Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Medium post, the author discusses how nonprofits need to dig deeper on problems before trying to come up with interventions, making sure organizations understand the full context.

• This requires patience and persistence, but the payoff can be huge. Are we willing to put in the time required to learn what constituents really need?

• Here's how we can engage youth talent to solve community problems.

As practitioners, we often rush to solve problems. We want to pin down the causes and make things better. In nonprofits and philanthropies, there is merit to this impulse  —  and there is often misdirected energy.

Our first impulse is to isolate a problem, describe it, quantify it, and develop initiatives to take the pressure away. For example, the public policy graduate students I work with are generally trained to start each policy brief assignment with a “problem statement.” Instead, I urge them to step back, ask good questions, and accept uncertainty for longer than may be initially comfortable in order to get at the real problems.

Taking time to probe for deeper information on history, and focusing on context as well as gauging the level of true urgency, helps to frame better inquiry and focus energy where it matters. As an evaluator, our research team often starts with one relatively straightforward question from the client, such as, “did the program work”? By pausing to problem-solve, and carefully listening to the response, we end up with answers to multiple questions about the community, organizational culture, and relationships.

Read the full article about matching the solution to the problem by Saphira M. Baker at medium.com.