Overwhelm and quick question
Overwhelm and quick question This week was intense. Two two-day workshops in a row. First two days on our strategic learning and evaluation, the next two...
The role(s) of evidence
The role(s) of evidence The encounter with two of the people behind Tamkeen last week has stayed with me and reverberated. It has stimulated further...
Meeting in our humanity
Meeting in our humanity Could it be as easy as that? Could we shed all structures and conventions and simply meet each other in our humanity and engage in...
On techno-optimsim and techno-naivety
On techno-optimism and techno-naivety This week I participated in a webinar on artificial intelligence and its effects on philanthropy. I was stunned by two...
We are liminal
We are liminal At my organisation we currently have many meetings where we talk about our strategy and how we want to better define what we stand for and how...
Strategy as action
Strategy as action This week at work we talked a lot about strategy. In particular we compared ‘Strategy as Planning’ with ‘Strategy as Action.’ ‘Strategy as...
Self-care and instrumentalisation
Self-care and instrumentalisation It’s Friday afternoon and I have activated the out-of-office reply in my email (apparently one calls that OOO now). I’m...
Transforming philanthropy
Transforming philanthropy - some reflections I just spent two days in Brussels to meet a group of people who also work for foundations to discuss our ideas...
Systemic enquiries
Systemic enquiries One of the suggestions I brought into my organisation is to think of our work as a set of systemic enquiries through different, thematic...
Intelligence and adaptability
Intelligence and adaptability Last week on my long run I listened to two episodes of two different podcasts that somehow connected in a really interesting...
Of indicators and experiences
Of indicators and experiences As I sit with the topic of abstraction, I thought I'd reflect on it a bit more, now moving from the space of how we define our...
In the abstract
In the abstract This week we had a meeting with a large part of our team where we discussed among other things how we want to work (our 'working principles')...
What does success look like?
What does success look like? Last week I started writing about my ideas of how to capture the difference we make as a foundation. One of the things I have...
What difference do we make?
What difference do we make? In the spirit of working-out-loud (and learning-out-loud), I will repurpose this weekly email and start sharing thoughts,...
A tension with intention - again
A tension with intention - again Here I am, back thinking about intention, intentionality, preferred direction of change, who is setting this direction, etc....
Organisations, roles and meadows
Organisations, roles and meadows I had a beautiful conversation this morning about organisations and roles within organisations. Traditionally, roles have...
On Causality
On Causality My brake from writing ended up to be longer than intended. As I'm going through quite a transformation in my life, both personally and...
Photos from my glacier trek
Photos from my glacier trek I spent the last few days trekking on the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland, from the Jungfraujoch via the Konkordiaplatz to the...
The premises we re-enact
The premises we re-enact I had quite a few responses to my email last week and I want to pick up and respond to one in particular. Chris Corrigan has written...
Taking a stance
Taking a stance We can always question ourselves and ask if we are really sure enough about the validity of what we think. This can be paralysing. I have...