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Investing in Leadership, Volume 2

As a followup to my recent post about the upcoming leadership crisis in the U.S. nonprofit sector, Jillaine Smith encouraged me to look at Kathleen Enright's Investing in Leadership, Volume 2 (60 page PDF). Because both the leadership and the rank and file of the forces of reaction are building at an unprecedented pace, the ideas in this report (and others like it) are of critical importance today. This report looks at the leadership development practices of five major foundations and draws lessons from them. Although I don't think they go far enough in the direction of cradle to grave leadership development in individuals as they move through a community of practice, there are lots of recommendations here that get beyond the narrow, organizational-centric focus on executive directors. These are great ideas and they need to be taken even further. Posted: 8/14/07; 4:42:06 PM #

The Mercenary Revolution: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities.

I have long argued for organizational development both as an objective and as a frame of reference for understanding strategic decisions of all kinds. In other words, it is always valuable to ask what the organizational development implications are of any action. Government budgets in particular should be looked at from that perspective, which is why I have often linked to critiques of the rampant defunding of civil society organizations by the current U.S. administration. If the Bush Administration isn't building civil society, what are they building instead? The disturbing answer is that they are building private armies. Much has been written about the rise of mercenary companies in Iraq, but (finally) in The Mercenary Revolution, Jeremy Scahill looks at the long term social and political implications of this. For the last several years, at a rate approaching a billion dollars a week, this administration has built up a powerful new political interest group - one that is armed. The right in the U.S. has played a long term game for decades now, as with the commitment of right wing foundations to the long term stability of their leadership development efforts. With the building of new federal detention centers capable of imprisoning 400,000 people, presidential directives in place that lay the groundwork for the complete seizure of all government powers, and vast domestic spying operations that we've only begun to uncover, some have argued that democratic civil society itself is about to be checkmated. What piece in the game will be played by the private armies we've created? The game isn't over yet, but the notorious short sightedness and tunnel vision of civil society organizations may be our complete undoing in one time frame or another. Posted: 8/14/07; 4:32:04 PM #

Resources on Blogs, Social Networks, and Tags for Nonprofits

Katrin Verclas compiled an eclectic list of Resources on Blogs, Social Networks, and Tags for Nonprofits for the recent Neighbohood Neworks Conference. As you would expect from a list that was quickly gathered from an NTEN mailing list, it's mostly casual case studies and collections of tips. There are definitely a few gems in the list, including several attempts at "best practices" for Myspace and Facebook, some excellent (and previously mentioned) work by Suw Charman and Nancy White, and a recorded seminar that includes ideas on integrating blogs into your workflow. There's some strong content here regarding "social networks" and blogging, but the tagging related content is a bit weaker. There's a lot here, so set aside some time to go through it all to find out what might be valuable to you. Posted: 8/14/07; 4:00:54 PM #