NGO Soul + Strategy

Summary How does Feminist Leadership  ‘perform’ when a leader has to make hard choices? How well has feminist leadership served organizations during the past year of the pandemic-related crisis, or other periods of crisis? What kind of worthy values and interests might ‘compete’ with those called for by feminist leadership, and how should leaders resolve this? I discussed these topics during an in...

What are the political or other strategies and tactics that a feminist leader can use to analyze the presence of ‘deep structures’ of power within organizations? What can a feminist leader practically do to change these power structures? And in what scenarios does Feminist Leadership shine in particular ways? I discussed these topics during an interview with Aruna Rao, Co-founder and chair of the...

Organizational leaders have to balance competing values. What kind of worthy values and interests might ‘compete’ with those called for by Feminist Leadership (FL) and how should leaders resolve those? What to do when we need to hold individual staff or teams to account for underperformance, given FL’s emphasis on being developmental, its focus on staff care, etc.? When do leaders decide that they...

What's a global North-founded influencing NGO to do to stay relevant, credible, and effective?    And should influencing NGOs see power as an infinite resource -- that can be grown and shared and in principle is unlimited in nature -- or as a limited asset that needs to be fought for?    Finally, how does a seasoned advocacy NGO leader look upon the current moment as a combination of crisis a...

What’s all this talk about feminist leadership? An interview with Abby Maxman, Oxfam America’s CEO   Feminist leadership seems to be in ascendance in the INGO sector. Now, our sector is a bit prone to fads and fashions --  so should we take this seriously? Is this leadership model here to stay? And what are its potential, its power as well as its limitations? This is what I  explore in a short ser...

In this interview with Tessie San Martin and Constantin Abarbieritei , CEO and Chief Operating Officer, respectively, at Plan USA , we discuss what lessons they learned in leading two acquisitions and one divestiture. Quotes: “ If you want to do M&A, you’d better also know how to do divestiture” “T he lack of financial motives, metrics as well as incentive structures, as compared to the privat...

Interview with Muthoni Muriu and Doris Basler of Oxfam about their ambitious, innovative, bottom-up Oxfam strategy process, which was approved at the onset of the global pandemic Bios Muthoni Muriu:  Former Global Strategy Lead, Oxfam America & Oxfam International (please note that Muthoni left Oxfam as of June 30, 2020, after the strategy had been approved by Oxfam International's Board)...

Summary Tosca focuses on her new book ‘ Between Power and Irrelevance: the Future of Transnational NGOs ’, which she co-authored with George Mitchell and Hans Peter Schmitz. Barney Tallack , ex-Oxfam leader and independent consultant, also made important contributions towards the book.  Why transnational NGOs have a hard time living up to their (bigger) promises and claims  How our transnational N...

As NGO community we are staring into the unknown, and as Bob Johansen of the Institute for the Future , memorably, said recently: " The future will reward clarity, but punish uncertainty. Be wary of people who need certainty, since certainty is brittle". Yet, our brains crave certainty, so what to do? How to lead our NGOs during a global crisis like this? This was one of the central topi...

NGO change management is challenging - to say the least. A conversation with Barney Tallack to help you learn from a pro Bio Barney Tallack Principal Consultant, Averthur Consulting Former Director of Strategy, Oxfam International Former Director for Change Management, Oxfam Int. Multiple other leadership roles in Oxfam (spanning a career of 25 years within that organization) Board member of Fores...

In this episode, I discuss with Stefan Flothmann, who heads Greenpeace's MindWorks Cognitive Science Lab, how campaign designs miss how humans process difficult and negative emotions, and how this diminishes campaigns' effectiveness. Quotes: “Greenpeace staff were working on the assumption we were working towards a state of paradise, but they are struggling instead with the state of loss...

Are more Mergers and Acquisitions in NGOs’ futures? And is that a good thing? An interview with Rick Santos, a CEO who lived to tell the story     Bio Rick Santos  Rick was the CEO of IMA World Health between 2009 and 2018, after having worked in the international health and development sector for over two decades  IMA World Health is a faith-based nonprofit organization that provides health care...

Tammy Dowley-Blackman is a seasoned and dynamite consultant in the domestic US nonprofit management and effectiveness space, who I look up to. In this interview, Tammy shares:    How her observations as a nonprofit leader, and the insufficient emphasis she observed nonprofits put on performance issues, drove her to set up her consulting firm  The fallacy that ensuring diversity and inclusion strat...

David Bonbright, co-founder and Chief Executive of Keystone Accountability, an international charity dedicated to bringing constituent feedback to social change practice.  In this interview, David addresses the following questions and topics:  What is Constituent Voice? And why is it so important if an NGO wants to be more outcome-focused?  How is it different, and more than ‘downward accountabili...

George Mitchell, professor at Baruch College at the City University of New York, USA , is one of my long time collaborators, a dear friend and one of those wonderful academics with a healthy respect for NGO practitioners. He and I, and Hans Peter Schmitz have co-authored an upcoming book on transnational NGOs, which will come out in June 2020. In this interview, George addresses the following ques...

Alnoor Ebrahim, Professor @ Tufts University, USA How can we as NGO leaders make sure that our strategy informs our measurement strategy as organizations? How can we make sure our NGOs are not just upward/funder-oriented in our measurement approach, but also focused on internal accountability and organizational learning? And what mindsets are most helpful to make measurement efforts meaningful?  I...

What organizational dynamics cause NGOs and funders to make overblown outcome statements?   In this interview with Julia Coffman and Tanya Beer of the Center for Evaluation Innovation , two thought leaders in the space of  evaluation and organizational learning in the philanthropic and NGO sector, we address:  What stops us as nonprofits from becoming more outcome-oriented?  When your NGO starts a...

Ep 004 – Ed Boswell Title : A consultant’s observations in helping NGO leaders navigate big organizational change: Ed Boswell, Conner Advisory Summary para :  Daryl Conner and Ed Boswell of Conner Advisory have been advising private sector leaders for 30+ plus years on how to successfully lead big organizational change processes. How much of this experience translates over into the NGO sector? Ed...

Ep 003 – Sarah Ralston   Title : Whole-of-organization thinking: Reflections by Sarah Ralston, former longtime change manager in CARE2020’s process Summary para :  The complex work of an NGO change manager requires that you have a ‘whole of organization’ perspective. Sarah Ralston, who until recently led many change initiatives at CARE International, reveals what she learned in this third episode...

Ep 002 – Ramesh Singh Title : What I learned from leading ActionAid’s federalization process as well as Greenpeace’s recent change trajectory – Ramesh Singh Summary para:  Ramesh Singh, former CEO of ActionAid, led its process of federalization - an important change in its organizational form - over a decade ago. In addition, Ramesh as International Organization Director led Greenpeace’s process t...

Lessons from a long time change manager: Monica Maassen, Oxfam International Episode 001 – Monica Maassen   Title: Oxfam’s 2020 change journey: lessons from a long-time change manager - Monica Maassen Summary para: Oxfam International and its 20+ affiliates have embarked on significant organizational change  – appropriately called ‘Oxfam2020’. Monica Maassen, Head of Oxfam Int’s change management,...

This is short introduction of my new podcast NGO Soul + Strategy, for leaders of NGOs and other philanthropic organizations who look change right in the eye. To be launched February 2020.