If you want to make progress on tough problems over the long-term, you’ll have to accept that you don’t have all the answers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a nonprofit executive, a grantmaker or a bureaucrat. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s inevitable.
But therein lies the problem.
Most people (including me) aren’t good at admitting uncertainty about what to do, much less failure.
We pretend to know all the facts, consider every course of action, and make coolly rational decisions that will guarantee success.
It’s totally understandable.
As human beings, we are naturally inclined to seek out patterns and order in the world around us. We want to understand the rules that govern our lives, and we want to be able to predict what will happen next. This is because, in the past, being able to anticipate and prepare for danger was crucial for our survival.
But in today’s complex and unpredictable world, this instinct can hold us back and prevent us from taking risks and trying new things.
Hiding our insecurities feels safer.
What if others knew that I didn’t know what to do? What if I turn out to be wrong? What if I’m held personally responsible for poor outcomes?
Welcome to the world of today’s social and public sector leaders.
But it doesn’t have to be that scary.
If you can embrace uncertainty and cultivate a growth mindset, you can see challenges and setbacks as opportunities for learning and growth, rather than as failures.
This is where the most exciting work happens.
Here are 3 common questions I’m asked about making progress on social problems like poverty, crime and homelessness, and how I think about them.
I hope my answers will shine light on the reality of how impact is made, and the benefits of embracing uncertainty.
Will I find the right solution?
When you start a community initiative with a specific goal in mind – say reducing veteran homelessness by 25%, or cutting the number of carjackings in half – it’s common to think that there is a right answer out there that you just need to find.
National advocacy organizations and think tanks encourage this sentiment by offering lists of universal policy recommendations. They have the answers and it’s just a matter of a community implementing them.
I had this mindset back when I was an education policy analyst in 2007. For every problem we identified, we diligently searched for the right policy answer.
Off-track high school students? Use tracking software. Teachers not skilled enough? Add more licensure requirements. Anything that looks remotely like a nail? We have a hammer.
It’s not that any of these ideas are wrong per se. They’re just not “right.”
That’s because complex problems have multiple interrelated factors, differing stakeholder perspectives and goals, and changing dynamics over time.
In this environment, there are no right answers or guaranteed solutions. Rather, every potential action is a trade-off whose uncertain effects will ripple throughout your local ecosystem.
By letting go of the naive idea of a “right answer”, you open yourself up to a more realistic approach based on an iterative learning process.
You relax into uncertainty and embrace the potential of what could be.
Of course you’ll make mistakes along the way. That’s OK.
You learn. You test new trade-offs. And you make consistent progress over time.
Will I achieve my goal by 2025?
If you’re trying to end poverty or homelessness or any other endemic social problem within the next two years, no.
“End [problem] by [X] year” campaigns are well-intentioned, but when applied to social problems they unintentionally communicate impracticality and futility.
It’s unpopular to say, but if you can’t reduce your problem by 10%, you can’t eliminate it.
So what should your goal be?
To institute an ongoing process to manage and make progress over time.
One of the best examples of this comes from Community Solutions, a national nonprofit working on ending homelessness.
Instead of trying to end homelessness once and for all, they seek to reach “functional zero.” This means that when (inevitable) homelessness occurs, it is rare and brief. To accomplish this, they recommend communities adopt a triage process to deal with homelessness as it occurs.
Rather than be speculative about the future, ask a better question:
Do we have an ongoing process to manage and make progress on this issue over time?
Will I be able to get everyone to agree?
Haha. Nope.
No matter what you try to do, 10% of people will dislike what you do.
Of those, another 10% are chronic naysayers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about peace and love, or freedom and liberty, they’ll find a way to get personal and nasty.
You don’t care. Or, You have the worst motives. Or, You can’t work on this because you’re not the right kind of person.
Toxic stuff.
So how do I handle it? It’s simple.
I don’t give them the satisfaction of denying their false charges. I ignore the insults and challenge people to make relevant comments about the problem at hand.
The silver lining is that not taking the bait will help you gain supportive stakeholders.
People naturally gravitate toward calm and focused leaders who just want to do the work.
In summary
Making a positive impact is difficult.
Success is uncertain and failure is likely.
But that shouldn’t stop you. You can still make progress if you can embrace the wisdom of “not knowing.”
Here are three simple things to remember.
- There are no right answers, just commitments to continuous learning
- Processes beat solutions every time
- Integrity attracts followers
I know you can make a difference out there. Keep going.
See you again next week.
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Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can help you:
→ I’m a strategic advisor for the toughest societal problems like poverty, crime and homelessness. People come to me when they want to stop spinning their wheels and get transformative, systems-level change.
→ I’m a coach for emerging and executive leaders in the social and public sectors who want to make progress on their biggest goals and challenges.
Let’s find out how I can help you become transformational.
