Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Thanksgiving and EpicThanks

Written on November 23, 2010 at 5:00 pm

Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S.  With Christmas Day and New Years it is one of only three days when almost all commercial and governmental operations are closed.  I especially like Thanksgiving because it is secular and everyone celebrates it.  Thanksgiving has a history  and all kinds of discussion about its origins, but it is similar to the harvest festivalsfound in many cultures.  We have a human need to give thanks for what we have been given.  In the modern U.S. version of Thanksgiving we focus on eating (with turkey as the centerpiece), parades, and (U.S. style) football games, but
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Living with Ambiguity

Written on June 2, 2010 at 12:49 pm

When I was an Executive Director and hiring staff, I liked to hire people who had international experience.  There are many skills one learns from living in another culture that in many ways are great life skills. Michael Keizer writes about some here “Eleven Helpful Skills”. The competency I was particularly interested in for NGO staff work was ‘flexibility’ or what I like to call ‘living with ambiguity’.

There are often many routes to take in pursuing a solution, especially when different cultures come into play, and a lot that’s out of our control.  Recognizing this, being flexibility regarding things …

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