How we show up matters
How we show up matters
At the foundation, we have gone through an organisational evaluation and are, subsequently, following some of the recommendations of the evaluators, including to refine our strategy and way of working. As you can imagine, a lot of time is being spent by the team talking "about us" and there are voices that ask "when can we go back to doing our work?"
I totally get that. It can be frustrating to constantly look at ourselves and talk about us while we know that "out there" people could do a lot of good work with our funds. At least, we kept working with our current partners during this intense process of strategy refinement. There are foundations who totally shut down for months while working on their strategy.
At the same time I am convinced that what I would call "inner work" matters a lot, even as much as the "work we do out there." How we show up defines a big part of the effect we have in the contexts we do show up, much beyond the direct results that are achieved with our funding. For example, one thing we have been working on are a set of working principles that incorporate our values into the way we work. These principles reverberate on different levels, influencing how we show up. They influence how we work with partners we fund and engage with other actors, what kind of actions we believe are effective, and what changes we want to see in the world. All of these levels will influence the systems we engage with. Our partners will notice the way we work and might appreciate it. They might take some of it up and/or carry some practices forward to other organisations and engagements. The partners will also engage in the actions we believe are effective, helping us to generate evidence on whether those believes are true - but also possibly carry these actions forward beyond our funding if they are effective. Lastly, assuming the actions our partners take are effective, this will lead to the change we like to see and improve the life of young people. The effects a funder has cannot be reduced to the results we can measure. They are complex and multi-layered, resulting from the interactions between us, our partners, and other actors. So we should not only care about those actions that effectively lead to measurable intended results, but also about how we engage with partners and other actors and what ways of working we bring along. And that requires us to regularly reflect on how we show up - to do that "inner work."
I agree that a sole focus on internal matters does not get us anywhere. Only when we "do something out there," we can observe changes and learn. But we should not reduce what we perceive as effect to the results we can measure and the reflections on success only on tangible activities we fund.
The Paper Museum
From Maria Popova introduction to French author Élise Fontenaille and Spanish artist Violeta Lópiz' collaborative book At the Drop of a Cat.
The object of human communication is not the exchange of information but the exchange of understanding. If we are lucky enough, if we are attentive enough, communication then becomes a system for the transfer of tenderness.
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Photo
A mural in the Indonesian city of Bandung. My own photo.