In this second installment of thoughts on decision making in uncertainty, I’m turning my attention from the quantity of information that shapes our decisions to its quality.
How do we build confidence in the validity and relevance of the information we’re taking into account?
Continue reading “Seek Variety in Uncertainty”I have a love/hate relationship with centralization.
It’s a tension I see all the time. In federations, what is the optimal level of shared service to be provided by the national office to gain efficiencies, while still maintaining local personality and autonomy? In community development, where does it make sense to amalgamate back-office functions while maintaining specificity of neighbourhood or cultural preference? In philanthropy, granting committees would rather receive a single, coordinated funding proposal than a dozen similar, disjointed ones.
Continue reading “Centralized Specificity”I work with a lot of nonprofit Boards of Directors.
I’m noticing that the ones I enjoy the most are the Boards who understand their role primarily as advancing the organization’s mission more than advancing the organization’s existence.
Continue reading “Collective Missions”At a leadership camp in high school, we played a game called “Win as much as you can.” The punchline of the experience (that obviously made an impact, because I’m telling you about it 40 years later!) was that the “you” was plural, not singular. The winners were a team, not an individual — much to the disappointment of the individuals who thought they’d been successful in their solitary pursuit of the victory.
Continue reading “Who’s the You?”As I write this entry, it is about nine hours after the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the LA Dodgers in the 11th inning of seventh game of the World Series.
I’m a Blue Jays fan. Not a hop on the bandwagon, start-paying-attention-in-October fan, but a watch most games and know every player’s name by their faces fan — have been for years. Many a sweater has been knit cheering on these boys.
Continue reading “Go Jays, Even Today”