Designing solutions to meet people’s needs the way they experience social problems.
When people reflect on long-standing social issues, nimble, abundance and satisfied customers are rarely terms that come to mind. Most people envision a fragmented nonprofit sector and governmental bureaucracy that force people and communities to engage with complex systems instead of providing solutions that meet the individual’s needs the way they experience social problems.
Leaders of successful social impact programs have used collective action theory to create bridges across isolated programs to align “like-minded” organizations around a common definition of the problem. Shared measures of success are established and communicated to make evidence-based decisions. Forums to expand success and learn from failures help programs evolve. To keep the moving parts working optimally a thin organization (similar to a corporate program management organization) is often established. When done well, organizations in the coalition leverage their strengths, learn from cross-sector partners and channel resources and talents on a well-defined issue.
There is growing evidence that collective programs are making an impact. However, lasting systematic change often remains elusive. So, how can coalitions take actions that move beyond changing systems to altering the way a community views, reacts to and ultimately prevents the issues from occurring? At unthinkable, we believe the key is understanding how people live, interact within the community and experience social challenges. Here are some ways to begin following the customer’s journey and crafting solutions that truly meet their needs.
Let Your Customer’s Story Drive Your Actions.
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us.
We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it.
He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it.
We are not doing him a favor by serving him.
He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Gaining a comprehensive understanding end user’s needs — how they live life and interact within the community — sounds simple enough. However, people’s desire to codify and build repeatable systems frequently creates silos of services. Often these systems, as they proliferate, grow in isolation, bleed into the role of other organizations and cause end-users to navigate a complex set of service providers. Many organizations begin pushing their products and services instead of delivering what the end customer wants and needs. We believe taking a human-centered approach breaks down silos, eliminates layers of bureaucracy and provides transparency on how funds are used to achieve success. Telling end-user stories expedite developing a clear, comprehensive understanding of the customer’s needs and desires. Their journey emerges, provider capabilities can be better aligned, and gaps become apparent.
Linking Isolated Data
Shared measurement systems and performance indicators are only useful if the underlying data provides an accurate, complete view of the factors impacting the program’s success. Data from all social and community programs and systems that touch the end customer is required. Additionally, moving beyond traditional data sources to include customer and community voices ensures programs are focused on what people believe is needed.
Build Bridges Between Coalitions
Share and listen to end-user stories with other collaborative program leaders. Seek out the “aha” moments when you discover a powerful idea. Then look for ways to create greater impact together. These bridges should not entail creating a super backbone organization. Instead, identify meet-me-points that help your end customer: data sharing, joint communications, process and system hand-offs or opportunities to innovate and pilot ideas.
Cultivate Diverse Funding Sources
Often funders, like the community leaders who champion collective work, have dedicated years, even decades, to affecting change in their chosen area of focus. Seeking funding from sources with diverse missions that will demand systematic change prevents organizations that benefit from the status quo from dominating program design. In addition to anchor funders, obtaining a long-term commitment from corporations, private investors, foundations, nonprofits, government programs, and individuals will provide a more sustainable model and improve the program’s ability to weather funding shifts.
Flip Community Engagement on Its Side
To solve complex social problems, we must build vibrant communities, not just stronger programs and services. Many collaborative efforts engage the community through occasional focus groups. However, this practice does not reach enough of the population to shift a community’s culture. Expanding the shared vision beyond program actors to include the broader community provides ways to identify and amplify grass-root successes. Establishing sharing forums and platforms for customers to voice their challenges, successes, plans, and aspirations engage the community in a more meaningful way. They begin to wonder “how is this going to turn out?” and want to be vested in a positive ending. By inviting people to join your customer’s story and make it part of their own they become ambassadors for change.
Taking a human-centered approach to designing and evolving collaborative impact programs shines a light on where systems break-down, overlap and cause customers to jump through unnecessary hoops. Then resources can be aligned more effectively to guide the customer on their journey.
