Seth's Monday Morning Mojo

Grand Challenges

Several association leaders I work with have created a grand challenge. A grand challenge is bold and aspirational goal that requires innovation to solve publicly recognized important issue while capturing the imagination.

Here are some examples:
�    Barbara Byrd Keenan, CEO of the Endocrine Society and former CEO of the Institute of Food Technology, led an initiative to apply the expertise of food technologists to the global dilemma of feeding the world�s future population, 9 billion in 2050. She garnered the support of large, multi-national corporations as well as multi-lateral development organizations like USAID.
�    Chris McEntee, Executive Director and CEO of the American Geophysical Union, is developing the Thriving Earth Exchange, a platform for bringing together people who need solutions, scientist problem-solvers, and sponsor-funders.
�    David Gammel, Executive Director of the Entomological Society of America, is bringing bug scientists together to deal with issues of global import such as the prevention of insect-borne disease, food contamination, and threats to shelter.

Each of these leaders has taken the unique expertise and experience of their members and focused it on make a positive diffference in the world.

Here are some things to consider if you would like to lead a grand challenge:

1. The CEO must take this on as a special project, as this kind of visionary effort relies on the confluence of (a) the CEO�s passion, (b) her ability to marshal and develop her organization�s capacity to deliver, and (c) her ability to communicate the emotional core of this effort to all the various stakeholders.

2. Conduct an ethnographic investigation to identify and articulate the emotional center of this work, the powerful human magnet that will draw the best minds and the necessary resources to you to achieve this new challenge. The more powerful this is, the easier it will be to attract resources and find partners with power to contribute. Ethnographic research is done through research, conversations, focus groups, and meetings with key players. Some of these people are known and others will be identified along the way, including:
       a. Individual star players inside the membership
       b. External thought leaders
       c. Other leaders of grand challenges in other organizations
       d. Volunteer leaders

3. Study and document other organizations that are pursuing their own grand challenges to identify other working leadership models for you to adopt or transpose to your needs.

4. Develop your Road Map to include a timeline, milestones, and resource requirements: the people, skills, work, time, and budget necessary to move from current operations through execution.

A grand challenge typically takes 12-24 months from initial idea to ready-for-execution, depending upon how much attention the CEO gives to it. Many activities are iterative. The trajectory of the project takes place in three stages: Foundation, Development, and Summit.

Foundation is all about building the acceptance, appetite, and conceptual infrastructure to support what is bound to be an up-and-down journey filled with slow climbs and fast accelerations. Development is the process of growing, advancing, and refining your grand challenge so it is robust, well-supported, and well thought out. Summit is when it all comes together and leads to a celebrity spokesperson, visionary assembly, and the launch.

A grand challenges is a skeleton key for success, opening doors that generate interest, investments, resources, and relevance on an unprecedented scale. And on top of all that, they are good for our world.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

- Albert Schweitzer

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