I have become increasingly obsessed with how social change organizations can achieve breakthrough – meaning how can they become powerful in effecting the social change that they want to see. I’ve also become discouraged at the way our sectors are structured, and the sources of financing available. At the end of the day, it’s only possible to be big and powerful if you can raise enough money – no matter if you are a for-profit company, and non-profit organization, or some hybrid form. Unfortunately, the sources of catalytic capital are few and few between, meaning that most social change organizations will languish in marginal obscurity for many years, never reaching escape velocity and changing the world.
organizational mgmt
Patience is a Virtue
values, international development, organizational mgmtComment“Patience is a virtue,” my mother frequently remonstrated her small children, the five of us no doubt insisting that we needed something right now – a new bicycle, clothes, a snack or to be driven over to visit a friend.
As a kid, I always wondered what she meant. We all knew that patience was on the list of officially-sanctioned virtues, what was the point of reminding us? I thought she was saying, “Patience is a good thing.”
It wasn’t until I was a teenager that it suddenly struck me; what she really meant was, “patience is one of the virtues that you should cultivate in yourself.” And not for the first or last time, I wondered if I was perhaps an exceptionally slow learner.
Values, Virtues and Vampire Squids
east meets west, international development, organizational mgmt, philanthropy, valuesCommentValues are everywhere these days, dripping off the pages of corporate annual reports and the subject of earnest discussions in non-profit strategic planning sessions. The World Bank, for example, advertises their core values as “personal honesty and integrity, working together in teams, empowering and respecting others, and enjoying work and family.” Who could find fault with that? These are laudable values, and if it is true that every single person in the organization around the world holds these values dear, then the World Bank must be a great place to work.