I’m writing this from Nairobi, Kenya.
In my hotel room, the body lotion mounted on the bathroom wall looks like this:
Continue reading “Revise the Proverb”Seek Variety in Uncertainty
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”Centralized Specificity
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”Collective Missions
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”Who’s the You?
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?”