Naji Gehchan: Hello, leaders of the world. Welcome to spread love in organizations, the podcast for purpose-driven healthcare leaders, striving to make life better around the world by leading their teams with genuine care, servant leadership, and love.
I am Naji, your host for this podcast, having the honor to be joined today by Bridget Scott Akinc CEO at Building Impact. Passionate about innovation and finding new ways to work toward solving complex social challenges, Bridget leads Building Impact, a nonprofit organization that engages leading companies and brands in local communities through volunteering and capacity-building. Prior to this role, Bridget led dynamic teams focused on accelerating growth and innovation enabled by technology across multiple sectors including finance, retail, automotive, high-technology, and education. She led strategic consulting and marketing teams for high-growth Silicon-Valley based software companies like BEA Systems and Oracle, as well leading non-profit organizations like The New Teacher Project. Bridget also serves on the faculty of MIT Sloan, teaching the “Leading With Impact.” Course I had the privilege to be part of! Bridget is a marathon runner, youth soccer coach, and an avid visitor to national parks with her family.
Can, can you please share with us a little bit, a little bit more about your personal story from finance marketing consulting, to now leading an incredible nonprofit organization impacting lives of thousands in local communities.
Bridget Akinc: I think that if we think about it, my start was in education. Um, back in the days that I was in college, I trained to be a teacher. And, um, one of the things that I, I think was, you know, in, in the forefront of my mind at that point in time was that. This idea of systems change in a system is complex as an education system with so many different funding models, um, across charter schools, local schools, and then obviously private and independent schools.
Um, begged a question of what I, um, I hadn’t studied, which was to really understand the mechanics of business, to be able to make a systems level change in a, in a social system like education. And at the time that I was graduating from Princeton, Teach For America was a model that a lot of people thought about and pointed to as being a real, you know, um, turn things up, upside down, um, type of innovative model.
And at the same time it was running near bankruptcy. Now this of course, is the same time that Apple was running near bankruptcy. So if you think of these two organizations sort of simultaneously being, I think somewhat critical to the way in which we’ve thought about education reform and education innovation in this country, um, over the course of the last 25 years.
I think Apple has played a critical role in the way that it has enabled technology adoption and usage in, um, in, in the way that we think of education today and certainly made education possible during Covid and Teach For America, I think has fundamentally changed the way that we think about education, leadership, and education.
Um, uh, you know, the teaching profession, I would say. As a springboard into having informed discussions about education and its impact in our, in our world now more broadly even than Teach for America and Teach for All. Uh, and and so as I think about that from my mindset, one of the things that was sort of fundamentally, um, A fundamental belief that I had at the time that I was graduating college was that I wasn’t becoming a teacher so that I could just teach I was becoming a teacher so that I could think about systems change.
And I knew that there were lots of areas, the more that I delved into that, that I needed to learn about in order to be a credible leader, um, in that work. And I think that sitting at the intersection, Of education and for profit and nonprofit at the same time, as well as sort of the government policy work, uh, that I had studied was, to me the most fascinating place to sort of think about the, the role that a leader has, uh, in trying to actually influence systems change.
Naji Gehchan: I, I love this, so I will double click on it immediately. What, what is the role of a leader in influencing system chains for.
Bridget Akinc: So I think in the nonprofit sector we talk a lot about the importance of proximity. And I think that we are hearing that more and more as we think about impact investing. We talked during the Leading with Impact program with Dr.
Maba McClury, who’s leading this work in uh, many ways with leaders of color in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and thinking about impact investing. Relative to impact measures not designed, uh, or preordained by grant giving organizations, but rather by the leaders that are on the ground. Um, I think Ayanna Pressley speaks about this in on a public policy front in incredibly powerful ways.
Um, but also Gerald Churchian, who leads Europe up, um, speaks about the importance of proximity. Brian, um, Stevenson talks about this. I mean, I think this work is, um, you know, the work of systems change on a ground level for social systems, I think requires having proximity. And one of the goals that I have, you know, I think it, it’s interesting because I have a, um, a candidate who came, um, to interview with us, having come from.
Um, she had been in the Peace Corps. She was a part of the Harvard, um, Graduate School of Education before arriving at us. She had been at Georgetown, um, uh, as an undergrad. So like, clearly she had a lot of, um, both knowledge skills and really social justice awareness in terms of the work that she had done before.
But she sort of said, I don’t know, you know, this work around volunteering doesn’t really seem, it seems like a scratch the surface type of thing. And I said, For me, The first part of systems change begins by understanding the complexity of the systems that we’re working in. And oftentimes people think of volunteering as being sort of, oh, a tow dip into the water.
But if that volunteering experience can ignite in someone a deeper level of understanding, inquiry into why the root causes of these social challenges. If spending that day doing that activity as we do with leading with impact, um, can provide an on-ramp to an immersion, into a social impact area that you want to learn more about, vote more consciously about, um, and enact change through, you know, investing, um, and change in policies.
Then I believe that actually volunteering is the very first and critical step. For this intersection of corporate, nonprofit, and government work to be happening?
Naji Gehchan: Yeah. Well, I can’t agree more. I’ve been a volunteer, as you know, for years. Uh, and what really struck me about this, like even me being volunteer of large, uh, NGO with the Red Cross, um, you talked.
And you think about NGOs in a very different way, uh, about nonprofit organization. Um, and I would love if you can share with us here the perspective you have about nonprofits operations and also how they can sustain what they do at the long run. Uh, because I really think this is a critical point.
Sometimes we don’t think of it that way.
Bridget Akinc: Yeah. I think oftentimes we think about nonprofits in the context of. The mission that they hold, uh, sort of the problem that they’re trying to solve and the funding that will be needed to do it. And oftentimes we measure nonprofit leaders relative to the growth in that funding.
Um, and, and sort of outcomes remain a question, right? We certainly do this in, in the education sector. We wanna know how much, you know, how much have we, um, increased the funding associated for each student. But relative to the kind of things that we think about on, on an outcome measure, um, and thinking about whether or not our impact investment has been made in, in terms of the, you know, the outcomes that we’re designing.
I really think we need to be thinking about nonprofit work in much the same way that we think about it in the for profit sector, which is to really think about, uh, the context of the business model and. If our goal is to have a sustained system level change, then we have to have a sustainable model in which to build that work.
There is enormous value created by the nonprofit sector that is revenue worthy, revenue generating worthy, I should say. Which is to say that, um, you know, I don’t think that we should relegate the nonprofit sector. To fundraising. Uh, fundraising can be an important, you know, jump start in the same way that a kickstart or angel investment or any of the other, you know, sort of tools that we use in the for profit sector can be.
Um, but I think at the end of the day, a nonprofit endeavor to really close a gap or achieve a change. Requires an investment that is sustainable on a business model level. And so when we look at the kinds of changes that we’re trying to recommend and, and help our organizations on the ground implement through the Leading With Impact program, we’re really trying to look at how it is that we can build a sustained business model.
That doesn’t necessarily just mean fundraising , um, where it is that we can look at, you know, tranches of impact made, uh, through investment in a calculated and, and sort of time oriented way relative to the outcomes we’re trying to achieve.
Naji Gehchan: I want, uh, now to, uh, go through across the industries and the different experiences you had, profit and non-profit from a leadership standpoint, uh, do you see any common thread, uh, that you really took with you across all those experiences and that you think is really essential for leaders?
Bridget Akinc: Um, so I think that I would go back to this notion of communication as being one of the most critical elements. Um, when I started at bcg, uh, you know, back in the late nineties, I remember I was working on a project where we were doing, uh, basically a worldwide education program for all of the partners globally on.
What the internet really, you know, the dawn of the internet and what it really meant for these Fortune 500, Fortune 100 businesses that we were consulting to. And so in order to do that, my background in having done a little bit of coding and, and, and a little bit of teaching meant that I was, um, you know, the associate on the project that was meant to pull this, this curriculum together with a set of folks that had deep expertise.
In both our client base as CIOs, as well as in, in the, in the space as technologists and engineers. And for me, uh, you know, the most critical element that happened in, in that experience was to learn the power of education through really strong communication. Um, and I, it was really no different at some level to the kind of communication skills that we learned in becoming teachers, uh, fundamentally.
We have to begin by thinking that we’re communicating, not a subject matter, but we’re communicating to people. We’re not educating on a topic, We’re educating individuals. And I think in order to be able to, you know, meet folks, um, at a place where, you know, they’ve arrived, It’s communication beginning by listening.
I think we talk about this in the context of the, the work that we do with nonprofits, um, in the Leading With Impact program a lot. We talk about this at Building Impact a lot. You know, there’s a lot of programs that are designed to benefit communities that never, ever begin with listening to those communi leaders and those communities for what the need actually is.
Um, There’s a, a leader, um, who’s been, um, sort of a celebrated leader now within the innovation space, um, coming out of Africa. He’s Ghanaian, um, Sango. Who is now also on the board of receivers at Harvard and has, has done a number of things to really evangelize this model of listen first, whether it’s an impact investing or a nonprofit.
And he talks about his own journey in sort of coming to an understanding of really beginning with innovation by listening to community, um, need and to to community generation. And I think Sango hits this on the head. I think that it. The idea that we listen first in any context, , to understanding what it is that our audience is, is looking to, to learn, and to looking to, to know, and to look to utilize, um, that that is the foundation for the principle of of leadership.
And I think it is only in. In listening that we can then co-design and, and develop a solution and develop an idea of, of, of innovation to really achieve the goals that we hold, um, in working with, um, that, that constituency. So it was, it was an interesting, you know, thing to think about relative to the work that I was doing at bcg because I was told, you know, your, your ideas are fine.
Everything is there. But you talk like a Californian, like, can we, can we back this up because you sound like this, you know, kid from California. And I really appreciated the feedback at the time because what it meant for me was I was learning how to operate in a. Corporate sphere, whereas, you know, maybe my, uh, California child worked in a classroom with, with eighth graders, it was not gonna impress, uh, the C level executives that I was working with.
And so it was really this partner pulling me aside saying, you know, you gotta substitute a few of your filler words in a different kind of way. In order to be taken seriously. And you know, as much as the feedback was, um, difficult to hear at the time because I thought, Well, the ideas are all here. Look at my charts.
It was a really important ingredient into thinking about the investment that he was making in me relative to the way in which I would credibly be. Um, taken seriously in the, in the ideas of that were being conveyed and in the, uh, in, in the data that we had. And I think that that is something, um, both in developing in innately the confidence to be that.
Spokesperson for those ideas. Um, but also to be thinking about how it is that, you know, our, our presence is met , uh, when we, you know, when we show up. Um, that was a really important, uh, element for me in, in toggling between these sectors and something that was very effective for me when I hopped into, you know, boardrooms in Detroit or boardrooms on wall.
Naji Gehchan: Uh, thanks for that. And so I will go on this. Listening in crisis management, you, you’ve obviously been managing, you know, challenging time, uh, with Covid. Uh, we talked about it like short staffing, lack of resources, uh, but also, well, we’ve seen it in l wwi obviously every. Can be a challenge for nonprofits on a daily basis with the communities they serve and, and they have to deal with those uncertainties.
What is the place of listening in crisis management? Or is there something else that you think is crucial to, to lead teams? How have you led your teams during those times? And I think that they are not done though, You know, some of us wanna put all the pandemic behind us. Unfortunately, the consequences of this, you’re seeing them daily in the communities.
Bridget Akinc: Yeah, I mean, I think Naji for me, one of the most important ways that I’ve learned about listening in the course of the last two years has been around, um, leading a diverse team during a time of racial racketing in this country, but also in the world. And I think that for me, the. Element of listening that is, has been a really important element that I have been, uh, learned and learning in the process, um, from my team here and also in the organizations we work with.
Is how important it is to give space and validation for all of the feelings that people bring when they bring their whole selves into the work. Um, you know, there have been times where we just take a pause and we as, as an organization, um, take a pause so that folks have an opportunity to. Uh, be mindful of how they’re feeling at the time of doing this work.
Um, it can be, you know, time to be angry. It can be time to be sad. It can be time to, you know, be joyful about, you know, the work that we’re doing and the outcomes that we’re having. But it’s so important that we take time together collectively and also take time individually. Um, you know, it’s something that I talked about recently, uh, with.
Um, a group on a different, um, uh, topic, but it was around this de and i, um, work that I had said. You know, I think for us in the nonprofit sector, one of the things that we have to acknowledge is that the communities that we work with and the communities that we are in experienced on a statistical level, a much greater degree of loss during this time in terms of loss of life, loss of freedoms.
Loss of financial security, loss of housing, loss of jobs. Um, and if I come back to the loss of life for a minute, the, the gravity of that has been felt, There’s no question across the board globally, but it is not possible to move through an experience like that and be the same, not on an individual level, but certainly not on a, on a organizational level.
Um, when we were going through leaving with Impact during 2020, our TA found out during our, um, during one of our sessions that she had lost an aunt to covid in the middle of the session. Um, it’s earth shattering when you lose someone close to you and when you’re losing someone close to you with so much uncertainty and so much distance, how troubling it can be.
You know, I think for, for all of us, and I. This notion of really being able to give time and space to people as they need it, but also time and space to the team. When you are collectively experiencing a set of those, um, challenges is, is so important. And I think that there have been moments where I’ve called for it, but there’s moments where my team has called for it and said, Hey, like Bridget, we need to take a moment here.
Like we need to take a pause because look at what. Look at what, what has just transpired. Look at what you know our community is experiencing. And I think that there has been time and space where people have needed to really voice those feelings and that type of, um, creating that type of environment is oftentimes the thing that our team does for others.
When we’re doing volunteer projects, we ask people to take a moment to think about. Maybe some of those topics that we don’t discuss often in a work environment, like let’s take a moment during Pride Month here to acknowledge the loss of life that has existed in the trans community, even just over the course of the last year.
Let’s take a moment, because this project that we’re doing to support trans youth means that these are youth who are going through an experience of collective loss for a community. They call their. It’s important that we take that time to think about that loss in the context of. Helping to really make an experience for them of going to camp, joyful.
Um, but let’s be cognizant that when we enter this work, it’s not being entered, you know, sort of shallowly. And I think that that type of opportunity to have a discussion, oftentimes our facilitation will then elicit a conversation with the companies that we’re working with that they’ve never had before.
Oh, well, you know, my, my son experienced this, you know, when he was going to camp, or this is an experience that my brother had when, when, you know, he was in the midst of his transition or whatever. Those are kinds of conversations that just bring out the humanity in all of us, and I think that that notion of being able to connect on a much more human level is something hopefully that, you know, we can do more and more of in all of our circle.
Naji Gehchan: So, so sovereign and profound. Thanks for sharing, uh, this project. Project. It’s, uh, yeah, our role as leaders is really crucial to create those spaces, and as you said, for our team to sometimes also ask for them when needed, but we definitely, we all can do more on it. I, it’s tough to transition now, but I want to give you, uh, a word and then get a reaction to it, uh, in this next part.
Okay? . So the first word is leadership.
Bridget Akinc: A reaction to that, to that word. Um, I, I think that it’s earned, not designated.
Naji Gehchan: What about impact?
Bridget Akinc: Yeah. Um, I, I look for the little things, . Um, it, it begins step by step. So I think it’s so important that we, um, we think about it incrementally and not just on an aggregate level. Belong ink, the glue belong is the glue for, for, I think for every c. Can,
Naji Gehchan: can you say more about this? I, I, I loved how you framed it during also the discussions we had, the different, like the journey from DNI to belonging.
I think a lot of, uh, organizations focused on dni, well D first dni, then the eni, and I think this belonging just gives it such a powerful next step as a meaning. Yeah,
Bridget Akinc: I mean, I think the power of belonging is, or an understanding, belonging is the, is the power of, of, um, understanding being othered. We have all experienced a time and place in our lives where we have been othered, and that can be for so many different reasons.
Um, but the feeling of being othered, um, carries with it a certain weight to it, right? A a certain weight that oftentimes can be. Um, A, a loneliness, an isolation, a, a feeling that you’re not cared for. You know, that, that there is, there, there isn’t care there. And I think that can happen in a crowd as easy as it can happen.
When you’re alone. Um, and so one of the things that I think we try so hard to, to do in the, in the projects that we create, um, is to really attach a sense of community, um, to the work that allows for reflection in people being able to bring their full selves to that work that, um, allows for that empathy building to be built very organically.
Through that sense of their own introspection about a time when they’ve felt othered, um, or felt outside of it. And I think that that can be a very powerful, um, ingredient to, to really captivating people’s imagination about how they might actually enter that space differently if they, um, are cognizant of.
Um, it’s interesting to me because, you know, one of the people that I oftentimes talk about, um, as having a very influential role for me in my concept of this, um, uh, of othering and this concept of this work was Tony Morrison. So Tony Morrison was a professor of mine at Princeton when I was an undergrad.
And had written a book actually that was a non, uh, nonfiction book about the origins of othering, which is not as often read, um, honestly is, you know, beloved and jazz in a number of, of her, um, very, very popular novels, rightly so. But the origins of othering, um, you know, has a system level systematic policy basis calculated financial, aggregated, um, Uh, construct in our society, the origins of others, and when we recognize that there are, that, you know, the experience of being othered is one that we can all identify with, but there are also systems level othering that create that construct for others in the times that we, whether intended or not, at the times that we construct them.
Will force us to have, I think, a different level of scrutiny to the work that we do relative to how it does impact, um, those in the community that we, we think, that we, you know, are, are helping, um, or are supporting.
Naji Gehchan: The last word is spread love in organizations.
Bridget Akinc: So, Naji, you and I talked a little bit about this. I think that the, the concept of love inside of organizations has such a, um, new pervasive element because of this important work on belonging. I think. But also because I think it is now one very positive silver lining coming out of, I think the last couple of years, is that it is a part of the vernacular.
I think the challenge is how do we move love to action, and I think that there’s now a lot that is in the vernacular about. Love in the context. Maybe not love, but kindness and, um, and compassionate making. You know, organizations feel more like, um, a a place where, you know, a safe space where people can come.
But I think the challenge of now moving to action, what do we see in the actions that we, that we hold and that we challenge ourselves to do? Uh, that to me is, um, I think the important next. I
Naji Gehchan: hope with this, with this podcast and episodes like those, we’re giving some hints, some, you know, advices to, to build a more caring and kind workspace and that that will have a ripple effect on the community and the Yeah.
And the organization. Any final word of them, uh, Bridget, for the leaders around the.
Bridget Akinc: No, I just, I mean, my final word is really one of gratitude, I think, uh, to you for hosting, um, this and for hosting this conversation, uh, not only with, you know, your peers, but those that you know, you can, um, reach more broadly through, through a vehicle like this tool, um, of the podcast.
I think it is. Remarkable to be able to spend some time thinking about and reflecting with others, uh, on how it is that we can express love in organizations and spread love, um, in those ways. And I think it’s kind of the essence of, of everything, isn’t it, in terms of making, um, making it worth, um, all the work that we put in.
Um, so I think, uh, it’s, it’s just a joy to be a part of the discussion and it was certainly a joy to watch. That love manifest in the work that your classmates did in the Leading With Impact program. This. Um, I, if I, if I could just one little plug for your class. It is the first time that we have ever seen a 100% NPS score from the nonprofits that we have worked with.
Uh, so, um, you know, companies out there, brands out there, take note at the, uh, the amba class of, of MIT was able to get a hundred percent of the nonprofit organizations that they worked with to recommend this to others, which to me speaks volumes about the kind of impact, um, that you were able to have in that.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you so much, bridge, truly it means so much. Uh, your words, uh, what you said coming from you means so much. So thank you for this and I’ll make sure all my classmates know about the NPS we got. So thank you so much again for being with me today and for this incredible, insightful discussion.
Bridget Akinc: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you all for listening to spread love and organization’s podcast. Drop us a review on your preferred podcast platform
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