Unreasonable Reflections

I spent my June at the Unreasonable Institute (the name comes from George Bernard Shaw's quotation, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [and woman]"--I heard this line more than a few dozen times this summer) representing Global Cycle Solutions. I have to say, the video team collected some remarkable footage, but as I successfully evaded the camera most of the Institute, I figure a few thoughts are overdue. (I liked the film crew plenty, I just didn't feel as natural with them around.)

The Format

The Institute was an incubator for 22 social enterprises. They selected 25 enterprises, but 3 of the fellows were unable to get visas to come to the United States (it's taking every ounce of restraint in my body to avoid posting my thoughts on visa policy). The Institute focused on bringing in mentors from all sorts of disciplines to help develop the ventures. On top of that, they left open time for us to work on our ventures (my favorite spot was in the library, where I could multi-task on the large, speedy iMacs).

CU-Boulder were wonderful hosts and the organizers managed to arrange for us to share a house (formerly a fraternity house), which was great for building community. There was a ping-pong table, a long row of tables in the dining room so we could eat meals as a big family, a volleyball court out front, a nice deck out back and a fantastic lounge that was filled with couches and bean bags and could accommodate all of us plus a few guests. All the spaces got plenty of use.

The Mentors

There were some outstanding mentors who came and visited. Some gave formal lectures, while others preferred to have intimate discussions with the whole group in the bean bag room and nearly all of them agreed to have one-on-one sessions with as many ventures as possible. I'll just mention a few of my favorite mentors below (don't worry, there are other favorites not listed).

Paul Polak - I knew Paul a bit from D-Lab at MIT, but it's always nice talking to him again. He founded IDE and is now working to open a water company called Windhorse International. He has traveled extensively and has very strong opinions about development. Even though few people agree with everything he says, he usually asks the right questions about the direction of a venture and can really push people. He led one of the most interesting group discussions over the whole summer and in spite of the fact that he was addressing individual ventures, he seemed to be offering advice that helped everyone.

David Kyle - He is now at the Indian School Finance Company, but he was previously the COO at Acumen and spent a long time in Brazil and other developing countries with CitiBank. My first interaction with him was rather embarrassing. He was due to present, and we all took turns doing introductions, but I was asked by a staff member to introduce him five minutes before he was due to start. The interview was very rushed and I felt like I made a poor impression (he had a fantastically long resume, and thirty minutes, would have been difficult to do him justice). However, after his session, we talked at length about business and he seemed really on board with GCS and we got along really well. We had a series of discussions about the company and he offered a lot of helpful advice. He had some great insights and I will definitely be keeping in touch with him moving forward.

Revi Sterling - She runs the ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) program at CU-Boulder. She had done lots of fieldwork (that was a refreshing contrast from the majority of mentors who had scarcely worked in developing countries, or if they had, stayed mostly in the affluent parts of the big cities) and the bulk of her experience was in Kenya and India (like me). She was very frank and worried about many harmful projects done in the name of development and always seemed to know what she was talking about when she spoke. I think that her attitude rubbed a few people the wrong way, but I really appreciated her wisdom and insights.

Elnor Rozenrot - He has done extensive work in product development and was most recently at Innosight Ventures. He condensed some pretty heavy content into two wonderful sessions. He was basically teaching us how to frame the questions as we work on our designs and made a powerful impact with his brilliance. He didn't have enough time for one-on-ones with everyone, so I approached him while he was outside on a break and discussed GCS a bit. He had the same advice as Paul Polak, and between the two of them, they really got me thinking in a new direction about important questions.

Neal Baer - He was previously an Executive Producer on ER and then on Law & Order: SVU. I confess that I was initially planning to skip his session to get some work done. However, I met him the evening before and had a wonderfully engaging conversation with him, and made sure that I didn't miss a minute of what he had to say. He was talking a lot about how to tell a compelling story without making circumstances melodramatic. He has traveled extensively and has a long list of connections. Before he left, I had several long conversations with him, ranging from the pros and cons of micro-finance to the hazards of UNESCO offering a prize in the name of a notorious dictator (one of the other fellows raised this cause as a social justice issue and Neal replied the next day that he had it on good authority from an important UN official that the prize would be cancelled) to working in eastern Africa. I really enjoyed my conversations with him.

There were also some rather disappointing mentors and entirely too few mentors with real experience in development. One of them seemed to think that he was doing impressive work by helping poor people who lived around the US Embassy in a certain impoverished country and couldn't answer even basic technical questions about his work. Another person showed off pictures of her smiling next to destitute children and made a string of outlandish claims about the costs of various philanthropic interventions. And another mentor seemed to have nothing interesting to say, but loved to hear himself talk and constantly interrupted mentors giving useful sessions with trivial or asinine thoughts. There were other unfortunate mentors, but these were the most egregious. I was grateful, however, that all mentors (good and bad) allowed us to ask questions and really challenge them on their arguments.

The Fellows

There were some pretty incredible people at the Institute. Nnaemeka works on rural radio programs in Nigeria and had a huge booming voice and a gloriously friendly way about him. Khalida works in rural Pakistan on social justice and made every effort to learn about all the cultures present and teach about hers. Rafael came from Indiana and was working on relief shelters, but more than that, he seemed to work 24/7 and had awe-inspiring humility (and he was one of my wonderful roommates). Pierre from France (working to make sports accessible to disabled individuals in Africa), Fernando from Brazil (working with blind people in Brazil), and Jehan and Simon from Australia (working on sanitation) brought our daily dose of humor and then some and made the house a really fun place to be. Cesar (another wonderful roommate) originally came from Peru (though he's lived in the US for some time now) and was working on housing was so thoughtful and really easy to talk to. Trina was working with trafficked women in India and was always around for a conversation. Jason and Tim from the US were working on bio-charcoal (so obviously, I instantly loved their project) and seemed really on the ball with their work. Zehra from Pakistan (and a fellow MIT alum) was working on using local materials for insulation and was always cheerful and positive, which raised everyone's spirits (and she made me lots of ginger tea when I was sick). Maria from the US had a wonderfully big heart and was so committed to her work on finding employment for street kids in Kenyan slums (we had plenty to discuss). Guido from Venezuela was working on a diagnostic tool for neglected tropical diseases and had an inspiring way about him. Ben also came from the US and was working on linking micro-finance to mobile phones to reach people in Sierra Leone and was just an all-around great guy. Tej from the UK was a constant source of entertainment and also a fountain of knowledge about finances. And Ullas and Anuroop from India, working on educational tools brought such depth and perspective to the program and seemed to be doing great things everyday.

I could certainly say wonderful things about all the fellows, but I worry that I'm starting to ramble, so I'll move on.

Socializing

My favorite social moments were watching the World Cup with different people. I think I offended several Americans by wearing my Ghana shirt (I bought it when I was in Accra in 2008) as we sat down to watch the Ghana-USA match (and cheering at the outcome). I also went on a few diatribes about the Uruguay-Ghana game (long story short, that shouldn't have been a penalty kick in the 121st minute; it needs to be an automatic goal, otherwise the incentives are in the wrong place). There were lots of ups and downs throughout the tournament, but all in all, it was definitely a good shared experience.

There were also regular trips to bars, hookah bars and salsa clubs. I went about half the time, but some people managed to find time to go out most nights. I certainly felt my wallet getting lighter pretty quickly. Still, it was nice to go out and talk with the fellows and staff, and sometimes the mentors would come out and we got to see a different side of them.

Volleyball was my favorite part, though. We usually forgot the score pretty quickly and just played for fun. We liked to shout things across the court in a variety of languages (usually meaningless strings of words) and we played most days (including a few games out in the rain). I was disappointed that we only mustered one frisbee game (there was a game of catch where I got to climb onto the roof after throwing the frisbee up there).

Struggles

In some ways, the Institute was difficult because there were so many ventures working on different projects in different parts of the world facing different challenges. Many of the sessions were great for about half the group and were discussing concerns that were either irrelevant, or too far in the future or past to worry about. The staff had rules that we weren't allowed to have our computers open during the sessions (that was rather detrimental to me, since I work better with my computer in front of me), and told us that they would prefer us to leave sessions if they were not useful rather than use our computers (there were a good number of mandatory sessions). Ultimately I successfully lobbied to appoint a person to be secretary for each session so that we could have some typed-up notes after the fact. Still, I hope that for the future, the staff will bring together a more coherent group of ventures so that it's easier to bring in universally relevant mentors.

I made composting a personal crusade. I did research and phone calls and found out where it needed to go on campus, I set out a separate bin for vegetable waste (we generated lots every day, since it was usually food for 30 and there were several vegetarians), and I tried to rally support among the other residents. Most people were indifferent, but some people made it clear that they felt hassled by this. Guido was wonderful and helped me drag a full bin across campus (I had gotten some bad directions and it wound up being a long trip, but it was a good chance to get to know a really great guy) to the recycling center where they process compost. And then, at the end of June, Guido and I both got a nasty virus and weren't really up for dealing with it at the time. The solution was to throw the compost in the trash and say that there would be no more composting. Now, I'm sure that I was really adorable with my sniffles and weary disposition, but the person who was informing me of this decision was laughing and condescending and really succeeded at making me feel miserable.

***(THIS PARAGRAPH ADDED ON OCTOBER 9) There was a rather embarrassing episode with the mailing lists for the Institute. They created three lists and told us that one was just the UI staff, one was just the UI Fellows, and one was the combination of the two. A week later, as some fellows decided to plan a surprise party for one of the non-administrative UI staff members, they used list number 2 (fellows only) to discuss plans. It was rather disconcerting to learn that the staff member was in fact part of the email list. As was the entire administrative team. The exact description of the list was "only fellows will receive the e-mail". I'm glad that this information came out in a harmless situation, but I know some people would have used this list as a forum for privately raising issues that they didn't want to share with the administrative staff. This administrative opacity arose again with the discussion of selecting fellows to be featured by the TV crew, and I was glad to be gone when that fracas was going on.

There was a heavy atmosphere of self-congratulation. A lot of people seemed to be patting themselves on the back. Of course, there were some pretty remarkable accomplishments and I was really impressed by what some people pulled off. But, I always feel like I should be working harder and doing more, so the whole process left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm totally on board with encouraging people going through a rough patch, but I got tired of the celebration of tiny victories pretty quickly.

Also, we were planning to split the time at the Unreasonable Institute between Jodie and myself. There are a lot of aspects of the company where I'm not really the best person to take the lead. However, things became super-busy in Tanzania (that was definitely great for the company), so I tried to ask the questions that I had and come up with questions that Jodie would ask if she were around. There were times when I found myself in a bit over my head. But Jodie and I were sending a few emails back and forth most days, so at least I knew what was happening on the ground and she knew what was going on in Colorado.

And of course, when you get a bunch of 20-somethings together, there's bound to be drama. I tried to steer clear, but found myself pulled in a few times. There were difficult romances and frictions between cultures and other random tensions. Fortunately, most people were pretty laid back about everything and most things worked themselves out in the end.

Thanks for reading this far

The Institute had its ups and downs, but it was definitely a memorable experience at the Unreasonable Institute. They brought together some remarkable people and provided some great resources for GCS. The $6500 price-tag (well, it's a little more complicated than that) seemed a bit high for the program, but they did fly in a lot of people. And I appreciate the fact that they listened to all my feedback (and I had a lot) and seemed grateful for everyone's opinions. It will be very interesting to hear how the second institute turns out.