Pi-Squared Part 1: The Challenge of Creating a Compelling Aspiration
by Anita McGahan
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Welcome to the first in a five-part series that will unfold over the next month on insights that are emerging from my conversations with thought leaders about what it is going to take to get serious about supporting companies and other private-sector innovators that want to contribute in a sustainable way to the public interest.
The five-part framework for organizing these insights begins with the challenge of creating a compelling aspiration. The idea is that ambitious leaders from the private sector who want to contribute to the public interest need to find a way to align their aspirations with those in the public sector who want to accomplish something important to them. And this aspiration must be both attainable on a reasonable timeframe – say, something like a year or two or three – and important enough to motivate solving the inevitable problems that will arise along the way.
Below you will find conversations with Kate Cummings, Roger Martin, Leo Pongeluppe, and Subi Rangan. There are a number of themes that leap out at me:
1. Building Trust. In various ways and at different levels, all four conversations highlight the importance of building trust through sustained interaction over time between individuals that work in the private sector and those that work in the public sector. We have to find ways to understand each other, and to at least some extent, this requires the kind of visceral, personal, intuitive connection that can only arise from personal contact. Subi Rangan encourages those of us in the private sector to demonstrate an intention that is pure of heart and sincere. Leo Pongeluppe expresses his faith in our humanity to propel us forward through even the toughest of intractable problems. Samina Karim and Sandro Cabral also emphasize trust in their recounting of experiences in supporting corporate engagement with public problems.
2. Setting Aside Organizational Priorities until a Shared Aspiration Becomes Clear. A central point that emerges from our conversations is the idea that a compelling aspiration for working together requires setting aside the specific mandates of the company and public agency at the beginning of a conversation about working together. Instead, the focus should be on broad, shared goals that transcend specific, time-bound objectives: Addressing the housing crisis in Boston; supporting Indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon; finding ways to improve communication about the needs of low-income communities. Once a shared aspiration becomes clear, then the problem can move to the specific ways in which organizations can be deployed to make progress on it. The unleashing of work in the organization should take advantage of the power of its priorities. For example, Kate Cummings reminds us that public-sector leaders are acutely aware of their responsibilities for maintaining stability in the provision of services at scale. Messing up on a deployment of software, for example, across a city, state, or federal agency may hurt thousands or even millions of people. The service has to be shaken down and tested comprehensively before it can be launched. In contrast, a social venture that seeks to pilot something can test-and-develop a prototype for value creation. Roger Martin gets excited about the potential for “open innovation” through the piloting of interventions in social enterprises with proven concepts then turned over for scaling by larger, publicly traded, for-profit companies that can find profit in the efficiency gains that come from volume. A central idea in his argument is that we can’t expect companies to sustain commitment forever to an idea that cannot be profitable. The strength of a company is in its pursuit of profit, and so the company’s engagement must occur at a point in the development of an idea at which scaling for profit is possible.
3. Developing Resilience. Developing solutions to large, complicated problems such as those embedded in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals is incredibly difficult. Leo Pongeluppe and Subi Rangan describe the importance of intention, persistence, and perseverance as companies take on the risks of engaging on problems that are of such great importance that they draw criticism, especially when things go wrong. In a conversation through which he conveys enormous depth of experience, Subi Rangan encourages us to take heart that a clarity of intention – a depth of personal purpose – will give us the resilience to get through the toughest periods of challenge that inevitably occur when we do things that are important. Leo Pongeluppe talks about the importance of resilience in government as solutions from the private sector begin to emerge. His optimism, he says, is inspired by the idea that you can accomplish the impossible if you start by doing what is necessary. “Don’t give up” is the culminating message of Sarah Kaplan’s message to us as well.Next week, you will hear from me about what I’m learning on stakeholder identification and analysis. Please stay connected with us! Sign-up for updates and visit our website.