Link Loving 18.04.12

• When Eton and Goldman Sachs run charities, you know the system needs reform. Jim Jepps.
• After the Millennium Development Goals – what next? Alex Evans.
• Frameworks for winning change – examining four models. Holly Hammond.
• Reforming Chinese education: What China is trying to learn from America. Tess Croner.

Third Sector Leadership: The Power Of Narrative

There’s a great paper by the TSRC on the role of narrative in NGO leadership – it’s only eighteen pages, so well worth a read! Some favourite learnings from the paper –

• Going beyond ‘leadership in the organisation’ to focus on leadership across the field – therefore alluding to CC in the sense of collaboration and co-learning. Beyond this – leadership of the sector, not just leadership in the sector.
• The pressure on senior management to lead through management ‘applying known solutions’ when confronted with ‘wicked’ problems where what we really need is leadership – drawing up innovative strategies to respond to problems we don’t fully understand and haven’t met before.
• As service users do not usually fund services, and thus outward representation – a role as an ambassador – is often oriented towards funders rather than beneficiaries.

Link Loving 17.04.12

• Ask not who’s co-opting you, ask whom you can co-opt. Nathan Schneider.
• Epoch of transformation: An interpersonal leadership model for the 21st century. Nick Ross. h/t Rachel Sinha.
• What are the Tory values that are being pushed by Right Angle – the conservative 38 Degrees? Robert Halfon. h/t James Rees.
• I wonder who has been handling this issue – King Juan Carlos of Spain, WWF Ambassador, goes to shoot some elephants on holiday. Joshua Keating.

Link Loving 16.04.12

• How measurement shapes what we perceive to be reality. Joe Brewer.
• How Conservatives cutting public spending for progressive causes might be the best thing that ever happened for Canada’s left. James Ron and Howard Ramos.
• What would real democracy look like in Burma? Emily Hong.
• A lesson in defection from Goldman Sachs. Nathan Schneider.

Information Is Powerful

And here’s how to use information in campaigns –

Link Loving 15.04.12

• We win when we live here: occupying homes in Detroit and beyond. Laura Gottesdiener.
• Creative and powerful WWF ads.
• The first Occupy candidate for Congress. Nate Kleinman.
• Why outsiders solve problems best. Co-Exist.
• Why policy is really hard. Richard Williamson.

Young People Taking Over Political Parties

The Labour Party has roughly 200,000 members. RSPB has over 1 million members – even Greenpeace has 130,000 members. Often as a campaigner the suggestion is made that we should focus our efforts on getting as many ‘greenies’ to join the mainstream political parties and push it in a certain direction.

Young people in Holland are doing exactly that.

The Netherlands has a multi-party system (remember the Party for the Animals – they’re also represented in Parliament). Currently, the country has a centre-right coalition government that relies on Geert Wilders‘ extreme right party for a majority in Parliament. A youth-led initiative called G500 is getting young people to sign up to the three main parties (VVD – Conservative Liberals, PvdA – Labour, CDA – Christian Democrats) to push for ten policies that will ensure intergenerational justice. The plan includes;

• Decrease student debt and invest more in education.
• Rewriting the constitution to ensure intergenerational justice.
• Carbon emission reduction by 50% by 2030.

One young Dutch woman explains it in this video –

We don’t yet know if it is going to work – but its interesting to see it being tried out.

Link Loving 14.04.12

• What does non-cooperation with the healthcare reforms look like? Can we learn from Denmark in 1940? Matthew Herbert.
• Welcome to IKEAville – a 26-acre self-contained neighborhood in Stratford. Alessandra N Ram.
• Fossil fuel subsidies are the real job killers. May Boeve and Brendan Smith.
• Harvard Business Review’s Polly LaBarre asks ‘Whose capitalism is it anyway?’.
• Tory backed “grassroots” campaign is ‘buying Facebook likes from India’. Political Scrapbook.

An Invocation For Beginners

Do you procrastinate? Can you be your own worst enemy?

Ze Frank is the go-to guy for cool internet links, funny jokes and good times. He’s been a way for a little while – and now is back.

This video is his manifesto to himself about beginning again – and is powerfully beautiful for anyone in need of inspiration!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g&feature=colike]

Truth