I’ve been thinking more about my post from last week, trying to figure out why I found myself questioning the value of good intentions. As my friend Greta rightly pointed out on Twitter,
“I believe that our intentions, objectives, or ‘passionate purposes’ make all the difference, Sasha. They guide us internally and have a lasting effect on all those with whom we connect.”
That’s right.
So how to resolve the tension between good intentions that mean little to the person whose life isn’t any better, and knowing in our gut that that if we are serious about making the world a better place then we must take our intentions seriously?
Where I’ve landed up is:
Intentions, if you just take a snapshot, might not matter much.
At a moment in time, the fidelity of that intention, from its genesis in the person deploying capital to the lived experience of the person served by that organization, is not necessarily that high. Intention can get lost in an impact investment just like it can get lost in a game of telephone, an ad campaign or, dare I say, a blog post.
However intention is powerful, maybe even unstoppable, when observed through the lens of time.
True intentions, strong intentions, deeply-held intentions cause those holding them to focus deeply on an outcome.
That focus results in curiosity.
That curiosity results in inquiry.
That inquiry results in examination of what’s really happening all the way down the line.
That examination leads to dissatisfaction if results are not being delivered. It leads to a rise in expectations and a drive to find better answers.
When it comes to creating social impact, that intention may in fact be the only thing that leads to an improvement cycle – because external forces driving to better results are weak (poor feedback loops in terms of the data that typically comes back; huge power imbalance between those providing capital and those, hopefully, benefiting from it).
Intention, then, is the engine of our own cycle of improvement. As builders of new solutions, new companies, new NGOs, new investment funds that are trying to push the frontiers of social change, of business, of markets, of inclusive economies, our intentions are what push us to be dissatisfied with “better than before.” They fuel us through the dips and the bumps and help us turn around when we hit dead ends. Our intentions, held by us and shared by those around us, give us the strength to keep on building.
How about thinking of “intentions” as the resulting incarnations of the driving forces created by the essence of who we are and what we consequently do? For example, I love to facilitate connections between people, and this informs my work. Watching me work, an outsider might see me as having an intention to bring people together meaningfully, but I don’t think about my work in that way. I don’t come up with “intentions” and then act on them. In other words being –> doing, rather than intending -> doing.