Your team members have conflicting social impact causes. How do you unite them towards a common goal?

Let's brainstorm the underlying values we all hold dear, such as sustainability, social justice, or community development. Finding common ground in our core values can help us see how our individual causes can contribute to a larger vision. Perhaps we can identify broader social impact goals we can all get behind. Maybe we want to empower marginalized communities, promote environmental stewardship, or reduce social inequality. Once we have a shared overarching goal, we can then tailor our efforts within those parameters, allowing for individual cause specialization. By focusing on our shared values and overarching goals, we can create a collaborative and impactful social impact initiative.

1. Identify Common Values: • Collaboration • Integrity • Innovation • Excellence • Sustainability • Respect 2. Align Goals with Values: • For each value, brainstorm goals that reflect and uphold these principles.

Fostering inclusivity is crucial when team members have conflicting social impact causes. To unite them towards a common goal, start by creating an open and respectful dialogue where each member can share their perspectives and values. Highlighting the shared vision and underlying principles that connect their diverse causes can help find common ground. Encourage collaboration on projects that integrate elements of each member's passion, demonstrating how their unique contributions can complement one another. By building an inclusive environment that values all voices and fosters mutual respect, you can align the team towards a collective mission, leveraging their diverse strengths to achieve greater social impact.

Intersectional causes often yield the greatest results and provide the leverage to get the needs of a more marginalized group addressed. For example, if there is less stigma around workers taking public transit, and there is more regular public transit, and there are better roads along the transit routes & better sidewalks to the stops, the result is that more people can work: disabled folks, folks without cars, folks who can't afford parking, etc. What helps the biggest cross-section can lead to improvements in quality of life, more disposable income to support local businesses, and less reliance on taxis or rides from friends. What breaks these systems is stigma against one group or another.