Imagine if success was measured by the percentage of young people and adults in their systems who were collaborating to innovate solutions.
This is the ninth column I’ve posted since I became Youth Today’s editor-in-chief. Over the last eight weeks, I’ve used the “when youth thrive, we all thrive” banner to reflect on current events – AmeriCorps cuts, Mr. Rogers’ birthday – and introduce some less familiar concepts – the grammar of schooling, learning ecosystems, organized chaos. My goal is to elevate the mindset shifts needed for adults in our learning systems to fully embrace a commitment to youth thriving. Each column is grounded in two essential truths: 1) adolescents have a powerful drive to thrive, but they need more and better fuel, and 2) every connection counts, but by adolescence the learning experiences we design often do more harm than good.
The simplest and perhaps boldest suggestion for activating the cascade of mindset shifts needed, however, came in an unsolicited story pitch from halfway around the world. The top notes of my interview with Ali Raza Khan, founder and CEO of YES Network Pakistan about the principles and success evidence behind his trust-based changemaking model are in my April 10th column.
“Trust young people first, evaluate later,” Khan said.
This is the gist of the fast, foolproof, low-cost, low-prep paradigm-shifting solution Khan has developed that awakens agency, empathy and self-belief in 90% of youth he works with from extremely impoverished circumstances. His five principles have helped adults in over 1,200 educational and vocational institutions in Pakistan take the first step toward making a huge paradigm shift. The five principles, again, in a nutshell are:
Create a trust-based environment. Secure buy-in from the top.
Remove barriers to entry. Don’t assess their capacity or experience, trust their potential.
Provide a small risk-free investment. No requirement that teams pay funds back if they suffer a loss.
Challenge them to create quickly. Give them weeks, not months, to produce a product or service.
Celebrate and scale success. Provide opportunities to become donors for the next cohort.
There are lots of youth engagement, youth service and youth leadership programs in the U.S. All adhere to some of these principles. None that I know of adhere to all of them. This is the beauty of Kahn’s approach. Adhering to these simple principles keeps adults from over programming the experience.
I continue to reflect on two more of Khan’s quotes:
“When you trust young people, they don’t just rise, they soar — and in doing so, they change the world.” The evidence of the impact of the 4-week challenge on youth is clear. But is there evidence that they go on to change the world?
“Young people do not grow up in programs, they grow up under paradigms.” Adults need help dismantling paradigms that encourage youth dormancy. For Khan, unconditional trust is the best way to begin to awaken youth agency. Is it also the best way to awaken agency in the adults who work with them?
Let’s explore each of these in turn.
Can youth change the world?
Since our interview, Khan and I have continued our conversation over email. He recently shared a draft of his latest article on The Changemaking Progressional Framework in which he outlines the progressive journey a young person might take from having their natural changemaking potential awakened to having the influence needed to change the world. I loved the list but asked for evidence. Here’s a bit of what he shared back, including supporting international data sources.
Level 1: Transformation state. The Changemaking Intelligence Test survey found that 92% of Pakistani youth have an awakening sense of agency after a four-week trust-based changemaking experience.
Level 3. Institution-building state. According to a 2023 World Bank report, one in four young changemakers go on to launch formal organizations and 64% of these start-ups survive more than three years, higher than average survival rates for all start-ups.
Impressive statistics. But more, I suggested, would be needed to whet U.S. appetites:
First, comparable U.S. data. I’m familiar with data on youth volunteering and its impact on long-term civic engagement. I’m not sure if researchers are tracking impact using measures similar to those in Khan’s Changemaking Intelligence Test. (Defining changemaking intelligence as “the natural capacity to produce something that is valuable to others,” young changemakers are asked to evaluate their projects on three dimensions: number of people helped, amount of profit made, amount of innovation demonstrated).
Second, concomitant academic data. The science of learning and development tells us that, when faced with a truly meaningful challenge, young people become highly motivated to build the competencies and connections they need to succeed. But do they acquire academic credits and credentials? As long as these traditional measures of success are in play, we will need to present both-and data.
Third, complementary adult impact data. The first of Khan’s five principles is “get the leadership on board.” YES’ success at sparking youth changemakers has contributed to its spread to over 120 educational institutions across Pakistan. But what impact did their success, and the opportunity to provide unconditional trust, have on the adults?
Can trust-based changemaking transform institutions?
I sent Khan my column “Every connection optimized: Unleashing the potential of the people in learning ecosystems” in which I introduced our word treatment of ECOsystems to emphasize the importance of empowering system leaders to embrace adaptive management approaches in which every connection is optimized. I also introduced research on organized chaos, “a situation that appears disordered on the surface but actually has an underlying structure.” Study author Laura Amendola notes four benefits for this approach: adaptability, collaboration, innovation and trust. These, I believe, are offered in alphabetical order. But trust, I think, comes first.
Trusting that it is OK to design your own project and fail without consequences is what allows Khan’s students to collaborate, innovate and adapt to real-world realities. Trusting that the model is simple and quick enough to implement that risks associated with the anticipated failure are manageable is what allows institutional leaders to give their consent. Young people’s impressive four-week outcomes have fueled the movement’s growth. But Khan’s goals go beyond activating hundreds of new young changemakers each year and introducing changemaking as a new way to define youth success. YES is also leading a movement to transform educational and vocational institutions into changemaker campuses. As Khan notes:
“YES Network Pakistan … is trying to break down institutional barriers that prevent educational and vocational institutions from becoming changemaker campuses. YES believes that the key factor of success for any institution is what percentage of its faculty members and students are changemakers. YES is helping educational and vocational institutions to embrace a changemaking framework in their culture, curriculum and operations.”
Imagine the assets that could be released if learning ecosystems across the country and around the world adopted trust-based changemaking as the goal for their students and staff. Imagine if success was measured by the percentage of young people and adults in their systems who were collaborating to innovate solutions, improve the lives of people in their organizations and communities, and generate profit to fuel the movement. Embracing changemaking changes the interactions between the people in systems. Trusting that they would not be blamed for taking time away from official learning tasks is likely what gave educators the freedom to become changemakers, too.
Talking about unconditional trust as a starting point can be challenging in high stakes environments. But if high stakes systems can start with low-stakes propositions, we could build the trust needed for ever bolder change.
Trust-based changemaking may change the world, but can it change institutions?
Imagine if success was measured by the percentage of young people and adults in their systems who were collaborating to innovate solutions.
This is the ninth column I’ve posted since I became Youth Today’s editor-in-chief. Over the last eight weeks, I’ve used the “when youth thrive, we all thrive” banner to reflect on current events – AmeriCorps cuts, Mr. Rogers’ birthday – and introduce some less familiar concepts – the grammar of schooling, learning ecosystems, organized chaos. My goal is to elevate the mindset shifts needed for adults in our learning systems to fully embrace a commitment to youth thriving. Each column is grounded in two essential truths: 1) adolescents have a powerful drive to thrive, but they need more and better fuel, and 2) every connection counts, but by adolescence the learning experiences we design often do more harm than good.
“Trust young people first, evaluate later,” Khan said.
This is the gist of the fast, foolproof, low-cost, low-prep paradigm-shifting solution Khan has developed that awakens agency, empathy and self-belief in 90% of youth he works with from extremely impoverished circumstances. His five principles have helped adults in over 1,200 educational and vocational institutions in Pakistan take the first step toward making a huge paradigm shift. The five principles, again, in a nutshell are:
There are lots of youth engagement, youth service and youth leadership programs in the U.S. All adhere to some of these principles. None that I know of adhere to all of them. This is the beauty of Kahn’s approach. Adhering to these simple principles keeps adults from over programming the experience.
I continue to reflect on two more of Khan’s quotes:
“When you trust young people, they don’t just rise, they soar — and in doing so, they change the world.” The evidence of the impact of the 4-week challenge on youth is clear. But is there evidence that they go on to change the world?
[Related: The revolutionary speed of trust-based changemaking]
“Young people do not grow up in programs, they grow up under paradigms.” Adults need help dismantling paradigms that encourage youth dormancy. For Khan, unconditional trust is the best way to begin to awaken youth agency. Is it also the best way to awaken agency in the adults who work with them?
Let’s explore each of these in turn.
Can youth change the world?
Since our interview, Khan and I have continued our conversation over email. He recently shared a draft of his latest article on The Changemaking Progressional Framework in which he outlines the progressive journey a young person might take from having their natural changemaking potential awakened to having the influence needed to change the world. I loved the list but asked for evidence. Here’s a bit of what he shared back, including supporting international data sources.
Level 1: Transformation state. The Changemaking Intelligence Test survey found that 92% of Pakistani youth have an awakening sense of agency after a four-week trust-based changemaking experience.
Level 2: Refinement state. A 2022 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report indicates 72% of Kenyan youth given $20 launched an income-generating stream within three months.
Level 3. Institution-building state. According to a 2023 World Bank report, one in four young changemakers go on to launch formal organizations and 64% of these start-ups survive more than three years, higher than average survival rates for all start-ups.
Level 4: Ecosystem-building state. Youth-led initiatives begin to secure partnerships, expand impact. A UNDP 2023 report points out that for every $1 invested in youth ecosystem builders attracts $17 in additional funding. Additionally, youth-designed solutions are adopted by an average of 5.7 communities according to a 2023 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Level 5: Game-changing state. Youth-led policy innovations are adopted 40% faster than top-down approaches. The OECD also reports that 19% of Ashoka Young Changemakers have influenced national legislation.
Impressive statistics. But more, I suggested, would be needed to whet U.S. appetites:
Can trust-based changemaking transform institutions?
I sent Khan my column “Every connection optimized: Unleashing the potential of the people in learning ecosystems” in which I introduced our word treatment of ECOsystems to emphasize the importance of empowering system leaders to embrace adaptive management approaches in which every connection is optimized. I also introduced research on organized chaos, “a situation that appears disordered on the surface but actually has an underlying structure.” Study author Laura Amendola notes four benefits for this approach: adaptability, collaboration, innovation and trust. These, I believe, are offered in alphabetical order. But trust, I think, comes first.
[Related: Power of us — The youth fields workforce – findings from the National Power of Us Workforce Survey]
Trusting that it is OK to design your own project and fail without consequences is what allows Khan’s students to collaborate, innovate and adapt to real-world realities. Trusting that the model is simple and quick enough to implement that risks associated with the anticipated failure are manageable is what allows institutional leaders to give their consent. Young people’s impressive four-week outcomes have fueled the movement’s growth. But Khan’s goals go beyond activating hundreds of new young changemakers each year and introducing changemaking as a new way to define youth success. YES is also leading a movement to transform educational and vocational institutions into changemaker campuses. As Khan notes:
“YES Network Pakistan … is trying to break down institutional barriers that prevent educational and vocational institutions from becoming changemaker campuses. YES believes that the key factor of success for any institution is what percentage of its faculty members and students are changemakers. YES is helping educational and vocational institutions to embrace a changemaking framework in their culture, curriculum and operations.”
[Related: Every connection optimized — Unleashing the potential of the people in learning ecosystems]
Imagine the assets that could be released if learning ecosystems across the country and around the world adopted trust-based changemaking as the goal for their students and staff. Imagine if success was measured by the percentage of young people and adults in their systems who were collaborating to innovate solutions, improve the lives of people in their organizations and communities, and generate profit to fuel the movement. Embracing changemaking changes the interactions between the people in systems. Trusting that they would not be blamed for taking time away from official learning tasks is likely what gave educators the freedom to become changemakers, too.
Talking about unconditional trust as a starting point can be challenging in high stakes environments. But if high stakes systems can start with low-stakes propositions, we could build the trust needed for ever bolder change.
Related Grant Opportunity: Education improvement research grants
***
In her columns, Karen Pittman is exploring the research behind the statement, “When Youth Thrive, We All Thrive.”
The post Trust-based changemaking may change the world, but can it change institutions? appeared first on Youth Today.
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