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Truth-telling, power and courageous leadership

In a recent blog ‘speaking truth to power’ Benny Callaghan referred to the lived experience of those who identify an organisational culture that is diseased, proped up by people in power that are resistant to authentic change.

Benny’s insightful blog raises a whole series of issues for those who are in power and for those who perceive cultural and systemic illness in any organisation or indeed in any society. There is indeed the issue of ‘power’ being spoken to and the issue of ‘power’ being able to hear. Read more

Are non-religious not-for-profits dodgey?

In the new book Driven by Purpose, the claim is made that of the 60,000 ‘charities’ across Australia, most have lost their way and are no longer clear about what they once stood for and why they now exist.  But it would appear that the divide being referenced is not between those with a clear purpose and those without, but between those that are faith-based and their “dodgey” counterparts. Read more

How can we use the future to plan (part 2)?

When an executive team develops a strategic plan, how is it that they know whether the direction they chose was the ‘right’ or ‘best’ one? What options had they considered? What assumptions did they make? What did they ignore (consciously or otherwise)? Strategic foresight helps answer those questions, and demands that people are clear about the future they want to create. This post follows on from part one. Read more

Romancing the ‘commercial’ paradigm

There appears, from our experience, to be a shift in the not-for-profit community service sector to ‘commercialisation’ of service delivery and care. Not-for-profit organisations are increasingly being exhorted to act more like the ‘corporate sector’ and to think ‘commercially’ when making decisions about their service delivery.

This romance is not all bad. At the same time it is not all good. Read more