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Twentieth-century business tools will not solve these new types of wicked problems. They are simply too multifaceted for any company to solve on its own. As PepsiCo’s Rob Meyers notes, “To solve some of these systemic issues in our supply chain that we have found in implementing our Sustainable

For companies in every business sector, "wicked problems" are becoming the new normal.

Agriculture Program is something we can’t do on our own. Even if we could just write a check, we couldn’t write one big enough to fix these systemic issues.” The new normal of wicked 21st-century business problems requires different tools.

From Partner with Purpose: Solving Twenty-First Century Business Problems Through Cross-Sector Collaboration by Steve Schmida

The more you push for progressive change, the more entrenched power pushes back.

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This fact has formed the context of my life in politics.

     I encountered the same dynamic as a student activist at Howard University in the 1960s and as an inner-city physician in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s before returning home to Bermuda to enter electoral politics. Indeed, this is the situation of would-be change agents everywhere, not least of all in the Black diaspora throughout the Americas. 

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     Still wealthy and powerful, the White establishment clings to its old ways behind a facade of change. It exemplifies the regressive forces Frederick Douglass described when he said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. . . . Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

From Whom Shall I Fear? Pushing the

Politics of Change by Ewart F. Brown, M.D.

The Jackpot Question, Being Prepared for

While some meetings with potential donors—especially first meetings—are not well suited to making a direct solicitation for financial support, you can never be sure what may happen once the conversation begins. For this reason, it’s important to always be prepared with a good answer for the possible jackpot question: “What could your organization do if I wrote you a check for $1 million today?”

If you can respond to the jackpot question clearly and without appearing flustered, you just may increase the odds of having the dream come true! On the other hand, if you can’t answer such a question cogently, you may need to spend some time reflecting . . . or maybe even find another line of work.  

From When in Doubt, Ask for More

and 213 Other Life and Career Lessons

for the Mission-Driven Leader by Alex Counts

LISTEN TO THE SEAGULLS

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Listen to the seagulls in the mall.

They transfer the rippling sound

Of the sea waves to this vast concrete

     bed.     

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From High on Cloud Joyous

and Other Poems

by Elvina Schullere

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I had returned from my second tour of Bangladesh, which had lasted five years. I was running Grameen Foundation, an organization that I had founded a few years earlier to advance the humanitarian ideals of Muhammad Yunus, the iconic Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, which I'd adopted as my own. On the surface, things were going well. But just below the surface, trouble was building fast.

     I had the job of my dreams, but I was often a bundle of nerves. I was driving my employees and family crazy, and I had virtually no interests beyond my work. I'd been successful at raising more money than ever before, but I was also feeling increasingly insecure and anxious.

I realized it was past time for me to turn things around.

From Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind: Leadership Lessons from Three Decades

of Social Entrepreneurship by Alex Counts