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Learning to Serve: Delivering Partner Value Through Service-Learning Projects

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Emily Block discusses the three dimensions of service-learning projects (partner readiness, project design, and project execution) associated with the creation of direct value for partner organizations.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 2, 2024

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This video video discusses the concept of service learning, which is an educational framework integrating traditional learning with community service. The aim is to enable students to apply academic theories in real-world contexts, addressing societal needs. The authors have developed a service learning program where MBA students work with international humanitarian NGOs, focusing on issues like poverty and post-war reconciliation.

Over eight years, they executed projects across 20 countries and identified two types of value created for partners: **direct value** (tangible outcomes directly affecting the organization) and **indirect value** (benefits not initially planned but still valuable, such as reputational gains and staff development). The research highlighted that while students' transformative learning experiences are well-documented, there is little focus on the value created for partner organizations.

Through interviews and analysis of their projects, the authors found that successful collaborations required careful partner readiness, effective project design, and execution management. Key factors for creating direct value included alignment between project aims, local and executive support, the readiness of partners to engage, and the timing of projects.

The article outlines actionable recommendations for service learning instructors, emphasizing the importance of involving local partners, fostering deep collaboration, and ensuring that both students and partners are actively engaged in the field. The insights gleaned contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the value generated in service learning initiatives, helping to guide better project designs in the future.

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Service learning is really an increasingly popular

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approach to education

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that combines traditional learning objectives

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with community service.

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And the goal here is to allow students

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to apply their academic theories,

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but take them really to, to the real world,

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to solve problems that meet direct societal needs.

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And my co-author

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and I had spent the last eight years

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building a service learning program.

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We, it was designed to bring teams of MBA students to work

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with partner organizations.

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Most of them were international humanitarian NGOs.

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Uh, and we were looking to explore the role

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of business in addressing issues of poverty

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and reconciliation and rebuilding after war.

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So we, at this point, we had worked in,

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more than 20 countries on 30 projects.

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And our projects were, for example, one of our projects to,

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just to give you a sense of the type of work we were doing,

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we were working with a child focused NGO on understanding

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the challenge of, of child sex trafficking.

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And what we, what we did is we used a,

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a supply chain perspective to gen generate novel ways to,

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approach their trafficking programs.

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Their trafficking was,

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their programs were largely focused on just essentially

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rehabilitation after rescue.

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But we wanted to understand kind of broadly

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how business theories, particularly analysis

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of the supply chain could,

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could prevent trafficking from happening.

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Right? Um, our approach was really partner centric.

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We spent a lot of time being cognizant about how much time

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and energy our partners were investing in co-producing work

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with student teams, working together, a lot of preparation

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and a lot of time in the field.

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And we really wanted to make sure

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that our partners got something out of the experience,

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that, that they really found value from it.

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And so we went to the academic literature

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and tried to find a way to guide us,

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but we found that, in fact,

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the literature said very little about partner value.

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So we decided to use our own course as a context

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and really try and unpack the factors

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that really make these types of experiences valuable

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and useful for partners.

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So to start off with, there really was very literal,

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very little research that talked about value at all.

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So this, this notion of value is very kind of,

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obtuse in the, in the literature.

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What we found that most

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of the literature was focused on

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the students themselves, right?

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And that there were clear guidelines on the ways you can

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ensure students have transformative learning experiences.

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Um, and we were pretty confident that our stu,

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that our students, we had a lot of, feedback mechanisms

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and we felt we were hitting that goal quite effectively.

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But the literature said very little about the experiences

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of partners, mostly about

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how difficult it was to measure partners.

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And there's a, a really nice quote from a paper in a MLE,

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from Paul Godfrey, from BYU

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and his colleagues where he talked about that most

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Of the, the research was on the, the big L small s, right?

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Big, big learning, very small service.

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And, and that we really don't know that much about

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what really service looks like.

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And so we looked at, you know,

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what the existing research really said was, things

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that we were already doing kind of reciprocity,

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where we work with empowering partners, moving

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beyond just kind

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of superficial projects like tutoring, right?

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Which just reproduce power inequities.

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And, and, and, you know,

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and the second was that, that thing that we were doing,

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that there were lots of things that were important,

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but that were really outside of our control.

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Like, for example, the literature suggested that

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universities should have enduring partnerships

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with partners across multi, multi-facets of the university.

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And as course instructors, that was great,

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but it wasn't particularly actionable by us.

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Um, so what we did is we went back to our partners

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and probed specifically what they were able to get out

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of our collaborations, you know, using the hindsight

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of history, what was,

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what was the value created for them?

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And so we really uncovered that there were two real types

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of value that our, our partners experienced,

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and we've labeled them as directed indirect value.

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And so direct value is really the specific tangible outcomes

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from the project that really directly affected the partner

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organization and their operations and their strategy.

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So for example, if we were able to

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develop an idea that was able to secure them new funding,

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or that helped them identify new partners to work with,

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or find significant gaps in their program,

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or problems with the programming that they were unaware of,

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or creative, creative

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and generative new ideas to approach the problems that got,

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that was really direct value.

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And this is something different than the partner would've

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been able to do to do without us.

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It has to be a, a, a product of both the student team

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and the partner working together,

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and it persists beyond the particular engagement, right?

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But, and that was great.

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That was what we were always looking for.

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It was designed in our scope of work,

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but they also talked about that in, in addition

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to this direct value, they also talked about other benefits

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that we classify as indirect value, still created benefits

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for the partners, but hadn't been part of the plan

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or the deliverables.

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And examples of that were, for example,

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like the reputational benefit of working

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with an international, university

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so we could get access to populations, to actors that,

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that they might not be able to get audiences with,

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or the opportunity

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for professional development of their staff.

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You know, indirect value has to go

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beyond just accelerating existing activities.

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It's not like they're doing something and we come in

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and that, and where they were going.

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We, we just help them get there faster.

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But it's really the, the personnel development

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or the opportunities that come outside

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of the project deliverables, but that really create value.

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And even a couple of times, our partners,

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we helped them identify future potential employees.

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They hired our students after the fact,

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and that was a real type of this indirect value provided.

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Um, and so that was the first step really was saying,

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what is value and how do we conceptualize it both

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for our own uses and for the, for the literature.

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Okay. Well, we actually used an, an inductive approach

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and a comparative case analysis using,

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follow-up interviews with our, with our partners as well

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as archival materials.

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So we used the entire population of the 30 projects

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that we had conducted over the eight years

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that we had been running these, these, this course.

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And we actually went back to our partners

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to assess the value.

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And that involved kind of a real postmortem

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years later about kind of the, a real conversation

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with a number of partners about the value that was created.

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And then we took each of the 30 projects,

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classified them according to the type of value it produced,

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both yes or no direct value, and yes

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or no indirect value.

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And we actually, we found a couple of instances

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where there was no value, neither direct

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nor indirect, that was created for our partners.

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And we also found that there were

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very few circumstances where indirect value,

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sorry, my, my apologies.

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There were, there were no circumstances where direct value

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occurred where Indi direct value didn't occur.

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So that really saw, we found

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that indirect value was necessary,

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but not sufficient for the creation of direct value.

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Um, and under half

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of our projects succeeded in creating this type

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of direct value in, in addition to the indirect intangibles.

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And then we went back to the archival

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data produced by each team.

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So that included their field notes, all of the observations,

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the final reports, all of our in-process, work, product,

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and we're able to kind of break down

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the ways in which the engagement unfolded.

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And we had, field memos

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and diaries of students reflection papers.

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We had all of our partner reactions.

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And what we were able to do then is classify

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those projects in terms of where they fell

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and be able to identify some of the patterns

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that underpinned the creation of direct value.

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And really where we were interested largely in

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how do we create the direct value in addition to

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that indirect value.

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So we found, first of all, we developed a model

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that parses out three broad characteristics of projects that

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Produce direct value.

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And the first dimension is really partner readiness.

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And this is not about the quality of the partner,

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but it's really about the partner's ability

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to absorb our capacity and work with us, right?

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And not all partners have the capacity to do that, right?

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It's a huge amount of workload,

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and, a pretty

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dynamic context in which our partners operate.

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And so the ones that were really ready for us, they,

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they had a couple characteristics.

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First, we found that, readiness meant that,

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that there wasn't only alignment with executive priorities,

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but also with the local partners and their,

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and the strategic partners on the ground.

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Often as professors, we were interacting with their boards

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of directors or their international, arms of the NGO.

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And then once you get in country, there's,

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there's often a, a disconnect

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between the values and priorities.

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Sometimes they'd be like, great, now we have

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to host this team for two weeks and, and our bosses

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or our regional director wants us.

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And, and so, it was, we, first of all,

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we thought it was really important to have that type

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of alignment at both levels that these internal champions,

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within the partner organizations who are really

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invested in the project's outcome, they,

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they make all the difference in facilitating the necessary

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resources and support, but also allowing

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for the appropriate integration

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and follow up of, of, of, of the initiatives.

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Uh, we also found that if we didn't, if we had local

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but not executive support, then we came up

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with recommendations that were outside the purview.

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So it was really kind

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of partner readiness means at multiple levels.

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It also means that the partner has the right amount of human

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and knowledge capital to complement the skills

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that our students have, right?

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The staff have to have the relevant experience and knowledge

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and expertise to work alongside students

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and to implement product recommendations.

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Um, at, at times

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we found ourselves not creating direct value when neither

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the team nor the partner had the right, the, the right

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information and the right the right skills.

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For example, we were working on a health system

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strengthening part project with an international NGO

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that had lots of health system knowledge,

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but not particularly in Sierra Leone where we were working,

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where the health system had been white crumbled

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because of the, the long term civil war.

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In fact, there was something like four doctors

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in the entire country.

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Uh, we were teams of business scholars and students,

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and they were a team of, of

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and NGO workers who didn't have that health background.

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And so as much as we tried, we weren't able

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to get deeply enough into that problem.

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Um, and then finally, in terms of readiness,

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the operational environment, is really dynamic

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and the partner has to be able to navigate

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and adapt to that, right?

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Which is a deep understanding of cultural, economic,

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political dynamics,

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which can really impact the project's feasibility.

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That's knowing harder, having really tight connections

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and deep connections on the ground,

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but also really understanding how to get access

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to those critical populations.

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Um, some partners have more hands-off relationships

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with local partners, which makes it harder, harder

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to really get into those insights.

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So that's really about the,

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the partner being ready to absorb us.

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The second large dimension is the time, is, sorry, is,

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the design of the project,

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and that has kind of three sub dimensions as well.

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Um, we really wanted

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to talk largely about the project timing

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and where it was in the stage.

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So we found that the optimal stage

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for projects are either at the very beginning

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or at the very end of a larger initiative, right?

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At the early stages were really useful in allowing teams

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to innovate, to ideate, new opportunities

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or actually to test out some riskier ideas that were,

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you know, on the tip of the partner's tongue,

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but had they hadn't really been able to invest in right?

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Uh, take it. And,

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and sometimes even identifying reasons

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that it wouldn't work, right?

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Could save the partner a ton of time and effort.

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Uh, and so that's really kind of scoping at the beginning.

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Uh, for example, we worked with a partner in Indonesia,

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and they were talking about how they really want,

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they had this idea for how to manage,

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disaster preparedness in terms of floods by,

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reducing the amount of trash collected right on the ground,

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which creates, barriers to drainage and, and irrigation.

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And so we worked with that local partner who was like,

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I really wanna do this, but it's outside of my priorities

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or, or scope of work.

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And we're like, well, we can come help you with that.

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If you can give us two weeks on the ground, we can,

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we can actually dive into that.

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And it, it ended up getting a, a, a huge amount of funding

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for a recycling franchise for that particular partner.

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Uh, later in the stages is also really useful, which is

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well, helping with monitoring

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and evaluating of existing, existing projects even when

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that evaluation is positive or negative, right?

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If, if we're able to give a positive evaluation, it serves

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that as external validation of the activities of,

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of the partner.

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Um, and if it's a more negative evaluation, if we find

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challenges or problems with their existing programming,

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it gives them the opportunity to make some changes.

14:29.605 --> 14:32.655
What we found was that it, we were working on a project

14:32.655 --> 14:35.175
that had been based around market information

14:35.175 --> 14:36.295
that was changing, right?

14:36.675 --> 14:41.055
And that the sustaining avail of the project was not,

14:41.105 --> 14:43.135
based on a strong sensitivity analysis.

14:43.135 --> 14:46.455
And the changes in the market conditions, really kind of

14:47.125 --> 14:49.495
changed the value of that project for the partner.

14:49.605 --> 14:50.695
That was not good news

14:50.715 --> 14:52.205
For the, the project itself,

14:52.265 --> 14:55.245
but it was great news for the partner allowing them to kind

14:55.245 --> 14:57.925
of, limit the scope of the intervention

14:58.105 --> 15:01.205
and make modifications and reevaluate their own priorities.

15:01.375 --> 15:05.085
Right? Another really good,

15:05.165 --> 15:08.165
a really important dimension was, of,

15:08.225 --> 15:13.005
of the execution is, is managing the co-production

15:13.665 --> 15:18.025
and connectedness with the partners as in addition,

15:18.025 --> 15:19.905
and balancing that with the perceived

15:19.905 --> 15:21.065
independence of the students.

15:21.525 --> 15:23.825
We found that the, that being an outside team

15:24.375 --> 15:28.185
gave us license to ask questions to go places

15:29.055 --> 15:31.385
that partners couldn't sometimes go.

15:32.005 --> 15:34.665
And so leveraging that

15:34.685 --> 15:38.985
and using that to, enable us to access information

15:39.535 --> 15:40.665
that might not be readily,

15:40.665 --> 15:43.665
readily available given the partners affiliation

15:44.045 --> 15:45.105
or embeddedness.

15:45.645 --> 15:49.505
So for example, we were working with a partner,

15:50.435 --> 15:54.505
whose corporate, partners were very anti-mining,

15:55.005 --> 15:56.945
but in reality, there was a lot

15:56.965 --> 15:59.065
of environmental damage happening

15:59.065 --> 16:01.185
because of illegal wildcat mining on the ground.

16:01.645 --> 16:04.425
And so, but the partner couldn't really go investigate

16:04.425 --> 16:06.385
mining because it was outside of the alignment

16:06.445 --> 16:08.025
of their donors and their priorities.

16:08.125 --> 16:10.945
But they could leverage us as students to, and,

16:10.965 --> 16:12.145
and faculty to go in there

16:12.145 --> 16:13.945
and ask the questions that they couldn't ask.

16:14.295 --> 16:18.465
That was really, that design of, of using

16:18.465 --> 16:20.345
that independence could be really valuable

16:20.345 --> 16:21.585
in creating partner value.

16:22.245 --> 16:23.665
And then finally,

16:24.745 --> 16:27.565
and then the third dimension is the way

16:27.565 --> 16:30.525
that service learning project is executed really plays a

16:30.725 --> 16:32.725
critical role in determining its success and,

16:32.985 --> 16:34.445
and the value it deliverables.

16:35.385 --> 16:39.725
Um, so it's not just how they are, you know,

16:39.905 --> 16:41.005
how they are designed,

16:41.185 --> 16:43.405
but how, how we go about the execution.

16:44.145 --> 16:46.965
And, successful fa projects we found had

16:46.965 --> 16:48.325
several features in common.

16:48.945 --> 16:52.125
The first was that, that it was true co-production,

16:52.125 --> 16:55.645
and that aligns with the research on reciprocity, that,

16:55.835 --> 16:58.405
that this is not about students coming in

16:58.405 --> 17:02.165
and doing something for partners, it's with partners.

17:02.865 --> 17:05.885
And it involved real collaborations between student

17:05.945 --> 17:08.805
and partner, organizations, both

17:08.805 --> 17:12.005
of both parties really engaged deeply in contributing their

17:12.005 --> 17:15.525
unique skills, perspectives, working together, the idea

17:15.525 --> 17:17.605
that neither part of the team has the knowledge on their

17:17.605 --> 17:22.125
own, and that, that this involves

17:23.235 --> 17:25.875
treating the team as a holistic whole, right?

17:26.025 --> 17:27.715
Working together in,

17:29.045 --> 17:32.025
and this is related to the second, dimension, which is

17:32.405 --> 17:34.865
how they work together, not only co-producing it,

17:34.865 --> 17:36.985
but deeply immersing into the field, right?

17:37.445 --> 17:40.745
The most successful projects brought both students

17:41.125 --> 17:44.305
and partner team members deep into target communities

17:44.685 --> 17:47.945
to really allow for a richer understanding of the context

17:48.125 --> 17:49.645
and challenges being addressed.

17:50.025 --> 17:54.165
And you would, you, you know, I falsely had the impression

17:54.165 --> 17:57.365
that our partner organizations were equally embedded

17:57.905 --> 18:00.165
in the lives of their beneficiaries.

18:00.425 --> 18:02.285
And in fact, many of our partner,

18:02.705 --> 18:06.405
or, you know, the, the, the country program officers

18:06.965 --> 18:09.205
hadn't really spent a night in, in one

18:09.205 --> 18:10.845
of the beneficiary villages,

18:11.205 --> 18:13.645
hadn't had been working on many agricultural projects.

18:13.645 --> 18:15.765
We had one who had said, I'd never planted rice.

18:15.795 --> 18:18.165
I've worked on dozens of agricultural projects,

18:18.345 --> 18:19.925
but I've never actually done it.

18:20.185 --> 18:24.005
And so that kind of deep immersion allowed for quite a,

18:24.005 --> 18:26.885
quite a few different insights into the problem

18:27.625 --> 18:30.405
and the revelation of new opportunities

18:30.585 --> 18:31.725
and ways to approach it.

18:31.985 --> 18:34.805
And what this means is, d, we travel together.

18:34.825 --> 18:38.365
We sleep and eat together working side by side by side

18:38.365 --> 18:40.725
with partner staff and their beneficiaries.

18:41.225 --> 18:44.685
Uh, we worked on a nutrition project in Cambodia where

18:45.225 --> 18:49.005
we spent several days cooking and eating

18:49.345 --> 18:53.565
and farming and sharing a table with, with families

18:53.785 --> 18:56.125
to notice the patterns around

18:56.145 --> 18:57.205
how they were feeding children.

18:57.825 --> 19:00.845
And that really is useful

19:00.875 --> 19:05.265
because it helps teams work deeply

19:05.265 --> 19:07.625
through differences in culture and vocation

19:08.205 --> 19:11.065
and build really meaningful relationships, which,

19:11.155 --> 19:15.145
which isn't necessary for trust to develop in order

19:15.165 --> 19:16.945
to get real information,

19:16.945 --> 19:19.105
rather than just hearing the party line

19:19.105 --> 19:21.665
or seeing what a report, would tell you.

19:22.285 --> 19:25.225
And then the last was around adaptability.

19:25.365 --> 19:29.065
The places where we work, always have, you know,

19:29.065 --> 19:30.385
the only constant is change

19:31.325 --> 19:34.385
and the ability to adapt to unexpected challenges,

19:34.385 --> 19:37.905
to new informations, to changes in the project scope,

19:37.925 --> 19:40.305
is really crucial during execution.

19:40.845 --> 19:43.705
And that successful projects were those that were flexible

19:43.705 --> 19:46.105
and responsive to the dynamic nature

19:46.165 --> 19:49.025
of working in these kind of very real world settings,

19:49.025 --> 19:51.025
being able to pivot when necessary.

19:51.565 --> 19:55.625
And so that really gave a roadmap of,

19:56.165 --> 19:59.985
for instructors as well as scholars who are looking to,

20:00.885 --> 20:03.985
to assess the value of cervix learning projects.

20:04.405 --> 20:06.985
Uh, you have dimensions on which you can measure,

20:07.085 --> 20:11.185
but also it's almost a checklist for instructors

20:11.185 --> 20:13.825
who are looking to design those, those projects themselves.

20:14.485 --> 20:16.345
So the first is, we found that

20:17.055 --> 20:18.665
it's actually pretty difficult.

20:18.965 --> 20:21.385
We thought we were doing better than we actually were.

20:21.765 --> 20:26.075
In fact, just under half of our projects were able

20:26.075 --> 20:27.315
to create direct value.

20:28.425 --> 20:32.575
And so that was, and so for us, we,

20:32.885 --> 20:33.895
that was very useful

20:34.245 --> 20:36.895
because we wanted to understand not only

20:37.795 --> 20:41.295
to understand the value we were producing at the last thing

20:41.295 --> 20:44.095
you wanna do is in a service learning project

20:44.195 --> 20:46.855
for student learning, is to give them a false sense

20:46.855 --> 20:50.005
of superiority that they can go into these environments

20:50.025 --> 20:53.285
and solve these problems based upon their grit

20:53.305 --> 20:54.325
and goodwill, right?

20:54.745 --> 20:58.045
Uh, we can now say to them, you know, if these are problems

20:58.045 --> 20:59.565
that six students

20:59.985 --> 21:01.845
and a faculty member could solve in a year,

21:01.845 --> 21:04.205
they're probably not problems worthy of our attention.

21:04.705 --> 21:07.485
And in fact, in only half of them, we are actually able

21:07.485 --> 21:09.565
to really create direct value for our partner.

21:10.025 --> 21:11.085
But that's okay,

21:11.515 --> 21:14.925
because even when we don't create direct value,

21:15.135 --> 21:19.005
there are all these indirect elements that are, that are,

21:19.005 --> 21:20.045
that are producible.

21:20.345 --> 21:22.285
Um, it allows us

21:22.285 --> 21:25.085
to not only have a more accurate empirical examination

21:25.085 --> 21:27.605
of these projects, but really can guide the conversations

21:27.605 --> 21:29.165
with our instructors and partners

21:29.345 --> 21:30.725
and our students about the types

21:30.725 --> 21:32.245
of benefits that can be realized.

21:32.745 --> 21:35.645
You know, promising realistic value

21:36.105 --> 21:38.885
and assessments of value is important for the,

21:39.305 --> 21:42.805
for being able to create future value by going back

21:42.805 --> 21:45.325
to partners and, and building those embedded relationships.

21:45.785 --> 21:50.085
Um, and then for instructors, it really gives this tangible,

21:50.295 --> 21:51.685
actionable advice looking

21:51.745 --> 21:53.925
to maximize the impact of their collaborations.

21:54.505 --> 21:59.285
Of the 14 projects where we created direct value, all 12, 12

21:59.285 --> 22:01.485
of the 14 had all three dimensions.

22:02.875 --> 22:05.855
And so it's kind of like a chain that you have

22:05.855 --> 22:07.055
to have all the elements.

22:07.055 --> 22:09.655
And if you, if, if one of those chain pieces

22:09.715 --> 22:13.055
of the chain is broken, it, it, it is likely to collapse.

22:13.235 --> 22:17.135
And so focusing on all three dimensions,

22:17.155 --> 22:21.255
is crucial in order to achieve real direct value.

22:21.715 --> 22:24.575
And in the conditions where we achieved indirect value,

22:24.915 --> 22:27.615
it was two, but not all three of,

22:27.675 --> 22:29.215
of the dimensions that we found.

22:29.875 --> 22:33.335
And so, what I would tell instructors, having

22:34.155 --> 22:36.495
had conducted this research after eight years and,

22:36.515 --> 22:40.935
and kind of now 15 years into doing, these projects,

22:40.955 --> 22:43.655
is first you wanna really work with local partner staff,

22:44.235 --> 22:45.255
ask what their needs are.

22:45.595 --> 22:46.855
You know, we'll sit down with them

22:46.875 --> 22:48.935
and say, if it was your birthday or Christmas

22:48.935 --> 22:51.135
and you could get anything, what would it be?

22:51.205 --> 22:52.935
What are the things that keep you up at night?

22:52.935 --> 22:56.415
What are the questions that you wish you had time to ask?

22:56.825 --> 23:00.735
Right? Um, and tap into the passion of the local staff

23:00.735 --> 23:03.055
and their day-to-day challenges, and try

23:03.055 --> 23:06.055
and be an extra set of arms for something

23:06.055 --> 23:08.175
that they are and minds for.

23:08.175 --> 23:10.455
Something that, that that's close to their heart

23:10.475 --> 23:12.855
and challenge the challenges them on a day-to-day basis.

23:13.475 --> 23:15.975
Um, the second is that you, the team

23:16.155 --> 23:18.615
as not just the students serving the client,

23:18.915 --> 23:21.575
but a combination of the student and the partners,

23:21.595 --> 23:23.095
and invest in all the,

23:23.095 --> 23:25.495
the things we know from research about effective

23:25.495 --> 23:26.735
team building, right?

23:27.005 --> 23:30.375
Sharing, develop, developing shared norms, working

23:30.375 --> 23:33.535
through conflict, really getting to know one another.

23:33.645 --> 23:36.895
This type of integration is essential for the co-production

23:37.365 --> 23:39.735
that creates real direct value.

23:39.885 --> 23:41.335
It's not efficient, right?

23:41.685 --> 23:44.815
It's not this, let's just get stuff done, but

23:44.835 --> 23:48.285
It is about really building the infrastructure in the

23:48.285 --> 23:49.845
team to dig deeply.

23:50.425 --> 23:52.885
And then the last would be to get your boots dirty.

23:53.145 --> 23:56.565
You know, my favorite quote from President e Eisenhower is

23:56.995 --> 23:59.525
that farming looks mighty easy when you're plows a pencil

23:59.545 --> 24:01.965
and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield, right?

24:02.105 --> 24:06.485
You have to deeply immerse into the problems,

24:06.695 --> 24:09.405
especially when you're dealing with these complex problems

24:09.425 --> 24:10.765
of poverty and conflict.

24:11.065 --> 24:12.805
Uh, and this is not just the students,

24:12.955 --> 24:13.965
it's the partners too.

24:14.185 --> 24:17.485
And, and getting your boots dirty, really working in

24:17.625 --> 24:20.805
and experiencing and walking in the footsteps

24:21.145 --> 24:24.725
of the beneficiaries can, is really crucial

24:24.825 --> 24:26.645
to generate the most valuable insights.

Understanding Value in Service Learning Programs

00:00:00 - Service learning is really an increasingly popular approach to education that combines traditional learning objectives with community service. And the goal here is to allow students to apply their academic theories, but take them really to, to the real world, to solve problems that meet direct societal needs. And my co-author and I had spent the last eight years building a service learning program. We, it was designed to bring teams of MBA students to work with partner organizations. Most of them were international humanitarian NGOs.
00:00:35 - of business in addressing issues of poverty and reconciliation and rebuilding after war. So we, at this point, we had worked in, more than 20 countries on 30 projects. And our projects were, for example, one of our projects to, just to give you a sense of the type of work we were doing, we were working with a child focused NGO on understanding the challenge of, of child sex trafficking. And what we, what we did is we used a,
00:01:09 - approach their trafficking programs. Their trafficking was, their programs were largely focused on just essentially rehabilitation after rescue. But we wanted to understand kind of broadly how business theories, particularly analysis of the supply chain could, could prevent trafficking from happening. Right? our approach was really partner centric. We spent a lot of time being cognizant about how much time and energy our partners were investing in co-producing work
00:01:41 - and a lot of time in the field. And we really wanted to make sure that our partners got something out of the experience, that, that they really found value from it. And so we went to the academic literature and tried to find a way to guide us, but we found that, in fact, the literature said very little about partner value. So we decided to use our own course as a context and really try and unpack the factors that really make these types of experiences valuable
00:02:10 - So to start off with, there really was very literal, very little research that talked about value at all. So this, this notion of value is very kind of, obtuse in the, in the literature. What we found that most of the literature was focused on the students themselves, right? And that there were clear guidelines on the ways you can ensure students have transformative learning experiences. and we were pretty confident that our stu, that our students, we had a lot of, feedback mechanisms
00:02:41 - But the literature said very little about the experiences of partners, mostly about how difficult it was to measure partners. And there's a, a really nice quote from a paper in a MLE, from Paul Godfrey, from BYU and his colleagues where he talked about that most Of the, the research was on the, the big L small s, right? Big, big learning, very small service. And, and that we really don't know that much about

Exploring Direct and Indirect Value in Partnerships

00:03:12 - And so we looked at, you know, what the existing research really said was, things that we were already doing kind of reciprocity, where we work with empowering partners, moving beyond just kind of superficial projects like tutoring, right? Which just reproduce power inequities. And, and, and, you know, and the second was that, that thing that we were doing,
00:03:41 - but that were really outside of our control. Like, for example, the literature suggested that universities should have enduring partnerships with partners across multi, multi-facets of the university. And as course instructors, that was great, but it wasn't particularly actionable by us. so what we did is we went back to our partners and probed specifically what they were able to get out of our collaborations, you know, using the hindsight of history, what was,
00:04:13 - And so we really uncovered that there were two real types of value that our, our partners experienced, and we've labeled them as directed indirect value. And so direct value is really the specific tangible outcomes from the project that really directly affected the partner organization and their operations and their strategy. So for example, if we were able to develop an idea that was able to secure them new funding,
00:04:44 - or find significant gaps in their program, or problems with the programming that they were unaware of, or creative, creative and generative new ideas to approach the problems that got, that was really direct value. And this is something different than the partner would've been able to do to do without us. It has to be a, a, a product of both the student team and the partner working together, and it persists beyond the particular engagement, right?
00:05:14 - That was what we were always looking for. It was designed in our scope of work, but they also talked about that in, in addition to this direct value, they also talked about other benefits that we classify as indirect value, still created benefits for the partners, but hadn't been part of the plan or the deliverables. And examples of that were, for example, like the reputational benefit of working with an international, university so we could get access to populations, to actors that,
00:05:49 - or the opportunity for professional development of their staff. You know, indirect value has to go beyond just accelerating existing activities. It's not like they're doing something and we come in and that, and where they were going. We, we just help them get there faster. But it's really the, the personnel development or the opportunities that come outside of the project deliverables, but that really create value. And even a couple of times, our partners,

Assessing Value in Service Learning Projects

00:06:19 - They hired our students after the fact, and that was a real type of this indirect value provided. and so that was the first step really was saying, what is value and how do we conceptualize it both for our own uses and for the, for the literature. Okay. Well, we actually used an, an inductive approach and a comparative case analysis using, follow-up interviews with our, with our partners as well as archival materials.
00:06:51 - that we had conducted over the eight years that we had been running these, these, this course. And we actually went back to our partners to assess the value. And that involved kind of a real postmortem years later about kind of the, a real conversation with a number of partners about the value that was created. And then we took each of the 30 projects, classified them according to the type of value it produced, both yes or no direct value, and yes
00:07:20 - And we actually, we found a couple of instances where there was no value, neither direct nor indirect, that was created for our partners. And we also found that there were very few circumstances where indirect value, sorry, my, my apologies. There were, there were no circumstances where direct value occurred where Indi direct value didn't occur. So that really saw, we found that indirect value was necessary, but not sufficient for the creation of direct value.
00:07:52 - of our projects succeeded in creating this type of direct value in, in addition to the indirect intangibles. And then we went back to the archival data produced by each team. So that included their field notes, all of the observations, the final reports, all of our in-process, work, product, and we're able to kind of break down the ways in which the engagement unfolded. And we had, field memos
00:08:24 - We had all of our partner reactions. And what we were able to do then is classify those projects in terms of where they fell and be able to identify some of the patterns that underpinned the creation of direct value. And really where we were interested largely in how do we create the direct value in addition to that indirect value. So we found, first of all, we developed a model that parses out three broad characteristics of projects that
00:08:56 - And the first dimension is really partner readiness. And this is not about the quality of the partner, but it's really about the partner's ability to absorb our capacity and work with us, right? And not all partners have the capacity to do that, right? It's a huge amount of workload, and, a pretty dynamic context in which our partners operate. And so the ones that were really ready for us, they, they had a couple characteristics.

Aligning NGO Priorities for Effective Partnerships

00:09:30 - that there wasn't only alignment with executive priorities, but also with the local partners and their, and the strategic partners on the ground. Often as professors, we were interacting with their boards of directors or their international, arms of the NGO. And then once you get in country, there's, there's often a, a disconnect between the values and priorities. Sometimes they'd be like, great, now we have to host this team for two weeks and, and our bosses
00:09:58 - And, and so, it was, we, first of all, we thought it was really important to have that type of alignment at both levels that these internal champions, within the partner organizations who are really invested in the project's outcome, they, they make all the difference in facilitating the necessary resources and support, but also allowing for the appropriate integration and follow up of, of, of, of the initiatives. we also found that if we didn't, if we had local but not executive support, then we came up
00:10:31 - So it was really kind of partner readiness means at multiple levels. It also means that the partner has the right amount of human and knowledge capital to complement the skills that our students have, right? The staff have to have the relevant experience and knowledge and expertise to work alongside students and to implement product recommendations. at, at times we found ourselves not creating direct value when neither the team nor the partner had the right, the, the right
00:11:05 - For example, we were working on a health system strengthening part project with an international NGO that had lots of health system knowledge, but not particularly in Sierra Leone where we were working, where the health system had been white crumbled because of the, the long term civil war. In fact, there was something like four doctors in the entire country. we were teams of business scholars and students, and they were a team of, of
00:11:37 - And so as much as we tried, we weren't able to get deeply enough into that problem. and then finally, in terms of readiness, the operational environment, is really dynamic and the partner has to be able to navigate and adapt to that, right? Which is a deep understanding of cultural, economic, political dynamics, which can really impact the project's feasibility. That's knowing harder, having really tight connections and deep connections on the ground, but also really understanding how to get access
00:12:08 - some partners have more hands-off relationships with local partners, which makes it harder, harder to really get into those insights. So that's really about the, the partner being ready to absorb us. The second large dimension is the time, is, sorry, is, the design of the project, and that has kind of three sub dimensions as well. we really wanted to talk largely about the project timing and where it was in the stage.

Optimizing Project Phases for Effective Collaboration

00:12:40 - for projects are either at the very beginning or at the very end of a larger initiative, right? At the early stages were really useful in allowing teams to innovate, to ideate, new opportunities or actually to test out some riskier ideas that were, you know, on the tip of the partner's tongue, but had they hadn't really been able to invest in right? take it. And, and sometimes even identifying reasons that it wouldn't work, right?
00:13:12 - and so that's really kind of scoping at the beginning. for example, we worked with a partner in Indonesia, and they were talking about how they really want, they had this idea for how to manage, disaster preparedness in terms of floods by, reducing the amount of trash collected right on the ground, which creates, barriers to drainage and, and irrigation. And so we worked with that local partner who was like,
00:13:43 - or, or scope of work. And we're like, well, we can come help you with that. If you can give us two weeks on the ground, we can, we can actually dive into that. And it, it ended up getting a, a, a huge amount of funding for a recycling franchise for that particular partner. later in the stages is also really useful, which is well, helping with monitoring and evaluating of existing, existing projects even when that evaluation is positive or negative, right?
00:14:15 - that as external validation of the activities of, of the partner. and if it's a more negative evaluation, if we find challenges or problems with their existing programming, it gives them the opportunity to make some changes. What we found was that it, we were working on a project that had been based around market information that was changing, right? And that the sustaining avail of the project was not,
00:14:43 - And the changes in the market conditions, really kind of changed the value of that project for the partner. That was not good news For the, the project itself, but it was great news for the partner allowing them to kind of, limit the scope of the intervention and make modifications and reevaluate their own priorities. Right? Another really good, a really important dimension was, of, of the execution is, is managing the co-production
00:15:18 - and balancing that with the perceived independence of the students. We found that the, that being an outside team gave us license to ask questions to go places that partners couldn't sometimes go. And so leveraging that and using that to, enable us to access information that might not be readily, readily available given the partners affiliation

Enhancing Partner Value Through Co-Production

00:15:45 - So for example, we were working with a partner, whose corporate, partners were very anti-mining, but in reality, there was a lot of environmental damage happening because of illegal wildcat mining on the ground. And so, but the partner couldn't really go investigate mining because it was outside of the alignment of their donors and their priorities. But they could leverage us as students to, and, and faculty to go in there and ask the questions that they couldn't ask.
00:16:18 - that independence could be really valuable in creating partner value. And then finally, and then the third dimension is the way that service learning project is executed really plays a critical role in determining its success and, and the value it deliverables. so it's not just how they are, you know, how they are designed, but how, how we go about the execution. And, successful fa projects we found had
00:16:48 - The first was that, that it was true co-production, and that aligns with the research on reciprocity, that, that this is not about students coming in and doing something for partners, it's with partners. And it involved real collaborations between student and partner, organizations, both of both parties really engaged deeply in contributing their unique skills, perspectives, working together, the idea that neither part of the team has the knowledge on their
00:17:23 - treating the team as a holistic whole, right? Working together in, and this is related to the second, dimension, which is how they work together, not only co-producing it, but deeply immersing into the field, right? The most successful projects brought both students and partner team members deep into target communities to really allow for a richer understanding of the context
00:17:50 - And you would, you, you know, I falsely had the impression that our partner organizations were equally embedded in the lives of their beneficiaries. And in fact, many of our partner, or, you know, the, the, the country program officers hadn't really spent a night in, in one of the beneficiary villages, hadn't had been working on many agricultural projects. We had one who had said, I'd never planted rice. I've worked on dozens of agricultural projects,
00:18:20 - And so that kind of deep immersion allowed for quite a, quite a few different insights into the problem and the revelation of new opportunities and ways to approach it. And what this means is, d, we travel together. We sleep and eat together working side by side by side with partner staff and their beneficiaries. we worked on a nutrition project in Cambodia where we spent several days cooking and eating

Building Trust and Flexibility in Service Learning

00:18:53 - to notice the patterns around how they were feeding children. And that really is useful because it helps teams work deeply through differences in culture and vocation and build really meaningful relationships, which, which isn't necessary for trust to develop in order to get real information, rather than just hearing the party line or seeing what a report, would tell you.
00:19:25 - The places where we work, always have, you know, the only constant is change and the ability to adapt to unexpected challenges, to new informations, to changes in the project scope, is really crucial during execution. And that successful projects were those that were flexible and responsive to the dynamic nature of working in these kind of very real world settings, being able to pivot when necessary. And so that really gave a roadmap of,
00:20:00 - to assess the value of cervix learning projects. you have dimensions on which you can measure, but also it's almost a checklist for instructors who are looking to design those, those projects themselves. So the first is, we found that it's actually pretty difficult. We thought we were doing better than we actually were. In fact, just under half of our projects were able to create direct value.
00:20:32 - that was very useful because we wanted to understand not only to understand the value we were producing at the last thing you wanna do is in a service learning project for student learning, is to give them a false sense of superiority that they can go into these environments and solve these problems based upon their grit and goodwill, right? we can now say to them, you know, if these are problems that six students
00:21:01 - they're probably not problems worthy of our attention. And in fact, in only half of them, we are actually able to really create direct value for our partner. But that's okay, because even when we don't create direct value, there are all these indirect elements that are, that are, that are producible. it allows us to not only have a more accurate empirical examination of these projects, but really can guide the conversations with our instructors and partners and our students about the types
00:21:32 - You know, promising realistic value and assessments of value is important for the, for being able to create future value by going back to partners and, and building those embedded relationships. and then for instructors, it really gives this tangible, actionable advice looking to maximize the impact of their collaborations. Of the 14 projects where we created direct value, all 12, 12 of the 14 had all three dimensions.

Achieving Value Through Effective Collaboration

00:22:05 - to have all the elements. And if you, if, if one of those chain pieces of the chain is broken, it, it, it is likely to collapse. And so focusing on all three dimensions, is crucial in order to achieve real direct value. And in the conditions where we achieved indirect value, it was two, but not all three of, of the dimensions that we found. And so, what I would tell instructors, having
00:22:36 - and kind of now 15 years into doing, these projects, is first you wanna really work with local partner staff, ask what their needs are. You know, we'll sit down with them and say, if it was your birthday or Christmas and you could get anything, what would it be? What are the things that keep you up at night? What are the questions that you wish you had time to ask? Right? and tap into the passion of the local staff and their day-to-day challenges, and try and be an extra set of arms for something
00:23:08 - Something that, that that's close to their heart and challenge the challenges them on a day-to-day basis. the second is that you, the team as not just the students serving the client, but a combination of the student and the partners, and invest in all the, the things we know from research about effective team building, right? Sharing, develop, developing shared norms, working through conflict, really getting to know one another. This type of integration is essential for the co-production
00:23:39 - It's not efficient, right? It's not this, let's just get stuff done, but It is about really building the infrastructure in the team to dig deeply. And then the last would be to get your boots dirty. You know, my favorite quote from President e Eisenhower is that farming looks mighty easy when you're plows a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield, right? You have to deeply immerse into the problems, especially when you're dealing with these complex problems
00:24:24 - and this is not just the students, it's the partners too. And, and getting your boots dirty, really working in and experiencing and walking in the footsteps of the beneficiaries can, is really crucial to generate the most valuable insights.

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