Pure Inspiration: Echoing Green at 25

On Friday I had the privilege of attending Echoing Green’s 25^th Anniversary All Fellows Conference. For those who aren't familiar with Echoing Green (EG), it is a NYC-based non-profit with a huge global impact. It provides a two year Echoing Green fellowship for early stage social entrepreneurs, which consists of financial support, services and access to a rich community of fellow entrepreneurs and supporters. In the last selection cycle EG received over 3,500 applications from 128 countries for the usual 30 spots within the fellowship cohort, making it more than selective with an acceptance rate of less than 1%. Last year was the launch of EG’s Black Male Achievement Fellowship in collaboration with the Open Society Foundation. Echoing Green is also, like its peer Ashoka, a pioneer of the growing field of social entrepreneurship and a thought leader in this movement.

The conference was integrated with the annual All Fellows Conference, but was also open to alumni of the fellowship dating back to the early 1990's and former Echoing Green staff members (yay!) in honor of the 25^th anniversary celebration. While it may seem odd to jump at the opportunity to use a day of vacation to attend an all-day conference hosted by an organization you worked for, for only a year, five years ago, I made sure that I was there. Simply put, this event was some much needed food for my soul.

There was no red carpet, no staged photo area, no press, but the event, which also honored Ed Cohen, respected venture capitalist and the founder of Echoing Green, did attract stars, just of a very unique breed. Former EG Fellows present included Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, Michael Brown & Allen Khazei, co-founders of City Year, Vanessa Kirsch, co-founder of Public Allies and founder of NewProfit, and Van Jones, co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Green For All.  These giants of social entrepreneurship not only founded some of the largest public service organizations in the nation, but they also contributed to introducing groundbreaking legislation like the National and Community Service Trust Act (AmeriCorps, 1993) and the Energy Independence and Security Act (Green Jobs Act, 2007).

But it was not the mere presence of these famous social entrepreneurs that made the morning plenary sessions so moving. It was the familial intimacy displayed in a room of almost 300 participants. Cheryl Dorsey, EG president and another giant within the movement, spoke briefly on EG’s history and current trajectory. What struck me is how she punctuated her very informal, mic-less speech by pointing to folks within the audience, entrepreneurs from every stage of EG history, and integrated their personal and professional stories into that of the organization like an all-encompassing hug. Yes, the successes of Echoing Green Fellows and their respective ventures are amazing, but what was truly inspiring was the litany of personal thanks directed at Ed Cohen for his life-changing, compassionate confidence and investment in people. Not people in the abstract, ‘all of humanity’ sense, but in real individuals drowning in debt with only their ideas and passion to hold on to. “Ed Cohen has the highest degree of empathy for other people,” one alumnus stated. There were several direct ‘I love you’s,’ numerous forms of ‘you have changed my life’ and countless accounts of how Mr. Cohen and EG had stepped in as a lifeline in various personal and organizational crises.

Then Ed Cohen spoke. Surprisingly zen, he noted that the phrase “perseverance further” was one of the most recurring in the I-Ching Chinese philosophy. He thanked others for the success of EG and went about sharing his meditations, illustrating his talk with stories, his own paintings and selected poetry. One of his major themes: collaboration. “The greatest power among social change people is in working together,” he insisted, after explaining how several EG Fellows collaborated with each other and other partners to be the first to invest equity capital in Native American reservations. The poetry, as he explained, was inevitable. Echoing Green itself was given the name of a William Blake poem. Ever the lover of this written form, Mr. Cohen pulled out a couple of well-used hardcovers and read the room of 300 change makers two poems: Try to Praise The Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski and Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy.

Saturated, we broke for lunch, which was filled with exclamations and hugs as people reconnected. The afternoon was divided into ‘Braintrust sessions’ in which guests, staff, and alumni provided ideas and recommendations to newer Fellows facing challenges. I realized more than ever how buzzed I get connecting people and helping them pursue their ideas and passions. I found myself adding to my own list of things to accomplish in life: I aspire not only to make the impact of a social entrepreneur someday, but to also have made the impact of being an ‘Ed Cohen’ to a network of change makers. An ambitious challenge indeed, but one I take on joyfully.  

Social Venture in Dakar anyone?

Summer is over and we are back to blogging here at WYHWTM! Being an Africa-oriented business and economic development nerd, I recently checked out The McKinsey Quarterly’s new report, “Africa at Work: Job Creation and Inclusive Growth,” which highlights the immense economic potential in the continent’s resources, especially its human capital.  While McKinsey’s announcement that “African economies are on the move” (pg1) may be old news to many, the report provides a glimpse into the endless entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa. 

 

Between 2010 and 2020 McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) estimates that Africa will add 122 million people to its labor force, making it the largest labor force in the world by 2035. Currently many African workers are what McKinsey has delicately termed ‘vulnerably employed’ a concept that includes subsistence living and self-employment in the informal economy without social safety nets. The prescribed solution to this prevalent status is an increase in available ‘stable wage-paying jobs,’ namely from manufacturing, agriculture, and retail & hospitality. MGI’s recommendations to put Africa’s economic growth on a similar trajectory to that of South Korea and other emerging markets include: expansion of large-scale commercial farming on uncultivated land, increase in manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP via either low-cost manufacturing hubs or higher-value-added manufacturing, and modernization and formalization of the retail and hospitality sector (replace informal markets with shopping malls and remove barriers to travel and tourism). While the recommendations provided in the report make perfect sense for a continent on the traditional and seemingly never-ending ‘development path’, they beg the question – what can African countries learn from the shortcomings of the traditional development path and avert in their own evolutions? I personally believe that the possibilities of alternatives paths to alternative states of ‘development’ or well-being are endless. But that is for another day…

Lest we forget, “Africa’s growth needs to be inclusive if it is to improve human welfare and ensure increasing social and political stability.” (pg1) Yes, thank you McKinsey. In order to make this explosive growth inclusive, policymakers, business and entrepreneurs must address the very salient need for work experience opportunities and more hands-on vocational training programs for high-demand skills. ‘Where are the entrepreneurs in this picture?’ one might ask. Interestingly, MGI draws a distinction between ‘opportunity entrepreneurs,’ those who seek to leverage market opportunity and ‘necessity entrepreneurs,’ those, including street hawkers, who are just trying to survive within current market conditions (pg52). ‘Necessity entrepreneurs,’ of which Africa’s share is high compared to other emerging markets, fall under the ‘vulnerable employment’ category. Again, skills-building initiatives are needed to promote ‘necessity entrepreneurs’ to the ‘opportunity entrepreneur’ level.

This is where my restless, creative and entrepreneurial side kicks in and I start thinking of a million potential ventures that could possibly meet these growing needs, particularly in the metropolitan areas of ‘transition economies’ like Ghana, Tanzania and Senegal that have relatively stable sociopolitical contexts and hoards of unemployed energetic and smart young people. There is clearly a need for more homegrown solutions and job creation. Strategic support of local entrepreneurship (the opportunity kind), social innovation and the creative economy are proven methods being used to stimulate transitioning cities within the U.S. (Pittsburgh anyone?), but are rarely at the forefront of US driven economic development efforts elsewhere. (One theory is that this does not support the true agenda of extracting the most value for the U.S. out of the economic development of emerging markets – cheap labor, cheap goods, natural resources, favorable trade terms, low-barrier investments…but I digress). 

So there are at least two needs clearly identified: closing the gap between smart, energetic youth and jobs, and creating new stable jobs in a less foreign-investment-centric way through local entrepreneurship….hmmm. Since this forum is meant to also serve as a platform for sharing unperfected ideas, let’s have a go:

What: A social enterprise based in Dakar, Senegal addressing the two needs stated above

Mission: To engage local young people in local economic development efforts

Two Strategies:

• Support youth job readiness, training and placement
• Promote local entrepreneurship in social and creative sectors

 Services for youth clients would include:

•  Post-graduate internships and job training
• Career development
• Vocational and other workshops
• Entrepreneurship incubator
• Social innovation support programs

 Services for local and foreign institutional clients would include:

• Job posting and internship/full-time recruiting
• Job training/orientation facilitation
• Venture investment opportunities
• Consulting (marketing, strategic management, economic development…etc)

 Sustainable Business Model: Simply put, income from the institutional clients (companies and government agencies) and higher-income youth clients would subsidize services to lower-income youth clients and more socially-oriented activities without a direct source of revenue. This model may also require supplementary income generation, which could be accomplished in the form of another social enterprise branch also used for vocational training purposes (boutique, restaurant, temp agency….etc).

What do you all think? Granted, this is a very simplistic description, I would love to hear your initial reactions, questions, thoughts, related interests and suggestions! A hearty and challenging dialogue is key to any ideation process. Thanks in advance for participating!

Do we 'have it all' wrong?

Photo by Phillip Toledano. The Atlantic Magazine, July/August 2012

Whether or not you've tuned into the recent debate prompted by The Atlantic's cover story, "Why Women Still Can't have it All," by Anne-Marie Slaughter, you are likely already familiar with this old debate: Have we reached a point as a society where women can be as successful as we want to be both in our personal and professional lives? As women, can we truly "have it all"? What surprised, disappointed, saddened and even angered many readers was the fact that Anne-Marie Slaughter, former and first woman director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State under Hillary Clinton and tenured professor at Princeton, responded with a firm "nope."

According to Slaughter, even with the full support of a committed partner, "juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible." Once her two year term in DC was over, she rushed back home to Princeton where her family and tenured academic position were waiting. According to Slaughter, the reactions of her friends and colleagues ranged from sympathetic (oh, how unfortunate!) to condescending (maybe it's just you?). 

The typical young Generation X or Y young woman has been raised to think of her ideal future 'self' as an educated, successful career woman, with a life partner, children and a busy productive life well into retirement years. We are academics, entrepreneurs, artists, business women and we are daughters, sisters, mothers, aunties, godmothers, girlfriends, wives. We are raised to believe that these two categories need not overlap and limit each other. I'm sure many of us can at least imagine the feelings of guilt and even shame at not accomplishing what has now become a 'feminist' expectation of doing everything at once, 'having it all.' But is it so wrong to want to make compromises for a more balanced life? Does that make one old-fashioned, lazy, or unaccomplished? 

Part of what is to blame, Slaughter points out, is the so-called feminist mantra of trying to be everything and do everything, without compromise. She admits, "I’d been the one telling young women at my lectures that you can have it all and do it all, regardless of what field you are in. Which means I’d been part, albeit unwittingly, of making millions of women feel that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up the ladder as fast as men and also have a family and an active home life (and be thin and beautiful to boot)."   

Perhaps everything all the time, is not what it's cracked up to be? One of the most practical and sage pieces of advice I’ve received from one of the many professional women in my family is to plan to be ‘off balance on purpose’ in different areas and times of life. This means rather than striving to do it all, all of the time, be realistic and know what to prioritize when.

Don't get me wrong - I am not in complete agreement with Slaughter. For many women it is possible to juggle both career and family obligations. My own mother is a great example. As a high-level official within the U.S. Agency for International Development, she has managed to excel in her career and be there for me and my sister. But she was able to do so with the support of my wonderful father who, after his own career in finance and at USAID, took on the role of a stay-at-home-dad as he developed into a professional artist. While things are not always perfect in our household, my parents are my example of what a good partnership can accomplish. 

Obviously this is not the typical set-up among most couples. In her 2011 Barnard Commencement address, Sheryl Sandberg, former COO and first female member of the Board of Directors for Facebook (as of last week), noted that generally "men make far fewer compromises than women to balance professional success and personal fulfillment." She sited data stating that among heterosexual couples women do, on average, twice the amount of housework and three times the amount of childcare than their male partners. Ironically, Sandberg advised the audience of young women that "the most important career decision you're going to make is whether you have a life partner and who that partner is."

But what if we are asking ourselves the wrong question to begin with? What if instead of debating over the possibility of 'having it all' we should be discussing what 'having it all' really means? 

Oddly enough, some profound insights about life shared by Clay Christensen, a Harvard Business  scholar and an MBA favorite, may bring some clarity to this often obscure dialogue. Christensen, who has advises the leaders of many of the world's most successful companies, asks his students on the last day of class to answer a few thought-provoking questions, including: "First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?" These questions are, to me, much more salient than the vague notion of 'having it all,' and perhaps a better compass for success and happiness over the long-term.

In his article, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" Christensen employs six business insights and frameworks as guiding principles. He points out how people, like many companies, say they want to accomplish X and yet allocate all of their resources, including time and energy, to Y. He explains,"if you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see the same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most."

Clay Christensen. The guy with the answers?

In 2010 Christensen was diagnosed with cancer. He ends his article with simple words of advice: "I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success."

While Christensen finds his own grounding in his Christian faith, I find his advice relevant in my own life, which is decidedly nonreligious. Plan your life as you would your baby start-up venture. Have a strategy and allocate your resources accordingly. Think long-term. Cultivate and maintain the relationships you need. Choose the right metrics for measuring your success and take time to evaluate yourself along those lines.

I think as women, we often get so caught up in trying to push boundaries, make statements, and live up to societal ideals and expectations, that we set aside these universal truths and quickly find ourselves lost, burnt-out, and falling far short of our potential happiness. Is 'having it all' really the 'end all be all' or do we have it all wrong?