NGO Soul + Strategy 066. How to navigate the big scaling quandary: Amy Ragsdale @ Spring Impact
Summary
What is scaling? And how is it different from growing?
What’s the role of partner strategies or multiplier strategies in scaling?
What are the implications of scaling in an era of decolonizing aid, localizing development, and shifting roles of nonprofits and NGOs, shifting power, authority and decision rights?
In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Amy Ragsdale, Director at Spring Impact, a consulting, coaching and training agency specializing in scaling strategiesfor mission-focused organizations, on how to navigate the big scaling quandary.
Amy’s Bio:
- Director at Spring Impact
- Senior Consultant at Capgemini Consulting
- Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
We discuss:
- Spring Impact offers coaching, consulting services, and training for mission-focused organizations keen to scale their impact
- Growing the size of an organization or solution means increasing its revenue and/or impact at the same rate as adding resources to an organization. Scaling means you are impacting a societal problem at a larger scale, by increasing impact exponentially, while adding resources incrementally
- Central questions to ask: 1/ What are we scaling?; 2/ Where are we scaling?; 3/ Who will do the scaling? Who are the ‘doers’? Who are the ‘payers’?
- The following attributes of the organizational culture of social mission organizations act as enablers for scaling success: 1/openness to failure; 2/ an ability to hold our hypothesis on what works lightly; 3/ a realization that invention is not the same as innovation!
- The following leadership mindsets are enablers as well: 1/ clarity whether your org is pursuing growth or impact; 2/ staying committed to the problem (NOT the solution); 3/ being collaborative by default
- Financial sustainability models underpinning scaling strategies: examples can be government funding; earned income revenue; fee for service; advertising - and more
Quotes:
“Scaling is not the same as growing. The two are often confused. ”
“Invention is not the same as innovation! (the latter involves testing and learning)”
Resources:
YouTube video of this podcast
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