A conversation mashup with Biren Shah

“It is only when we don’t have a social purpose that we’re truly serving the world.” That’s a pretty mind-bending statement, especially for those of us who are working in social purpose organizations. What exactly do you mean?

Cleaning the African narrative

“My name is Tolulope Ilesanmi, I am a Cleaner. That is not a confession. It is a celebration. It is also a protest. I was a banker. That is a confession.” These were my opening words when I spoke at the Desautels African Business Initiative conference in […]

A new collaboration in Cincinnati

What if, in research, we paid attention to how we paid attention? What if in strategic planning we were as introspective as we are analytical? What if our work were a true expression of our humanity? Would our capacity for innovation grow? I want to find out. So, I’ve launched […]

Self-guided learning sessions – new and improved

After spending some time beta-testing our self-guided learning sessions with organizations, we’ve come out with these new and improved versions. The sessions were created to help people introduce the concept and practice of expressive change into their organization.

Film release- An intro to expressive change

* Now subtitled in Español & Français *

The short film that we’ve been working on over the last year and a half is finally finished! The 16-minute film is intended as a conversation starter for staff, volunteers & funders of social purpose organisations. Through a compilation of crowd-sourced interviews, it challenges us to pay closer attention to the link between an organisation’s social purpose and how that purpose is lived inside the organization on a daily basis.

Podcast: Emerging from hibernation

In 2012, we hosted a podcast with Aerin Dunford of The Berkana Institute about the organization’s decision to go into an undefined period of hibernation. Given its focus on promoting ‘living systems’ principles in social change work, we were curious to learn how they were putting these principles into practice internally. Berkana recently resurfaced from its restful state, and so we followed up with Aerin to find out what the experience has been like for them.

Cleaning myself, cleaning the world

“Oh and of course as part of the job you will also have to clean homes and offices too”, Tolu said, his twinkling eyes examining me. Mhm. Interesting. We were sitting in his office after my job interview to do the communications and marketing at Zenith Cleaners, which had turned into a 2-hour long conversation.

Becoming human through human-centered design

After years of practice, a pivotal moment came when I realized human-centered design could actually be an expression of our humanity. To drive true innovation, I could blur the line between designer and user and create the space for us all to advance our human potential. This happened during my Executive on Loan assignment to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

A conversation with Dayna Cunningham

I’m just finishing up a fascinating six-week on-line course on Theory U. I found this 10-minute excerpt from Otto Scharmer’s interview with Dayna Cunningham particularly moving. She shares about her experience as a civil rights lawyer and how she came to understand the importance of developing an individual and collective capacity for empathy in social change work.

Becoming a festival

In a letter to her fellow organizers, Katherine Therese Whaling offers a heartfelt reflection on her experience organizing last year’s Muizenberg Festival, a week-long celebration of community-led development in the seaside town of Muizenberg, South Africa. We were struck by how beautifully her reflection illuminates what it means to live an event as a process rather than simply plan it as an outcome.