Ever find yourself needing to step back and take a break from a project but feel like you can’t do it because there’s just too much to accomplish?
I’m learning the best thing I can do for myself in those moments is to step back, even if just for 5 minutes. The perspective and energy I gain is invaluable, and the work comes easier once I’ve let go of trying to control it. It’s true: sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. And it’s as simple as closing your eyes and focusing on the breath.
Want a little more? Gaiam Life has created beautiful online “meditation rooms,” so even if you can’t leave your desk you can still immerse yourself in the beauty of nature.
“Organized philanthropy: It’s not about foundations, necessarily. It’s about the rest of us.” – Katherine Fulton
In this moment of shifts and uncertainty we’re being asked to radically shift how we do business. One could think that means that we need to, in the words of Fulton, “think ourselves into a new way of acting.” In fact, though, she says that there are philanthropic experiments currently happening all around us that are “acting us into a new way of thinking.”
I’m intrigued by this idea because it puts us all in the leadership driver’s seat once again. And when it comes to garnering valuable resources for the work we most care about, or in giving the resources we have in ways that will make the most difference, the driver’s seat is where we need to be.
Fulton talks about five emerging experiments that are “challenging the old assumptions of philanthropy,” including: mass collaboration, peer-to-peer philanthropy; aggregated giving; innovation prizes; and social investing.
This video is well worth the watch, and my guess is that it will spur your thinking and give you something to talk about with your colleagues. I’ll leave you with this quote featured in the video:
“We have lived in this world where little things are done for love and big things for money. Now we have Wikipedia… suddenly big things can be done for love.” – Clay Shirky
As a mixed race person who’s moved between worlds all my life, I’ve been fascinated and often perplexed (still am, in fact) with how we construct identity and find our “people.”
I’ll be honest – both in my personal and professional life, the question of identity has often been a painful and challenging thing for me. But I’ve found that the more I’m willing to lean into the conversation – first with myself, then with others – the more connection I find, and the more easily I’m able to sit with the ambiguity of not neatly fitting in one place or another. My leadership challenge has been to learn to begin to powerfully speak from that place of ambiguity – the middle space – and to develop tools and conversations to support others who find themselves in the middle space as well to do the same.
I found this presentation by actor Sarah Jones to be a fun, poignant and inspiring way to explore the idea of the “middle space.” In the introduction she says, “We’re all born into certain circumstances with particular physical traits, unique developmental and historical contexts – but then what? To what extent do we self-construct and self-invent? What if we could be anyone at anytime?”
I’ve heard it’s possible to know exactly what your leadership voice is and what matters most to you by what words you choose and how often you use them.
Wordle is a really interesting (and enlightening) way to test that theory. Plug in any text – or link to a webpage – to have the program create a visual representation of the language used. It’s free, in the Creative Commons, and a lot of fun to work with.
The wordle above was created by using the text from Imago’s new quarterly newsletter, Imagine. If you haven’t read it yet, please do. And while you’re at it, you can always subscribe!
Did you know that Cookie Monster speaks Albanian and Serbian? Or that Kami, a South African Muppet sings in Zulu?
Neither did I until I watched this fascinating documentary about the Sesame Workshop and its co-productions of Sesame Street in over 20 countries. The World According To Sesame Street explores the challenges of leveraging a successful learning tool in different cultural contexts, and navigating power, access and cultural differences all along the way. The film focuses on four co-productions of the show: Sisimpur in Bangladesh; Rruga Sesam and Ulica Sezam in Kosovo; and Takalani Sesame in South Africa.
There’s a lot about this film to highlight and explore – but I think what has stuck with me the most is this:
“Even hardened revolutionaries who have fought in difficult political struggles…understand the power of offering some hope and ways of working out problems [to their children]. How does politics enter into what we’re doing? Well, I guess it has everything to do with what we’re doing – but it also has nothing to do with it.”
The work has everything to do with politics, and nothing to do with it at all. It is easy to make this connection because Sesame Street is working with issues at a child’s level. The person interviewed in the film goes on to say, “children are way better at this kind of humanization than we adults are.”
I think it’s true – that our work is both political (which is easy for us to recognize) and not political at all (much harder, I think). The film offered me the opportunity to see how taking a child’s view can shift how we adults engage in and think about the change we are creating.
What would a child see as the essence of *your* work?
p.s. Curious about the behind-the-scenes history of Sesame Street? I’m currently reading Street Gang, and finding out lots of interesting stuff…
Folks like me who care about the healthy evolution of our communities and think leadership is an important factor in that evolution are recognizing a difficult fact: we are facing a leadership deficit in nonprofit organizations. The revealing report, Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out, asks an incredibly relevant question:
“As the Baby Boomers retire from their leadership positions over the coming decades and the labor market grows ever tighter, how will the nonprofit sector attract the most committed and talented leaders? What would draw Generation Xers and Generation Yers to positions that typically offer long hours for short pay?”
The report highlights what I learned early on, first watching my mom as a nonprofit Executive Director, then going on to become an Associate Director myself: the hours are long, personal sacrifices are high, and – let’s be honest – the pay isn’t what it should be.
Obviously, there’s an opportunity to re-think leadership in our community organizations in a big way – and make those roles not only relevant to the organization, but satisfying and sustainable to the people who are in them.
Maybe these two “competitions” can offer some new blueprints. The Do Something Awards are celebrating and empowering outstanding young world-changers under the age of 25. And The Purpose Prize is encouraging work that matters in the second half of life: the prize is for social innovators over the age of 60.
Both groups have perspective that could seriously change the game – here’s to hoping that they do.
Awesome! From the award-winning documentary, “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music.” To learn more about out the project, check out playingforchange.com.
Tomorrow millions around the world will celebrate with the United States as we inaugurate Barack Obama as our 44th President. Today we are honoring one person who gave his life in the movement that helped to make tomorrow possible: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have already written about my own moving experience of the link between the Civil Rights Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Now we all have access to a speech given by Dr. King, recorded 50 years ago during his travels through India in 1959. In it, Dr. King talks about how deeply influenced he was by Mahatma Gandhi and his work for justice. You can listen to part of it here.
And tears came to my eyes when I watched this clip of Dr. King discussing whether or not he thought it possible that the United States could ever have a Black president. In it he predicts that it will happen in “less than 40 years.” Watch it.
Yes we did. Yes we can. And most importantly: YES WE WILL. We have a tremendous opportunity in front of us and I’m jumping in with both feet!
Lorna Simpson’s work makes me engage with the intersections of identity, voice and the effects that others’ voices (in the form of racism and sexism) have on us.
What do you read in this piece? In relation to the photo above? And what does all of this have to say about the politics of hair in the workplace?
Like you, I am in a continual conversation with myself and others about what it will take for us as a worldwide (and local) community to address the challenges that face us. And it seems to me that one of our biggest problems is that we see ourselves as independent – not interdependent. Being independent makes it easy to look out for myself, to do what’s in my best interest, but not in the best interest of others. And the damaging ways in which that affects us as a society I think is becoming more and more apparent as we watch markets collapse, and corruption become exposed.
The concept of “oneness” is a profound one for me: the way in which if you shift perspective you realize everything and everyone is connected in some way or another. The idea, if only explored at its surface, can get “new-agey” really fast. But explored in depth, it brings about many new possibilities – and responsibilities – responsibilities that I think 21st century leaders will need to challenge us all to engage with.
It won’t be easy or comfortable – but it is what’s necessary. This clip of angel Kyodo williams being interviewed by the Global Oneness Project asks an important question: what will it take for us to be unwilling to continue to tolerate separateness as a way of being? angel also has a lot to offer in thinking about the connections between spiritual practice and social justice.
To watch the full interview with angel Kyodo williams click here. For videos and interviews with other thinkers and doers around the world who are exploring oneness, go here. I’ve spent hours browsing…
Ever find yourself needing to step back and take a break from a project but feel like you can’t do it because there’s just too much to accomplish?
Did you know that Cookie Monster speaks Albanian and Serbian? Or that Kami, a South African Muppet sings in Zulu?
Folks like me who care about the healthy evolution of our communities and think leadership is an important factor in that evolution are recognizing a difficult fact: we are facing a 
