"What will success look like for this problem ten years down the line?"
Peter says he likes to start discussions with partners and clients by asking: "What problem are you trying to solve?" "What will success look like for you ten years down the line?" The really interesting part came when Peter asked the second question of himself. His answer was something like "I want to create new problems. I want people to say 'we have new problems because of Peter. He helped us solve our old problems and now we have new more evolved problems.'"
That made me think. Five years down the line, what new problem do I want to create? As a CSR practitioner, I want to create the problem of too much employee engagement. I want companies to have CSR initiatives that are so engaging, so transparent and so measurably valuable that employees find new purpose from the initiatives and customers are inspired by these initiatives. Employees and customers what are too engaged in what you are doing? That seems like a nice problem to have.
Last night, I attended Chicago Green Drinks. The topic was "Premature 10th Anniversary: Looking Back on the Next 3 Years." For those of you who don't know, Green Drinks is a monthly event sponsored by the Foresight Design Initiative. Every month, they organize an event around a certain topic (ex: Social Enterprise, Wind Energy or Sustainable Food) and hold a speed-networking session before the event. I always enjoy the speakers but this session was different. This session focused on the future of Foresight Design Initiative. While some of it felt like I was crashing the third hour of a "Mission Planning Session" for a non-profit board, Peter Nicholson (Executive Director of the Foresight) was asking some very interesting questions.
Peter says he likes to start discussions with partners and clients by asking: "What problem are you trying to solve?" "What will success look like for you ten years down the line?" The really interesting part came when Peter asked the second question of himself. His answer was something like "I want to create new problems. I want people to say 'we have new problems because of Peter. He helped us solve our old problems and now we have new more evolved problems.'"
That made me think. Five years down the line, what new problem do I want to create? As a CSR practitioner, I want to create the problem of too much employee engagement. I want companies to have CSR initiatives that are so engaging, so transparent and so measurably valuable that employees find new purpose from the initiatives and customers are inspired by these initiatives. Employees and customers what are too engaged in what you are doing? That seems like a nice problem to have.
What problem do you want to create five years down the line?
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