Every day I wake up and check Google alerts, I am totally in awe by what is going on within the Bicycles for Humanity Movement. As a movement we are 6 years young and growing in a hundred directions, yet we have no staff, no budgets of any kind and no real organization, really no leadership, just a whole lot of people who believe that the gift of mobility that a bicycle can deliver is an important first step to a better life.
If we had created a Non Profit, organized centrally and asked people to join this NGO would we have grown the way we have, I don’t think so, would individuals be taking this in a hundred directions all good for their communities and good for communities in Africa, nope, don’t think that would have happened.
It’s hard to identify any one thing, it’s a lot of things. People want to make a difference, they want to drive change and they want to be accountable and know that what they are doing is making a difference. Today’s connected world of social media allows all with common interests to connect, organize and mobilize quickly and efficiently. The speed at which grassroots can drive change and the efficiencies of models that scale driven by concerned citizens who want to make a difference is a powerful force and one that is very difficult to stop.
There is a terrific book called, The Spider and the Starfish, the concept is simple. if you cut off the leg of a spider it dies, but if you cut off the leg of a Starfish, it grows another leg. Movements like Starfish flourish because there is no one leader, but a set of ideologies that many believe in. Mobility offered by a bicycle is efficient, economical, environmentally friendly and universal globally. Saving a portion of the 18 million bicycles destined for landfills in North America and Europe is a good thing. Doing good in one’s own community and linking that community to help do good a half a world away connects us in ways we cannot imagine.
My wife and I started bicycles for Humanity to simply send one container of bikes to healthcare workers in Namibia. Today there are literally hundreds of volunteers and leaders everywhere who share our vision and beliefs and all who have joined this movement have taken it a thousand times further than I could ever imagine. Would this viral growth happen in a structured NGO, don’t think so, too many rules and to much inefficiencies to attract high energy people. Can a highly structured NGO attract good people and keep them, by making them a small cog in their big machine, don’t think so, people want to make a difference and they want to do it their way.
Bicycles for Humanity and all within it resemble a Starfish and it keeps growing on it’s own. Many highly structured NGO’s are beginning to look like Spiders and by losing one individual, they can fail or become very inefficient.
In reflecting back on the last 6 years, it is simply incredible what has happened and I have no idea what the future will bring, but I know that it will be good on a hundred fronts and the gift of mobility that a bicycle can deliver will reach many many more communities globally.
