The smaller the mindset – the greater the conceit …

I do outreach, I work with others who also do outreach, we reach out to many organisations and find different ways of working with them, trying to be as open minded and as flexible as possible.

Sadly, this is not always the case!

Late last year, we reached out to a well-known engagement-based organisation – hopeful that we could collaborate on a joint project, in effect marrying our considerable eco-systems and improving joint reach and opportunity for an underserved group.

Initial conversation was great, we set out our proposition and everyone was in agreement. So, off we trot and gain quite a notable funding pot, the kind that many would wish for and set out to work with the organisation in question.

Silence!

More silence – then a very interesting, quite testy conversation occurred.

Somehow, they did not realise that we were serious, nor were they quite able to cope with the scale and reach we could leverage. After some too’ing and fro’ing – they eventually rejected our offer and the reach + money involved. Kinda’ amusing, as they had a Silicon Valley tech giant, a distance learning university and a large community at their disposal. With the potential for future – funding, once the developmental resource was delivered.

None of us can ever see the bigger picture, maybe nor can I, however – all that has now happened is our interest has moved towards supporting others and rather than support an established eco-system, we will build our own – the worrisome part, is that we have a proven track record when it comes to scale and we have already reach into a diverse community of educators , so they may find that we will undermine, rather than enhance their mission.

We are always in possession of a Plan B, maybe even a Plan C, these souls missed out on being part of the Plan A!