With the value of Bitcoin riding high (or maybe not by the time you read this) I figure I might ponder upon cryptocurrencies: those digital currencies such as Bitcoin that operate independently of a central bank, putting them beyond restriction and confiscation. Rather than get in to the techie stuff, though, I figure to ponder upon cryptocurrency in a wider context.

Indeed, “pondering in a wider context” is something I spend much of my professional life helping clients do, especially those that engage me to help them with strategy. By default, I tend to encourage them to think about strategy in the context of sustainability, tending as I do to worry mostly about the Planet bit of the triple bottom line of “People, Planet, Profit” not getting the attention it warrants. But, perhaps, the degradation of social systems (the People bit) warrants as much ‘worrying out loud’ as the degradation of ecological systems. If it does, how might we think about it?

In searching for a socially sustainable form of capitalism, it’s tempting to return to the works of Karl Marx. Whilst no-one’s quite managed to make his solutions work as he intended, there’s broad agreement about his assessment of the problem: as capitalism becomes increasingly efficient at sucking value from the bottom of the pyramid to the top there is increasing risk that value generation at the bottom won’t be able to keep up.

And so it came to pass in the Eighties, when the money at the bottom ran out. And so came to pass the advent of credit, such that those at the bottom could spend money they didn’t have. That couldn’t last forever and so didn’t. Sub-prime mortgages were the final straw in the Noughties, especially once lumped together into Collateral Debt Obligations.

So, what now for those at the bottom, with inflation outstripping income growth and with lenders either reluctant or abusive? Perhaps all that’s really left is for those at the bottom is to learn from those at the top and find ways to keep more of the money they earn rather than give it away: tax avoidance. Of course, those at the bottom can’t afford to buy advice like those at the top, but those in the modern, atomised, ‘gig’ economy can take advantage of cryptocurrency as the modern version of cash-in-hand. Those who trade in non-fiat currency can do so invisibly.

If such a trend grows beyond a small sub-set of private sector individuals and SMEs, countries might see austerity like never before. A shift to invisible cryptocurrency transactions that don’t attract taxes could starve governments of the revenue that pays for the infrastructure and services upon which citizens and society depend. Governments have proven themselves incapable of taxing a small number of highly sophisticated multi-national corporations. Post austerity, they might be similarly incapable of taxing a large number of individuals and SMEs dealing in cryptocurrencies. How much less can be spent on education, transport, justice, health and, indeed, the environment before what we used to think of as the First World starts to look and feel more like what we used to think of as the Third World? Should that happen, would it be sustainable or would it deteriorate into a real life Mad Max scenario?

I hope not. Indeed, I hope to be to be wrong about all the above, but figured to ‘worry out loud’ about it, anyway. Let me know what you think. But be on the lookout for an invoice specifying payment in Bitcoin.

Welcome to what we’ve learned to expect to be “the most wonderful time of the year”. From what I can tell from myself, clients, colleagues, family and friends, however, wonderful is more of an aspiration than a reality. The reality is more like a frenzied attempt to ‘get everything done’, much of which involves the acquisition of more ‘stuff’. Surely it could be more wonderful than that….

I’m minded of how one of my coaching clients recently reviewed our work together:
“One of the most important parts of this journey is that I used to think life was all about stuff. Now I think it’s all about feelings.”

I like that. Feelings are the ultimate payoff. Beyond satisfying one’s basic human needs, acquiring, owning and using ‘stuff’ only makes sense if it delivers the feelings we seek. The same goes for giving stuff, which leads to disappointment when those to which we give don’t react in the way that delivers the feelings we seek.

Furthermore, a focus to ‘get everything done’ implies the only reason to do anything is for it to be over. Then we can get on to the next thing such that that’s over, too. Do, then do, then do again and to hell with how any it makes us feel, be it in our professional or our personal lives.

Here’s an idea, and not a very big one. How would it be to do 10% fewer things about 10% less stuff and reinvest that energy to feel 10% better when we do what we do? Take 10% off our ‘to do’ list and create a parallel ‘to be’ list that focuses us on how we would like to be, how we would like to feel, whilst engaging in each of our ‘to dos.’ If we can find the seasonal journey, both professional and personal, a little more fulfilling then we stand to be less invested in the payoff we expect on the big day.

My client’s route to focusing on feelings came about through the mindfulness meditations I recommended, but we might each have our own way to stop and smell the roses. Perhaps it boils down to asking ourselves and others “how are you being?” rather than “how are you doing?”

At this time of the year, as at any time, wonderful is something to be, not something to do.

Last week I was back at the Telegraph Studios for another in an irregular series of interviews for their Business Reporter magazine – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/business-reporter/. Among the topics this time was the release of the IPhone X and the ever-growing scale and problem of e-waste.

As we head towards Black Friday – a frenzy of consumerism appropriated from the US, characterised by flash sales – it’s hard not to feel pretty depressed. It’s a bit early in the season to be suffering from SAD, but at the same time, I’m struggling to share Nicholas Stern’s optimism about renewables and the capacity for technology to address climate change.

To put my uncharacteristic pessimism in context, here are a few of the numbers I gathered for the Telegraph session. Something like 7 billion smartphones have been sold since the release of the IPhone in 2007. Now, ten years later, around 1.5 billion are sold every year and only 16-18% are recycled by a reputable and safe company. From the problem of ‘conflict minerals’ at the front end – the mining of rare metals in countries like DRC that exploit child labour and fund extreme violence – to the return of those metals at end of life to parts of West Africa where stove-top smelting means inhaling dangerous fumes from mercury, cadmium and nickel.

Yes, we urgently need to transition to a circular economy, for electronic devices especially, but we are clearly still far from it and in the meantime the speed with which our tech is replaced continues to rise. For a few more numbers and a little more persuasion to keep the cards in the wallet on Friday, have a look at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/20/electronic-recycling-e-waste-2017-gadgets

And maybe get out and enjoy the beautiful autumn colours instead! 

October found me performing a new musical about the life, conviction and death of Dr Alan Turing (code-breaker, defeater of the Enigma machine, castigated homosexual and controversial suicide).

In preparation for my role as Turing’s barrister I undertook (as, indeed, I do with every role) a great deal of extensive research (thank you the internet!) And whilst this was going on, I was also making my steady way (as, indeed I do with every book!) through What Do You Say After You Say Hello by Dr Eric Berne (he of Transactional Analysis).

Now, coincidence or not (Jungians, you decide!), whilst reading Berne’s theory that a great deal can be ascertained from a person’s favourite fairy tale, I found out that Turing had been absolutely obsessed with Snow White… to the degree that his eventual suicide involved him eating a poisoned apple.

In a nutshell, Berne posits that every one of us has determined the shape their life is to follow by around age six. This Script is programmed mostly through parental dictates, the presence or absence of affection/attention and additional cultural/societal input. Transactional Analysis frequently describes how we choose others for our social and interpersonal Games (with a capital ‘G’) due to their suitability and willingness to play. In the case of our scripts we are no different, the games we play all cluster within the wider shape of the script and the players – just like those in a stage-play – dutifully fulfil their allotted roles because we are equally engaged as living elements of their script in return. The fairy tale stands as allegory for events and characters appearing in the life of the child whilst the script is being formulated and so provides the story-arc which the script eventually plays out.

What has been most interesting to me has been applying Berne’s theory to Turing’s life – it’s, naturally, much easier to identify the correlations between the fairy tale and the script in the life of someone who has already played theirs out. Not to mention someone who enacted it SO exactly at the end.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Snow White – or who have forgotten how it goes, Snow White, is born a beautiful princess. Her cruel step-mother, having consulted a magic mirror, finds that as the child grows so does her beauty until the day arrives that Snow White (aged only seven years!) is more beautiful than the prideful queen. Ordering the child’s death, she packs Snow White off with a huntsman to be done away with, but the huntsman pities the poor girl and instead allows her to flee into the forest. In the wild wood, Snow White chances upon a little house belonging to seven dwarfs and, having awed them with her beauty is granted leave to remain living with them – in return for housework and cooking. In due course the wicked queen learns that Snow White is still alive and conspires once more to kill her: first by constriction/suffocation, then a poisoned comb and finally a poisoned apple! Unable to revive her, the dwarfs place the child’s body in a glass casket where she lays for “a long time” until a handsome prince, passing through the forest, falls in love with the sight of Snow White’s still lifelike, preternatural beauty and (either by kissing her lips, or having her coffin carried away – depending on the teller) dislodges the piece of poisoned apple from her throat, returning her to life; whereupon she becomes his bride and lives “happily ever after.” (It’s worth noting, in the original Brothers Grimm tale, the wicked queen receives her comeuppance by being forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dies! Something Disney decided to omit… I can’t think why!)

Turing was just 4 years old when he was sent from India back to the UK to attend boarding school (cast out by the queen – his mother); where he found himself in a place – quite literally – populated by “little men”.

Like Snow White (the “fairest of them all”), he was possessed of a rare quality, in this case his startling intellect, which, during the Second World War, would see him join the top secret, Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park and play a pivotal role in the cracking of the German Enigma codes and Lorenz cipher – a feat which Churchill himself regarded as having shortened the war by around two years!

After the war, the State itself assumed the mantle of Wicked Queen and fearful of Turing’s vulnerability to blackmail (because of his homosexuality) first “constricted and suffocated” him by refusing him an overseas passport – in so doing cutting off opportunities for employment and personal growth – and then “poisoned” him with chemical castration. His debatable suicide viscerally realised the most memorable element of the Snow White story: the final poisoned apple, laced with cyanide and found half-eaten on his bedside cabinet brought his script to a dramatically literal ending.

So… if, in the story, Snow White wakes up and lives happily ever after… how does that work when Turing himself died in 1954? Well, sadly this is of course where real life departs from fairy tale. There is no fairy-prince, no return from sleep and the script dies with the protagonist. Yet, and one might say I’m stretching here, the mid-1990s saw the declassification of the work done at Bletchley Park and since then, thanks to books, documentaries and films Turing’s fame has grown. The story, one could say mythology, of Turing is reawakened; his script continues. In 2013 he was awarded a posthumous pardon, and his name has also been everlastingly attached to the legal precedent now called Turing’s Law which saw the pardon (in many cases also posthumous) of the many thousands of gay men who were punished for their sexuality by the draconian Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. Turing has finally been recognised for his ground breaking work, he is now acknowledged as the father of modern computing and is considered a hero in the eyes of many… “the fairest of them all.”

Turing’s life fits Berne’s Fairy tale Script theory so neatly it has been a real joy to pick my way through both Berne’s tome and Turing’s history and find where they intersect. And it has left me wondering about my own favourite childhood story and the script I myself am playing out as I move from the ciphers of Bletchley Park to the wilds of the Highlands and Shakespeare’s eponymous anti-hero, Macbeth; from the feted to the fated, from the hero to the villain.

I was working recently at a business school with a group of experienced executive coaches looking at the relational aspects of organizational life. One of the many Chief Execs who attend the programme, asked rather irritably

“How do you justify spending time and resources on this to shareholders?”

It feels to me like trying to convince people that breathing is important to sustain life. How do you imagine things get done in an organization full of people? Do people always simply do what you ask them to? Do they understand and act on every communication? Do all the relationships on the Board seem clear and straightforward all the time?

Businesses are – more than anything else – networks of social interactions, thousands and thousands of them everyday. And thousands and thousands of them have an intent and meaning at the covert psychological level, which is different from the overt social level interaction.

Leaders have to be able to work with this, and I would add that part of the job is communicating the value of this work to shareholders, politicians and other stakeholders.

It made me wonder if there is a chronic negligence amongst senior leaders (or perhaps more amongst shareholders, politicians and trustees – those stakeholders sitting outside the day to day running of the organization and who demand outcomes or performance) regarding their ability to understand and work with with the relational, psychological elements of organization.

To give a simple example:
In Transactional Analysis theory we talk about a “social level interaction” – the overt exchange

Leader “Good morning, George. What time is it?”
George “Nine thirty”

And a “psychological level interaction” – the covert –unconscious exchange

Leader “Hello George, You’re late again”
George “F*** you, I worked until 10pm last night.

Our real, felt response is to the psychological level communication – but what if you are unaware of your psychological intent?

In practice the exchange might go…

Leader: Good morning. What time is it? (Spoken)
George: .You don’t appreciate how hard I work: I’m out of here (Unspoken but acted on)

And the leader is baffled.

The difficult thing is that communication goes through George’s filters and meaning making – his experience, his assumptions his frame of mind – and then together with the leader’s intent – out pops the meaning and out of the organization goes George. As the social theorist George Mead said, “the meaning of the gesture is in the response”

So what to do if you are stuck in a repeating interaction which always ends poorly or confusingly or if you are trying to communicate something and repeatedly being misunderstood

Your weapons are self-awareness and curiosity. Self awareness helps you to understand your own filters and assumptions (What expectations do I have which are hidden? What assumptions am I holding about what is valued here?)

and curiosity replaces ‘what the hell is wrong with George?” with
“I wonder what is happening between me and George, that we have this mismatch in our communication?”

To work with the relational dynamics authentically in your organization takes practice and dedication and most often a trusted thinking partner who can help you challenge your own assumptions. It is likely to pay dividends – perhaps even indirectly the ones that shareholders are concerned with.

Leadership…

“…you twist and turn, like a… twisty, turny thing!” (Lord Melchett, Blackadder the Second)

How many books, essays, vlogs are dedicated to this slippery subject? Leadership. How can we quantify this ethereal quality? Like alchemists we try to pull it apart, seek to know its nature, so we can distil it, bottle it and mass-manufacture it!
So, what does an actor know about Leadership? What can I contribute to the mix?
Quite beyond Richard Olivier/Mythodrama’s outstanding work examining Shakespeare’s leaders and how to bring their qualities to bear in the real world, there is one thing I learned a LONG time ago…

It was a throwaway comment from my “mentor” at the first school placement during my teacher- training, following my very first, and particularly disastrous, lesson practice. It was not only the most useful piece of advice he ever gave me, it was the only piece of advice (or feedback) he ever bothered to give. “Use your voice. Draw them to you.” It struck me as the most obvious and yet most overlooked thing. It is something I have worked on studiously and continue to do so. It is one of the first things people notice in a great leader.

Voice.

I’m not talking about dialogue, or narrative but actual vocal sound.
Last year, we lost, to my great dismay, the simply wonderful Alan Rickman. A man blessed with a voice so distinctive that even as you read this you’ll be calling it to mind (who can forget his stellar portrayal of the sardonic Professor Snape? “I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death!”) And I’m sure we’ve all laughed at the memes that circulate regularly, a photograph of Morgan Freeman declaring that you’re reading the caption in his voice. (Admit it, you’re doing it now.)

Leaders must be heard. Their message must be heard. And voice, like leadership, is often presumed to be a gift that you either have or you don’t. Patently not true. Now, certainly, some people are very fortunate to be born with rich, resonant voices but (like going to the gym) the rest of us don’t have to settle for what we find ourselves genetically lumped with!

“Speak the speech, I pray you… trippingly on the tongue…” says Hamlet. And we all know what he means! We’ve all sat through torturous meetings and presentations and (*sighs*) keynote speeches suffering the monotonous, droning rumble or nasal piping of a presenter who hasn’t paid any attention to their instrument. But, conversely, we have all been present (even if it was “just” at school) when an inspiring voice has lifted us, buoyed us up, encouraged us to share their vision, or dream our own.

When we think of iconic figures – people like Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Michelle Obama – these are people with distinctive voices that comfort us, inspire us, hypnotize us. Voices flexible enough to take us through the full range of human experience. Great leaders know how to “use [their] voice” and they don’t leave it to chance. They take the time to notice what works and what doesn’t, they practice, they shape themselves but they also actively seek out good advice, seek out mentors and coaches and experts to help them to be the best they can be. Quite beyond speaking, these habits are the traits of great leadership.

“Use your voice. Draw them to you.”

Speak.

“Hi! I’m Troy McClure, you may remember me from such self-help films as Smoke Yourself Thin! And, Get Confident Stupid!” (Aaah… the ever-insightful Simpsons).

I do an awful lot of talking about Confidence – I talked about it a lot back when I used to teach and now, as a Coach and an Actor, I spend a lot of time helping people to attain a greater sense of self-confidence.

And that word, Confidence, is almost ubiquitous! Every make-up brand, cosmetic surgery advertisement, outward-bound Team-Building offering promises increased Self-confidence, Team confidence… Bomb-proof CONFIDENCE!!! Buy our stuff and get confident! Buy these shoes and walk with more confidence! Wear this watch (Leo does!) and tell the time with more confidence! I know… It’s preposterous. And it occurred to me, that often, when we’re talking about confidence, and especially, increasing confidence, what’s actually required is Courage.

Confidence is the certainty that an action or undertaking can be performed or undertaken! Confidence comes from certainty, and certainty can only come from experience. Once we’ve walked across the rope bridge (and not plunged into the freezing water below), once we’ve asked for (and got) that raise, once we’ve closed that multi-million-pound deal we have a baseline on which to build the confidence that we can do so again. Until then, we can have all the confidence we want in ourselves but it’s actually Courage that is getting our feet to move out over that drop, it’s Courage that’s turning the handle of our boss’ door, it’s Courage that is holding out for that last clause to be agreed!

And Courage comes from somewhere deep inside. From that brilliant, shining part of you that absolutely, positively refuses to be something, that you know in your deepest Self, you are not. And we must nurture and congratulate ourselves when we let that tiny voice guide us to reach beyond ourselves.

So, the next time something is proving difficult and you’re berating yourself and thinking: “I’d be alright if I only had more confidence”, take a moment and congratulate yourself for all those times you’ve found the courage to go ahead and do the scary thing in spite of your fears, because, in doing so you have laid the foundation for an unshakeable self-confidence, steadfastly-built on genuine experience and for that you should be rightly proud.

It’s the same old story…

You’ve got a problem. You’ve had a meeting. And another. And another. And every one follows the same pattern: Belinda thinks it’s a Technical fix; Bill bangs his Adaptive drum. And the other 8 attendees – because let’s face it, they’re not given the opportunity to participate – are sat, slumped and unenthused. The meeting ends, as they always end, with a list of actions to be taken and a corresponding list of names to take those actions. A date is set. And another meeting convened. And another morning or afternoon wasted; spent attending.

But just suppose…

Suppose you had the courage to break that cycle. Suppose someone took that morning or afternoon and invited a new method, quite literally, onto the table. Something dynamic. Something inspiring. Something visceral. Something that works both above and below the neck.

Now, suppose those 8 attendees – who have, until now, been cerebrally bludgeoned into silence – were given a voice and the space to use it. And more than that, suppose that their voices were both heard and understood. Instead of those two, familiar faces replaying their same stuck messages again and again, suddenly there is a new energy in the room; a new offer. Suppose those 10 participants join together and create something different, something new; something to which they are committed, something about which they are passionate.

Wouldn’t that be worth taking a chance on doing things differently?

So… Let me ask you two questions: 1. Are you adventurous? Yes? Excellent. And secondly: What do you know about LEGO SERIOUS PLAY?

Often when I tell people about LEGO SERIOUS PLAY I’m greeted with a smirk. The mouth says “That sounds interesting…” but the face says “Oh that can’t work…can it?!”

It’s OK, I don’t mind; the great part is, while I’m describing all the good that can come from those glorious, colourful, little bricks and wheels and mini-figures (that’s the official name for those loveable, bubble-headed Lego-people) that humouring-smirk very quickly turns into an expression of genuine curiosity…

Because the beauty of LSP isn’t in the models that each person builds – whether expertly complex or deceptively simple – it’s not even in those spectacularly sophisticated, shared, models that the group collectively amalgamates into a compelling, single, unifying vision. No, the real elegance is in the stories that LSP sets free. Because they are absolutely not “the same old” stories. Because suddenly, everybody genuinely WANTS to hear exactly what that sticky-out bit with the long-spindly bit and the clear bit on top and the top hat and the wheels is meant to be! And when they do hear… They get it! Suddenly they get it. That thing you’ve been trying to explain to them for the last four months. They get it!!! And you realise that having this weird, wobbly, wonderful model in front of you has made it so much easier to describe. And you realise that by turning it around there are elements in there that NEVER occurred to you before! Revelations and realisations that mean you can suddenly understand why Sam has never seen your point of view (and perhaps there is something in what she’s been saying all along!)

You don’t have to take my word for it. There are literally thousands of satisfied teams across the globe who owe their new insight, their new enthusiasm to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. And maybe it’s not for you, but… It’s got to be worth a look, hasn’t it?

Some people might remember a children’s puzzle known as dot-to-dot.  Most pizza places give them out to keep their younger clientele occupied whilst the margheritas are baking.  You’re faced with a series of numbered dots on a page, with odd-looking scribbles here and there, and the game is to follow the numbers with a pencil, join the dots and reveal the picture.

The same sort of puzzle exists for organisations – how to weave together insight from the external environment, business purpose and strategy, organisation operations and talent and capability management such that we can ‘see’ the whole picture and make clearer and more informed choices about how we manage things.

Most organisations I’ve come across tend to compartmentalise each area, usually as a result of a functionalised structure.  Half the business looks out towards the market and the customer and half the business looks in to the operations and people; and there is often a lack of dialogue and connection between.  This seems to have the counter-intuitive result of increasing complexity and organisational ‘treacle’ that makes everything unaccountably hard to get done.

However, organisations who do ‘join the dots’ and align across different parts of the business seem to reduce the frustration of ‘treacle-wading’ and things begin to flow and feel easier and simpler.  I’ve seen the magic happen in two organisations I’ve worked with and the benefits were clear: organisation issues were not only identified but resolved, before they became crises; the leadership team understood how the whole organisation worked and so could make sensible decisions together; the impact, risks and benefits of various scenarios were better anticipated and collectively handled; costs were reduced as the organisation began to make iterative adjustments rather than big disruptive changes; innovation increased as customer needs were understood and anticipated with greater accuracy and relevant capability and capacity were duly created.

So how is this miraculous state achieved?  To start you off, we recommend three simple practices:

1. Find a friend – a bit like blind dating but less risky! Have coffee or lunch with one person you don’t know from a different department – every week. It might sound odd, but people love to meet up and love to talk about their stuff – especially when the other person is genuinely interested. We think you’ll be surprised at the insights you gain into what’s happening ‘over there’ that spark new ideas for your own area of responsibility. You may even invite someone outside your company who has an interesting perspective and start connecting more regularly with what’s going on ‘out there’.  It’s a much more personal way of networking and only takes an hour a week.
2. Dot-to-dot – like the puzzle, think of the dots as corresponding to different departments, roles, projects or people and the scribbles to areas that lack clarity in some way. The scale is different, but the goal is the same: to reveal the hidden picture of the organisation that connecting the dots reveals. We’ve found the simplest way to do this is through an organisation review.
3. Breathe in and out – reviewing your whole organisation sounds like a lot of work, and it is, if you only do so when your back is against the wall. However, if you adopt a regular rhythm of taking stock of how your organisation is operating, choosing a few, key metrics that link across the business, you will be able to identify the gaps, overlaps and duplication (the ‘scribbles’) that are adding cost and complexity into your business and adjust and resolve as you go. Easy as breathing.

Joining the dots between people, across business units and externally, helps organisations to be responsive and flexible and remain continuously relevant and resilient. Something as simple as getting to know colleagues from other departments and being curious about what’s going on for them, starts to re-frame your perspective as a leader and generates deeper understanding of why things work like they do and what it might take to improve.

If you’d like to further explore how to align your organisation, get in touch with us at www.talikandco.net

What we learnt writing the OECD report on Venture Philanthropy for Development

In 2014 Talik & Co conducted research and produced a report for the OECD’s Network for Foundations Working in Development (NetFWD) on the new practices leading foundations are adopting to deliver greater positive impact per donor dollar. This ‘top seven lessons’ was originally written for The Guardian as part of their Global Development series.

It’s become something of a holy grail. Like NGOs, philanthropic foundations are increasingly concerned with maximising the impact they can achieve with the precious high risk capital they have at their disposal. As Rockefeller Foundation is keen to emphasise, the scale of the social issues that development focused foundations are looking to address today is unprecedented, and even Rockefeller, a giant in the philanthropic community, can feel dwarfed by the challenges it is confronting.

This is one of the key reasons, the contributors to the OECD research told us, that many of them have gone on journeys of quite transformational change, adopting principles and practices borrowed from business and venture-style investing, and why they are keen to share their lessons and insights with others. After all, as Sally Osberg, CEO of Skoll Foundation, stressed at the launch of the Social Progress Index, social entrepreneurs know they can’t do this alone.

So what are the key lessons that can be drawn from their experience to date? What principles did we discover that others can apply?  Here’s a quick ‘top seven’ drawn from our findings:

1. Focus: the foundations that have most impact don’t try to support a wide range of agendas but focus in on one or two where their unique combination of skills, knowledge and relationships can make a difference. Rockefeller use their reputation to convene high profile actors for policy-level dialogue that the NGOs they support just cannot access on their own. Emirates Foundation identified the ‘youth bulge’ in UAE, with many young Emiratis in debt, as a key issue they were best placed to tackle. So determine which issue(s) you are going to address. Where do you have the greatest strengths, be they your network, your internal expertise and knowledge base, your reputation?

2. Do your homework: invest in rigorous research on your chosen issues, map stakeholders right around the system, engage them, create working groups that draw in expertise from across the board. Then drill down and look for the smallest change that can achieve the greatest leverage.

3. Design your theory of change (TOC): with others, determine your outcomes and be rigorous. Sadly too many TOCs contain vague and prosaic desired outcomes and reveal a lack of coherent strategic thought about how to get there (n.b. behavioural change may appear magical at times but even the most irrational behaviour can often be predicted! Look at the burgeoning field of behavioural economics.)

4. Align your financial and non-financial assistance to deliver your (rigorously determined) outcomes: the foundations making greatest headway on incorporating business and market based principles are investing significantly in capability from private sectors and non-development fields, and are providing that management and technical capability to the social purpose organisations they support in a venture capital- like style. In some instances the non-financial value added is proving potentially higher (though harder to quantify) than the financial.

5. Collaborate: and build partnerships and networks, in the same and across sectors. Foundations don’t have a strong reputation for co-operation but those pursuing impact at scale recognise that they can only achieve their goals with and through others. Combining a strong issue focus with a systems approach that engages partners with complementary expertise (e.g. from market makers to policy makers), it is possible to tackle highly complex issues on multiple levels simultaneously.

6. Critically appraise your culture and internal systems and processes: and identify and adjust where misalignments exist. Easier said than done, not least because taking a more business or venture-like approach can meet ideological resistance internally (“we’re a foundation, not a corporation”). But with the right leadership and vision, transformation can be achieved. And the foundations we spoke to considered the pay-off well worth it.

7. Monitor for learning, not just evaluation: discovering what impeded success long after a project’s completion, or even half-way through, is way too late to learn from it. Instil a process and culture of real-time and participative reflection and learning into the projects (participative action research for example), and don’t shy away from the thorny issues of power, politics and competing agendas by playing safe on the key performance indicators.

All of which leads to the bonus and perhaps the most overlooked principle of all – contracting. If you decide as a foundation to change your approach and adopt a more venture philanthropy model, don’t expect that your favourite NGOs will automatically want to come with you. But similarly don’t underestimate the power you have to persuade them to. Open, honest and frank discussions about what working in this way means – closer day to day relationships, greater clarity on shared goals, higher levels of scrutiny on social value returned on funds invested – are vital to ensuring that the necessary partners come on the journey with you. Because you can’t do this alone.

Further details on these and other lessons from foundations working for development can be found in the OECD report.