A Path For 2022

“We have to continue to learn. We have to be open.
And we have to be ready to release our knowledge
in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

There are many ways to do things, many paths. Finding one that resonates with you, pushing you to grow in places that are uncomfortable and to expand in unexpected directions, at the time of providing freshness and joy along the way — to bear the weight of the big obstacles that might come — is essential for people living their purpose and working on groundbreaking projects.

I call these projects Moonshots — audacious ideas that aim to advance humanity by tackling global challenges, usually with the use of technology.

The complexity, uncertainty and hardship that Moonshots entail, put them in the long-haul category of things, where persistence, discipline and creativity are needed in order to attain them... many years later.

With Moonshots, there’s no instant gratification. Most times, there’s little indication of being in the right track, as it feels you’re totally out of path or you’ve missed some big piece of information. And that’s how with only a few things going your way — certainly fewer than you’d like — you find yourself moving forward, with whatever insights and resources are available to you.

Big ideas and big changes take courage. And time. As we embark on a new year, I reflected on high-level direction for the people building GLASS with me, embracing these 4 mottos as cornerstones to guide our goals, activities and collective action.

Sharing these with everyone who’s trying to find their path, guidance for their teams, and clarity to execute:

First — We will continue focused on our One Thing

We learned this concept from one of our Advisory Board members, Navy veteran and Department of Defense procurement executive, Will Clarke.

In a quarterly meeting, he shared the book “The One Thing”, by Gary W. Keller, prompting us to dismiss many great initiatives that we had on the table and to focus instead on one that could help us start serving governments with our existing software right away.

Now our team knows that we might not get that one thing right at the first try, but that validating problems one by one allows us to put all our energy and focus into figuring out one challenge at a time, from many different angles.

We continue learning how to try many ideas in series, not in parallel, discarding great initiatives with no outcome, one by one.

Second — We will think long term

I once read that “infinite patience produces immediate results”... and suddenly stopped being worried about not winning or being ahead every single week.

A high-performing team might lose track of the magnitude of their mission when they become more focused on aggressive execution than on following the plan with open eyes and ears, remaining flexible to the input received from the customers they serve — which might totally change the plan.

We know is more important to pivot and stay on track on solving the problem, than to not change for the sake of sticking with the plan. And thinking long term allows us to decide when to pivot strategically and with less fear of being wrong.

We will have time — and data — to make it right.

Third — We don’t need to know exactly how

This is probably the most important one. We’ve been obsessed with learning every detail of every government user, their operational challenges and day-to-day, what softwares they’re using and what tools are not really working for their agencies. How do they feel, if they’re inspired, if they have a sense that they’re essential in our world today.

Our team has a very clear What and Why — Transforming governments into high-performing entities, because being the most impactful decision makers in the world, they have the power to effect change at the largest scale imaginable.

We want to do that by empowering the people running government, so doing the right thing, the smart thing, and the hard thing, is simpler.

I looked back at some of the most trascendental events and inflection points that have happened in my life, and none of them were a direct result of my elaborate OKR plans or Trello boards. I was working hard towards my dreams, but the great opportunities and deeper wisdom came from unexpected places in orthogonal ways, propelling me to where I am today.

I did not craft a path where I did law school, a Masters in government, built technology and then here I am doing GovTech. I look back and it makes sense now, but this wasn’t evident in 2011 when I left Washington, D.C. after my Fulbright year to explore what was going on in Silicon Valley.

So, since the How has always emerged better and bolder than planned, I’m asking my team to continue having solid plans to accomplish our One Thing, but to not be too consumed with the exact details of how that’s going to happen.

In fact, we’ve gone from having one platform — GLASS Commerce — for government agencies to come and do small digital transactions, to helping them conduct multi-million dollar purchases, to turning this single platform into a suite of stand-alone tools... and from being only focused on the Federal government, to include States, Cities and Towns as clients, not only in the US, but also in Latin America.

That was not the original plan... it’s incredibly better!

Fourth — We will remain open to everything

Last but not least. For me, being open is the essence of disrupting ourselves. Being open means learning, unlearning, and not caring about being right, but about building the right thing for the people that want to do the right thing in the public sector.

I think it also complements the other 3 mottos — We will remain focused on our One Thing, sticking to our long term vision, and developing an informed flexibility to continue walking towards our big goal without having all the pieces.

If we remain open, we will be able to envision new ideas to validate our products and to receive sharp feedback from our government clients, knowing that we have time to do trial and error, one thing at a time.

We don’t know where that determining piece of information we’re missing to really nail a Government Experience (Gx) is going to come from, as we don’t know what specific user flow will dramatically reduce a procurement team’s administrative workload (out of the hundreds of formal and informal processes that they have in place).

But if we remain open, and listen to what these government leaders tell us, I know we’ll be in a good path to figure this out by welcoming enlightening answers, this year.

So, here’s a path for 2022. 

If your Moonshot is too big, too uncertain and too scary to grasp all at once — which are the characteristics of Moonshots, by the way! — craft some path for you and your team... and adjust it together as you go. 

And thanks to the people leading GLASS for embracing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of transforming the governments of the world, so they can better serve everyone. I love sharing this difficult and rewarding journey with you all, and can’t wait to see what we build together this year!

Ad astra,
Paola