DNF Book Review Month.
This newsletter is now recommending reads!
Dear NGO Founder,
Welcome to DNF's first-ever book review! Last December, my grandparents gave me a blank cheque for Christmas. No hesitation, I asked for a book.That book is today's review subject: The Toolbox: Strategies for Crafting Social Impact by Jacob Harold. I won't retell my Jacob Harold podcast discovery story.
This book is incredibly complex. Packed with images, quotes, references, and links across science, psychology, philosophy, business, social commentary, faith, and spirituality, it mirrors the complexity of social impact itself. Humans and society are intricate, and so are the solutions. Simply put, doing good is both simple and complex.
How do I review such a dense book? One letter? Impossible. There are twelve chapters and a detailed introduction, so I'll review the introduction and the first three chapters in this letter. Expect side comments, my favourite quotes from the book, and a lengthier-than-average letter.
Introduction
Jacob Harold starts with a personal story. As a kid, he'd trip and fall. His mom would comfort him, then turn to the ground, saying, "Let's check if the ground is okay." It was a distraction, but it also taught him something big: kindness is infinite. "We have enough kindness for a world that has held us up, even enough for a world that has hurt us." Kindness fuels our desire to serve, build, and love. You probably agree. And you'll agree that change is hard. The world doesn't easily bend to our visions of perfection.
Sidebar: I imagine that this was a Nigerian mother. She would likely ask bystanders to look away so he doesn't cry, or, in an attempt to comfort him, offer to beat the ground. I found that story interesting. Do you think there's a lesson in there?
If I were asked to summarize the introduction into five key ideas, they would be:
Social good is everyone's job, not just experts. A dream of something better is a good start.
We all contribute differently. Some of us will patch up the gaps in society by volunteering, some will build something fundamentally new, and others will seek to change the existing systems, whether as executives on the inside or activists on the outside.
The path to something better is rocky, steep, and difficult. There's no easy fix or silver bullet for many things.
The social impact space is full of narrow strategies that stumble against the complexity of the world. Don't be a hammer looking for nails. Use different tools for various problems.
There are four foundational mindsets to adopt:
• A "both/and" mindset.
• Clarity is powerful for action and collaboration. Humility is a type of clarity.
• Experimenting and learning at the same time.
• The right thing to do is the strategic thing to do. "Kindness can be strategic, and strategy can be kind."
Chapter 1: An Age of Flux
The chapter starts with two quotes that I enjoyed reading and that serve as problem statements.
"The real problem of humanity is the following: We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." - E.O. Wilson (American biologist and naturalist)
"We are relying on nineteenth-century institutions, using twentieth-century tools to address twenty-first-century problems." - Ann Mei Chang (CEO of nonprofit, Candid)
The author begins by alluding to the pandemic, the noble plans and strategies we all had like "Vision2020," but in retrospect, it was a pivot away from clarity. He discusses how the pandemic shook the world in numerous ways, introducing new challenges and exacerbating existing ones. He suggests that we're in a plastic hour/century when change is more possible. However, before change can occur, there must be an assessment of the world as it is. He calls it "The Good, The Bad, The Fast.”
Jacob agrees with Pope Francis that we're experiencing a "rapidification"—the velocity and acceleration of ideas and events. To put it simply, man is outpaced by the change he has wrought, and this has implications for decision-making. The decision space has collapsed, and reactions must be prompt in many areas of life, including social change. He examines the impact of "The Fast" across technology, culture, ecology, and politics.
"If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about the way and the extent of my participation in its living ongoing events." - Thomas Merton
Here are some takeaways and concluding quotes:
1. We live in a VUCA world according to military strategists—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. We must acknowledge the progress we've made, the challenges it presents, and succeed anyway.
2. When there is a fundamental change in the context of our world, such as Covid-19, a portal opens. We can choose to cling to the past and dead ideas, or embrace the future.
3. We must distinguish between clock time and opportune moments. Chronos- clock time. Kairos- opportune moment.
4. A versatile mindset is crucial for navigating an unpredictable future.
"In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer
"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong." - H.L. Mencken
Chapter 2: The Shape of Strategy
"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism; it is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out." - Václav Havel
Jacob starts by defining strategy. Strategy is the logic we use to allocate our resources to achieve a goal. A goal without logic is a desire. Resources without logic are potential. Logic without a goal makes you a machine. These elements are not constants; contexts can change, requiring a shift in logic. As you learn more, you might reframe your goal. The dilemma is balancing one's imagined pathway while remaining flexible enough to embrace a new route after learning in retrospect.
Social change is simply the work to make the world better. It is purposeful action. Man tries to bend the course of the future versus what might have been, resulting in social impact. We can make change at multiple scales. Think globally and locally, act globally and locally. What remains constant is that transforming the world often involves transforming ourselves.
Here are ten key takeaways from this chapter:
Strategy is a Pathway: Strategy lacks a fixed shape; it’s a process of thinking and acting through the unknown. It involves navigating uncertainty with adaptability.
Mindsets for Strategic Action: There are two primary mindsets: linear and cyclical. The linear mindset focuses on measurable outcomes and clear steps, but it often falls short in complex, non-linear realities. The cyclical mindset, which emphasises iteration and learning from feedback, is more adaptable and ethical for social change.
Cyclical Approach and Ethics: The cyclical mindset is particularly suitable for social change as it is responsive and does not place change agents above those they serve. However, a challenge arises if feedback continuously reinforces the status quo because constituents cannot envision a different world.
Balancing Speed and Patience: Determine how fast you want to move and how patient you’re willing to be. Both urgency and patience can be strategic, depending on the context and potential for change.
Spiral Mindset: Aspire to a spiral mindset that combines both linear and cyclical approaches. This mindset blends structure with flexibility to adapt to evolving circumstances.
Break in transmission: This chapter ends with book recommendations. All of which are available on DNF's drive. I'm willing to share the link with three founders, who are honestly interested in reading them.
Patterns of Social Change: Social change can follow various patterns:
Linear: Direct service provision (e.g., feeding one person at a time).
S-curve: Slow initial progress, acceleration, and levels off
Discrete Endpoint: Defined outcomes (e.g., voter referendums).
Cyclical: Patterns such as seasonal philanthropic giving and increase in revenue (Q4).
Preservation: Efforts focused on maintaining the status quo rather than driving change.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning: Monitoring involves collecting data about ongoing work, evaluation assesses progress against goals, and learning extracts lessons from both. Both quantitative and qualitative methods provide valuable insights.
Quantitative vs Qualitative Data: Quantitative data offers scale and strategic insight, while qualitative data provides depth and context. Both are crucial, but numbers alone do not always represent higher truths.
Effective Strategies and Tools: Sometimes, the best strategy is to replicate proven methods. Social change actors often work with imperfect information and must employ both intellectual and ethical strategies. The nine tools provided can be categorized into:
Individual Level: Storytelling, Behavioural Economics, Design Thinking.
Organisational Level: Community Organising, Mathematical Modelling, Game Theory.
Broader Context: Institutions, Complex Systems, Markets.
Chapter 3: Ethics and Social Change
Social change is a tangle of ethical puzzles. While tools are ethically neutral, humans are not. Harold provides what he calls the eight ethical dilemmas in social change:
1. Beliefs: Know what is true to you.
2. Consequences: Acknowledge winners and losers.
3. Time: You're both ancestor and descendant.
4. Money: Resources are power.
5. Truth: Describe reality with humility.
6. Identity: Acknowledge who you are.
7. Relationships: Act with others, not upon them.
8. Organisations: You're not your organisation.
The chapter explains these dilemmas in detail:
Beliefs: Every human has beliefs. Social change is about turning beliefs into actions. The challenge lies in reconciling our beliefs with those of others. We can and should fight for what we believe, but we only succeed when we acknowledge that others may feel differently.
Consequences: Choices create winners and losers. As change-makers, we shouldn't be blind to the unintended consequences of our choices. We must think things through and hold ourselves accountable. Exploring winners and losers helps us frame our stories, anticipate objections, neutralise opponents, and recruit allies.
Time: Acting as descendants, we may be guided by our ancestors' dreams, remedying past problems or fulfilling old aspirations. We must also consider the present and the needs of future generations, balancing trade-offs between past, present, and future.
Money: Articulate the ethical dimension of your decisions involving money—how you spend it, raise it, earn it, and give it. Money is power, influencing your decisions. Understanding the ethics of money helps navigate the challenges and conflicted sense of identity that comes with organising capital for good. Acknowledge the power dynamics between those asking for money and those providing it, the necessity of money for your work, and your personal need for it.
Truth: There is truth (the actual state of reality), truthfulness (the sincere attempt to be accurate), and truthiness (disregarding actual truth in favour of beliefs). According to philosopher Richard Reeves, trust is based on truthfulness rather than truth. Nonprofits must seek truth through facts and present a picture that is as accurate and sincere as possible. Trust is crucial in every area of life, including the nonprofit sector.
Identity: Our identities encompass dimensions such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and class, which shape our place in society. Each dimension defines our sense of self and influences our interactions. These dimensions intersect and do not operate independently. We must analyse where we fit in the social structure, acknowledge differences, and create space for commonality.
Relationships: In social impact, we navigate up, down, and sideways relationships. "Up" relationships involve those in power, whom we seek to influence despite potential unfairness or malintent. "Down" relationships are with those having less power, like volunteers and beneficiaries; we must acknowledge these dynamics and avoid abuse and guilt. "Sideways" relationships are with allies and colleagues who enhance our chances of success. Seeking transformative change alone often leads to failure. In each of these relationships, the best ones are defined by dignity.
Organisations: Many founders get encased in their organisation's identity and forget they are separate from it. This conflation, often not out of arrogance, can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Your emotional and ethical investment builds power and effectiveness, but you must know how to walk the line. Put on your oxygen mask before helping others. Remember, you contribute to and bear responsibility for your organisation's success and failures, but they are not wholly yours. Avoid "Founder's Syndrome," where staying too long causes stagnation. Plan for disentangling and transitions.
The chapter concludes by acknowledging that intentionality in social change requires ambition. However, ambition without humility is arrogance, which leads to delusion and failure. The key lesson is that kindness is effective.
Final side comment: This chapter recommends spiritual books for additional reading: the Bible, the Torah, the Quran, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. In the words of Abiola Adebiyi, "Development is very spiritual."
Dear Founder, I'm glad we made it to the end of the first part of the book review. Most importantly, I'm glad I kept my promise to myself. I want to say two things before we part. First, DNF will temporarily revert to a weekly letter for the month of August. Second, every Monday in August, we'll examine three tools together, starting with Storytelling, Mathematical Modelling, and Behavioural Economics next week. I said two things, but one last thing: this newsletter is still in the business of reading and replying to comments and personal mails. I want to hear your thoughts on the review—feedback or criticism.
We've come to the end. See you next week for another Monday morning delivery.
Best regards,
Pelumi from DNF
Hello Charles, thank you for sharing your learnings with me. They were both refreshing and encouraging to read. I love the lesson you have chosen to take from the story in the introduction. And I strongly agree that as humans we must be less result centred. No I haven't heard of Factoid, but now I do. Thank you, I'll be adding that to my vocabulary. Thank you Charles for your kind words. See you in the next letter.
Superb! Is all I got to say after reading the book review. This is something I’m personally grateful for due to the fact that I’m not the type that loves reading books even though I buy a lot of them just cos I know how beneficial reading them can be. But this is what I call a rescue as now I can learn from books even without reading them just cos someone is paying the price for us. I don’t think I can thank you enough for that.
I would also like to talk about my fave route aspect of the review which is found in the introductory part: who would think of checking on the ground to see if it’s hurt from tripping a kid? How best can you teach a anyone to love there enemies and approach life through an alternate lens against popular beliefs cos truly growing up, the ground recieved beating for such actions just to ease us as kids😅. Learning this means so much for me and I hope I’m able to pass on the message myself - I just learnt a new value and a new way to love, teach love and to solve problem💪.
Secondly, I learnt a lot from the quotes, however, my favorite in the book review is that of Havel: "Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism; it is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out." It helps me reaffirm my beliefs about trusting and enjoying the process while not relying outrightly on results to be happy. A belief-system I wish so many would imbibe.
Lastly I learnt two new words reading the review: Conflation ( act of merging things, texts, ideas etc into one ) and Truthiness ( making something seemingly true, not due to facts or reason but cos of how we feel about them). Never came across both before. This is one of the many reasons my dad would force me to read Newspaper growing up as a kid, but I resisted then cos it wasn’t an enjoyable thing for me, see me now learning the easy way - it’s not the hard way as anyone would have expected me to say.🤓 true my learning I came across a new word too - factoid! 😎 ever heard of that before? These are useful pieces of words in our everyday convo.
In general it was a long yet promising read and I look forward to reading your reviews on the remaining chapter of the book. Thank you DNF, and thank you Jacob!