How to scale wothout losses
Recently, I was supporting a local community initiative during a stage of rapid growth in their thinking process on scaling their activities.
Their struggle was that expanding their work outside of their community would have weakened their impact on the community they serve. But without leaving this familiar soil, growth seemed impossible. So, we tried to understand how we can scale without losing our value to the community.
The answer was the scheme attached, and an understanding of the following:
1️⃣ Yes, the target group we serve stays the same and is unlikely to change, so all the focus should be there
2️⃣ However, we understand that the community does not live in a vacuum: its members are surrounded by other people every single day, and if we refuse to work with this environment, we will be stuck fighting one battle after another, eternally. Therefore, the more we influence those who affect our community, the better world we build
3️⃣ On the next level, all of us live in society: with all its norms, rules, policies, prejudices, etc. And if we don't work with society on a large scale, our efforts at the local level will drown.
Grassroots initiatives do amazing work serving their communities every day. But if the goal is to scale that work and change the world, we should plan boldly. Sometimes that means aiming beyond the communities we directly serve - while always keeping in mind why we do what we do.
