Our conversation started me reflecting on the way we thought about our work when Fourth Partner was doing grantmaking.  There are two illustrations of that and, ironically, both are related to our work with Hispanics.  The Hispanic Business Alliance was the result of my being upset with Steve Murdock’s report to the Chamber of Commerce about Hispanic immigration. The Mayor’s COOL program came out of an experience I had with a guidance counselor at Lee who was surprised when I asked her how many Hispanic students were going on to college.  She admitted they did very little counseling with minorities and were pretty much content to send everyone they could to TJC.  I was friends with a young Hispanic, Moises Gonzalez, and he told me had received no counseling at all.  He was brilliant and wanted to be an architect.  That made me angry and determined to help him get into A&M.  As I said yesterday, after figuring out that the “game” was won or lost in the admissions process, I asked someone knowledgeable about the process to go with him to A&M.  He was accepted and graduated.  He now works for Claycomb Associates in Dallas. (http://www.claycomb.net/)  They design public schools!

So…here is the way we thought about it when we took that experience and decided to turn it into an initiative of Fourth Partner.  I probably don’t have the order right but I’m just jotting them down as I think of them:

  1. We originally thought guidance counselors and school administrators would be our allies and want to help more “first in their family” students get into college. We were wrong. They were more interested in protecting the system than changing it. Peter Drucker told me, “Only work with those who are receptive” and he was right. Who you think might be your obvious allies are not so don’t assume people working in early childhood education are interested in change or disrupting the system. That was a hard lesson for us to learn but it was critical.
  2. Focus on a piece of the puzzle and be prepared for staying invested. You cannot “fix” the system but you can make some changes that will have a ripple effect.
  3. Learn as much as you can about the issue and the existing players before you step in. If you learn too much you will suffer “paralysis by analysis” but if you learn too little you will pay a much higher “dumb tax” and in the end get few results.
  4. Once you have started learning go back and clarify what you want to do. The clearer you get the more impact you will have. Everyone will try and distract you with a larger mission that will include their issues and organizations. Be ruthless.
  5. Make small bets at first. What we used to call “low cost probes” or tuition. See what works.
  6. “Crawl, walk, run” is a great way to see what works and what doesn’t. Go slow before you go fast.
  7. When you know what you want to do then do it. There is a time to pull the trigger.
  8. Find monomaniacs and back them. Don’t try to add what you want to do to the mission of an existing organization unless they are as committed to do it as you are – and likely they are not or they would already be doing it.
  9. Establish a very few things you want to measure and then be honest.
  10. I have a sign on my wall. “First Ideas, Then Results” It’s the truth.

Blessings.  I love spending time with you all.