Not-for-Profits & the Future of the Workforce

This week I attended a General Assembly meet-up to discuss The Future of Talent & The New Workforce. It had all the trimmings of a 21st century Melbourne event. The sound of ping-pong balls bouncing around the office, six-packs of free craft beer scattered laid out to enjoy and four incredibly quirky, experienced but different speakers shared the stage. The event was magic and I wanted to add in my 2￠.

Where do Not-for-Profits (NfPs) and Social Enterprises fit into the future of the Australian workforce?

Perhaps a logical starting point is to ask, “Where are they now?” According to the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, there are over 600,000 NfP’s in Australia employing over 1,080,000 people equating to approximately 1 in every 22 Australians. Compare this to the average classroom size in primary schools sitting around 23 students. This means that every classroom in the country has amongst it, at least 1 youngster who will find themselves explaining to friends one day at a dinner party exactly what their NfP employer does, why they matter, who funds their efforts and why they’re different from the rest.

So in a world of choice, what are we to do?

If you are fond of the status-quo shattering writings of William Macaskill and have heard of the Effective Altruism movement, the first point of distinction is probably still the biggest point of contention between my beliefs and those of my peers who have chosen different paths. Should we be encouraging people to earn to give, for example, working for a Tier 1 Consultancy, Bank, Engineering Firm etc. and giving away x% of their income to fund the causes they care about most, or should we be encouraging top talent to invest their time and elbow grease into working for these causes directly?

Two logical questions then present dualities.

Firstly, one might ask, quite rightly, “If I give my time to a NfP or social enterprise, will my earning potential decrease?” In the short term, more than likely, the answer is yes. But is that the right question to be asking? Recently, I sat in The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne at a School of Life event listening to internationally renowned Ethical Philosopher, Peter Singer, talk about what it means to be the 1%. If you earn more than $63,000AUD p.a. (gross), you will take home $49,733AUD p.a. putting you nicely into the top 1% of the world.

Many of you may already earn more than this and can check out just what your number is via https://www.globalrichlist.com/ If the top 1% of the world isn’t enough, what is? It’s perhaps trite to say, but still so few seem to acknowledge it through their actions, money doesn’t equal happiness. Specifically, negligible gains in emotional well-being beyond $75,000USD; see Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman’s paper out of Stanford in 2010.

Milanovic, The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality

Secondly, one could question, “What would have more of an impact, my time or my money?” In an incredible book by John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, the author questions how many people are lining up to take your job? If the answer leads you to use expletives as adjectives, followed by “lots,” then perhaps you’re in the wrong line and you should pursue another avenue. On top of that, in William Macaskill’s Doing Good Better, he introduces the idea of marginal impact, perhaps the most influential concept I’ve come across to help address this issue. William, the youngest tenured Professor of Philosophy in the world, argues, “What matters is not who does good, but whether good is done; and the measure of how much good you achieve is the difference between what happens as a result of your actions and what would have happened anyway.”

If you weren’t to apply for med school, would another 1000 eager biomedical graduates line up in the cold just to get a chance to take your spot? If so, your impact isn’t X+1 doctors, it’s that you’re part of an inevitable X. If I’m sick I need a doctor, but perhaps I don’t need you. Needless to say, these ideas create controversy. I believe that this isn’t being ungrateful, but honoring your potential and questioning where you could make a bigger difference.

So how do we turn high achieving, A-type personality Millennials towards a career of greater social impact?

It all starts with breaking a few corrosive stereotypes and looking at empowering stories of success from those who acted. In Daniel Flynn’s book, Chapter One, he tells the story of Thankyou. A quick Google search showed Daniel that Australia had a $600M bottled water industry and he went about creating a company to flip the model on its head by selling the same product, bottled water which he acknowledges is a ‘ridiculous product’ but uses 100% of the profits to fund water sanitation projects in developing countries. This is a guy, passionate as they come, who alongside his co-founders, Justine Flynn and Jarryd Burns, is helping to save lives from half way around the world.

Then you have education. With an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney, Jack Manning Bancroft is the brainchild behind the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). In his memoir, the Mentor., Jack describes being at university thinking, “Man, there are more Indigenous Uni students here than there are professional Rugby League players. That means Indigenous kids are more likely to go to Uni than they are to be rugby league players. This is a story that has to be told!” Just 10 years after its inception in 2005, AIME worked with 4684 students in 2015 and achieved a Year 12 attainment of 93.7%. That’s 5.8% higher than the national average and a whopping 22.2% higher than the Indigenous average.

There are of course, countless others, whose stories I look forward to reading when they’re published, including the co-founders of Code Like A Girl, Vanessa Doake and Ally Watson, who are spearheading an all-female team of coders to educate the next generation in a booming industry. Joining them are another Melbourne based female power-professional-duo, and sisters, Lucy and Rosie Thomas, who co-founded Project Rockit helping to educate over 120,000 students about the effects of bullying. The impact is powerful, with 96% of students finding the program helpful.

So how does this relate to the future of the workforce?

These individuals are undeniably brilliant. Their drive and creativity surely would have been welcomed by all of the big consultancy groups. But instead of going to work for the juggernauts, they, amongst many others, went to work with them. AIME has built strong relationships with over 20 Universities and consultancies such as KPMG while utilizing the support of individuals such as Richard Branson while Code Like A Girl co-founders have progressed through PwC’s 21st Century Minds accelerator program. Thankyou is retailing in the biggest names in the Australian FMCG industry such as 7-11, Coles, Woolworths et al., and Project Rockit is receiving the support of Telstra, Facebook and Google.

These role models show that it’s up to us to challenge the status-quo. It’s up to those of us who have all the qualifications to go down the path well-travelled, not to, and instead pursue causes and tackle challenges that will be bloody hard work but will touch the lives of millions over the course of our careers. And how will you know if this is the right path for you? Jump. And figure out how to fly. The worst thing we could do is sit by and let issues such as hunger, educational inequality, bullying, harassment and sexism in the workplace persist any longer to the extent that they do today.

My challenge to anyone thinking about how they can make an impact would be to invest 19 minutes of their time watching the paradigm shattering TED talk The Way We Think about Charity Is Dead Wrong by Dan Pallotta and ask yourself the question, “What problem do I want to solve?” and read the book that started me on this journey, Outliers – The Story of Success- by Malcolm Gladwell.

And for me?

This year I’ve been incredibly fortunate to benefit from choosing to fill my circle with those who believe that we have the power to change things. I’ve had nearly 200 coffees with young people looking for the most meaningful, high-impact way to start, or pivot, in their careers by entering the classroom with Teach For Australia. While our team is only 66% of the way through our work for 2017, just in Victoria we have proudly offered 42 positions to exceptional individuals dedicated to making a difference with our next generation. 'A difference' here is key. A little research into the state of educational equality in Australia paints an unimpressive picture but there is hope. When Associates enter the classroom to fill positions teaching some of the most complicated subjects that otherwise may not have been filled, these students have hope.

Time to get back to work!

“We are making choices every day, with action or with inaction; we are helping or we are contributing to the destruction of the commons.” – Cory Booker, United