Three Cups of Learning

1. Having a bunch of money isn't always helpful.

Mortenson's nonprofit, the Central Asia Institute (CAI), raised so much money so fast that they didn't have to be careful about how they spent it. They didn't have to do their research, take time creating local partnerships, learn from their mistakes, etc. Some of the most creative and productive times in my own work have come when money was tight. That's why one of the exercises we use in our training is to give teams this challenge: What new thing would you try if you had no rules and no money? There is a sweet spot between having enough resources to work with that your organization isn't starving but not so much that you don't have to be creative – or careful.

2. Not taking place seriously is a quick route to last place.

Locals are reported to have described Mortenson and his group as a bunch of "cowboys who parachuted in and didn’t listen. Now they had schools in the wrong places and no one to teach the kids."  This is what happens when - because of arrogance or ignorance - you fail to pay attention to your context and treat people as passive recipients rather than active partners.

One of my favorite international nonprofits was started by a woman who spent time over several years getting to know the women and families who lived in one of the poorest neighborhoods of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She asked them to tell her about their biggest challenges and what they thought should be done about it and how they thought she could help. And she listened. Then - and only then - did she partner with them, in a truly participative process, to open Casa de los Angeles.

Here's what has happened since then: "Casa de los Angeles was founded on September 18, 2000. It has grown over the years to now serve more than 100 children from 83 families at two centers. In addition to daycare, the centers provide a place for mothers to find the support and the help they need to make a good life for themselves and their children. Casa de los Angeles is able to provide medical care for the families, a food bank, summer camp, and scholarships. In late 2003 a construction program was initiated to build bathrooms and houses for the families we serve. On January 29, 2005 Casa Santa Clara was dedicated. It is a transitional housing program and emergency shelter for our poorest families. Finally, on August 9, 2008, we opened the second center which includes a daycare, a mom’s center and free clinic on land which was generously donated by Doña Teresita. All that we do at Casa de los Angeles is done in a relationship of mutuality that respects the dignity of each individual."

Too many businesses, nonprofit orgs, and churches look at their neighbors almost exclusively through the lens of "what people need" in order to figure out how to create services and/or goods that people will "buy" – rather than seeing their neighbors as potential co-creators of a new, better reality for all. Casa is the story of what happens when you partner with the people you hope to reach. (Read more about co-creation in our FREE eBook, The Shift: 5 Big Ideas That Will Shape The Way You Work in the Emerging Future.)

3. You can't dance if you only know one step.

Working in an emergent, renewable way takes knowing - and doing - all four steps in what we call the 4-D Cycle:

From the looks of it, Mortenson and co only bothered to take one of these steps: Do. They didn't bother with Discovering what the real issues or potential solutions were, based on what people who actually lived in the context thought, and making a Decision on the basis of that information. And it sure looks like they never bothered to Debrief what was happening. They just kept Doing - building school after empty school. (You can read more about the 4-D Cycle in our book, The Future Starts Now.)

More than anything else, the whole situation with Mortenson and CAI just saddens me. What a wasted opportunity - what a waste of money. You and I can learn a few things from it all. Hopefully they will, too.