Bob Giloth's Blog

Accountability Me!

2010-03-19T05:27:00.003-04:00

"Thus, a foundation assessing community readiness might also consider whether its own structure, leadership, staff roles, internal systems, and culture make it ready for the role it has envisioned for itself as a sponsor."

Prudence Brown, Marie Colombo, and Delia M. Hughes, "Foundation Readiness for Community Transformation: Learning in Real Time," Foundation Review,Winter 2009 Vol 1:1

This is true in relation to results-based accountability as well. Too often foundations or other investors hold grantees to agreed-upon targets but the grantees bear the full weight of accountability. When foundations understand themselves as investors in these targets, they own the results within their own governance accountability systems and are more cognizant of how they are fully implicated in whether results are achieved. Grantees may still not perform or environmental conditions may change, but foundations are unable to simply blame others for things going wrong. Their actions or non actions on behalf of these results are a key part of the story.

This new kind of self awareness and accountability are also needed in the realm of learning and mistakes. We tend to celebrate the language of "make new mistakes" without an equal appetite for surfacing these mistakes and being accountable for them--at least in the short run. This kind of accountability is admittedly difficult for all kinds of organizations -- but it is especially important for foundations who have a mission to improve knowledge and capacity.

The short message for foundations is that if you are going to require new behaviors grantees and other partners, then you should be a role model in demonstrating them.

wicked social investing

2010-03-18T05:40:00.005-04:00

"Many of the social issues private foundations and other philanthopies attempt to address--poverty, homelessness,global climate change--are wicked problems. That is, they defy easy definition, lack permanent solutions,and have multiple stakeholders."

John Sherman and Gayle Peterson, "Finding the Win in Wicked Problems: Lessons From Evaluating Public Policy," Foundation Review, 2009 vol 1:3

I always thought that the heart of "wicked problems" was their uncertainty about causation and values. Non-wicked problems simply have more certainty and lend themselves to a more linear, straightfoward problem-solving process. Compare fixing potholes to solving poverty. Of course there are resource constraints, and not all potholes are equal, but we do know how to fix them and most people agree that they are bad. Not so easy to fix poverty -- and even though we know lots of the answers, we don't know all of them, and not everybody agrees on the nature of the problem, solutions, or the public priority. Lots of uncertainty.

The authors elaborate the list of wicked problem characteristics,and apply the overall framework to two policy advocacy efforts.

One might ask: What problems that foundations take on are not wicked problems? Some of this depends upon the explicit scope of foundation investments. For example,building a playground in a disinvested neighborhood is fairly straightfoward. Building a playground as part of an overall effort to transform a neighborhood into a healthy community grapples with a wicked problem. Likewise, SCHIP has a track record of improving children's well-being -- we just need to keep doing it on an expanded basis. Alleviating poverty with SCHIP as part of the strategy is a larger,more ambitious effort.

So,when do we take on wicked and when not? Is all politics wicked because it's uncertain, opportunistic, ideologically-driven, and full of horse-trading?

In the end, the article points to a variety of capacities that grantees and other stakeholders need to have or develop to make sense wicked problems and forge solutions, if only short term. Understanding the nature of wicked problems helps fashion good grant-making strategies. But I suspect,for some,it may drive them to more narrowly focused, evidence-based investments.

Growing a Middle Class

2010-03-17T05:04:00.004-04:00

"Therefore, access to good quality jobs--employment opportunities with fair compensation and stable benefits--is a key factor insolving the middle-class squeeze and building a stable middle class."

Annual Report of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, February 2010.

Just in case you forgot, the Task Force's definition of middle class family,a couple with two children,ranges between $51,000 and 122,800.I love this chart: ..."Price Changes in Key Middle Class Items: 1990-2008." Such items include housing, health care, and college.

There is a lot of talk about pathways, middle-class squeeze, etc in this document, but almost nothing about how low-income, low-skilled people get into the middle class. It seems like you have to be there, recently lost ground, or are close to getting there to begin with. Of course,embedded in various job opportunities, financing mechanisms, and tax credits are resources and opportunities relevant and helpful for a wideer swathe of people. That's good. And,I must say, the report, task force, and administration have produced a powerful array of investment strategies on the demand and supply sides.

But what about the millions of people with literacy challenges and are stuck in low-paying jobs or no jobs at all? I just don't see it here. There's a lot to be said for protecting the middle class,etc but what about growing a middle class? It seems to me that that goal should be right up there for the U.S.

Maybe we need a: Task for Those Who Want to Join the Middle Class But Have a Long Way To Go.

Credit Score Punch!

2010-03-16T04:40:00.004-04:00

"Employers' use of credit histories to screen applicants is turning into one more barrier for the nation's unemployed - about 15 million people - many of whom end up with tarnished credit when they lose a job and struggle to pay bills,credit cardsand household expenses."

Lorraine Mirabella, "Bad credit is blocking people getting jobs; Bill would limit employers use of credit checks for hiring," Baltimore Sun, March 15, 2010.

Seems hard to defend in our post-recession jobless recovery with more foreclosures a certainty. And, the 15 million is a low number -- doesn't cover long-term unemployed or low wage workers on the brink. Using credit scores in this way is one of those Catch 22s -- people want to work themselves out of debt but debt prevents them from getting jobs.

"Sixty percent of employers surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management said they conduct credit background checks for job candidates, with most employers running checks only on selected candidates.."

This practice "has stirred a movement, supported by consumer and worker advocacy groups, to clamp down on credit checks by employers."

Good idea!

Clawback Time!

2010-03-15T05:19:00.004-04:00

"For-profit trade schools have long drawn accusations that they overpromise and underdeliver, but the woeful economy has added to the industry's opportunities along with risk to students.."

Peter S. Goodman, "In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt," The New York Times, March 14, 2010.

Now, which ring of Dante's Inferno is reserved for private trade schools, along with payday lenders and used car dealers. Admission requires ripping off people when they are down. We should have a lot of candidates in today's world.

We need to fashion some type of clawback for proprietary schools (and perhaps other trainers) when graduates get a certificate and lots of debt but no job. I remember one of the founders of the Center for Employment Training (CET) saying that "getting a job is graduation."

How would a clawback work? Why not have responsibility for repaying Pell grants, etc. revert to the trade school (the owners and stockholders) if a student can't get a job once they have graduated, have their certificate and are certified ready to work. Of course the job matching process is confounded by unforeseen economic changes, personal choice and lots of other factors. But we could figure out how to incorporate.

How would clawbacks work for nonprofit and community college trainers. Well, that's tougher. We typically rely on full transparency, training certification,etc.-- but we even have trouble making those work. It hurts when you don't get a job at the end of any training, even if you don't pay full freight.

My Model

2010-03-11T19:55:00.005-05:00

"Washington should embrace the creation of "single stop" centers in post offices and retail stores throughout the nation. By making enrollment more comprehensive and accessible, more Americans will receive the boost they need to rise into the middle class."

Tom Freedman and Michael Weinstein, "Helping Americans Help Themselves: Toward a National Single Stop Policy and More Efficient, More Effective Poverty Fighting"

Very clever as a foundation leader to advocate for "single stop" centers when you fund one benefit access approach called Single Stop -- especially in document by Democratic Leadership Council.

Putting that aside, a more streamlined, comprehensive benefit access approach at the federal and state levels would be welcome,especially in these economic times. I'm not sure post offices and retail stores like Wal-mart are the best places to do this given their locations. We need multiple access points and should recognize "identity" issues that influence participation. For example, benefit access in EITC campaigns has had mixed results -- in part because people are there to do their taxes.

The bigger problem involves promoting common applications and e-filing, and undoing other administrative rules and barriers that get in the way.

There are lots of lessons to be learned from a variety of benefit access outreach campaigns and enrollment initiatives. Let's learn from them all.

(For full disclosure, I'm on the board of another benefit access organization. But there are more).

Chicago Stalemate?

2010-03-11T06:11:00.004-05:00

"Chicago politics sank into a racial stalemate known as Council Wars, which pitted a block of white alderman against Washington and his supporters."

Evan Osnos, "The Daley Show: Dynastic rule in Obama's political birthplace," The New Yorker, March 8, 2010.

Not quite. Stalemate suggests that nothing got done, a state of paralysis consumed Chicago, and that Daley saved the day. Lot's got done, Washington won a majority in Council after a few years, and Daley built upon many of the initiatives started under Washington. Washington'encouraged grassroots school councils, a nascent resource recycling movement, and industrial retention in the neighborhoods. Chicago had the good fortune to have a booming downtown in the 1980s -- and made significant progress on infrastructure investments at O'Hare and for the Midway El. And, not much corruption.

This is not meant to take anything away from Daley and his accomplishments. Survival and persistence can be great things -- but they can also mask things that didn't quite work out -- floods, heat waves, corruption, etc. And the article fails to ask: Are all Chicagoans better off? I suspect the answer will be mixed--and that's pretty good. Chicago's population gain is a good sign-- but don't forget that Milwaukee gained population as well.

Counting

2010-03-10T05:00:00.003-05:00

"The Census Bureau is having trouble finding qualified temporary workers in some neighborhoods for the national head count..."

Haya El Nasser, "In some places, Census jobs unfilled," USA Today, March 4, 2010.

I wonder if anyone from the workforce development world, or the Census, for that matter, implemented training programs aimed to get low-income, low-skilled people into these jobs, or to use these jobs as stepping stones for entrance or reconnection into the labor market. These jobs combine skills in sales and customer service; and require aptitudes for listening, accuracy, thoroughness, etc. All teachable; all useful skills to practice on the way to other things.

They're short-term public jobs needed to accomplish public work. Just what we need. I'm sure one stops and job referral groups sent people to take the tests and fill out the forms. I'm thinking of something more pro-active in terms of packaging these jobs for workforce development. This approach probably breaks some rules, or is long gone, now, as an opportunity, but it's probably worth thinking about, at least for 2020.

Ring 1984

2010-03-09T05:00:00.004-05:00

"In the sixty years that have passed since the publication of Orwell's novel [1984], there has been a radical change in Britain.On the whole,these marked advances and restrictions on civil liberties have been quietly introduced with little fuss, debate or reaction from the British public"

Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers, Afterword

What's different about The Bell Ringers is that the forces of good win in the end, at least for a while. The novel portrays a fairly normal world taken over by computer-driven surveillance and on the verge of a dramatic expansion of state emergency powers to an end to dissent once and for all.

Besides the happy ending, there's a single corporate bad guy who flys around in helicopters and puts the top levels of government on his payroll derived from big government contracts. He escapes in his whirlybird, leaving the politicos to fend for themselves as Parliament jumps into action after awakening from dormancy.

So much for the dystopian pervasiveness of evil and all that.

On the other hand,the role of the bell ringers as metaphor and organizing network for the uprising recognizes the power of associations, social capital, and the instincts and bravery of regular people. It's not overdone, but is a nice touch as the heros and heroines do their thing.

Can't wait for the movie.

2010-03-08T04:59:00.004-05:00

"Dick Armey, one of the spokesmen for the Tea Party movement, recently praised the methods of Saul Alinsky, the leading tactician of the New Left...These days the same people who are buying Alinsky's book 'Rules for Radicals' on Amazon.com are...also buying books like 'Liberal Facism..."

David Brooks, "The Wal-Mart Hippies," The New York Times, March 5, 2010.

Alinsky wasn't very tolerant of the New Left -- and certainly wasn't its leading tactician. No matter his attraction to jujitsu tactics, Alinsky promoted 'peoples organizations,' local leadership, and concete victories. Community organizing for him wasn't about ideology or the primal screams of 'mass innocence.' Brooks should get his history right.

How about the comparison of the New Left and the Tea Party right? Brooks leaves out any mention of the Vietnam War -- a big generator of the New Left and a specific, policy target for change of huge significance -- a war expanded by Democrats. I've detected no such serious policy issue among the Tea Party -- just anti-government. Now why didn't they start protesting under Bush?

The New Left and Hippies were not the same, David, but it's fair to say that the New Left descended into terrorism and re-enacting silly versions of Marxist Lenininism --both which curiously held a rather dim view of the human condition.

I think more apt comparisons for the Tea Party crowd derive from the Depression-era 1930s--Huey Long and Father Coughlin?

Recession Bridge

2010-03-05T06:02:00.004-05:00

"A slowly sinking generation; a remorseless assault on the identity of many men; the dissolution of families and the collapse of neighborhoods; a thinning veneer of national amity—the social legacies of the Great Recession are still being written, but their breadth and depth are immense. As problems, they are enormously complex, and their solutions will be equally so."

Don Peck, "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America," Atlantic Magazine, March 2010.

You would think that the Great Recession and its aftermath would push hot buttons for pols of all persuasions -- and maybe galvanize concerted national action. Marriage,men,the suburbs, kids, stress, health,wealth,self help, etc. Instead of griping about ARRA ,proposing silly tax incentives, or blocking unemployment benefits -- maybe they could get together and try a bunch of things with a serious level of effort. We've got a 8-10 year gap if we're lucky as the economy recovers. We need a bridge.

"We're about to see a big national experiment on stress."

Heidi Shierholz, quoted in: "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America"

Mistakes 12-Step

2010-03-04T05:43:00.005-05:00

"[Karl Rove] blames himself for for not pushing back against claims that President George W. Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made during the Bush presidency."

Beth Fouhy,Associated Press, "Rove admits to error on Iraq as Bush strategist," Yahoo News, March 3, 2010.

This newsflash about Rove's new memoir doesn't really clarify which mistakes Rove is coming clean about. Is the mistake the failure to find WMDs? Going to war in Iraq under false pretenses? Not defending Bush enough for going to war -- even without WMDs as a rationale?

All we get, at least in this piece, is a cloud of mistakes of one kind or another, without saying the war was a mistake. The first step in the 12-step "admitting my mistakes" process is to come clean with a reasonable amount of clarity. Rove and/or Associated Press needs to go back to square one and try again.

But we should be realistic in our expectations. It took Robert MacNamara and McGeorge Bundy decades to fess up about Vietnam?

2010-03-03T04:28:00.004-05:00

"Obama should be expected to address disparities affecting Americans who are situated differently.."

John A. Powell, "Why one-size job relief doesn't fit all," The Washington Post, March 2, 2010.

It's remarkable that the Obama administration has not more explicitly embraced some forms of targeting federal resources to communities hardest hit by the recession, longer-term unemployed, young people, etc. There are things like expanded benefits, tanf emergency funds, community service block grants, dol's poverty out of poverty, and some of the energy efficiency investments that are,in fact, fairly targeted -- and there's probably more. But on the job creation side, not so much.

The administration seems deathly afraid of a targeted public jobs program -- as are many of its progressive supporters. DOL still hasn't recovered from administering CETA in the 1970s -- a gem with some problems.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has it right with their Jobs Campaign:

"Our approach to job creation includes targeted funding...to...target areas with poverty rates of 15 percent or higher or unemployment of greater than 10 percent."

A Jobs Bill should include "Creating public jobs initiatives...to maximize direct training and hiring."

"CBC Jobs Campaign," Congressional Black Caucus, 2-26-2010.

The fact is, a lot of public job creation is taking place already,not enough, but a good start. The feds should figure out how to support by giving permission, flexibility, waivers, etc. Let the local and state folks be the inventers and implementers. They already are.

Dog Day Rising

2010-03-02T05:26:00.004-05:00

"But a fast-growing middle class, despite enjoying gory outings, is also fond of pet dogs and cats."

"Off the Menu," The Economist, February 27, 2010.

Tongue and cheek, early April Fool's Day, a lapse in editing, or just different worlds -- just read. Good for pets and animal rights.

"Cats are popular in southern China. The sweet-tasting meat has been served to your correspondent, diced into small cubes reassembled in feline form with fur-stripped paws sticking into the air."

"Beijing still has a one-dog policy and decrees that they must not be taller than 35cm (14 inches)."

"Dog-eating...is a time honoured tradition and China is not yet ready for Western-syle prissiness about consuming such animals."

Humanitarian Who?

2010-03-01T04:32:00.006-05:00

"According to Dictionary.com, a humanitarian is a person actively engaged in promoting human welfare and social reforms, sometimes known as a philanthropist...To that end, we have gathered 50 fascinating lectures for humanitarians. Learn from the best, or simply get a different point of view by giving them a listen."

50 Fascinating Lectures for Humanitarians

So, this friendly resource showed up in my inbox last week with the usual pseudo personal reference to my blog and all that. Hmmm. Fifty lectures, sounds like some good material. The first up lecture by Rick Warren gave pause and made me wonder who this outfit really was, but the overall line-up proved fairly ecumenical although sometimes a bit obscure.

Again I paused with Slavoj Zizek, a proflific author who I steadfastly have avoided reading. Humanitarian? Just watch his lecture, Against Charity

"Zizek's 'lost cause' is the idea of revolutionary terror to impose utopian order from above."

Alan Johnson, "The Reckless Mind of Slvoj Zizek," Dissent, Fall 2009. Book review of In Defense of Lost Causes by Slavoj Zizek.

Not much of a humanitarian. His lecture takes off on Soros, Starbuck's and philanthrocapitalism.

Fascinating lectures?

Wow WIA!

2010-02-26T09:23:00.003-05:00

"In 1998, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) created a new,comprehensive workforce investment system designed to change the way federally funded employment and training services were delivered."

GAO, Support for Low-Income Individuals and Families, A Review of Recent GAO Work, February, 2010.

I guess it's all in the WIA words: new,comprehensive, investment, system. Well, not really. The escape clause seems to be "federally funded," except that TANF is larger, Pell grants, of course. And then you have institutions like community colleges and employer investments (1.25B per year) that must rely upon tax write offs of some kind.

I don't want to pick on WIA, but we do need to rethink how we talk about jobs and skill and education investments in this country. The GAO might have noted some of the challenges -- like lack of jobs, etc. Sometimes analyses should document the missing pieces, the blank walls, not just the programs. And we lack a set of investments in public jobs. Cities and states are inventing all sorts of things. Maybe the feds should be more helpful -- or at least note that help is needed.

Big BRAC

2010-02-25T06:36:00.004-05:00

"Sir Fazle recognised that poverty in Bangladesh villages is also a result of rigid social stratification. I these circumstances, 'community development' will help the rich more than the poor; to change the poverty, you have to change the society."

"BRAC in Business," The Economist, February 20, 2010.

So, how do you do that? We've suffer a bit of Grameen story fatique -- and a great story it is. BRAC is different, bigger, and spreading elswhere. It's trying to start new types of businesses that create additional jobs, provide credit for small but growing companies, inspire savings, and support education. Women are its focus.

"BRAC earns from its operations about 80% of the money it disburses to the poor...It calls a halt to activities that require endless subsidies."

BRAC is the social enterprise that fulfills all the hype of double,triple-bottom line dreaming. But has poverty changed dramatically in Bangladesh? Has social stratification altered?

Another View?

2010-02-24T07:51:00.005-05:00

"Mr. Kotkin is an inveterate fan of suburbs too, soulless and identical though they seem to many. He sees them as places of endless opportunity,and reckons that telecommuting as well as the rising cost of petrol will invigorate many of them as more and more people opt to work from home. All of this potential for growth feeds another of America's great strengths: its decentralization, which cushions it from the effects of local economic shocks."

"Cast of Millions," The Economist, Feburary 20, 2010. Book review of Joel Kotkin's The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050.

What? I thought we had turned the corner on wasteful suburban, high carbon settlement patterns and gone over to the green side, energy efficiency, transit-oriented, walkable communities. I was just at a meeting of urban experts at which a speaker declared that the market had spoken -- and that walkable urban communities were the economic engine of the future.

Now Kotkin argues that the suburbs and all that space are a good thing and here to stay -- along with population growth,and that suburbs offer an economic refuge of sorts in the world of high gas costs. More people from natural growth and immigration along with empty land are key economic assets.

Never underestimate interia. And never think there is only one way to adapt to new circumstances. People like the suburbs.

Play Learning

2010-02-23T03:59:00.004-05:00

"If...play is an essential catalyst for learningand development of the kind of resilience,creativity, and optimism we need in order to intelligently navigate a complex,changing world,then we must all share in the work of creating new room for play and advocating on behalf of playfullness in the various arenas of our lives."

Alison Kadlec,"Play and Public Life," National Civic Review, vol 98,no 4, Winter 2010

So, where was your favorite place to play as a kid, on a playground or in an alley, in the woods, on an empty lot, in a basement full of junk? Some research a few years back by Kevin Lynch, I think, found the latter to be true. Why? Lots of movable parts, natural things, adventure, the unexpected, and opportunities for building with others. That's what Lady Allen of Hurtwood found after WW 2 in devastated European cities -- she invented adventure playgrounds. See Planning for Play. Lots to be learned from play.

Slow Thinking

2010-02-22T04:33:00.004-05:00

"But I hope not too many [intellectuals] will become starry-eyed about these media and forget about the habit of slow reading, which is such a large part of good thinking."

"We need to remind them that thinking is slow and rigorous, and that it does not always go well with the fast past of popular culture."

Martha Nussbaum, Symposium: Part 1, Intellectuals and Their America, Dissent, Winter 2010.

That is the problem, isn't it, feeling comfortable reading slow and thinking slow. Where's the time for that, except maybe in the university. We're supposed to get the facts fast and and be a "quick study" of analysis and recommendation. But reading slow not only works against the grain of expectations and everyday life but also against our own inner belief, sometimes unshakable, that we know something. Of couse we do. But slow reading brackets that knowledge.

"As I contemplate friends of mine who are serving in the Obama Administration, I feel so lucky to have the ability to say whatever I like and to work things out the way I like to work them out."

That's being twice removed because there are a host of fellow travelers, participants in the grand talkathon, who have a bit of a problem saying whatever they like or doing things there way. How much distance is required to be a critical, if supportive, observer?

Growth Jobs?

2010-02-19T04:41:00.004-05:00

"UMUC Careers in Homeland Security. Job Increases of 23% in next decade."

Poster on MARC Train, DC to Baltimore, 2010.

I'm not contemplating a major career change at this stage of the game but I am susceptible to advertising messages staring me in the face as my daily train pulls into the station. But who knows? A 23% increase sounds like a lot of jobs -- but it's all in the base, how many homeland security jobs currently exist and how many more will be created.

I guess it's no surprise that homeland security would be a growth occupation given our seemingly more insecure world and the likelihood of more incidents within our borders.Nevertheless, it's a bit unnerving -- more sniffing dogs at the railroad stations, more lines to navigate at airports, and increased security for those areas in which we are insecure, whatever they are. And all the management.

How does it feel to say to your children? "There's a future in homeland security!"

Mouse Cities

2010-02-18T05:04:00.003-05:00

"...Manhattan and a mouse might just be variations on a single structural theme."

"Tree and Leaf," The Economist, February 13, 2010

Of course, we begin with the circulation stuff, like in the Disney movies of the
1950s, if I remember right. Huck Finn on a raft exploring arteries and all that.

"The leaf,then, is a resilient distribution network--one whose principles could be applied to, say, electricity grids."

Looks like the suburbs to me.

Little WPA

2010-02-17T04:36:00.004-05:00

"In January, the Parks and People Foundation announced that it would hire twenty-two workers to staff up its Green Up, Clean Up initiative...The teams will restore wildlife habitat and streams,plant trees, pull weeds, and clean up trash in Baltimore City...The money comes from the U.S.Forestry Service..."

"Baltimore Observed," Urbanite, February, 10,2010.

I'm convinced that we have a "little WPA" in the making in most cities and states. It's not huge and it's no doubt time-limited because of using ARRA funding -- but public jobs are being created. I'm not sure anyone understands that this is really going on.

So what! Well, I think we need some faith restored, at least for policy-makers,that local governments, foundations, and nonprofits can run public jobs programs and get good results for people and communities. We should put together a picture of these efforts, accross the country, but also as they aggegate in specific cities.

Some questions I have: Who gets the jobs? What are the wages and benefits? Are there wraparound educational services? Are there placement services once the jobs are done? How often do the jobs turnover for new hires? How are the public and community benefits measured?

War Failure

2010-02-16T04:51:00.003-05:00

[B]y just about any measure, his war was on the verge of failure. The strategy of winning an enduring peace had failed. The strategy of defeating terrorism had failed. The strategy of spreading democracy throughout the Middle East had failed. The strategy of at least bringing democracy to Iraq had failed."

David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

Did the surge turn things around? Much of the failure literature is about war, including the distinction between constructive and non constructive failures put forth by Eliot Cohen and John Gooch in Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War. The failures of war are certainly harder to hide -- although we have witnessed many creative measures taken to disguise failure in plain sight. And, arguably ,the military wants to learn from mistakes, although fighting today's war with the lessons from the past seems to be a common affliction.

I like the constructive/non constructive failure distinction despite its either/or quality that sometimes misrepresents our fuzzier reality. It also represents a kind of bureaucratic and ethical distancing from the underlying truth that war is a bad thing that seldom wins the peace.

Failure Talk

2010-02-12T04:56:00.003-05:00

"But when was the last time you saw failure worked into any assessment rubric or logic model? Maybe, just maybe, we should be holding ourselves accountable for failing as much as for succeeding! Now that would signal intrepid philanthropy..."

Sally Osberg, "Failure Anyone?" Intrepid Philanthropist, December 9, 2009

What would "holding ourselves accountable for failure" look like? Transparency is certainly a first step. But think of when we begin to share our successes, usually at the stage of looking good, showing promise, or pointing in the right direction. The big evaluation is icing on the cake. That approach wouldn't work for many failures in philanthropy, although efforts with a double bottom line are likely to show problems earlier and in more forceful terms. If we are lucky, mid-course corrections are a time, at least for ourselves and partners, to acknowledge what hasn't been working and to make adjustments. For many failures, however, we sometimes need for the dust to clear before we can talk failure. Unfortunately, by that time many of us are on to new things.

Two other problems are becoming clear to me after collecting a number of failure stories. First, the dividing line of success and failure is not always so clear: many initiatives contain both and success and failure evolve over time. Second, the distinction between constructive and non-constructive failure is useful but harder to pin down than you might think. Most cases are hybrids. And non-constructive failure raises basic questions about good design, implementation, management, and investment. Our standards for feasibility, risk-taking, design and management are not as high as they should be.