How can you ensure that your work has a lasting impact?

In my experience, the value of passing on the torch and sharing institutional knowledge with those that come after us is absolutely invaluable. As a longtime advocate for women and other underrepresented minorities, I passionately believe in the power of continuous learning. An innovative and thriving collaborative environment requires sharing lessons learned and best practices recommendations, to successfully foster a team of empowered individuals. Further, embracing innovation involves actively seeking creative solutions, amplifying voices, and ensuring inclusivity remains at the core of every endeavor.

Design and implement a project's sustainability plan from the day one of the project, could be the key. This is supposed to understand who, how, and why, will be interested in continuing (some of) the project's work, take over its impact and going further. This requires lot of thinking, negotiating and planning from the start of the project. It is like a parallel project to implement in the same time with the project someone would like to see as being sustainable.

Imagine o trabalho como uma jornada através do vasto território do conhecimento. Nessa aventura, cada resposta, cada explicação, é como um pedaço do mapa que ajuda a desbravar os caminhos do entendimento. A busca constante por informações precisas e relevantes funciona como uma bússola, orientando na direção da excelência. Como um contador de histórias, cada interação é um capítulo, e cada parágrafo contribui para a narrativa mais ampla do aprendizado humano. Assim, ao tecer essa trama intricada de palavras, o impacto será duradouro, deixando uma marca significativa na jornada intelectual daqueles que buscam conhecimento.

1. Implement training programs to improve time management skills. 2. Develop initiatives to increase financial accessibility for entrepreneurs. 3. Offer confidence-building workshops to enhance belief in their own skills and abilities. 4. Create awareness campaigns to lower socio-cultural pressures influencing business decisions. 5. Establish policies and measures that combat discrimination affecting entrepreneurs.

Ensuring that your work has a lasting impact starts with clearly defining your impact goals. This involves setting SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that guide your efforts. Setting such clear goals helps in maintaining focus and provides a framework for tracking and evaluating progress. Moreover, well-defined goals enable you to communicate the impact of your work effectively to stakeholders, funders, or the public, demonstrating the value and relevance of your efforts.

My Father would always say about values, choices and legacy, "Remember whose child you are". Just as our individual philosophies and values mould us, so also a company - as a legal "being" benefits from having core principles and values that can be applied to its projects and business transactions and which, more importantly, outlive the founders. Therefore, defining core goals and thereafter creating systems which, at their core, focus on environmental, social and economic impact, sustainability and development is crucial to ensuring long lasting and incremental growth, benefits and impacts over time; which are also usually measurable and evident.

🌍 Sustaining Impact: Crafting Adaptable Systems for People and Change 🔄 Ensuring a lasting impact goes beyond traditional ESG and SDG frameworks. It involves building a fluid system adaptable to changing circumstances, needs, and personnel. Establish criteria based on values, lives impacted, and continuous revitalization with fresh faces and ideas. This approach, exemplified by organizations like the UN Fellowship, creates a dynamic and sustainable framework for enduring social impact.

Designing for sustainability involves a holistic approach that considers environmental, social, and economic aspects throughout a product or system's life cycle. This entails optimizing resource efficiency, selecting eco-friendly materials, and minimizing energy consumption. Circular design principles, emphasizing reuse and recycling, promote a more sustainable use of resources. Additionally, a focus on social impact ensures fair labor practices, ethical sourcing, and positive contributions to communities. User-centered design, adaptability, and modularity contribute to longer product lifespans, reducing waste. Local sourcing and production, coupled with transparency in communication, foster environmentally conscious consumer choices.

Designing for sustainability is crucial in ensuring that social impact efforts are not transient. A challenge often faced is ensuring the longevity and scalability of solutions. To overcome this, it is essential to integrate sustainability into the core strategy from the outset. This involves a thorough analysis of the long-term environmental, social, and economic implications, and developing a model that can adapt and thrive even as circumstances change. Engaging with stakeholders and aligning with local values are key in creating self-sustaining systems that communities can own and operate beyond the initial intervention.

To ensure project sustainability, starting with a solid plan is crucial. always have a clear picture of what is to be achieved, decide on the lasting impact and align resources and create a plan that keeps the impact flowing. For social initiatives/projects improper planning and utilisation of funds create a barrier to project sustainability leading to stopping the project. All the factors should be considered before project initiation. Think about how your work will affect the environment, society, and economy. Being flexible and setting up a review mechanism to monitor and make necessary changes In the plan helps a lot!

Trust can only be earned by leading by example. You should also respond to the needs of others and adopt their perspective. This is the only way interdisciplinarity can work.

In designing impact goals. I find it important to acknowledge that impact goals can have unintended consequences. For example, my impact goals are neurodiversity advocacy. One of the unintended consequences is that people may consider supporting any specific groups as reversed discrimination. In other words, setting the impact goals is also about how to deal with different views.

Allyship is super critical in dealing honestly with systemic power imbalances that perpetuate inequality and inequity. Effective leaders in both nonprofits and corporations prioritize long-term goals, develop strategic plans, and align their organizations towards a shared vision, ensuring sustained impact. Leaders who encourage innovation, adapt to changing circumstances, and embrace new technologies can make lasting impact in a dynamic environment.

"Nkan ti agba ri lori ijoko, omode ko le ri, ti oba gun ori igi" - A Yoruba proverb, meaning "What an elder - or more experienced or one more advanced in knowledge - sees while seated, a child - or less experienced person or one possessing less knowledge - cannot see it even if they climbed up a tree". I loosely use "elders or experienced ones" here as a metaphor for "stakeholders" or those impacted by your project. Truth is one cannot know or see all the effects/outcomes of a project (even if we did climb up a proverbial tree), we therefore MUST hear from & actively LISTEN TO, those keenly interested in the project; gathering information achieves this. We gain project champions, avoid pitfalls & prepare/plan for non-supporters this way.

In addition to the important factors already discussed, I believe that the capacity, political will, and the historical and cultural context of the institution owning a project will significantly influence its sustainability.

Monitoring and evaluation systems need to be designed to facilitate learning and course corrections in strategy and implementation. In addition, the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework provides a template to A. Include project KPIs and KRAs (defined in the MEL framework) as benchmarks to assess team performance B. Gives teams a view of the ‘big picture’ I.e. the nature and scale of social impact envisaged. This makes conversations around KPIs shift from short term targets to strategic discussions based on envisaged impact.

The Japanese have a saying "Nana korobi ya'oki” which translated means 'Fall down seven times, get up eight". It speaks to resilience in the face of tough times and a focused determination regardless of setbacks. To fail forward however, one must learn from past errors, truly understand the why's and re-strategize on how to achieve the goals, armed with the lessons learnt, new economic realities (if applicable) and the improved goals and/or plans to achieve them. Some criticisms are neither personal nor narcissistic - BUT some are - learn the difference, accept the ones that are wholesome & for your improvement and discard - entirely- the others. Adapt accordingly. Keep going. Onwards always!

Long-term impact measurement can be a really tricky space! It's often nebulous and sharing that reality with others and being transparent can be helpful in encouraging and educating individuals in the world of social impact.

Challenges, uncertainties, and changes are part of the life, understanding what went wrong, learning, adapting will always help overcome the challenges and also innovate in the existing things whether it maybe social, personal or professional initiative or project. Collecting feedback and data from your work by setting up a review mechanism to control and monitor always helps a lot in the growth. Sharing your learnings and best practices with others helps you grow. Stay flexible, embrace innovation, and let creativity lead. My journey has taught me adapting isn't weakness; it's a strength. Your work is like a story – let it evolve, learn from each chapter, and make it a narrative that lasts. Thrive, not just survive!

If you fail, you need to analyse exactly why.Then an action should beThen an action should be takenAction should then be taken.Then an action should be successfulThen action should be takenThen action should be taken, Then action should be taken, e.g. other participants, training courses. In extreme cases, however, you must also be able to make the decision not to pursue an idea any further.

Define you core values! Clearly identify the principles and standards that guide your organisation. For us at Oceana UK, this means a steadfast commitment to environmental stewardship, integrity, and science-based advocacy. These values shape every decision and action we take. By ensuring that your work is aligned with your core values and ethical standards, you lay a strong foundation for creating lasting impact.

In the pursuit of lasting impact, aligning work with values is paramount. Reflect on principles guiding decisions, ensuring harmony with stakeholders' values and global impact frameworks. Uphold ethics, transparency, and accountability for credibility. Following these steps not only boosts the potential for lasting impact but also fosters personal and professional growth. Social impact is an ongoing journey, demanding commitment, collaboration, and creativity.

Aligning with values is critical while you want to make a lasting impact. always identify the guiding principles steering your decisions and actions in any project. Make sure your values resonate with beneficiaries & partners. Align with big goals like Sustainable Development Goals for social impact projects to make lasting impacts. Ensure your work is ethical, transparent, and accountable in alignment with your values and ethics. by ensuring the following , you're not just creating an impact but ensuring it lasts.

Values must be defined in advance. If you mean sustainability in the sense of ecology, for example, you should only surround yourself with team members who have the same values. For example, there are banks with an exclusively ecological goal. You can exclude companies in the automotive or aviation industry. There are many ways of living your values and showing them to the outside world. This is also important in order to remain authentic.

Work that leaves a lasting mark is deeply rooted in core values. When your actions and decisions are in alignment with what you and your organization stand for, they resonate more with everyone and have a greater chance of making an enduring impact. Constantly ask yourself, How does this project reflect our principles? Values-driven work has a unique power to inspire trust and loyalty, ensuring that your impact is not only deep but also meaningful.

In my experience people are drawn to those brave in their showing of vulnerability. Wearing your heart on your sleeve often garners respect, support and following. I've found the more open you are with your ideas, and willingness to accept and learn from failure not only builds others up for success, but improves your lasting imprint on people and cause. It is not number of projects, profit or KPI's achieved alone that define success in your work; the most important measure is often our impact on others in hardship and times of growth that leaves a lasting impact and scales positive behaviour, expectation or compassion.

Invest your time in mentoring and coaching younger colleagues and creating opportunities for them to grow, lead, and gain recognition for their work. The more people who develop expertise and experience working to solve these issues, the greater our collective impact. Coaching, mentoring, and teaching are critical tools to amplify change.