“Being human means having a gift. And it is the giving of this gift that makes both the village and the person whole.” “The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to them — it cannot fail…”– Walt Whitman “Just as the rivers we see are much less…

How to Build a 21st Century Organization — “I say the goal is not to be good — it’s to be great. The idea is to have the audience leave, and say, “You’ve got to see this.” You have to work backwards from that result.” — Steve Martin To those of you from the humanitarian assistance community, let…

Refugees come to us not as a sequence of needs, but as a whole person. Humanitarian programming needs to reflect the refugee’s reality. “Have you noticed that while corporations sell you junk drinks, artisans sell you cheese and wine?” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb “What is at stake, especially for those…

We have lived in places of scarcity for so long that we have lost sight of the abundance our world contains. — “Just as the rivers we see are much less numerous than the underground streams, so the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what men and women carry in their hearts, unreleased or scarcely released. Mankind is waiting and longing for those who can accomplish the task of untying…

Losing Our Religion — In our escalating pursuit of funding and a seat at the table of influence, I think we lost our way, and worse — we lost our souls. “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at…

The international humanitarian system has been failing. Maybe now we can change. — “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” W. Edwards Deming “Think about this, the twenty first century is an endless march against those who thought they were in power. From the music industry and Napster to politics today.” Bob Lefsetz The international humanitarian system has been failing…