Know Better, Do Better: Empowering the Next Generation of Impact Leaders
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
― Maya Angelou
Helping impact leaders know better so they can do better is at the heart of the work Steven Fox and Becca Linford do at the Ballard Center for Social Impact.
They have a free database of research papers called “Ballard Briefs” that provide a holistic view of the complex challenges facing people worldwide – and focus on the context, contributing factors, negative consequences, and best practices of each issue.
The database just passed 1 million views: https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs
Here’s a short snippet from our interview (watch the full podcast here: )
Their ask: They are looking to partner with other like-minded universities to have even more students researchers contributing to the database to further expand the good they can do.
Podcast Transcript
Jacob: [00:00:00] I saw a post on LinkedIn about a Social Impact Competition for college students So I signed up and wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to find. There was a variety of students who presented on a number of social impact topics like the degradation of coral reefs in Southeast Asia; the disparity of women’s treatment in medical situations; and malnutrition in rural Argentina.
The winners were awarded cash prizes and it seemed like a cool opportunity for students to conduct research for the benefit of the world. They also announced that their research site had just received over a million views, which I thought was pretty cool.
So I wanted to find out more. Like, what measurable good has this research done? Who really would benefit from this research? And what else does the Ballard Center for Social Impact do? Let me introduce my guests, Steven Fox [00:01:00] and Becca Linford, who is the editor-in-chief of the Ballard Brief. Welcome.
Becca: Thank you. Good to be here.
Steven: Thank you.
Jacob: We were connected through a mutual friend Barry Relford, a great human and you helped us with our original research study on the role of storytelling on fundraising for impact, and went out to 159 different impact organizations in 35 countries.
We want to make our recommendations based on research and data as we advise impact organizations on their messaging. But I’m curious so after a couple decades at Microsoft and a career in corporate America, what was that point where you decided, I’m gonna pivot and focus the rest of my career on making a difference in the world?
Steven: That’s very kind of you to ask. After about 28 or so years in the private sector, including 18 years at Microsoft I’d also been with a couple software startups and enjoyed the work I was doing. It was always on the marketing side of the house, the non-technical side. When I came out of graduate school, my goal was to be able to work with a company that really added [00:02:00] value to society.
So I’ve always had that in my DNA that I wanted to do good in the world. And then I had the opportunity a decade ago to leave the technology sphere behind. I was contacted by BYU and said, Hey, got a couple of opportunities for you to consider, and they didn’t know it, but I’d always thought if I ever had the chance to come and teach, I’d love to do that. So about 80% of what I do is teach. Teach social impact do a little bit of administrative work as well, but it brings great joy for me to spend time with these intelligent, capable students who wanna go out and have a positive impact in the world.
It’s been a big transition for me, but it’s kind of one that was always in my mind. I just never thought it’d become a reality and I’m loving it.
Jacob: What is the Ballard Center all about?
Steven: The Ballard Center for Social Impact is all about how we do good in the world in a smart sort of way, will we help people flourish, and where we decrease suffering. We like to say that we develop the faith and skills to solve social problems. And so we’ve got a collection [00:03:00] of offerings here at Brigham Young University for students across campus, regardless of their major. We offer a minor in global and community impact, but we pull in literally thousands of students every academic year who come to take courses, compete in competitions like the one you referenced Jacob, and just to be engaged in learning the principles and skills behind doing good in the world. And so it is really fun for me to be involved in it. I teach a couple of the classes. We’ve got about a dozen different classes, and one of those is Ballard Brief. It’s a three-credit hour class, and it’s just fantastic. It’s really a jewel that we have in our arsenal here within the Ballard Center.
Jacob: Becca, tell me a bit more about the Ballard Brief. What is it that students are creating and how is that being utilized?
Becca:So over the course of a semester, we have applicants that apply for this class and we pick about 15 to 20 students. They gather about 200 sources on a specific social issue, and they write about a 20 page paper.
And so throughout the course we teach [00:04:00] them how to think about these social issues, we want to love the problem before we love the solution. Because if we come in thinking, oh, I know how to fix it, we’re probably gonna miss a lot of what’s actually going on underneath.
And so by diving into what we call the contributing factors, what’s perpetuating and making people’s lives worse because of the social issue, what we call the negative consequences, Then we’re able to see a social issue in more of its complete picture. and So we’re teaching these students these skills, so then by the end, they’re publishing on our website as well as we’re connecting them with other nonprofits, as well as journals that they can publish in to continue to do good.
Jacob: Who is the research really for? Who are the beneficiaries of the research in your mind?
Steven: There are social impact organizations, a nonprofit, for-profit, hybrid, government organization, a church, or what have you, who are working in a specific part of the world are really trying to go deep into specific social problems and understand them better and come [00:05:00] up with local solutions.
And so with the 135 or so student-authored, outer briefs that we have currently on the website. These organizations are able to go deep into learning about something that’s local and germane to them and help them develop solutions, look at what’s recommended as current best practices, and then make some decisions on their own.
So, it’s not just for organizations, but we do have organizations that are using these to help benefit the marginalized population they’re focused on.
Jacob: So what’s your vision for where this could go? What is the good that it ultimately can accomplish in your mind?
Becca: One of the new avenues that we’re working on is more of the solution-based briefs that are smaller which would be a 10 to 15 minute read, and it would be focused on identifying solutions that may not be what you would call typical solutions.
Another one is that we live in a world where we love to watch much more than read. The average time on an online website that’s focused on magazine [00:06:00] content, whether it’s news or whatnot, it’s about a minute. We hit over a minute on our Ballard Brief website, but if you think about how long it takes to read a 20 page paper, you can’t do it in a minute, but you can watch a video in a minute.
And so we want to think about catering to that. But also to hopefully draw them in to show that it’s through the reading, it’s through the rigor that you honestly do start to think differently and act better.
Jacob: So what is it that you’re most looking for right now? You might be in a different position than some of our guests where they’re looking to raise capital or looking for partners or to hire talent, but as a University, what is it that you’re most looking for right now?
Steven: One of the things that we’re looking to do is actually to partner with other universities, like-minded universities that want to have students authoring such briefs. Thus far it’s just been BYU students authoring these.
We’d love to be partnering with at least a few other universities and have their students participate as authors and ensuring that the editorial [00:07:00] bar still gets cleared, but we’re looking at that sort of an expansion. So that’s one thing I’m really looking forward to.
Becca: I would add that another way that we’re trying to add and to grow is, one of the largest service organizations in the world, is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and here at Brigham University we are supported by the church and throughout the world, there are different areas that are focused on doing good that’s catered to that area.
We want to cater our website so that it’s area-focused. So that those in those respective areas can go in and find it on a map and identify the briefs that may be most effective to helping their area and recognizing the social issues going on.
Jacob: Being at a church-funded university, how does that inform or color the work that you do?
Becca: That is a great
Steven: It colors everything that we do.
Becca: Yeah.
Steven: Everything that we do.
Becca: We build the faith and skills to solve social problems, and we really care about that part, [00:08:00] about faith. We really do believe that there is a God that cares about these issues and that wants us to be active participants, and so we utilize that in our work. It’s astounding how much is in the scriptures that is catered to social impact work. To see that come alive has actually been such an exhilarating process, honestly.
Steven: I’ll add the focus on Jesus Christ and his approach was to care for the one, to love the one and that’s the way we teach the foundational principles of the Ballard Centers. Focus on that one initially and the love and concern you have for that individual. And then you apply the rest of the principles surrounding that and you end up growing the solutions to help more than just that one person. So that’s the way we think about it and it’s proved to be very effective.
Jacob: How would you address someone’s concern that maybe there’s a religious slant or someone that isn’t part of that faith tradition that wants to utilize this research? Is it non-denominational? Is it loaded? Speak to [00:09:00] any of those concerns that someone outside of the same faith might have looking in with the research or the work that you do.
Steven: The research is non-denominational. Anybody can read the 135 plus briefs we have out there, and they’re applicable across any faith organization or non-faith organization. They’re just very appropriate and helpful.
We have, under the leadership of Ava Weitzman, the director of the Ballard Center convened a really nice conference a couple months ago of both faith-based social impact leaders and those who are not necessarily faith-based.
Whereas we’re sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the work that we do is applicable across the world to all organizations. The way we view it is that we’re all children of God together. So let’s lift one another in any way we possibly can.
Jacob: Fill in the blanks here, if we only had X, then we could do Y. What are you trying to accomplish and what do you need to get there?
Steven: We’d love to be partnering with other universities. And so we look to be doing that in the near future. We continue to grow the [00:10:00] program. More and more students involved with quality research.
Jacob: Part of what we try to do with this podcast is, one, help people understand your story, but then also connect you with the allies you need to get to where you’re trying to go. And it comes from a fundamental belief that in this impact space, we can’t be working all on our own little islands, in our own little silos. We need the cross-pollination. We need to build bridges. We need that connective tissue to make the whole stronger and to lift together. And so this is our small effort to try to make those.
So if there was a moonshot wish connection, what comes to mind? What would be a useful ally for you right now?
Becca: Several names popped into my head, but my genuine wish is that at the end of every semester, every student walks away with someone whom they’ve networked with that could start some kind of better organization or just improving an organization that already exists.
So having those connections from a student who’s written a brief and has shown that they love an [00:11:00] issue, and then being able to jumpstart into another group that’s doing the same thing, that both sides could be benefited.
Steven:If any of your listeners feel as though maybe the university that they graduated from or affiliated with could really benefit from having student authors get focused on researching and authoring, then I’d love to have that contact information and see if it’s a good fit.
Jacob: Thank you so much for sharing your insights and wish you all the success inspiring the next generation of impact leaders.
Steven: Great. Thank you, Jacob.
Jacob: Ate mais! Thank you so much for sharing your insights
Becca: Thanks
Jacob: Ciao!
Learn more about ISSIMO Story Agency Here