The importance of additionality to create impact

What is your personal impact when you do a job that someone else could also do?

Only very few “normal jobs” interest me from an impact point of view, because in most jobs I can only create little additional impact.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 “𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀””, which is a philosophical concept that works with “What if…?” statements to describe what would happen without a certain action.
In terms of impact creation, it’s important to understand “what would happen if I don’t do the job”.

𝗔 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 is the comparably low additional impact a medical doctor can make only with their profession in the Global North: https://lnkd.in/eYjXu6K5

There are so many people trying to become a good M.D., that there is always someone else doing the job if you don’t. In order to save more lives (or DALYs) than the system already does, an M.D. would have to be much better than all other doctors and in developed countries there is little a doctor can do additionally due to the density of doctors in the population.
If they don’t save someone’s life, another doctor will be able to do so most of the time.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗯:
If someone else can do the same job and there is not much that one can move more than another applicant, one can only create very limited additional impact in comparison to the counterfactual.

𝗜𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 “𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹” 𝗷𝗼𝗯, 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝘂𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯:
--> Most opportunities become uninteresting once they are posted as roles that many persons can do well and there are many applicants
--> Only when it seems like I can do the job much better than other applicants, I can create additional impact
--> If there is no other fitting applicant available, the whole impact of the job would be additional

𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱:
I want to create additional impact by doing something that otherwise wouldn’t happen and is very effective at mitigating climate change.

This motivation for additional impact creation also applies for my “Effective Impact Consulting”
In order to create additional impact, I need to do something completely new, that otherwise wouldn’t happen or only much later, e.g.:

• Optimizing operations and enabling impact potentials where the client team doesn’t see anything, e.g. due to organizational blindness, or doesn’t have the capacity or skills to act appropriately.

• Enabling smart decisions and better operations straight from the start by sharing experience from typical challenges in the next steps of scaling up.

• Being additional support for companies when they need the help quickly and no one else with the right skillset is available.

❗This concept is not meant to be used by everybody at the same time. If we do not have people to keep our societies running, the damage we could suffer from insufficiency could far exceed the additional impact by pushing new ideas.
It always needs a balance where most people keep the system running while others are trying to optimize it. The focus on additionality is thus important for those who have the drive and skills to build something new and better.

I’m happy about every good M.D. there is ❤️