Chief of staff Langsikt, a policy think tank based in Oslo. Formerly CoS at Forethought and ED of EA Norway.
I sometimes write about ops and management at saidtwice.substack.com.
eirinešø
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This is very cool! Exciting results. Weāll definitely look into doing something similar in Norway. Thanks for writing this up and sharing.
Just to check, does this link work for you? http://āāhexaco.org/āāhexaco-online
(Edit) Ah, sorry. So you donāt get the results from the website?
Interesting, do you think there are ways to practice or increase value-alignment/āgood judgment? For example by doing an internship at the organisation in question? Or having a practice period either at the organisation, or through a training programme organised by someone else?
I think this hypothesis is similar to the points made by 80k in their post on why although EA orgs really value their previous hires, especially in operations, there is still a large talent gap. It seems like part of the constraint has to do with the organisationsā ability hire new people. Weāre also really interested in finding ways to reduce the constraint on EA orgs by seeing how we can reduce organisational costs through, for example, contributing to the filtering process or providing strong signals about a person. This is something we want to explore in the next posts in the series.
Do you have ideas to address and perhaps reduce the organisational constraints?
Hi! Hope your meeting today goes well. I agree with Michal at the Local Effective Altruism Network (LEAN) and Alex at the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), and think those two groups are the best to reach out to.
Iām from EA Norway, and I think it would be exciting to set up a call to introduce ourselves and see if we can help at all. I think just saying hi and explaining what weāre doing in Norway and hearing what youāre doing in the Philippines could be useful. Email me at eirin@effektivaltruisme.no if youād like to set up a call.
I actually attended the launch of this report in Oslo. I have three main points about this report: 1) The results arenāt really generalisable, yet they present the findings as if they were; 2) the actual findings of the report donāt directly say that fundraising campaigns need to change; 3) although it might be a āwhataboutistā argument, Iād really like for SAIH to focus on something else.
As the report itself states: āthis is a study based on a very limited selection of informants, and we cannot generalise from the findings of this research. However, the findings provide an intersting, if restricted, insight into how aid comunications are perceived at the receiving end.ā The data consists of 12 focus groups in 6 countries: Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Africa. The total amount of people interviewed was 74 people, 36 female and 38 male. The respondents are either beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries of SAIHās research partnersā aid activities. Yet, in the concluding chapters (chapter 5 and 7), SAIH are calling for change based on the findings of the report. It feels a bit as if they have fallen into the same trap that the organisations they criticize fall into: generalising about Africa based on a few case studies in 6 countries.
Further, the findings themselves arenāt really telling us much other than common sense. First of all, a lot of the responses to the different questions were very varied. When the responses were similar, they seemed to report that using negative images of children were the most effectiveāand they would use the same type of pictures. Most of the respondents felt like the pictures used in the ten examples of aid campaigns were accurate, and that they would use similar pictures as well. If the respondents were to make a fundraising campaign of their own, a majority stated that they would also use negative pictures, and 38% said they would show the problem. They also thought that negative images and showcasing the problem was more likely to increase funds.
Lastly, as SAIH are called a āwatch-dogā, it would be so great to see them focus on other aspects of the aid sector than fundraising campaigns. Yes, treating people with dignity and representing an accurate and diverse portrayal of developing countries is important ā¦ but is it really that important? The work SAIH has done through RadiAid has been great, and has resulted in many organisations changing how they portray developing countries. It would be so awesome to see this organisation who are great at making awareness campaigns look into other areas in the aid sector as well. I realise that this might be a poor argument, however, and think itās likely that Iām affected by having dealt with this group on numerous occations. I think it comes from a place of being impressed with their work, and just wanting them to focus that on something I find more important.
Do you think there are certain situations one could force or reenact in order for a person to develop the trait of taking responsibility, or discover if they have it? Do you feel like the perceived importance of the project is the only factor, or are their other factors that can induce this?
If you were to interview someone for a position, what type of work trial, case work, or other activities would you have the interviewee do for you to assess whether they have the trait of taking responsibility? Do you think just answering questions would provide enough for you to assess it, or could they do certain tasks or trials to test it?
Thanks for this addition! This is very interesting. Do you find that taking responsibility and being willing to do whatever you have to do is something innate to people, or something that is mostly acquirable? Do you have ideas for how to test whether you have this trait?
Thank you for this suggestion! I think there are three main benefits of brainwriting: to generate ideas in a very short amount of time, to build on othersā ideas, and to have someplace to start when working on a project.
Weāve used it for getting ideas on articles weād like to write and topics weād like to discuss. We also use it before a meeting with someone if weāre a bit unsure about what weād like the meeting to be about. Recently, we have decided on which indicators we are going to use to measure to what extent we are reaching our goals. We then used brainwriting to come up with ideas of different indicators, and built on those. Further, through brainwriting we tried to find alternatives to hosting a large conference that would give us the same outcomes.
We more or less use it whenever we are stuck on a project, when we need ideas, or when weāre unsure exactly what our thoughts are on something. I unfortunately donāt have a specific example of a project that was generated through this way, but hope this clarification and additional information has been useful :)
Thank you so much for your comment! I really appreciate that youāve taken the time to be so thorough. I also appreciate how structured your comment is, and it makes it easy to follow. You bring up a lot of new points that we havenāt thought about before, and have made us think more about how we can better cooperate with MBA/ā business graduates and HR managers. I also found your list of certificates particularly useful. I was wondering, could you explain more about what you call āpartnership streamsā?
A few days ago we published another post on this topic where we outline our plans for an operations camp this summer as a project to help reduce the operations talent gap in EA. It would be great if you get the chance to read over it and see if you have any input.