We Don’t Fear Failure

At Causeway, we don’t fear failure. It’s one of our core values. We reference startup buzzwords and innovation ideas, throw in a dose of nonprofit hopeful longing, and claim to be okay with failure. I really do believe Carol Dweck’s mantra, “It’s not failure. It’s learning.” However, I’m also here to tell you that believing and doing are two different things. It’s hard to admit something isn’t perfect. It’s particularly difficult to admit when you have funders, directors, and the general community watching you.

One of our programs, the Causeway Challenge, is in its second iteration (I know, two isn’t many iterations; don’t worry-we’ll keep going), and we’ve had some challenges with our Challenge. Though we’ve based our work on proven models from across the country, we’ve struggled to find the right balance between encouragement and swift kicks to the rear. The sequence of our carefully planned workshops seems to have been out of whack, getting ahead of some teams or holding others back. Lastly, the $10,000 awards may have been too much money, causing more anxiety in the teams than room to take risks and test ideas.

So, in addition to the logistical questions we are asking ourselves, a bigger question has emerged: How do we share these challenges in a productive and genuine manner? It’s only productive if there are actual lessons learned, so here goes. This is some of what we’ve learned so far:

1. Cause work isn’t pretty. Everyone seems to think work that has meaning must be beautiful. I’d go so far as to say it’s often the exact opposite — it involves a lot of messy struggles and balancing of various interests and opinions, highs and lows, people in your corner and fighting against you. Basically, cause work is like making sausage. The key though? That you end up with a really tasty sausage, blended with all sorts of flavors and spices.
2. People are everything, and people are people. Projects live and die by the leadership behind them. They thrive when the people running them are inspired and empowered and uncomfortable and engaged and strong and humble. Being all of these things at one point in time, doesn’t ever happen — so it constantly looks like the person is either high or low, getting it done or not. This is why you have to take the long-view on cause work and the process to get there, and remember that we’re all just people.
3. Communication. Communication. Communication. If we’ve learned one thing, it’s that you really can’t over-communicate. You just can’t. People would rather have one additional check-in, that extra clarification, another inspirational link, or a personal phone call. Cause work is done in addition to people’s everyday lives and work, so it’s just too easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. Over-communicate everything.

Stay tuned to the next couple of blog posts for more from Causeway folks about what we and our cause creators are learning from the bumps in the road.