First meeting of the Impact Adviser with the leaders and the Inova Quebrada team
Listening and planning
Since August 2025 I have followed closely the journey of the leaders taking part in Inova Quebrada as an Impact Adviser. Along the way I have lived through processes of listening, planning, challenges, achievements and many transformations. In that period I have had the chance to follow a range of initiatives, built out of the needs, dreams and potential of their territories.
When I began the follow-up work, each leader arrived with different experiences, challenges and objectives. Some already had structured actions under way; others were looking to organise their ideas better, strengthen their work or find routes to widen their impact. Faced with that diversity, the Individual Development Plan (IDP) became an important tool for turning intentions into planning, and planning into action.
More than a document, the IDP was built as a living instrument of reflection, organisation and follow-up. Through it, each leader was able to look at her initiative strategically, identify priorities, recognise challenges and set goals capable of guiding her development along the journey.
Collective advisory session on planning
Turning goals into action
To support this process, we used the SMART methodology in setting the goals, making them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. But just as important as setting goals was breaking them down into small stages. These mini-goals made it possible to follow progress more concretely, allowing course corrections when necessary and giving value to every achievement reached along the way.
Over the course of the meetings, I noticed that planning was not only a management tool. It also became an exercise in strengthening autonomy. When leaders can visualise their objectives, follow their results and make decisions with more confidence, they strengthen not only their initiatives but also their ability to lead processes of transformation in their territories.
One of the greatest riches of this experience was seeing how the IDPs connect with other opportunities offered by the project. At many points, the goals built by the leaders found support in training, mentoring, network organising, exchanges and, especially, in the Fundo Inova Quebrada.
Conversation circle with the Instituto Decodifica – Rio de Janeiro
Resources that strengthen dreams
The Fundo Inova Quebrada played a fundamental role in making a number of planned actions real over the course of the journey. In many cases, it was the link between what had been set down on paper and its actual realisation.
The resources were used in different ways, respecting the needs and objectives of each initiative. Some leaders invested in acquiring equipment that helped improve the quality of their activities. Others carried out small refurbishments and adaptations of their working spaces, creating better conditions for serving their communities. There were also investments in buying materials, supplies and items intended for running workshops and maintaining training activities, as well as the funding of community actions.
The fund also made it possible to widen projects that were already happening in the territories and, in some cases, allowed new activities to emerge. In addition, some leaders chose to invest in their own professional development, taking courses and training in order to strengthen technical knowledge and widen their capacities for management, planning and execution.
In following these processes, it became clear that access to financial resources, when combined with strategic planning and continuous follow-up, amplifies results and widens the possibilities for social transformation in the territories.
Monitoring the execution of the SMART goals, through the actions set out in the Individual Development Plans (IDPs), showed that funding, together with technical advice and capacity building, contributed to a more consistent implementation of the initiatives and to strengthening the work of the leaders. The results indicate that financial resources produced greater effectiveness when integrated into ongoing processes of planning, monitoring and learning, favouring not only the execution of the planned activities but also the development of management skills, the autonomy of the leaders and the sustainability of the community initiatives over time.
The follow-up records of the IDPs demonstrated concrete progress over the cycle. Between October 2025, when the first follow-up of the SMART goals was carried out, and May 2026, the number of actions completed by the leaders rose from 56 to 69, representing an increase of approximately 23% in the total of actions carried out. Over the same period, the percentage of execution of the planned goals rose from 72.3% to 81.9%, showing the consistent progress of the leaders in implementing their development plans.
In that period, some of the leaders reached rates above 90% of execution of their plans, and one of them fully completed every planned goal, which made it possible to define a new strategic objective. The creation of this additional goal shows that the IDP was not limited to meeting the initial goals, but consolidated itself as a dynamic planning tool, which widened the reach and the sustainability of the initiatives and enabled some leaders to move beyond the goals originally set.
Presentation of the Fundo Inova Quebrada to the leaders
Learning from other territories
Another striking aspect of the journey were the exchanges and visits to different ecosystems of innovation, entrepreneurship and social impact. These experiences gave the leaders the chance to get to know other initiatives, methodologies and ways of working.
More than observing what was being done in other contexts, the leaders were able to reflect on how to adapt those learnings to the realities of their own territories. Many returned from these experiences with new ideas, widened existing actions and identified new possibilities for community work.
In this process, the Individual Development Plan (IDP) played a strategic role by turning the learning acquired during the exchanges into concrete development objectives. Through the definition of SMART goals and specific actions for each leader, the IDP made it possible to take on new skills, test strategies inspired by the experiences lived and follow, systematically, the implementation of those changes across the individual advisory sessions.
These moments reinforce something that became clear over the course of the follow-up work: initiatives grow stronger when different strategies move forward together. Planning, financial investment, training, exchange of experience, technical follow-up and continuous monitoring through the Individual Development Plans were complementary elements that amplified the development of the leaders and widened the capacity for social transformation in their territories.
Visit to the Grajaú ecosystem
Knowledge that transforms
Throughout this process, one reflection was always present for me: the leaders did not arrive empty of knowledge. On the contrary, each one brought with her knowledge built in her lived experience, in her community and in her trajectory of resistance, care and social mobilisation.
In this sense, the experience connects deeply with the thought of Lélia Gonzalez, who invites us to recognise and value the knowledge produced by Black, peripheral and historically invisibilised populations. At many moments in the journey, it was clear that the answers to a range of challenges were already present in the experience accumulated by the leaders themselves.
The role of the advisory work was not to offer ready-made answers, but to create the conditions for that knowledge to be recognised, strengthened and turned into concrete development strategies. More than guiding processes, it was a matter of building routes collectively, respecting the timescales, the experiences and the realities of each territory.
From this perspective, the Individual Development Plan (IDP) was a tool for valuing the knowledge of the leaders. Rather than starting from deficits or gaps, the IDP was drawn up from the strengths, objectives and experiences of each participant, translating that knowledge into SMART goals and concrete development actions. Continuous follow-up of those actions made it possible for the knowledge built in the territories to be recognised as a basis for decision-making, strengthening the autonomy of the leaders, improving the quality of their initiatives and helping ensure that individual development was directly connected to the collective transformation of their territories.
Dialogue circle during the Fórum Inova Quebrada – Salvador
Walking together is also learning
As we approach the end of the follow-up work, scheduled for August 2026, I realise that the results of this journey go far beyond the goals reached, the equipment acquired, the workshops held or the resources invested. What remains are stronger leaders, better-structured initiatives and territories that carry on producing solutions, mobilising people and generating social transformation.
Along this path, I learned that advising is not about pointing out ready-made routes, but about walking together, listening, prompting reflection and creating the conditions for each leader to recognise her own power. The IDP was an important tool in this process because it made it possible to turn dreams into planning, action and impact.
More than supporting initiatives, Inova Quebrada helped to strengthen people, widen repertoires and reaffirm that innovation is also born in the peripheries, in collectives, in community organisations and in the leaders who daily build alternatives for their territories.
If there is one lesson I take from this experience, it is the certainty that transforming realities necessarily runs through recognising the power of those who live them. As Lélia Gonzalez inspires us to see, valuing the knowledge produced in the territories is also recognising the ability that communities have to build their own routes to development, autonomy and transformation.
Over the course of this experience, I came to understand that the Individual Development Plan was not merely an instrument of planning or monitoring. It became a methodology capable of bringing together listening, goal setting, follow-up, training and access to resources within a single development process. More than recording objectives, the IDP helped turn knowledge accumulated in the territories into concrete actions, strengthening the autonomy of the leaders and widening their capacity to produce sustainable change in their communities.
Training during the visit to Agência Mural – São Paulo
