Small Enough to Change, Big Enough to Matter

A filter for decision making and resource allocation

What do I do with limited time and resources? When do I say yes and when do I say no? We will never get it exactly right, but I’ve learned having processes to help evaluate opportunities will help make the best use of time, money, and energy.

This lesson on prioritization and navigating complex scenarios stood out most to me when working in a very difficult area in a rural part of a developing country. I was with a group of friends from the US and local organization leaders who used to live in the types of villages we were heading to support. We passed many people on the sides of the road who were asking for money from the travelers who passed by. It broke our hearts to drive past - some of our group asked to stop to give them a little something.

Some were new to this experience, so the local leaders explained how the greater good we could do—a huge good, really—wasn’t going to be in our spot donations and hand-outs, but in the work we were committed to doing in the nearby village. They also explained that by stopping to give to the individuals, many others would run up asking for the same, and we would be stuck there, eventually giving our food and dollars to those individuals.

They encouraged us to wait to get to the nearby village that was waiting to do work that would have sustaining returns if they received our help. That nearby village was not this small grouping of individuals, nor was it the larger city with complex needs. It was small enough to change but big enough to have the greatest impact.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson. NGOs have limited resources, so maybe the lesson is more clear in that instance, but really we all do. When determining the best investment of time and money, pausing to ask if this is the highest and best use of my time, energy or money is a helpful step.

In small villages, it’s simpler to effect change, but it takes the same effort as a larger village with less impact. In large villages, you generally need to consult with several leaders or elders, and the systems run wide and deep. You might convince one or two of them to agree to what needs to happen to transform their village, but as soon as you go, the culture wraps back around itself, and the changes are small relative to the whole and rarely stick.

There is a range in the middle, however, that is small enough to change but big enough to matter (or matter the most). This doesn’t mean we have to stay away from individual needs when we are called to help nor does it mean to never tackle huge problems. It does mean we need sometimes to look past some small initiatives to save our resources to impact something bigger. It may also mean that when we are looking to make the greatest impact with resource allocation within a reasonable time frame, we need to be honest about the complexity of the problem or opportunity relative to the time and resources we have. If the problem is more complex - more time and resources are needed.

For these reasons, we focused our efforts on the middle village. We taught them irrigation and agricultural techniques that would improve their lives immeasurably. Eighteen months later we returned and saw rows of lime trees, onions, and tomatoes, and crops I didn’t even know could grow and bear fruit that quickly. The investment in this middle village paid off, but two other important things happened. Villagers traveled to smaller villages and taught them the techniques. And when the big villages heard about the success, they went to the middle village to buy the seedlings and learn the techniques themselves. By focusing on the right thing, much more than that one thing was impacted. If we had focused on the wrong thing, we would have spent the same time, money, and resources and impacted far less.

I’m asked often asked about time, money, and resource management, and how to balance it all. Effective resource management is done by knowing your priorities, making decisions accordingly and optimizing return on that energy, time, money, or resource. The point is to learn to focus on things we can control (and not get worked up about what we can’t) but to also learn to not play small ball and squander our precious time and resources, when a greater impact is possible.

I think of this story and this lesson weekly as I evaluate where our teams can and should apply their energy. We never get it just right, but by realizing that all things can provide learning and experience and good outcomes, some of those things are not going to lead to likely expected changes. Some of those things will suck up the energy with less return and less impact.

Focus on things small enough to change, big enough to matter.