the philanthropy world that admitting mistakes will lead to some terrible, unknown result. But in almost every case of foundations admitting the failure of certain programs, the response has been near universal applause.
Thanks for demonstrating that recognizing the truth, adapting, moving on and sharing what you learned is the best polity.
- Sean Stannard-Stockton 5 May 10, 15:20Helpful + honest
I really appreciate the honesty of this post. As funding dollars get more and more scarce I have feared that risk taking would go by the wayside...and with it a lot of creative solutions. If mistakes are followed by clear-headed evaluation and forward movement people will continue to dream of important innovations and will "meet with success in uncommon hours." This is what we try to teach our kids, "Lift yourself up and start all over again." It's great to hear that we should take our own advice. Thanks!
- Cynthia Gentry 5 May 10, 14:00First, full disclosure: I
First, full disclosure: I used to work with Jean at the Case Foundation. But I felt I had to write a comment after reading this post, which I find quite inspiring.
One of the biggest opportunities we have for improving the performance of foundations is being honest when we don't hit the goals we set for our work. Some of the best learning is currently happening during break time at philanthropic conferences, where grant makers and program officers stand in quiet groups and tell stories about what went wrong. Unfortunately, those stories are not always shared within organizations and are rarely shared with outsiders. And opportunities to learn are missed.
I can count on one hand the number of CEOs who are willing to publicly discuss mistakes and the lessons learned from them. So thanks for sharing, Jean, and for inspiring me to make a better effort to share both successes and failures in my own work.
- Ben Binswanger 4 May 10, 23:33
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