Tonight was a reminder for me that our vocabulary reflects our biases. OK, so maybe I am too sensitive about development vocabulary (say “villagers” around me, and I turn green!), but saying you are helping people with “no skills” really irks me. Have you told these people that you are “helping” that you think they [...]
This Aid Band-Aid was designed by Daniela Kon and her team at Deeda Productions for our beta website of “Investing Time in People“. Check it out: The website’s function right now is to just hold the space for lessons and stories from people who have experienced the impact of development work with a focus on [...]
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” says Simon Sinek in his very popular TEDx talk. And he’s right. People buy thy WHY. The thing is… this is a big problem in development work! People buy the WHY – which means they are fueling good intentions, not necessarily good impacts. [...]
My goodness… I have never gotten more emails, Facebook messages, and general questions about a social sector issue than this week with #KONY2012. “What do I think?”, you ask? In case you have really not heard anything about this, which if you are reading this blog I find shocking, then just google #STOPKONY or #KONY2012, [...]
This is a guest post by Allie Hoffman of The Pari Project about the impact one NGO has had, and lessons that can be drawn . — In 2008, acid attacks in Cambodia arrived at a tipping point, with daily news coverage, new cases, and gory photos dominating the public discourse. What caused the increase? [...]
“But that wouldn’t really happen in real life,” said one of the students in my economics class as our professor was reviewing game theory and the economics of auctions. “People wouldn’t act in that way, and it wouldn’t work like that.” Our professor turned around and smiled and looked at us all like he’d just [...]
I was just reminded about a friend, with whom I used to work, who wakes up every morning* and turns to whomever first crosses his path and says: “Good morning! It’s a great day to be alive!” *No really, EVERY morning. And, if you wake up near him at a campsite for a few days [...]