How can you ensure that everyone's ideas are heard in a social impact project team?

In my experience ensuring that everyone's ideas are heard and valued in a social impact project team is crucial for fostering creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Foster an open and non-judgmental atmosphere where team members feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, to me, is dire.

This has two sides: clarity across the project and for the team. Start with your team: ensure you have diverse skillsets & lived experience; set clear & co-created ways of working to enable a respectful, productive & harmonious atmosphere. We'll come back to the team in a minute. Next, create a Theory of Change. This is a detailed visual or written pathway from aims, problems, activities, outputs, outcomes through to impact. You will identify assumptions, blockers and enablers, timelines & dependencies. Co-create this with the target community and ensure you have reliable, current data to inform your hypotheses. Lastly, set defined roles, KPIs, feedback loops for your team. Don't forget the three Cs: clarity, consistency & communication.

Consider integrating a 'reverse brainstorming' process where, in addition to setting goals and expectations, the team actively identifies potential pitfalls and challenges. This preemptive approach encourages proactive thinking and ensures that all team members are mentally prepared for potential hurdles, promoting a more comprehensive understanding and ownership of the project's objectives.

Creating a safe space for voices to be heard in the workplace is driven by the right leadership. Leaders should look to co-create with the team 'ways of working' that will clarify how everyone will communicate, respect each other, values differences, actively listen, proactively contribute etc. Good leaders will actively create a warm, collaborative atmosphere in which they are a facilitator of the team's skillsets & ideas. A safe space also comes from the whole team understanding the lived experience and needs of their colleagues. Whether this is sensitivity on how parts of the project might be triggering for some, or access & participation accommodations needed to ensure parity from the outset, this is crucial to establishing trust.

While I do not believe that it is possible to create a safe space for everyone, I certainly believe that is very possible to cultivate a space of respect and honor. What is safe for you is not safe for me. However, we can have agreed upon practices and behaviors that give honor and.respect to the values, opinions, expertise, experiences, identities , of each person on the team. Make a concerted effort to build connection and community in the project and also outside of the project. What are the things that are bringing you together? What are the pain points? What are the areas of easy collaboration ? Be open, listen, and be willing to course correct when you have been advised that someone is being harmed.

For me, reframing a "safe space" to a "brave space" is more impactful and equity-oriented. This idea was shared with me from another community member who suggested that "creating a brave space, a place where all are encouraged to participate, welcomed to voice input, and feel confident they will be heard and respected is much more powerful than a space that asks for the bare minimum in humanizing and dignifying the people in the room."

Allyship and sponsorship can be important here. If a certain kind of voice is silenced, having someone, especially in a position of leadership to speak up on behalf of them and amplify their voice goes a long way.

Use of diverse and unique methods (without being judgemental) work wonders in a social impact project team , as the space provided to each member is acceptable to them to express their thoughts freely.The ideas thus gained also become manifold.

One of the most important aspects for a social impact team is to ensure they are deeply connected to the needs of the community. To ensure that all voices are heard, the team can share stories, examples, and needs from the community and partners, engaging in a discussion that fosters mutual understanding. It's less about sharing 'everyone's ideas' and more about empathizing with social impact and inviting the community to participate.

Encouraging mutilateral communication and collaboration is essential to the success of social impact projects. Hearing and understanding the perspectives of different stakeholders could set the roadmap for their involvment and creates an exchange between the team and the stakeholders. Allowing the team members on their own to come up with different scenarios and facilitating brainstorming sessions ensures that all voices are heard

Team work is the dream work! Especially when it comes to social impact. We can't create change in a vacuum. But together, by leaning on each other's diverse perspectives and ideas and approaches to challenges, we can effect change. When it comes to seeking out and valuing different perspectives, we must also consider the communities we're supporting. Consider the nonprofits or beneficiaries you're advocating for and supporting as part of your team. Listen to the voices of those on the ground, those benefitting from your time and resources, those who know the challenges at hand better than you do. Always have a learning mindset. Be open to new approaches and solutions. Appreciate different viewpoints and foster strong relationships.

One technique that helps focus on issues and not personalities is the shared ownership of ideas. Once my idea is presented to the group, I give up ownership of the idea. It is no longer Jeff's idea to advocate for and defend. I may need to clarify or explain the idea, but then it is now OURS to wrangle with. It is just AN idea that the group can ponder and play with and shape. As a a member of a solution-focused group, it is less my duty to further my cause, and more a duty to solve problems and find new ways of making lives better.

Rotate leadership roles within the team to ensure that different individuals have the opportunity to guide discussions. This can prevent the dominance of a few voices and bring fresh perspectives to the forefront.