We are human. No shock there. We are all complicated individuals who have a unique set of experiences and thoughts. Our challenge in making change happen, is that we are not always sure what the people we seek to serve want or need. Because it’s really hard to find this out when we are under pressure to get results. Continue reading
We are super excited to have been accepted to present at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership’s Humanitarian Leadership Conference 2021. We will be discussing the findings of our Racism in the Aid Sector Survey Report, which we conducted last year with Thomson Reuters Foundation.
We can’t wait to connect with researchers and change-makers to discuss the future of leadership in the aid sector Continue reading
I read in the book ‘Originals’ by Adam Grant the idea of entry interviews instead of exit interviews, and realised this is an approach I was already doing – but didn’t realise.
I’ve been honing this over the last few months.
The concept is that instead of waiting to ask for ideas when employees (in my case consultants) leave, seek insights when they first arrive – gathering new suggestions and ideas. This makes sense, as how often in an exit interview – is the person looking at their watch and reading for the next thing?
Here’s some of the questions I have asked in the past during the onboarding:
We want to instil discussions about the tough topics with social change makers who want to do the hard work and make change happen – the rest of this article can be found via The Innovation community.
Managers in the social impact sector are overworked, under high degrees of stress and pressure to achieve results, and have to keep thinking about how to make sure projects show evidence of change and value for money.
This isn’t easy, as often we are expected to do more, and to reach more people, with less funding.
It may lead, perhaps, to a more evaluative form of management and feedback, and probably to an aversion to risking trying new ideas. It’s hard.
But what if in 2021 we focused more on people than results?
What if we focused on coaching our teams in the true form of coaching? Not career coaching, but coaching to help them take the lead and facilitate the teams’ ideas – truly listening to what they have to say.
It may take longer – at first – to give them this time and support – but the rewards and possibilities will be worth it.
Join us on The Innovation, our online community of change-makers, to connect with others and discuss important topics including leadership and anti-racism, access tools, tips and more.
You tried really hard, put emotional labour into your creation. It could be a new blog, report, presentation, workshop, website or gadget.
And then you start getting feedback. And this can be hard.
Change and creating something new is hard and fulfilling work. Remember – not all feedback is useful, and you don’t need to listen to everyone. But you do need to stay level-headed, even if the feedback is not easy to work through.
We want to instil discussions about the tough topics with social change makers who want to do the hard work and make change happen – the rest of this article can be found via The Innovation community.
Photo by Frank Busch on Unsplash
You may spend a huge amount of time uplifting your teams and team members, showing empathy, listening, propelling them forward. But then a lot of what you do is outside of your control. The decisions may be made by your boss, or further up the chain. Continue reading
If you work like us, you may have many ideas about improvements to projects/processes on the edge of the box. You might bend, break or blend other ideas. Or you could come up with amazing outside the box thinking.
However, often we get knocked back by clients or other change makers, and sometimes get frustrated.
Why can’t they see what I see? Continue reading
There is a reckoning afoot in the global development sector. Social media has been flooded with testimonies from employees and consultants in the sector who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) bearing witness to the racist treatment they and their colleagues have received. Their words have exposed a sector rife with harmful practices, perpetuated by leaders lacking integrity, and upheld by wilfully obtuse institutional and systemic structures. Continue reading
I currently lead several new projects in South Sudan and Somalia for a client. New teams, new projects, new dynamics, new client needs, new stories, new biases, new worldviews. Here’s some lessons from the last couple of weeks. Continue reading
Here you can read the initial results of a survey done by Thomson Reuters Foundation and Aid Works, showing key messages about racism in the aid sector. In the video below, our Programmes Director Mo highlights three key findings. Continue reading