a novel approach to addressing poverty, Maurice Lim Miller shifts ownership and priority-setting to low-income working families through an approach that enables families to self-organize, support each other as they gain fiscal independence and confidence, and move into roles as active consumers of social services who deliver feedback, not passive beneficiaries. The New Idea Having advanced more traditional anti-poverty and job training efforts in the 1980s and 1990s, Maurice saw that progress was slow and, more worrying, that the funding and incentive structures to aid the transition of low-income Americans into the middle-class were misaligned with desired outcomes. He found that p... posted on Feb 23 2022 (2,241 reads)

makes a good leader? The gift of strengthening everyone else.     Photo by Zer Cabatuan. An empowering leader holds and serves a vision broad and deep enough to inspire others and allow them to take parts of it and make it their own. When Rob Hopkins founded the Transition Town movement, his vision was to take the insights of permaculture and ecological design and apply them on a local community level. That was a big vision, far too big for any one person to realize alone. Within it, there was room for many people to step up and realize their own creative ideas and pursue their interests — how t... posted on Apr 18 2012 (55,872 reads)

spite of current ads and slogans, the world doesn't change one person at a time.  It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what's possible.  This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future.  Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections.  We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits.  Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change.  But networks are... posted on Sep 2 2013 (34,894 reads)

few years ago Americ Azevedo sat in a college classroom with about 15 students. It was a meditation class and he was the instructor. This past fall, that same class enrolled 603 students and took place in one of the largest lecture halls on the UC Berkeley campus. A philosopher, author and lecturer of peace studies, Americ slips through all of these categories. Serendipitously he became the acting CEO of a company in a field for which he had no formal training. He's taught an unlikely mix of university classes (philosophy, religion, leadership, finance, business and information systems), developed several virtual companies, directed the Innovation Center at Golden Gate Univer... posted on Nov 12 2013 (29,156 reads)

first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher." Taking nature as our teacher requires thinking in terms of systems, one of nature's basic patterns. Systems can be incredibly complex, but the concept is quite straightforward. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example, defines a "system" as "any collection of things that have some influence on one another." Individual things — like plants, people, schools, communities, and watersheds — are all systems of interrelated elements. At the same ti... posted on Dec 12 2013 (32,859 reads)

Tippett, host: In a culture where we like to fix or prevent vulnerability, Brené Brown is reviving the knowledge that our struggles make us who we are. And it's based on data — social scientific research she conducted first into shame and then into qualities that distinguish lives with a strong sense of worthiness. She's frank about the resistance her own findings awakened in her, a classic American perfectionist who wore exhaustion as a status symbol. She also discovered a stark gulf between what we want to be true — and what is true — in vulnerability between men and women. And she exquisitely uncomfortably describes the difference between m... posted on Mar 21 2014 (33,153 reads)

modern conception of human excellence is too often impoverished, cold, and bloodless. Success does not always come from thinking more rigorously or striving harder.” “The best way to get approval is not to need it,”Hugh MacLeod memorably counseled. We now know that perfectionism kills creativity and excessive goal-setting limits our success rather than begetting it — all different manifestations of the same deeper paradox of the human condition, at once disconcerting and comforting, which Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian Studies and Embodied Cognition at the University of British Columbia and a renowned scholar of Chinese thought, explore... posted on Jun 3 2014 (13,943 reads)

kindness just an old-fashioned value celebrated in kindergarten and then soon forgotten as one grows older and more ambitious --- or is there more to it? As increasing numbers of people look to live a purpose-driven life, research is beginning to reveal the tremendous rewards that come with living kindly. What follows are some of the most compelling recent studies on the topic of kindness, and the ramifications they hold for ourselves and our world. 1: Kindness rewires our minds for greater health: “The biggest news is that we’re able to change something physical about people’s health by increasing their daily diet of positive emotion, and that helps us get... posted on Sep 23 2014 (142,628 reads)

current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible. This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change. But networks aren’t the whole story. As ... posted on Apr 22 2015 (13,454 reads)

founded by Marlon Parker, is an innovation movement that transforms youth in troubled communities, gangsters, dropouts and ex-convicts, into changemakers. In this blog we look at how RLabs invests in young "problem experts" to beat crime & unemployment. "It works because RLabs is a movement by people for people." Marlon Parker grew up in the Cape Flats township of Cape Town, surrounded by increasing rates of unemployment, crime, gang violence and drug abuse. As the eldest in a single-parent household, Marlon was compelled to supplement the family's income and by age eight he was selling candy and carrying grocery bags to e... posted on Apr 20 2015 (173,186 reads)

a new novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom, bestselling author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, tells the story of a guitarist who can change people’s lives through the power of his musical talent. Albom recently was a guest lecturer in the Authors@Wharton series. While Albom was on campus, Wharton management professor Adam M. Grant spoke with him about why he wrote the book, his choice to pursue writing, and how we can each discover and share our greatest talent. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Adam Grant: What inspired you to write the latest book? Mitch Albom: Ever since I wrote Tuesdays with ... posted on Dec 21 2015 (14,975 reads)

a new novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom, bestselling author ofTuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, tells the story of a guitarist who can change people’s lives through the power of his musical talent. Albom recently was a guest lecturer in the Authors@Wharton series. While Albom was on campus, Wharton management professor Adam M. Grant spoke with him about why he wrote the book, his choice to pursue writing, and how we can each discover and share our greatest talent. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Adam Grant: What inspired you to write the latest book? Mitch Albom: Ever since I wrote Tuesdays with Morrie, ... posted on Dec 21 2015 (3,574 reads)

FOR BILLY MILLS, CHRISTINA TORRES, ASHLEY HICKS, ET AL. — RUNNING AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE syndicated from OnBeing.org KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: For the Summer Olympics, we’re breaking format to explore a topic our listeners have called out as a passionate force in all kinds of lives, and a connector across all kinds of boundaries in American culture: running. Not just as exercise, or as merely physical pursuit — running as a source of bonding between parents and children and friends. Running as an interplay between competition and contemplation. Running and body image and survival and healing. MS. CHRISTINA TORRES: People from high school now tell me,... posted on Aug 30 2016 (10,724 reads)

easiest way for me to find God is in nature,” Sister Ceciliana Skees explains. Born Ruth Skees, she grew up in Hardin County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. It’s a rural place of soft green hills, where her father farmed his entire life. Now just a few months shy of her eighty-fifth birthday, she remembers feeling the first stirrings of a religious calling at the age of 10. Her peasant blouse and smooth, chin-length haircut don’t fit the popular image of a nun, but she has been a Sister of Loretto—a member of a religious order more than 200 years old—since she took vows at the age of 18. Skees’ commitment to social activism goes back almost a... posted on Sep 26 2016 (9,431 reads)

Ghandi once said “be the change that you want to see in the world”. This week Margaret O’Keeffe meets an inspirational businessman who has used obstacles as a means to create positive change for himself and his community. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. " - Albert Camus I have walked in the semi-wilderness of Hampstead Heath in London for many years. One of the roads I use to enter the heath starts at the... posted on Sep 30 2016 (13,885 reads)

the years, we’ve had a love-hate relationship with self-esteem, writes Homaira Kabir. There was a time when we believed self-esteem to be the royal road to flourishing. We had Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live provide us with Daily Affirmations to make us feel special. We tried to reinforce it in our children by letting them know how exceptional they were when they failed. However, later studies showed that such increases in self-esteem did little for our happiness or performance, but ample for our egos. Professor Roy Baumeister’s work with self-esteem showed that we’d been raising a generation of narcissists who went on to wreck havoc in their lives and in thei... posted on Oct 18 2016 (16,475 reads)

is important to celebrate these women who are building a more peaceful world that is open, just, and filled with love.”   Joye Braun recalls setting up her tipi in snow last April at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The camp founded by LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a beloved elder Native woman, was named IÅ‹yaÅ‹ WakháÅ‹agapi Othí, meaning Sacred Stone, which is the pre-Colonial name of the Cannonball River area. “Before colonization, women were traditionally equal to men in our society. What we have seen at Standing Rock is extraordinary—women reclaiming their rightful, sacred place in our community. We know our voices matt... posted on Jun 8 2017 (5,522 reads)

interests and your passion develop over time. I want to disabuse people of this mythology of ‘it happens to you and if you’re lucky, you find it, and then that’s all you have to do.’” Angela Duckworth is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. She is the Founder and Scientific Director of a non-profit, Character Lab, and in 2013 was named a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Recently, she joined Adam Grant for an evening of conversation as a part of the Authors@Wharton speakers series. Adam Grant is the bestselling author ... posted on Jul 14 2017 (12,619 reads)

think that gratitude is a profound choice. It is not just something that some people do. There is a way to look at life as a “have to” or a “get to” there are all these things in life we could do because we have to do them, or there are things in life we do because we get to do them. ~ Seth Godin Katie Steedly: Having studied wide-awakeness for a long time, gratitude was everywhere in the literature. I also found it in life. Whether talking about presence, or positivity, or happiness, or even success in general, the subject of gratitude kept making itself known to me from all directions. It became obvious: gratitude is the key that unlocks life’s doors.... posted on Oct 7 2017 (13,095 reads)

it comes to moral judgments, we think we are scientists discovering the truth, but actually we are lawyers arguing for positions we arrived at by other means.” The surprising psychology behind morality is at the heart of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s research. He explains “liberal” and “conservative” not narrowly or necessarily as political affiliations, but as personality types — ways of moving through the world. His self-described “conservative-hating, religion-hating, secular liberal instincts” have been challenged by his own studies. What follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett... posted on Sep 21 2018 (17,318 reads)