In the days leading up to a strategic planning retreat for The Talking Farm, I have been reflecting on “scale” and “impact” — two concepts often discussed in relation to non-profits or social enterprises. Can we/should we/how might we scale to have greater impact?

This is a particularly relevant issue — in my view — for non-profits like The Talking Farm that operate in an environment characterized by a rich landscape of other non-profits or public organizations working on the same fundamental issue. In this case, it’s the desire to impact the local food system. Dozens of organizations in the Chicago area are addressing food system issues, albeit in different communities and with slightly different approaches or goals. Layer on top of that national organizations such as Slow Food USA or the National Farm-to-School Network, Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, etc. and you begin to see a network of abundant resources.

So is the question really about scaling to achieve greater impact, or being more strategic about learning how to collaborate within a large network of resources? And if it’s the latter, what does that look like, exactly?

I am beginning to think that “what it looks like” is something like strategic hypothesis testing and prototyping. It seems beneficial to first be clear about an operating hypothesis: “Locating a 3-acre, production farm within an urban setting provides a leverage point for food-system issue awareness, education, jobs and new venture development.” But determining how best to collaborate with the larger network of resources — to drive the greatest social impact — also takes a bit of hypothesizing (“what is our most impactful role among the network of resources?”) and then prototyping some thoughtful collaborations with like-minded organizations. Hypothesize > prototype > learn > adapt.

We’ll see if this applies to The Talking Farm’s strategic planning over the next several weeks.

For two excellent pieces exploring the issues around scale and impact for non-profits, I recommend:

Driving Change: It’s not just about size by Sally Osberg, President and CEO of Skoll Foundation (published in the McKinsey & Co. blog What Matters.)

Scaling Impact: How to get 100x the results with 2x the organization by Jeffrey Bradach, cofounder and managing partner of the Bridgespan Group (published online in the Stanford Social Innovation Review)