How to Stop Planning and Start Doing

Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact

"Is your strategic plan collecting digital dust?"

That's the question every social impact leader needs to ask themselves.

We've all been there — investing countless hours and resources into creating the perfect 3-year plan, only to have it sit unused on a shelf.

But what if there was a better way? A more agile approach that could energize your team and get your ideas into action?

Enter the Minimum Viable Strategy (MVS) framework.

In our latest episode of Designing Tomorrow, we break down this powerful tool for social impact leaders. We reveal:

• The 4 key steps to implementing MVS (and why most organizations get step 3 wrong)

• How to avoid "shiny object syndrome" when testing new ideas

• Why traditional strategic planning often fails — and how MVS can help fix that

• The #1 mistake leaders make when rolling out an experimental approach (hint: it's NOT because the ideas are bad)

Whether you're a seasoned nonprofit executive or an emerging social entrepreneur, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you move from analysis paralysis to decisive action.

Don't let fear of imperfection hold you back from making progress. Tune in now and learn how to harness the power of MVS to accelerate your impact.

Episode Highlights:

• [00:00] - Introduction to the concept of Minimum Viable Strategy (MVS), inspired by the tech world's Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach.
• [03:45] - Eric shares a personal story about overcoming "analysis paralysis" and adopting a bias toward action in his work at Cosmic.
• [06:50] - Jonathan reflects on applying a version of MVS at Seymour Center, focusing on storytelling experiments for climate resilience.
• [10:15] - Jonathan adds critical components to the MVS framework, emphasizing the importance of defining learning goals and decision-making triggers.
• [18:42] - Discussion on pitfalls like "shiny object syndrome" and the need for team capacity to iterate effectively on experimental strategies.

Resources:

• Article - Turn Your Strategic Plan into Actionable Brand and Digital Strategies
• Video - Demystifying Strategic Planning: Insights from a Seasoned Expert
• Article - In Defense of Moonshots: True Social Innovation Requires Taking Risks
• Article - Are you Acting with Courage?

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Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Chapters

1. Minimum Viable Strategy in Social Impact (00:00:00)

2. Action-Oriented Strategic Planning for Impact (00:07:44)

3. Effective Testing and Experimentation for Strategy (00:12:49)

4. Strategic Planning Pitfalls and Solutions (00:17:37)