Getting There from Here
This is the third in a three part series examining a recent trip that University of Minnesota student Steve Mullaney took to North Carolina to observe the student group and non-profit Nourish International. The first part looked at innovation at NI and the second looked at the importance of culture within a movement.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. It appears that the Hegelian dialectic will finally get some use as I try to put what I learned on my trip to North Carolina into practice here at Minnesota.
Thesis: An organization with strong ideals and ideas, but doesn’t really have a handle on how it wants to implement them. Roles are sloppy, programming is disconnected, and newcomers lack an identity within the group. This, however, does not mean that the organization should be abandoned and the wheel reinvented; on the contrary the weaknesses of the organization are not in human capital, but rather in structure. Approaching the end of the year provides opportunity for critical reflection in an attempt to move forward. Organizationally we all understand what’s not working and are itching for change.
Antithesis: Nourish International. A very, very high-functioning organization in terms of mission/vision, structure, power sharing and execution. However, while there is much to admire in how they function, it would be foolish to assume that what works in one culture could transfer completely to another culture and work just as well. Obvious case in point: NI holds a series of weekly lunches outside. They do that because they live in North Carolina...any Minnesotans who decide that a year-round outdoor lunch would work are nuts. Culturally, there are also things that we can tap into at Minnesota like the rich history of such institutions as Public Achievement and the Jane Addams School for Democracy. It strikes me that this sort of thing would appeal to those students who have done service-learning in these contexts. This should be an advantage that we embrace, not neglect.
Synthesis: Well, we’re not there yet; so I’ll give a roadmap/guess. Step One: Talk to a lot of people. One of my favorite quotes is “A journey of thousand miles begins with a single Google search� in Colleen Kinder’s Delaying the Real World. For this project this could be expanded to Facebook, and the list of numbers in one’s cell phone. Right now I’m spreading the word, gauging interest and finding others who might want to take this project on. In my experience you never know where you might hit gold—even if it’s “my friend’s brother might be interested in that�, you could find someone who would love to do such a thing.
Step Two: Power share. Delegate, delegate, delegate. I’m graduating soon (next year?) and cannot become the face of the organization. Ideally everyone can combine in such a way that there can be real power sharing that isn’t tokenizing, setting up the future organization with young dynamic leaders.
Step Three: Learn as we go. There is no book, we must be adaptable and dynamic, celebrating small steps and not getting too down when things don’t go our way. I’m optimistic: it’s a good model, we have good people—and if you’re not an optimist most things in life aren’t much fun.
SO! There’s the report from North Carolina. I would welcome any feedback, thoughts, outright hostile disagreement or interest in helping with Nourish International at Minnesota. My e-mail is mull0321 at umn dot edu. Peace.