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How much do we really embrace failure in the social sector? I ask this question because, as someone who has been lucky enough to be a part of the evaluation revolution over the past decade, embracing failure at an institutional level still remains elusive. Organizations and individuals alike still remain reluctant to lay bare the shortcomings of their efforts for a number of reasons that go well beyond just the fear of losing donor funding or having a black mark on your CV. Unfortunately, I’m not here today with a clear cut answer about how to embrace failure other than doing so ultimately requires the same focus and discipline that you would apply to any other skill. You must not specifically incorporate the recognition of failure into your planning and design, you must also be willing to practice it every day, ruthlessly. The good news is that, like so many other things, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you can create this discipline and practice in your life, you’ll learn faster, be more adaptable and, perhaps most importantly, the successes you do achieve will be that much sweeter. My guest for the 152nd Terms of Reference Podcast, Nithya Ramanathan, is someone who definitely embraces failure. So much so that the organization she co-founded, Nexleaf Analytics, recently published an article that enumerated the company’s failures for all the world to read about. Nexleaf focuses on how we can better use data to make a difference for those in need. More specifically, Nexleaf focuses on the use of low cost sensors to improve things like cold storage for vaccines or cookstoves for rural families, among many other applications. But, as you’ll hear in just a few minutes, while data is important for Nexleaf, it isn’t the true driving force behind their work. And this is where Nithya underscores in our conversation about the need to embrace failure and to continue to evolve your programs, processes and even yourself. You can connect with Nithya here:
IN TOR 152 YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- What Bangladeshi rice paddies have to teach a Computer Science PhD
- The transformative ingenuity required in low-cost tech innovation
- How a few degrees of temperature can make or break large scale vaccine programs
- The courage of embracing your own failures. Publicly. Through annual, peer-reviewed journal papers
- Why the World Bank might not be so sluggish in organizational and sector transformation as we all think
- The struggle of committing to an “institutional discipline” in Aid & Development
OUR CONVERSATION FEATURES THE FOLLOWING
Names:
- Nexteaf Analytics
- The World Bank
- Kevin Starr, Mulago (TOR 138)
- Saha Global (Ghana)
- DloHaiti
Topics:
- Data, Low-Cost Data Gathering
- Sensors
- Failure
- Computer Science
- Agriculture
- Internet of Things (IoT), Open Source
- Wildlife tracking, Birds
- Toxic air
- Cookstoves
- Data, Biases
- Markets, Market-Based Solutions
- Failure
- Information Systems, Interfaces
- Private Sector, Efficiency
- Social Entrepreneurship, Commitment
- Supply chains
Places:
- India
- California
- Bangladesh
EPISODE CRIB NOTES
Download an automated transcript. Nexleaf’s Previous Leaf 2009 Focus on helping accelerate impact through data Low cost data technologies When do you need information? Most of the time you don’t need expensive sensors Focus on the project\innovation cycle “My story starts in failure” Computer Science PhD, a project on rice paddies water monitoring in Bangladesh Before IoT was a thing Data was crunched in California Communities were thrilled, grateful for the insight Multi-university collaborative But ending done, paper published “I was embarrassed” for not being able to provide a sustainable solution After graduation, she kept thinking about it “We’re part of larger systems built to last” The Plan Iteration with co-founder (Martin?) in Nithya’s garage It was easy to gather a high-level team “We’re big time hackers” They “put it out there,” started receiving requests, “sometimes with money, often not” It didn’t matter “I don’t remember the first contacts” A conservancy was one of the first ones “He immediately got it.” He needed mass bird tracking First great experience Quick rapid prototyping made Open Source a must Another idea came from his father, about cookstoves in Syria 3b people breath toxic air A problem more lethal than AIDS A data-centric approach was needed Features phones were turned to track air quality Learning on real-time information “We’ve worked with a lot of smart people” And now, vaccines! “We stumbled into in” At a conference, talking with Medic Mobile about temperature sensors (one of the easiests) “You know, vaccines need to stay cool” “Tell me more” Indian Health Ministry was interested in keeping vaccines cool, and understand why it does not happen Barriers Government interaction “is actually one of the rewarding parts” “We all know data can lie, data is really biased” But desire to work together overcomes the biases Working with sensor data “presents a picture” People can come together and look at the raw data, ask questions together People test each other’s assumptions Market-based solutions “work sometimes”, it takes certain conditions to rule (forces, currency) Without it, other alignment and efficiency mechanisms must be put in place Incentives between donors, agencies, governments, need to be aligned “Alignment makes it all work, wonderful” Fall On Your Face Fest Nexleaf published a paper reviewing their failure “We’ve faced many failures. We’ve been pretty public about that” Stoves were polluting and breaking all the time Women had no easy way to fix them “It was difficult to admit it” Nexleaf had to make an intervention and “serious analysis”, in order to scale All of our work is with a local partner But the failure revealed more than a partner was needed: A full supply chain It is a challenge to vet partners There is no documentation “We’ve had to go talk to local technicians” “We’re based in California” The World Bank has been one of the main sources of learning What could the World Bank possible have to teach us? Individuals at the World Bank stand out They handle vast amounts of funding They are surprisingly comfortable with failure “I can’t speak for the whole bank, just a few we’ve worked with” WB embraced evidence-based financing “They’re in an interesting position” WB’s challenge is about large-scale impact measurement “I think they are doing a good job towards an untractable problem” They do iterate over data Nexleaf’s New Normal Mulago’s Kevin Starr (TOR 138) helped build Nexleaf mission statement “We didn’t get it until a couple of months ago” Risks. “We try to be fortright”, explaining reasons why something might not yield as expected Partners have been supportive in the risk and possibility of failure awareness Partnership with India installing vaccine sensors in 70k hospitals Nexleaf was also involve in a vast cookstove design, standards project There were difficult conversations “Impact will not be known” for a couple of years Standardization is crucial “Information systems sometimes are too varied” Interfaces It’s about the echo system, the supply shain “I’m a believer in bringing private sector efficiency” But not everything translates Social entrepreneurship requires special commitments Fixing a problem, willingness to dig beyond the contractual obligations The future is agriculture “Reducing produce loss” Role of the cold chain in the loss Role of refrigeration in quality, added value of agricultural products “It’s exciting to have evolving conversation” “We have a brand we’ve worked hard for” “We will continue to fail, and be very public about that” Won’t you walk away, the sun won’t swallow the sky “We’re still learning” Walking away from bird tracking was a long decision “We’re getting more disciplined” and stick with the metrics If something (partners, technology, people) is not working, it must be stopped Due diligence issues Public expectations to stay accountable “It’s really hard” Can’t deny opportunities might be turned down “I’m not good at saying know” Nithya’s fresh leaves “Conversations with my network of advisers” Kevin Starr “So much amazing stuff out there” Saha Global (Ghana) DloHaiti, clean waterPlease share and participate
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