Change operates at the speed of trust, but trust must be built. This is the main takeaway from “The Speed Of Trust,” by Stephen Covey, the organizational efficiency guru. Trust increases speed and reduces costs in personal and professional relationships because it reduces the need for extensive checks and controls. When trust is present, new ideas are more easily welcomed. Mistakes are more easily forgiven. But, Covey cautions, building trust with others begins with being trustworthy, having “character and competence.” Trustworthiness must be demonstrated. Leaders must have integrity, be capable, follow through on intent and consistently get results. Building trustworthy leaders who can inspire and develop trustworthy employees takes time. This is why change is slow.
But it doesn’t have to be. Consider this excerpt from a note that came into the Youth Today inbox a few weeks ago from Ali Raza Khan, president and CEO of Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network Pakistan:
“What if I told you that in just four weeks, young people — many of whom were living in poverty — could transform into changemakers, donors and solution providers? What if I told you that this model doesn’t require massive funding, incubation centers or years of capacity-building programs?
This is not a hypothetical scenario. This is the reality of my trust-based changemaking model, which has been tried and tested with over 25,000 young people with diverse backgrounds. The results speak for themselves: 92% of these young people created measurable social and economic impact, and more than 80% of them — despite living in poverty — became donors to our organization.”
I browsed the website and read dozens of testimonials from luminaries like Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka, and Susan Stroud, CEO of Innovations in Civic Participation. But I couldn’t find any direct references to Khan or his trust-based relationship model in the United States. So I asked for an interview. After 45 minutes, I made a commitment to find partners to help introduce the model in the U.S. Why? Because what Khan is offering is more than a program model: “Young people do not grow up in programs; they grow up under paradigms,” Khan said.
Trust Comes First
The paradigm-shifting solution Khan offers is simple but profound: “Trust young people first, evaluate later,” he said.
Here are the principles he has developed over the past 20 years to help adults in over 1,200 educational and vocational institutions in Pakistan become comfortable enough to take this leap:
- Create a trust-based environment: Start by bringing the top leadership of the institution on board. When leaders trust young people, it sends a strong signal to the entire institution that changemaking is a priority. This creates a culture of trust and empowerment from the top down.
- Provide a small, risk-free investment: Offer a small, trust-based investment equivalent of $20 to $40 to each student team. (Khan estimates this would translate to about $70 per team for similar projects in the U.S.) This investment comes with a unique condition that removes the fear of failure from their minds and encourages them to experiment, make mistakes and learn with pleasure:
- If the team faces a loss, they are not required to pay it back.
- If they make a profit, they can donate 50% of the profit back to the organization after four weeks.
- Remove barriers to entry: All that’s needed is a willingness to begin the changemaking journey. This lowers the barrier to entry and ensures that every young person, regardless of their background or experience, can participate.
- Challenge youth to create, quickly: Give them four weeks to produce a product or service that addresses a social or economic need. The tight time frame creates a sense of urgency and focus.
- Celebrate and scale success: Celebrate their achievements and provide opportunities to scale their impact. Many of them go on to become donors, reinvesting in the next generation of changemakers.
“When you trust young people, they don’t just rise — they soar. And in doing so, they can change the world,” said Khan.
How does Khan propose to evaluate impact?
“When you trust young people, they don’t just rise — they soar. And in doing so, they can change the world.”
— Ali Raza Khan, president and CEO of Youth Engagement Services Network Pakistan
Evaluations of youth service, youth entrepreneurship and project-based learning suggest that we should see growth in cognitive, social and emotional competencies and in the ability to apply academic knowledge and skills. Khan documents growth in being competent changemakers by measuring their success at bringing about change.
Khan has developed a Changemaking Intelligence Test to quantify the model’s impact. He defines changemaking intelligence “as the natural capacity in every human being to produce something that is valuable to others in a wide range of environments.” True to his trust principle, the test is used at the end of the four weeks, not at the beginning. Young changemakers are asked to evaluate their projects using three dimensions: the number of people helped, the amount of profit made and the amount of innovation demonstrated.
Here’s one quick fact from the many Khan shared: In one example, after four weeks, young people generated a 177% return on the $20 per team stipends received.
As we face potential cutbacks in the funding and freedom needed for programs to serve our most marginalized youth well, let’s challenge the paradigms.
Adolescents, as a group, aren’t considered trustworthy. Think about the adjectives used to describe adolescents in the media — impulsive, curious, rebellious. The characteristics Covey says are needed for trust aren’t at the top of the list. Now think about the adolescents from marginalized backgrounds whose academic, employment and conviction records are taken as official evidence of their lack of character or competence.
[Related: In adolescence, every experience matters. Let’s make the ones we design count]
Let’s shift from focusing on their deficits and instead unleash their creative potential — encouraging young people to use their assets to respond to the current challenges facing their communities and their country.
We all know stories of how a young person “beat the odds” because an adult believed in them. Imagine what could happen if an auditorium full of young people were told, “We believe each of you can be a force for good. Take these funds. Form a team. Go ‘change the odds’ for your communities and yourselves.” When youth thrive, we all thrive.
[Related Grant Opportunity: Humanitarian services organization prize grant]
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In her columns, Karen Pittman is exploring the research behind the statement, “When Youth Thrive, We All Thrive.”
