Posts Tagged As Pollen

Facing Failure: Four Bands Community Fund Exec Director Tanya Fiddler Shares Her Story

When Failure Is Your Starting Point There Is Nowhere to Go but Up. Are you the type of person that’s always looking for a good challenge? Here’s one for you to consider:  We want you to provide financial literacy and entrepreneurial training to one of the poorest communities in your state.  In fact, it’s also one of the poorest communities in the nation.  The community of nearly 9,000 people doesn’t own land for homes or businesses.  In many instances the people there have no credit score.  Less than 1 percent of the businesses in the community are owned by a community member, and more than 47 percent of the jobs in the community are not in the private sector, but are government-related.  Are you up for the challenge?  It’s exactly what Tanya Fiddler took on when she became executive director of the Four Bands Community Fund, which serves the members of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

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Facing Failure: Using Setbacks and Failure to Propel Your Organization Forward

From childhood we are taught about the importance of perseverance. We are told that in the face of adversity we are supposed to hold firm and to strive on. The truth is that this advice is easy to give but extremely difficult to put into practice.  When we are faced with setbacks or failure we naturally question our approach, our abilities, and our determination. We know that most great success stories show the hero or heroine exiting from their experience stronger than they went in but we always question our own resolve.

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Facing Failure: A Shocking Setback Drives Non-profit Toward Success

We are constantly bombarded with the latest “innovation” stories from Silicon Valley tech startups. Almost never do we hear the stories of amazingly innovative non-profits – but trust me they do exist. As in business, sometimes innovation initiatives succeed but sometimes they miss the mark. How organizations chose to accept and learn from those failures can dramatically influence their future success. They are not just attempting to launch new initiatives, they are creating a culture of innovation.

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Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak Discusses Government, Innovation and the Role of Failure

Last year I began writing an online column for Pollen titled Facing Failure as an effort to spark a discussion on the importance of failure in driving innovation in the non-profit, education, and government sectors.  Most of us would prefer to avoid failure and the pain that it can cause but to truly create something new mistakes will need to be made along the way.  In politics, a “failed” initiative can quickly sabotage a political career which is why most politicians are quick to dismiss or gloss over their shortcomings.  But there are some politicians are trying to reframe the discussion with candor and transparency.  I am excited to share my recent interview with one such politician, former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

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Facing Failure: Two Tales of Running For Office

With a new year brings the annual cycle of personal New Year’s resolutions.  Frequently these resolutions include losing weight, reading more, spending less, or getting more involved.  Many of us want to change from our current course to something that is more desirable but statistically 88% of the time we will fail at our resolutions.  Oftentimes failure comes early in that we say we want to make changes but we never even take the first step.

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Facing Failure: The Bridge for Youth Shares Their Story So Others Can Learn

The truth is that nonprofits experience failure just like every for-profit business: new initiatives fall short of expectations, the synergy of partnerships fails to materialize, or expansion plans overburden an organization’s cash flow.  But because nonprofits are so reliant on donations and grants to fund their operations even mentioning the word failure can be lethal.  The perception, and perhaps reality, is that no donor wants to think that their contribution is being wasted and no foundation wants to report back to their board on “failed” investments.  The result is that “safer is better” and failures are frequently covered up.

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Propensity for Action: An Interview With Fuel Your Fight Founder Kari Kehr

When working with organizations I frequently talk about the need to build a “Propensity for Action” in order to support driving growth and innovation.  With many for profit, and nonprofit, organizations it is far too easy to cower behind the “Tyranny of No” rather than building a culture of action around the tools of hypothesis, test, and verify.  A frequently response from leaders is that new ideas are too costly or too risky to take on but if the alternative is waiting for the perfect answer it can be equally damaging to an organization.  The challenge is that the odds are stacked against new ideas and most of them will not work out at planned – they will fail.  The irony is that unless you are willing to take action and risk possible failure you will remain stuck with the status quo.

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