Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|
Back to Blog
PRODUCTIVELY SATISFIED9/26/2022 There is a level of productivity that is satisfying and brings joy to everyday work. Once this is overdone, this perpetuates self-doubt and thoughts of self-insufficiency. When you overprepare, whether it's a speech, a writing, a major presentation, or whatever that brings out fear, this means that you're not actually addressing it but using overpreparation to cover up that fear. It all boils down to self-esteem issue. Fear dilutes the satisfaction of productivity and in this case, preparation. Preparation starts in the mind and emotions. Going to a room full of strangers with a very difficult decision to make, prepare mentally and emotionally. Imagine what could potentially transpire and think of alternative ways to get to the bottom of the issue. There is such a thing as overpreparation. I have overprepared one time and looking back at the videos, a little bit of spontaneity and spunk could bring more lightness to my presentation. When you have done your best to prepare, relax and enjoy some thing else. Don't focus on it day and night. The muscle will surely remember what to do when the time comes. The rest is just being yourself and showing no qualms about it.
0 Comments
Read More
Back to Blog
IMPACT WASHING9/19/2022 I heard this term a few weeks ago. It is mostly akin to 'green washing' but this time its about how organizations proclaim impact when in fact it's a false, misleading or unproven claim. It's also impact washing when the impact declared or reported did not grow out of the interventions claimed but other causal factors or intervening factors are present, thus other contesting views of explanation exist. The extent of impact washing is hard to measure but just take for example, how organizations paddle up the numbers or massage the situations in order to meet donor standards or comply with requirements, without truly addressing the complexities of the unintended consequences their actions can impact or effected. In my book Provocateurs not Philanthropists, I problematize the issue of short-term breakthroughs over the obsession for large-scale, massive, dramatic impacts and successes on the ground. Listening to a keynote last week from a multilateral global innovation facility programme, I can't help but feel more alienated. The search for a "major scalable project" is such that new, grassroots, or micro-projects will not be able to meet this. The logics are miles apart. Given the 'innovation plus humility' mantra, I wonder how many of these innovations are actually taken up by the government or private sector to grow after being cocooned by grants and innovation finance so that national development owners take charge of this growth? Are they concerned with eco-systems development, taking a holistic role, rather than a project piece on the economic development pie or with national priorities? I hope that humility culture goes down to the partners and grantees as well, because success without integrity is untenable and deceptive. Impact washing happens at both micro and macro levels. It's not only the outcomes that matter but how do you get to these outcomes and what happens on the way.
Back to Blog
THE HELICOPTER VIEW9/15/2022 Problem-solving with a helicopter view is better for critical thinking and analysis. As you go higher and higher, you see the problem at much-bigger picture. You see more areas adjacent to the problem, requiring you to think big-picture, lose sight of specificities for a while, and get down to building a synergy and integrative frame of mind while constructing solutions. Your horizon becomes wide and your frame of reference expands. Your curiosity is released. Specifically, the helicopter view helps you: 1. Separate the wheat from the chaff Take all the noise out of the problem and focused on top two things that needed solution. Keep your values and priorities behind any solution. Sometimes, it is just staring at your face because you're unable to see the big picture. 2. Connect the dots to opportunities and long-term issues Big picture thinking doesn't just solve the obvious problem. It also presents opportunities to be cultivated and grown in-house. That means that you're looking at a larger scope beyond the upsides and downsides of your actions. Aside from opportunities, learn to look at what's coming out in the corner as you analyze relationships and dynamic forces that are impacting your work in your industry. Find patterns from connections and interplay of moves and countermoves of the actors. 3. Generate solutions you're team can own and be proud of Big picture thinking helps everyone in the team have a holistic, integrative, and interconnected frame of mind when discussing options, alternatives, and possibilities. Your team is not siloed from other teams in the organization, weaving new discoveries into what's existing in terms of processes and systems. People can navigate solutions without overhauling what works or reinventing the wheel. Take a helicopter view when things are starting to look too messy and unclear. The best frame of mind is to take a step out of the nitty gritty and concentrate on what this problem presents in the larger scheme of things and what possibilities await the solver. |