Delivering on Commitments: My experience completing a CGI Commitment to Action
/For a while now, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Jake Parker's Finished Not Perfect video. I like it so much because he talks about the importance of finishing things, and I think it's a profoundly needed rally cry for all generations, but especially for the generations of change-makers that recognize the future will only be as #sustainable as we start to make it today. Action is better than complaining about inaction.
Parker says, "Finishing a thing is way more important than having something that's perfect, but not finished" -- and he's just so right. There are lessons learned along the way through the process of creating the [situation, project, program, widget, relocation, etc.] that give one a sense of purpose and meaning in life. At the risk of sounding preachy, I believe we do need these kind of experiences to evolve, to improve, to exist, to achieve an optimum state of well-being.
And I've heard this kind of wisdom before. Back in my days as staff at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a boss once gave me this advice: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
There was something complete and profound about what that statement said to me: if you aim for perfection, you ignore all the good. The good is the satisfaction of seeing the [situation, project, program, widget, relocation, etc.] work to improve people's lives in some way. It's also the pleasure of Turning Ideas Into Action, as CGI's trademark states, and the process of economic opportunity unfolding for people.
With this week's final CGI Annual Meeting, we heard and saw story after story over three days about change and its makers, reflected and celebrated in commitments old and new across the "9 tracks" through which CGI members and participants engage:
President Bill Clinton speaking at the final Clinton Global Initiative Meeting, 2015
"CGI members connect and collaborate year-round within nine broad and cross-cutting Tracks, each representing a topical global challenge or strategic approach. Each Track contains a number of stand-alone opportunities that bring members together to share knowledge, develop new Commitments to Action, and support work that is already underway. Tracks also contain Action Networks—small groups of CGI members that work on specific, ongoing topics." - Clinton Foundation
And that's how we as staff were able to help commitment makers launch more than 3,500 commitment projects -- so many important projects that went so far to improve the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries to date.
I still love how CGI helps governments, corporations and NGOs to "finish things" and commit themselves to partnerships that work through pilot and startup projects that become effective social enterprises. Reflecting on the historic occasion of this week's last CGI closing plenary, as with other closing plenaries, it's palpable how President Bill Clinton manages to reach us deeply and evoke from us our own expressions of change-making solutions and the charge to get it done. That's why when you're in the company of CGI members and participants, you feel like you're among a cadre of action leaders working together to tackle local and global problems, all while creating a culture of possibility through the stories generated by the work.
Coincidentally, this month, working with 14 other partner organizations, I was able to finish the ASID Protocols for Health and Wellness in Design, a 2014 Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action on educating the architecture and design community on healthier design. This new, 5-hour on-line education curriculum will be used by architects and interior designers to create spaces that promote occupant health and wellness across multiple building types, and to specify the use of healthier products and materials. Here's a preview:
My time at CGI shaped how I have come to understand sustainable philanthropy, and the results of my projects there will go on to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the US and globally. But the work must go on, and in the words of President Bill Clinton, "Everyone has something to give and a moral obligation to do it."
So if "the world wants and it needs people who finish things," as Jake Parker sees it, I'm confident the tremendous work built by the CGI community and its momentum will continue to yield results and inspire more people to take action on innovative ideas to solve our world's most pressing problems.
Coincidentally, this month, working with 14 other partner organizations, I was able to finish the ASID Protocols for Health and Wellness in Design, a 2014 Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action on educating the architecture and design community on healthier design. This new, 5-hour on-line education curriculum will be used by architects and interior designers to create spaces that promote occupant health and wellness across multiple building types, and to specify the use of healthier products and materials. Here's a preview:
My time at CGI shaped how I have come to understand sustainable philanthropy, and the results of my projects there will go on to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the US and globally. But the work must go on, and in the words of President Bill Clinton, "Everyone has something to give and a moral obligation to do it."
So if "the world wants and it needs people who finish things," as Jake Parker sees it, I'm confident the tremendous work built by the CGI community and its momentum will continue to yield results and inspire more people to take action on innovative ideas to solve our world's most pressing problems.