W05 Reflection

 
This week we studied Solution and Impact Evaluation. It is vital to measure the right things, so that youi can truly know that you are reaching the mission you strive for. Measuring the impact is the most difficult metric, but the most important. One way to ensure that all of your efforts are doing the most good is to create and design with a mission statement in mind. This mission statement should be short, concise, and include a verb, a target population, and an outcome (something you can measure).

I rather enjoyed Kevin Starr's Lasting Impact video. In it he describes several innovations that seem, on paper, to be a great idea, and solve an important social issue. Educating children. Clean water. However he goes on to point out the ways that these products fail in the real world application, and why, and how the wrong measures are attributed to those failures. I appreciated these real world examples. So much of theory and reading might go over my head, but a straw that takes 20 minutes a day to give enough water to sustain life? That is clearly a failure. 

• Reflect on the article “Hurling and Community Service” and how you set goals.

In "Starfish Hurling and Community Service" the author, Keith Martin, dissects a popular and much used story, that I have heard in church countless times. It is often used to teach charity, and going after "the one." The story missed the mark, Martin proposes, in that there are many factors that are not considered, including lack of consideration for the subject of the help, the impact on a macro scale, and supports working from an emotional space rather than a well considered, educated, intellectual space. 

When I consider how I set goals, I find that I often set goals from an intellectual space rather than an emotional space. I prefer to set goals that have measurable metrics, such as physical fitness goals (run a marathon, increase strength) or intellectual goals (get my bachelors degree, read X number of books this year, etc.) I find that I am very analytical in my goal setting, and very much consider the macro impact (training will affect my family, getting my degree will improve financial security.) I believe in having charity, and seeing people as having individual worth, so I think the story is still valid, in that regard. But there is definitely a place for social change on a large scope and scale as well. I'm glad that there are people to care about both.