CARE Failing Forward

CARE Failing Forward

By Emily JanochSociety & CultureBusinessNon-Profit
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CARE Failing Forward episodes

  • Digital Projects and the Danger of Expertise

    Mark Malhotra from CARE’s Innovation team talks about the process of designing digital solutions, and the danger of trusting experts when it seems like they aren’t delivering what you need. Human centered design, frequent check ins, and setting clear expectations with consultants all feature as tips to make your next digital experience easier. Tip: just because someone else in an expert, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

    16 min
  • Processes and Privilege: How to prioritize innovative local partners in market solutions

    Bob Rabatsky from Fintrac discusses his experiences as the Chief of Party for Feed the Future’s Partnering For Innovation, and what it teaches us about working with the private sector and market based solutions. Re-setting application processes to prioritize qualified local businesses, focusing on setting good milestones, and overcoming resistance to private sector solutions are some of his key takeaways.

    18 min
  • Weekly Screwups: the role of leaders in learning from failure.

    Everett Harper from CARE's board talks about the role of the leader in learning from failure, taking action to correct problems, and creating psychological safety. Some tools he refers to in creating safe spaces to learn from failure are:

    The Pre-Mortem: figuring out failures in advance, then building in mitigating actions before starting the project

    Retros: short for retrospectives, a repeated process for projects, teams, initiatives or companies, to open up a blameless, psychologically safe environment for team members to learn, improve and mitigate future risks. For leaders, it is an opportunity to access information and knowledge from people closest to the customer / beneficiary.

    Customer Development: articles from Steve Blank, Book by Cindy Alvarez , interview by Cindy (I love her work), 10 Things I've Learned about CD, and a basic "What is CD"

    19 min
  • What makes dreams impossible: How we can miss the mark on creating programs that last
    Hiba Tibi from Palestine talks about her favorite quote: "Fear of failure is the only thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve." Even in crisis and fragile settings, we must programs that create space for women's empowerment and will be economically viable in the long term. We can't let the changing environment prevent us from focusing on equality that will last. Check out the recent paper on how to do that with Women's Economic Empowerment programs, and the thinking on how to approach the Humanitarian and Development nexus for long term change.
    11 min
  • Mistake Money, Premortems, and other ways to incentivize talking about failure
    Susan Davis of Improve International talks about how we can incentivize talking about failure so we can make new mistakes rather than continuing to make the old ones. She also talks about how we can resolve problems as we find them in the Guidelines for Resolving Problems with Water Systems. Some tools she suggests are the Nakuru accord, pre-mortems, and innovative financing mechanisms—what she calls “Mistake Money”. What's the key? Getting communities involved in the conversation.
    23 min
  • Look to Line 238: what happens when reporting impact is optional
    Sarah Eckoff from CARE USA's Gender Justice Team talks about why when most of CARE's projects work on gender, 0% of them are reporting against the supplemental gender indicators. User experience with our reporting forms, the complexity of measuring gender, and the way we roll out tools are all a part of the story.
    20 min

About CARE Failing Forward

From the publisher's feed

CARE staff around the world talk about experiences we learn from failure, and how we use that to get better at our work.