Letter from the Executive Director

Brothers and Friends of Acacia,

A concept that has gained widespread attention in recent years is “minimum viable product”. Popularized in Silicon Valley, a minimum viable product is, “that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort.” (Eric Ries, The Lean Startup)

An example of minimum viable product being applied can be found in the story of the genesis of Netflix. Founder Reed Hastings was motivated by being charged $40 by his local Blockbuster Video store for losing a VHS tape (yes, undergrads, there used to be thousands of stores which carried movies on VHS or DVD, and was one of the only ways to watch movies).

As a computer scientist, he envisioned a future where consumers would be able to stream movies reliably and on-demand via the internet, but he knew that it would take time for the internet to be fast enough. In the interim, he thought he might be able to get started using DVDs, sent through the mail.

Jumping back to today, and looking at what a behemoth Netflix has become, one might think that Hastings sat down and developed an extremely detailed strategy, including multiple areas for research and development, and financial models to project future profits. However, his next step was much more simple. He sent himself a single CD through the mail.

As the story is relayed in the recent book, Effortless, by Greg McKeown, “Hastings …looked for the ridiculously simple first step that would inform then whether they should take a second step or just walk away. Mailing that single disk turned out to be the simplest, most obvious way to set their immense idea in motion.” When the CD arrived intact, Hastings knew the idea might work.

The Acacia Headquarters Staff embraces this concept and approach to the projects that we work on. An example is the rollout of the new “Pathway to Membership” pledge program. While the program and documentation provided to chapters at Conclave are complete and comprehensive in terms of providing a framework to prepare a pledge to be initiated, we fully expect that we will receive valuable feedback from chapters during this year. We will then adjust as

it makes sense, improving the program every year going forward.

In other words, we weren’t intending to put out a program that would stay the same for decades, just because we took the time to put the first edition of the program out there. We’re saying to our chapters and chapter advisors, “Hey, here’s a new program to consider and take for a test drive. We’d just ask that you share feedback as it occurs to you.”

This concept of minimum viability can be applied to life for our members!

Consider Seven Days of Service. This annual week exemplifying our motto of Human Service could be planned for months. You could set aside a large budget and time to do very involved events – but that could seem very intimidating if it’s your chapter’s first year and could result in not doing anything at all because it all seems to be too big.

If it’s the first year your chapter is taking part, brothers could simply volunteer at a soup kitchen every day of the week. That is something that you know you can do!

Everything starts somewhere. The largest streaming service started with a single CD sent through the mail. And your chapter’s legacy of Human Service can begin with a single small, but meaningful, event.

Don’t aim for perfection, but progress. Use the resources you have with you and better resources will appear along the way.

As men of action, let’s remember to keep things simple, take action on what is most important to us and our chapters, and make adjustments as we learn more.

One final note, you can view the final results of the 2018 Strategic Plan at acacia.info/ asp-18-data . More information about the 2022 plan will be coming soon!

Fraternally, Patrick McGovern, Indiana ‘99 Executive Director Acacia Fraternity