Big or Little, just have some

“The Voice” comes to Manila, well that was certainly what it felt like.  I spoke at a Humanitarian Leaders Symposium before 1000 delegates from 46 different countries and then sat as a judge on a panel to decide which syndicate of the seven finalists would win and take a cash prize and 12 month mentoring program away.  The finalists were selected from 50 comprehensive submissions that had been made addressing real need across different areas of the globe.  

Many of the projects were related to improving education and literacy, ending unemployment within slum areas and creating sustainable business activities within impoverished communities.  There was also an outstanding project that aims to address the needs of thousands of refugees flooding into Malaysia.  The projects stretched from Kashmir to Africa, from India to Cambodia and Vietnam to Nepal.   

Although the judges chair’s weren’t spinning it was only because we didn’t have a fancy red button, not because the projects didn’t warrant it.  For me there were two stand out presentations and they both concerned providing skills to two different groups.  One was an unemployed group in India and the second were for a group in Cambodia who through a lack of English language skills were missing out on the commercial returns that flowed into their community through foreign tourism.  

The five remaining syndicate groups fell short in both mine and the other judges opinions for a number of reasons but the main two were lack of clarity around the problem and the proposed recourse to address it; and/or the groups were seeking to bring about change on a MASSIVE scale that would make a small country proud if they achieved it.  

The context of the advice that I was providing to those with the desire to “end poverty and unemployment” was to start with something which was perhaps a little clearer defined and perhaps a little less audacious.  My experience has certainly been it is great to get some early wins on the board to demonstrate to your supporters that you’re making progress and in fact you ‘re winning, than trying to achieve the whole thing at once.  

But as I sat listening to the presentations I was asking myself was this the right advice?  The doubt came from the previous week, with two different clients I had heard them refer to achieving their BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I settled on the point that the difference was for the syndicates standing on stage in the Philippines asking the audience of 1000 and the panel of four judges in front of them to believe their project was not only achievable but highly deliverable.  They made their pitch without the history of past achievements.  The difference for the clients who were challenging their teams to set their BHAG was that they had runs on the board, they had achieved and therefore had process and procedures in place.  

I walked away from the Symposium inspired by the generation of socialpreneurs and their vision for the future, but also convinced of the need to some times start small and get some wins on the board and focus on becoming really really good at one thing before seeking to tackle all of the world’s problems. But then I guess it doesn't really matter if they're big or little, just as long as you have something you're getting out of bed each day trying to achieve.