The Files
All Files
Why Care?
In a fractured world, why care? This file explores the existential and practical value of compassion, connection, and shared human experience.
Gratitude for the Unknown
There is beauty in the unknown,
unknown in the beauty
of the unknown
is the beauty
of the unknown,
which is beautiful
on an unknown sphere,
so dear,
here
in the unknown
beauty
of the unknown
is the beauty
that rests,
Better Governance For Nonprofits: Leadership That Works
Explore how transformative leadership redefines nonprofit governance, fostering collaboration, innovation, and systemic change for greater impact.
Unstorying the Self: Exploring Personal Narratives and Collective Responsibility
Discover the journey of unstorying the self, exploring how personal narratives shape our identity and the ethical responsibility we hold to others, nature, and the world.
Marketing’s Role in Shaping Self-Perception
Marketing is deeply intertwined with our worldview because it shapes and reflects how we perceive ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Rethinking Our Worldview to Address the Ecological Crisis (Part III)
To some extent, the hero’s journey reflects and perpetuates a colonizer mindset, leading to the subjugation of entire cultures.
Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Rethinking Our Worldview to Address the Ecological Crisis (Part II)
Technology, profit, productivity—these are hallmarks of what is often construed as progress within the Western worldview? Progress for whom?
Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Rethinking Our Worldview to Address the Ecological Crisis (Part I)
Floods, wildfires, drought, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, pollution, mass riots, war—this is the world right now in active ecological crisis.
Space as Metaphor: Beyond Output-Oriented Paradigms (Part II)
Strategic plans are particularly excellent examples of a process with questionable results, especially if stakeholder collaboration is desired.
Space as Metaphor: Beyond Output-Oriented Paradigms (Part I)
In various fields (counseling, education, business, and leadership, etc.), transformation and change are often framed as part of a metaphorical hero’s journey.
To ‘Lead’ Or Not To ‘Lead’ (Part III)
If we think in silos, we bring ourselves deeper inside single systems.
To ‘Lead’ Or Not To ‘Lead’ (Part II)
What does social purpose mean in the context of my life? How do I apply my belief in a social purpose? How I answer these questions may provide insight into the extent to which I have retained my systemic sensibility.
To ‘Lead’ Or Not To ‘Lead’ (Part I)
Is the past really past, and is the future somewhere ahead of us? The realization that past trauma, for instance, has a direct bearing on our mental health lends credence to the notion that yesterday is alive, a consideration that leads to a cybernetic complementarity that the future is equally real today. Can we hold two seemingly disparate ideas?
Wading at the Edges
All my life, I have essentially waded at the edges of the proverbial pools of life–a condition that does not lend itself to transformation, an idea I recently gleaned from Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Successful Fundraising Strategies
Successful fundraising at the organizational level rests on constructing solicitation strategies and techniques that reflect the capabilities and wants of current and prospective donor groups.
Fundraising Ethics
Effective fundraising and development must include careful consideration of the laws and regulations that govern such activities, which include interactions with donors, staff, and volunteers.
Development In Nonprofits
Effective development requires a substantial amount of input from different kinds of ‘players’ throughout an organization. For example, a fundraising/development professional needs an accurate understanding of the accounting picture in order to communicate fiscal realities to donors/philanthropists.
Fundraising And Development
Fundraising is generally viewed as ‘asking for money’. This is essentially true. Whether you have been asked to support the local Little League baseball team or received a printed mailer that asked for your support to build a homeless shelter, you have likely been the recipient of a fundraising activity.
Self-Reflection in Marketing
Marketing is a business domain not only for promoting brands, products, and services but also as a platform for organizational self-reflection, engaging the entire staff in the process.
Best Practices in Organizations
Recently, I had a “conversation” with an individual about next steps related to further developing a nonprofit board. Excited about some of my recent research that touches on new ways to conceptualize the role of nonprofit board development, I indicated that perhaps we could consider new ideas.
Great Pains
Love is not a place, or strategy, direction, or inflection of voice, or choice, thing, way, or dream, even though it may seem like one to me, a man lost in his own sea and multiple versions of ‘me’.
Small Hands
The past is both place and theory, seems dreary, though, to wallow in my history and lose the mystery if I hold on to my version of self and not embrace
I is Me
I have come to realize old adages have truth, theorize old fears can die, believe that I have no purpose on this earth other than to disentangle the mystery of self
Stepping Outside The Shadows Of Myself
Those two boys to my left are my sons when they were much younger and I subscribed to a much different paradigm of life, so different in fact that what I am about to write would have been unthinkable when this photo was taken.
Melody of Self
I’m not sure there is anything more beautiful than feeling the feeling of someone sharing their feelings
through a gentle touch,
Chronicle of Dreaming Man
Every morning, he would row his boat gently down the stream,
merrily, thinking life is but a dream.
Running To Love
Yesterday, I was on a run near a river and actively pondering the experience of love when I had a profound realization about myself that I think is relevant for others. All my life, love has been an experience for me that has felt so utterly massive, so real, that I have run from it. I went out on my run yesterday with the intent to explore why this is the case, and I unexpectedly ran into an answer.
In Plain Sight
As I lay hiding, confiding to no one and no thing, the remnants of past selves bring me pain inside the heart I pretend is my brain is a boy, so scared to share himself with a world that seems so hard
What is Love?
Sure, I know love. It is a feeling, right? Is it an action, too? Or is it a sequence of actions? Is it formulaic? When I read the last post on love by my associate, I am forcibly reminded that perhaps I do not know what love is it all.
Soft Feelings
Soft feelings are hard to let go, especially when they bleed into dreams and streams of consciousness that meander and flow into places I do not understand or know. Broken people made whole inside the hole within the sphere of the heart of the soul and liquid dreams, streams of…
Decisions
In an office, who makes the decisions? Is it the manager? Supervisor? General staff? Do these questions matter? Absolutely, because how this question is answered reveals much about how an individual views reality itself.
The Truth
The truth. It is a fascinating concept and one that supports how many of us go through our everyday lives. There is some sort of ‘truth’ that supports our cultural values, approach to life, or how we build our business(es).
Selfies
There is something unnerving about our reliance on presenting ourselves to “the world” through the use of ‘selfies.’ It is as if our ability to capture an image of ourselves with the use of a phone’s camera indicates something about our inherent power.
The Loneliness
It has been reported that the feeling of loneliness may be correlated with the use of social media, and, even at face value, there seems to be merit in these reports.
The Money
Ever notice that many entrepreneurs in this age bracket often resort to citing their own financial wealth as proof that others should follow their inherent “power” and step into their own proverbial “greatness?”
The Speed
Remember being a kid and thinking about adulthood? It seemed like a theory that would never be proven. Childhood lasted forever — every moment, experience, bowl of Quaker oatmeal seemed to require an eternity to complete.
The Validation
There is something deeply disturbing about the validation required by many today. Did we eat the right food, say the right thing, buy the right product, look good doing it?
Love(s)
Love is something we discuss with others (or at least should). We point to it, demand and laud it. But what is it? Are all loves the same? When we teach our kids about love, we explain it in a way that encourages them to think on it as if it were a timeless sort of thing. It is exists as some sort of truth, as if any deviation from it represents a failure on their respective part.
The Hate
It is so easy to lay blame, point fingers, puff up our chests and essentially ‘hate’ what is around us. Society subtly encourages angry thinking in its creation of various competitive platforms whereby people are challenged not to look within, but destroy something outside themselves.
Jumping Ship
There is something to be said about jumping off of the proverbial ‘Millennial Falcon,’ this notion that people in their 20s and 30s do not just understand social media better (and they do), they understand more about life.
Motivation
We have all heard it. “If I were you, I would…” Is such a statement meant to motivate, or is it instead a strategy by which we assert our position in life? Is it motivation at all?
Objectives
Interpretation, though, can be dangerous, in business. Isn't this why managers seek to control the variables in any equation? Without measurable objectives, our staff may end up achieving any number...
The Isolation
For those of us who sometimes feel isolated and alone, social media can tend to make us feel worse about ourselves. We are not part of the scene that is social media. We don’t have as many “likes,” “shares,” or “follows.”
Perspective
If we are to understand an organization, we must ask certain questions first, right?
What are your job descriptions? What is your employee retention rate? Do you offer benefits? Are you profitable? What is your mission?
Looking Back
We have all done it from time to time, right? We have been guilty of looking back. In this age, however, is there time to look back?
The Answers
We have all seen it, right? The look on a millennial’s face when he or she discovers THE answer on their phone.
True Love
In this day and age where we seemingly must “crush” everything in sight in order to prove ourselves to a world that seemingly watches our every move, is there a place for love anymore?