An article posted on the Green Belt Movement website described the late activist Wangari Muta Maathai as a Nobel Peace Laureate; an environmentalist; a scientist; a parliamentarian; a founder of the Green Belt Movement; an advocate for social justice, human rights, and democracy; an elder; and a peacemaker. Maathai lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya…. Read more »
Author: Kerubo Abuya
The Relational Self: Are We Merely Experiencing, Using, or Encountering Each Other?
In his book, I and Thou, Martin Buber asserted, “God is present when I confront You. But if I look away from You, I ignore him. As long as I merely experience or use you, I deny God. But when I encounter You I encounter him.” What a profound and spiritual contextualization of the self… Read more »
Reflections on Dialogue: The Power of Shared Meaning
At Saybrook’s August 2010 residential conference, I participated in the generative and strategic dialogue seminar facilitated by Dr. Nancy Southern, Dr. Kathia C. Laszlo and Dr. Alexander Laszlo of the organizational systems program. Learning about the difference between discussion and dialogue was particularly transformative and deepened my understanding of the concept of “thinking together”—at work,… Read more »
A Leadership Challenge, Part 2: Lessons from Action, Surrender, and Vulnerability
The first part of this leadership challenge explored the concept of “unveiling the illusions of the true professional.” The concept behind the exploration came from Margaret Wheatley’s poem “The True Professional,” where she challenges the reader to seek a “reliable truth” that will “let the human heart rest.” I would now like to focus on… Read more »
A Leadership Challenge, Part 1: Unveiling the Illusions of the True Professional
Writer Margaret Wheatley’s poem, “The True Professional,” isn’t entirely original and she lets everyone know this. It’s a “found poem,” Wheatley explained on her website. All of the lines of “The True Professional” are phrases “found” in Parker J. Palmer’s book The Active Life. After taking these lines, Wheatley “played with them and extended them… Read more »
Famine in East Africa: Failed Systems and Leadership or a Natural Catastrophe?
During the past few weeks, we’ve seen countless stories and images of the famine that’s gripping East Africa on several media outlets—from cable news shows to online discussion forums. The crisis affecting Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti has shown us deeply disturbing and heartbreaking images of starving families and dying children living in extreme… Read more »
Shaping the Hope and Promise of South Sudanese Children
Saturday, July 9, 2011, marked a great milestone for the African continent with the birth of a new nation—the Republic of South Sudan. Traditional and contemporary media outlets across the globe highlighted the new nation’s independence day celebrations as they unfolded in Juba, South Sudan’s capital. As many countries welcome South Sudan to the United… Read more »
In Care and Full Service
A segment on NPR’s Fresh Air caught my attention recently, bringing to mind organizational life and the complexities of the helping human systems process. On the show, host Terry Gross interviewed Jessica Goodell, a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq with the Marine Mortuary Affairs Platoon in 2004. As Goodell talked about her memoir, Shade… Read more »
Our Lives Should be a Call to Service
During a Veterans’ commemoration ceremony at my daughter’s school, I sat amongst veterans, parents, teachers, students, school staff and others that attentively listened to the principal recite The Gettysburg Address. I found myself “hanging” onto every word. While I had read this speech before, I was struck by the last part of the address: “It… Read more »
What Values Does an Effective Leader Need to Have?
My perspective of leadership has been influenced by many sources but the greatest lessons are from my parents who taught me that I should always treat people, all people, with dignity and respect. What my parents taught me wasn’t what I learned in business school and the quest to expand my understanding on how to… Read more »