Silicon Valley, in the United States, has always been known for innovative companies, billionaire startups, and internationally renowned universities. But now it becomes a very important reference for the performance of third sector organizations in Brazil.
The purpose of this project is Mission social impact, An initiative created by the Brava Foundation, the Lemon Foundation, the Humanize Institute and República.org. Together, they organized a two-month program that would bring together 30 leaders for a third mission to startups, accelerators, non-profit organizations, universities for a virtual mission and dialogue with the Silicon Valley Innovation Ecosystem , Investment funds and public sector institutions.
BrazilLabAn innovation hub I created about five years ago was one of the people selected for the program and, last March 10, was our first meeting of the day – and many valuable learnings.
Different fields, shared learning
The Social Impact Mission is a pioneering initiative in Brazil, and it comes at a very important moment for non-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, in what we call the third sector.
This is because if the year 2020 was absolutely challenging for the most isolated sectors, it particularly affected civil society. Working with absolutely strategic disciplines such as education, health, environment, public safety and social assistance, the third sector has seen the country’s historical challenges after years of decline, as it does with extreme poverty.
This scenario of greater social demands has a shared place with the economic challenges brought by the epidemic. The combination was fatal and the effects are already apparent: study The impact of Kovid-19 on Brazilian civil society organizations, carried out by consultants Mobilija and Race Partners, 73% of CSOs were negatively affected by the epidemic, mainly in terms of fundraising, increasing the likelihood of definite disruption of activities.
In this context, the third area becomes even more fundamental and strategic, but will require new technologies, innovations, and ways of doing things. We need to expand influence and optimize resources.
Therefore, the Social Impact Mission promotes the exchange of learning, experiences, and connections, to fulfill this purpose. It will be a venue for third sector leaders to “oxygenate” their ideas, share experienced challenges and potential solutions and opportunities.
Over the next two months, we will have six thematic meetings, with the following topics: team and leadership development; Systemic thinking; New forms of fundraising and financing; Organizational design and strategic planning; Impact Management and Evaluation; And network and partner management.
On both sides, the diversity of disciplines of action and organizations is immense.
In Brazil, environmental and sustainability institutions participate, such as the Pibiru Institute and Conservation International; Technology and innovation, such as BrazilLab, ITS and Villinka; There are representatives in the field of education such as Fundação Estudar and Nova Escola; Public administration, with the participation of Vettor Brasil and CLP; Public Safety, with hundred da paz; And institutions in the fields of social justice, public health and social protection, such as Instituto Dara, Gerando Falkes and Impulso Gove.
In Silicon Valley, the dialogue will take place with organizations such as Netflix, Google, Facebook and Singularity University as well as representatives from the third sector, with participation from the Betty Moore Foundation and social investment funds Nest and Silicon Valley Social. Venture Fund.
Team and leadership development
On the first day, the event was attended by Lucian Carillo, Netflix’s customer service director, and Nelson Matos, vice president of organizations such as Google and IBM, and today works on social projects in Tanzania and Indonesia.
Both spoke about the challenges of managing their teams and highlighted the importance of measuring the performance and delivery of individuals. But with different perspectives: While Netflix adopts more subjective analyzes based on dialogue and continuous feedback, the experiences described by Nelson Matos use accurate, measurable indicators and are monitored with the use of technology She goes. However, for both, there should be horizontality and transparency for good experiences in team management.
But perhaps the most prominent subject was leadership, which I had already dealt with. Here On The column. Knowledge, experience, eagerness is still required to recognize talent and behavioral skills, but leaders who want to stand out must go much, much further.
You need to know how to adapt your styles based on context, be effective outside your comfort zone and not be afraid to hide your weaknesses. And, mainly: understand that crises are opportunities for change and to demonstrate the real ability to lead people and achieve results.
The first meeting of the Social Impact Mission was absolutely exciting and I can’t wait to come out yet. If you are interested, follow the BrazilLab network to learn more and stay tuned: it is possible to have other versions in sight.
