Page 128 - The Resilient Organization
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Sisu: Resilience as Inner Strength 115
Mission 1: Make the ability to contribute—and innovate—everyone’s
right and privilege in a society.
Mission 2: Invigorate people’s belief in their own self-worth. Boost and
support their capacity to make a difference to their local community
and beyond.
Mission 3: Find innovative ideas and people already working on local ini-
tiatives to turn their novel ideas into business ventures. Act as an experi-
enced mentor and early-stage investor in ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
Our philosophy holds that change efforts and change outcomes are
often asymmetric—small interventions can produce large results not by
scaling but by compounding the effort. Sisu is thus needed to maintain the
grassroots quality or micronature of the effort in all its diversity and rich-
ness. (It is tempting, but very damaging, to go for the one-silver-bullet solu-
tion.) Consequently, we have a number of beliefs regarding development aid
that are rather unorthodox relative to the common standard as to how such
aid is given. Rather than paying for foreign consultants to come and develop
plans for improvement, we support the efforts of local people to find their
own—however modest—solutions.
OUR PHILOSOPHY: SMALL BEGINNINGS;
COMPOUNDING CHANGE
Myth
Big outcomes require big investments.
Our Conviction
Small, well-timed, and innovative acts are the levers of transformational
changes that accrue over time.
Myth
Social progress trickles down from policymakers to individuals.
Our Conviction
Grassroots profit-motivated initiatives produce self-perpetuating
returns to the society and economy.
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