You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We’d all want to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We’re all doing what we can ~The Beatles

 

 

Martin Luther King was revolutionary.  Nelson Mandela was  revolutionary. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was  revolutionary.

Revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human experience. It unlocks something  in us that we may have never even realized was locked. It frees something that was oppressed, something we never imagined could be free. It lights the spark to profound change.

It changes the game.

 Are the solutions that you are working on, the plans you are creating, the ideas you are hatching, the gifts you are contributing  revolutionary?

  •  Will these solutions, ideas or contributions move you into unfamiliar environments?  If so, it might be revolutionary.
  •  Are you willing to  immerse yourself  in a different contexts? Are you open to seek out new partnerships or communities, or  make yourself vulnerable? Are you trusting yourself and asking authentic questions? If so, it might be revolutionary.
  •   Have you begun to step into more  relevant experiences? Does  your work  give voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless? Does it paint a vison for what a better system could look like? If so, it might be revolutionary

I want you to think about what you can do today to change the game.

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The Gift of Failure

August 30, 2010 · 3 comments

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.
John W. Gardner

 

 

 John Gardner said a mouthful.

There is something amazingly freeing about not pretending. About speaking truth, taking that huge exhale and letting go…even if it means embarrassing yourself. Even if it means failing.

 Funding is often linked to success and we all  have the voices in our head telling us we MUST be successful or potentially lose future grants and donations, or lose volunteers or damage your brand.

  It is hard for organizations to admit to their mistakes, making it even more difficult to learn from them. We cannot ask tough questions about our mistakes if we do not admit to having them.  I am here to tell you something that we in the nonprofit world sometime forget- opportunity and risk go hand in hand. They go together, like peas and carrots.

Risk-chance of something going wrong: the danger that injury, damage, or loss will occur. Risks are simply future issues that can be avoided or mitigated, rather than present problems that must be immediately addressed.

When taking a risk there is also a chance of something going absolutely right.

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You Can’t Handle The Truth

August 26, 2010

Because knowing the TRUTH means we have to act. We work with real people with real challenges. This makes our work complex and messy and most days swimming in the “grey”. Projects that we think will take a year sometime take three. And knowing the facts, having that hard data at our fingertips mean we have to make hard choices.

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The Stories We Tell

August 24, 2010

The more closely aligned your storytelling is to your culture, truth and reality and the communities you serve, the more powerful your stories become to the listener.

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Bold,Brave And Fearless. My Wish For You.

August 20, 2010

What if WE in the nonprofit world were absolutely, no holds barred, balls to the walls FEARLESS in all that we did?

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I Take It Personally

August 18, 2010

I am in it to win it. Not for me, but for you. Because when communities are healthy- we all win.

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World-Mindedness

August 13, 2010

How will power be wielded in the future? Who will run our governments, craft policy, teach our children, and start new businesses?

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Land, Language and Identity

August 9, 2010

Even in developed countries, indigenous peoples consistently lag behind the non-indigenous population in terms of most indicators of well-being. They live shorter lives, have poorer health care and education and endure higher unemployment rates

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The Power of Sweat

August 6, 2010

Something powerful happens when people work on a physical activity together.

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Dying to be born

August 2, 2010

But above all- I need a challenge. I currently work with smart, creative, interesting people, and I need that in the future. I need to work on projects that I believe in, that have impact. I need to break barriers. I need to have my time be my own. I want to be mobile. I want options.

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