“I wrote them down in my diary so that I wouldn’t have to remember.” These are the words spoken by Henry Jones Sr. — with barely concealed bitterness — to his son, Indiana Jones. The diary he refers to contains the knowledge needed to navigate three deadly traps on the quest for the Holy Grail. But it has fallen into the hands of the Nazis.
The diary plays a crucial role in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In it, Dr. Jones has documented his lifelong research on finding the Holy Grail.
But it’s not just fictional treasure hunters who can benefit from meticulous note-taking. For an adventurer on an important social mission, there is valuable learning to be drawn from this 35-year-old film: First, always keep a journal where you reflect on your progress and document your learning. Second, avoid letting your records fall into the hands of the enemy.
We’ll disregard the latter in this sixth installment of our series, The Funder’s Guide to Change. Instead, we’ll delve into the value of meticulous record-keeping.
Series: Funders Guide to Change
As a funder, donor, or investor, you play a special role in systemic change. You are the one who points out the overarching goal and assembles the team that can make the necessary change happen.
To succeed, you must ensure that the goal is clear, your community is in sync, and that you consistently measure the development that takes place.
In this series, based on Adam Luecking’s book Social Sector Hero, we go through eight key strategies that can help you build an effective, system-changing alliance.
If you want to read Adam Luecking’s book in its entirety, you can download it for free as a PDF here.
A Tool for You and Others
Memory is an unreliable companion — anyone who has dealt with witness testimony in criminal cases knows this. The brain stores information, but when that information is retrieved, it may have changed.
I recall a report from Shanghai where I described a heavy, red door, only to check the pictures on my phone and find that the door was black.
Similarly, I’ve had several revelations when going back to read old notes containing information I had completely forgotten.
But while a diary’s value as a personal support tool is significant, it is equally valuable as a tool that helps others understand your thoughts and avoid the pitfalls you’ve already encountered.
By creating a research-based narrative, you can help yourself and your partners better understand the challenges and solutions on your journey of change. This will enable you to develop better action plans, communicate more effectively with stakeholders, and make better investment decisions.
So, let’s get started.
Tell the Story Behind Your Data
What you need to do is tell the story behind the data you have collected. This means creating a comprehensible analysis of the factors that positively and negatively influence the data and might impact future development.
Data without context is relatively meaningless. Without context, you might have some assumptions about what you’re looking at, but you won’t understand the significance of the data or what you should do next. This requires embedding data into a larger narrative.
Good investment decisions depend on a deep understanding of reality. And there are a myriad of variables that affect your change project. The more factors you can identify, the more well-founded your decision-making process will be.
Make sure that you can always tell the story behind each of your indicators. Moreover, never ask your grantees to report on performance measures without a story.
What Can Go Wrong If There Is No Story?
One of the biggest risks is misinterpreting data. A participant in your change community might perform fantastically without it showing in the numbers — perhaps due to economic cycles, COVID-19, or other external factors.
Without an explanation, you might just see a downward curve that could prompt you to cut funding.
When you and your community members methodically document your work, you create a shared understanding of how your change project is developing.
Additionally, it is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your thought process, allowing others to contribute more effectively and challenge assumptions in a healthy way.
So, let’s dive deeper into how to tell a good story.
The Core Elements of a Good Story
A strong narrative about the development of your change project does several things at once. It explains which factors contribute to positive progress and which factors hinder it, outlines where there is a lack of fundamental knowledge, and openly lays out assumptions so they can be discussed.
Always start your narrative with a bullet-point summary of contributing and limiting factors. This provides an overview and saves time.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the four elements.
1. Make a List of Contributing Factors — and Explain Them
Contributing factors are the conditions that explain why your change project data is trending positively. If the curve is declining, they explain why it’s not worse than it is.
If you’re trying to improve the “percentage of children entering school ready to learn,” contributing factors might include, for example, a good health status among children or access to quality, affordable childcare.
Focusing on what works is a good place to start. While it’s important to fix what doesn’t work, it’s equally important to do more of what does.
2. Make a List of Limiting Factors — and Explain Them
Limiting factors are the conditions that hold back positive progress. If things are moving in the right direction, limiting factors explain why the progress isn’t faster.
Using the same example in the previous section (children entering school ready to learn), limiting factors could be, for example, poor child health indicators or a lack of access to quality, affordable childcare.
3. Explore Fundamental Root Causes
When examining contributing and limiting factors, you might discover that you need more information to understand your data.
You may not know how many families with children live in a given area or what their average household income is.
Make a list of the fundamental factors you lack sufficient knowledge about. This will be your shortlist of areas to explore further to tell a precise and nuanced story.
Dig deeper into these areas before the next data update. This will lead to better-informed discussions.
4. Highlight Assumptions — and Allow Them to Be Challenged
When wrong assumptions are the basis for decisions, the consequences can be catastrophic. So, make sure to present your assumptions openly and allow them to be challenged.
Use meetings with members of your change community to foster a healthy dialogue about your assumptions. Invite bold people with different knowledge, experiences, and ways of thinking into your conversations. This will strengthen your change project.
Be ready to challenge long-held beliefs if the arguments suggest it.
That Was This Week’s Guide
In the next part of our series on systemic change, we will dive deeper into how to gather a circle of strong allies.
