Giving without sacrificing
Room with a view
I’ve been in Paris for four days of meetings, and this is the view from my desk where I’m writing this. What do you notice?
For context, it’s 7 pm on a Thursday evening: from my room, I can hear sounds of locals drinking at bars and eating (early) dinners. But where are the cars?
My first time in Paris was as a 20-year-old in the mid-80s. I recall choking in a hot August as swarms of tiny Renaults, Peugeots and Citroens pushed relentlessly across wide boulevards and through narrow laneways. Parisians of that era famously parked with handbrakes off, so they could nudge cars backwards and forwards when squeezing into impossibly tight spaces.
Today, though, Paris stands a chance of being the first car-free large city in the world. By next year, driving a car through any of the central arrondissements will be illegal. Exceptions are made for those who live here; everyone else will walk, cycle or use the metro. If you know Paris at all, you can see it’s quite a large swathe of territory that’s being denied to cars using the city centre as a thoroughfare.
The French are of course famously opinionated, and protective of their amenity and lifestyle (“Raise the retirement age? Non!!!”) and while this ‘big bet’ doesn’t “de-auto” the sprawling outer suburbs, it does set an example for human-scale high-density living.
Question: What ‘big bet’ could you make that will create a major change you — or your constituents — want?
Rich guys with spades
Meet Chiquinho Scarpa. He’s a billionaire from Brazil. His Wikipedia page lists his occupation as ‘playboy’ (If you don’t believe me, look it up).
In 2013, Scarpa publicly announced that, owing to his fascination with Ancient Egypt, he wished to be buried at his death with all that was precious to him in this life. This included his Bentley. So, he started digging a grave large enough to hold everything he wanted. TV cameras and journalists were present — and the public uproar was loud.
“You can’t take any of this with you!” people angrily protested. “Why not leave these valuable things for others, or donate them?”
But, here’s the trick.
The whole thing was a public relations stunt. Can you guess for what?
For organ donation. It was a brilliantly orchestrated piece of social commentary by the Leo Burnett ad agency. And effective too: donor levels increased by 31% because of a crazy rich man’s flex.
Question: What creative ‘behavioural economics’ tactics can you use to bring attention to — and gain support for — your aims to do ‘public good’?
Does your strategy tell a story?
In one of my earliest strategy projects, Trish, the ‘planning manager’ of a government agency said, “Andrew, I’m not sure why we need you. We have a strategy”.
I was perplexed as the agency’s Executive Director, who engaged me, had not told me of this. So, I said, “Can you show me?”
Trish disappeared and returned 15 minutes later with 3 thick binders. She dropped them with a thud on the meeting table and stood, with arms crossed across her chest, glaring at me.
“We’ve been developing this for the last 18 months”, she said.
“Can you tell me what it says?” I asked.
Her response? “I don’t have time to take you through it all. It’ll take hours to explain.”
She couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell me the story of her strategy, simply.
I never looked at Trish’s binders. To my knowledge, nor did anyone else.
We ended up creating a ‘short-form’ high-impact set of 3 strategic directions which the Executive Director used to secure reliable funding and to communicate the agency’s aims to partners. Everyone was happy (except for Trish).
Fast forward to today.
Trish taught me to always make sure that my clients have a pithy few words that tell their story. One current example will suffice here: the Red Cross’s blood service, Lifeblood. Of course, we’ve developed formal strategic themes with areas of focus, result areas and initiatives, but the narrative is this: “More donors. More places to donate. More blood and plasma. More ways to improve health".
Question: What’s the fewest number of ‘plain English’ words you can explain your organisation’s strategy in?
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I’ll continue my travels — next week I’m in Kenya — and I look forward to being with you again on Friday.
Andrew