Why are we still talking about feminism?

The dangers of of the 'cash transfer magic bullet'

Cash transfers, conditional or not, are a particularly dangerous movement in development. 

The research from Harvard, MIT, NPR on cash transfers has been often cited in the media. But, it is clear that the the cash transfer mechanism is a very limited and is a short-term stimulus that does not address systemic failures that keep people poor. Could this be another magic bullet that make donors feel good about giving money? Won't money just flood the systems but play no role in building systems? How is this sustainable or scaleable beyond any donor handout?

It is the system that causes poverty, and not, as is assumed under the cash transfer paradigm, people and people's willingness and ability to pay. To take this one step further it is the weak poorly-functioning system for goods, services, information, knowledge that causes poverty. if for example, there are medicines available for poor people to buy, the systemic problem is actually that medicines are not well-distributed and clearly branded with a system for verification so that counterfeits cannot creep in. If there are agents/traders/salespeople/distributors working for the big pharmas, the question is always: what are they incentivised to do? Is it to push products for commission? If so, what will the effect be on the quality of information that goes out to people on what they should buy? Who can poor people go to make sure their ability to spend isn’t subsumed by their inability to get a good quality product?

In weak systems, there are systemic constraints that trap poor people in a cycle of no/bad/sub-optimal investment. They also have no 'voice' to complain, protest, influence, push up quality. Poor people are ‘voiceless’. Cash transfers simple result in money in the pocket but no voice or influence.

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” - Mary Radmacher

Why employee rankings can backfire

This NY Times article talks about how employee rankings to drive up performance can actually backfire.

In the workplace, promoting competition between individuals can have several effects. Instead of driving up performance, in an context that needs people working in teams with high levels of collaboration, there can be several opposite effects. One tool for promoting competition in order to improve performance is through HR assessments and ranking. When ranked in a list, people can exhibit the following behaviour:

1. Some feel positive, and strive to do better in order to increase their rank or to stay at the top
2. Some feel demoralised at the valuation of their performance, and reduce performance and fall down the table
3. Some feel content and stick with what they are doing, thus maintaining performance and rank position
4. Some feel suspicious and have less trust in management and the company, which may result in reducing performance or even a tendency to sabotage the process or the company

As a result, in some cases, it may be better to inform each individual privately of his/her performance and not to publicise ranking tables. In others, designing multi-level performance rewards that celebrate performance at different levels may be helpful – only rewarding those at the top may create animosity, however, rewarding ‘most improved’, ‘most innovative’, ‘most supportive in a team’ will create a positive team culture.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/business/why-employee-ranking-can-backfire.html?_r=0

Article - Digital finance for smallholder farmers - a systemic approach

This USAID Microlinks article describes a systemic approach to building financial systems for digital-based smallholder farmer finance. This approach is naturally scalable as it has the in-built mechanisms for growth.

These interventions use the following design tactics:

1. Behaviour change principles such as, features and incentives to make it easier for people to adopt a new practice for the first time 
2. Multi-level design - digital services can both bring in new behaviours as well as make existing good practice more efficient and automated and easier to stick to
3. Savings and insurance services for resilience and long-term sustainability 

Source: How Digital Financial Services Can Meet The Financing Demands Of Smallholder Farmers, LIZ DIEBOLD, Agriculture Finance And Investment Lead, NANDINI HARIHARESWARA, Senior Digital Finance Advisor, And HARSHA KODALI, Agricultural Finance Specialist PUBLISHED ON JUNE 16, 2015, AVAILABLE AT WWW.MICROLINKS.ORG/BLOG/HOW-DIGITAL-FINANCIAL-SERVICES-CAN-MEET-FINANCING-DEMANDS-SMALLHOLDER-FARMERS

Achieving flow

Achieving ‘Flow’

Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.

Being able to concentrate for a sustained period of time.

Losing the feeling of consciousness of one's self.

Finding that time passes quickly.

Getting direct and immediate feedback.

Experiencing a balance between your ability levels, and the challenge.

Having a sense of personal control over the situation.

Feeling that the activity is intrinsically rewarding.

Lacking awareness of bodily needs.

Being completely absorbed in the activity itself.

Has Africa outgrown aid? #bbcafricadebate

A fascinating debate! I collected many of the comments made on Twitter and reflected on my own experiences and insights. I then looked for any common messages and themes of the debate.

Addressing the dangers of aid

• Aid needs to change; but saying that Africa has outgrown aid suggests that Africa is a child that needs raising
• Aid can be a political tool of foreign donors forcing governments and people into agreements that are 'unfair' and 'unjust'
• Aid needs the support of better systems to monitor how it is being spent BUT aid can be limited in effectiveness when most time is spent time reporting and appeasing donors 
• Aid is lumped in with transparency to appease donors, but not other valuable system actors, such as the citizens
• Aid must be flexible to the changing nature of dynamic systems and economies

Making immediate changes to aid

• Aid must be better communicated to African citizens so that they are not "voiceless citizens"
• Aid must start to recognise the different roles for aid in the different economic and market systems in Africa 
• such as, from Rwanda and Ethiopia, to Kenya and South Africa, to Ghana and Nigeria, to Sierra Leone and Senegal, to Tunisia and Eqypt to Chad and Niger
• Aid must not be delivered at the mercy/desire/will of donors with demanding reporting standards; not every last penny spent can be tracked and it is more important to see broader outputs and outcomes than a tick-box of donor-driven activities

Developing a future role for aid

• Aid must be re-conceptualised towards trade, economic development, market systems and business for poverty reduction and systemic resilience
• in the social sector, this might mean applying systems thinking to public goods for better access by all 
• Aid has a role to play in security and anti-terrorism as well as in institutions building and strengthening
• Aid might eventually play a long term role in the economy as remittances and FDI - aid has been sent by African diaspora for decades and diaspora are looking for new ways to send money home and invest in local businesses
• Aid needs to be re-designed to prevent being a tool for corruption; aid needs better practice-driven local leadership, stewardship and management 

Article - Market-based economic systems - the basics!

Economic systems

Market-based economic systems have many advantages in comparison with command-based ones. These include:

Consumer sovereignty

Resources are allocated towards the satisfaction of the consumer, who is 'king' (sovereign) - firms can only survive if they consistently satisfy consumer demand. The more they satisfy the consumer, the greater their profits.

Choice

Firms may compete with each by offering different products, providing consumers with a wide choice.

Price and non-price competition

Competition keeps prices down and drives up the quality of goods and services.

Automatic adjustment

The price mechanism works automatically, as prices convey information about relative scarcity without the need for a government.

Rationing

Prices fulfill a vital role in terms of rationing scarce resources - the greater the scarcity, the higher the price, and the more it is conserved.

Utility and profit

The price mechanism allocates resources towards products that provide the highest utility and the greatest profit, hence benefiting consumers and producers.

Efficiency

All participants have incentives to be at their most efficient. The production of goods is efficient because firms need to keep costs as low as possible.

There is a considerable incentive for the owners of factors of production to be as efficient as they can be so that they can command the highest incomes.

Innovation

Firms usually need to innovate to retain consumer loyalty and win new customers from rivals.

The disadvantages of market-based systems

However, market systems have disadvantages, including:

Under-valuing non-traded services

Some goods and services cannot easily be traded in markets, such as healthcare, education, and defence. With these goods, the value attached by market forces is unlikely to be the 'real' value of the service.

Missing markets

There is the problem of missing markets, which arises when consumers have a need or a want but where no firms are able to enter the market to supply, and markets do not form, as in the case of public goods.

Incomplete markets

There is also the problem of incomplete markets, which arises when firms only supply a part of the whole market demand, such as the case of merit goods.

Externalities

Some goods and services generate costs and benefits that are not taken account by consumers and producers. These costs and benefits are called externalities.

Lack of purchasing power

Some consumers have no purchasing power, such as the disabled, because they are not able to work in the labour market. Without work, they cannot derive an income, and are unable to purchase goods and services.

The case for mixed economies

Mixed economies combine aspects of market systems and central planning. It is accepted that mixed economies provide a more optimal allocation of scarce resources because:

1. Markets can be used to allocate resources to producing goods and services in which they excel, such as private consumer goods like cars, computers and holidays.
2. Planning can be used to allocate resources to those goods and services that markets fail to produce sufficiently, such as education and policing – and solve the problem of missing and incomplete markets.
3. Governments can regulate markets to ensure that they work effectively in the interests of consumers.
4. Governments can allocate resources towards the unemployed, and provide a basic purchasing power, via a benefits system, to the disabled and others who cannot sell their labour.

Article - Diffusion of innovations theory

Diffusion of innovations

Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of communication studies, popularized the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations; the book was first published in 1962, and is now in its fifth edition (2003).^[1] Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines. Rogers proposes that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system. This process relies heavily on human capital. The innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass. The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.^[2] Diffusion manifests itself in different ways in various cultures and fields and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process.

The key elements in diffusion research are:

Element	Definition
Innovation	Innovations are a broad category, relative to the current knowledge of the analyzed unit. Any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption could be considered an innovation available for study.[14]
Adopters	Adopters are the minimal unit of analysis. In most studies, adopters are individuals, but can also be organizations (businesses, schools, hospitals, etc.), clusters within social networks, or countries.[15]
Communication channels	Diffusion, by definition, takes place among people or organizations. Communication channels allow the transfer of information from one unit to the other.[16]Communication patterns or capabilities must be established between parties as a minimum for diffusion to occur.[17]
Time	The passage of time is necessary for innovations to be adopted; they are rarely adopted instantaneously. In fact, in the Ryan and Gross (1943) study on hybrid corn adoption, adoption occurred over more than ten years, and most farmers only dedicated a fraction on their fields to the new corn in the first years after adoption.[6][18]
Social system	The social system is the combination of external influences (mass media, organizational or governmental mandates) and internal influences (strong and weak social relationships, distance from opinion leaders).[19] There are many roles in a social system, and their combination represents the total influences on a potential adopter.[20]

Five stages of the adoption process

Stage	Definition
Knowledge	The individual is first exposed to an innovation, but lacks information about the innovation. During this stage the individual has not yet been inspired to find out more information about the innovation.
Persuasion	The individual is interested in the innovation and actively seeks related information/details.
Decision	The individual takes the concept of the change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of using the innovation and decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation. Due to the individualistic nature of this stage, Rogers notes that it is the most difficult stage on which to acquire empirical evidence.[11]
Implementation	The individual employs the innovation to a varying degree depending on the situation. During this stage the individual also determines the usefulness of the innovation and may search for further information about it.
Confirmation	The individual finalizes his/her decision to continue using the innovation. This stage is both intrapersonal (may cause cognitive dissonance) and interpersonal, confirmation the group has made the right decision.

Change agents bring innovations to new communities– first through the gatekeepers, then through the opinion leaders, and so on through the community.

Adopter category	Definition
Innovators	Innovators are willing to take risks, have the highest social status, have financial liquidity, are social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail. Financial resources help absorb these failures. [40]
Early adopters	These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the adopter categories. Early adopters have a higher social status, financial liquidity, advanced education and are more socially forward than late adopters. They are more discreet in adoption choices than innovators. They use judicious choice of adoption to help them maintain a central communication position.[41]
Early Majority	They adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time that is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority have above average social status, contact with early adopters and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system (Rogers 1962, p. 283)
Late Majority	They adopt an innovation after the average participant. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, little financial liquidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority and little opinion leadership.
Laggards	They are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents. Laggards typically tend to be focused on "traditions", lowest social status, lowest financial liquidity, oldest among adopters, and in contact with only family and close friends.
Leapfroggers	When resistors upgrade they often skip several generations in order to reach the most recent technologies.

Source: Wikipedia

Quotes from the TV series, Criminal Minds, series 4-7

The quotes are from series 4 to series 7. The full list is available at the Criminal Minds wiki page here.

"Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical" - Blaise Pascal

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure." - Tacitus

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness, possesses you. And in this materialistic age, a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." - Mildred Listette Norman

"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn." - C.S. Lewis

"A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one other it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden." - Budhha

"We all wear masks and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin." - André Berthiaume

“Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of its trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse for impossibility, for it thinks all things are lawful for itself and all things are possible.” - Thomas A. Kempis

"What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do." - Aristotle

Quotes from the TV series, Criminal Minds, series 1-4

The quotes are from series 1 to series 4. The full list is available at the Criminal Minds wiki page here.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

"When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him." - Euripides

"A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind." - Robert Oxton Bolton

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe." - Fredrich Nietzsche

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent"- Mahatma Gandhi

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

"The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind." - Francois de la Roche Foucauld

"It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens, but it is never gone." - Rose Kennedy

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars." - Khalil Gibran

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." - Oscar Wilde

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light" - Plato

"Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always." - Mahatma Gandhi

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." - G.K. Chesterton

Superman is, after all, an alien life form. He's simply the acceptable face of invading realities." - Clive Barker

"The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.” - Frank Miller

"The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.” - John Steinbeck

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another." - Antole France

"The man visited by ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities is an enthusiast; the man who supports his madness with murder is a fanatic." - Voltaire

"A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell." - Thomas Fuller

“What was silent in the father speaks in the son, and often I found in the son the unveiled secret of the father.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles..." - Mark Twain

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." - Terry Pratchett

“The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.” - Mahatma Gandhi

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it" - Helen Keller

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Travelling to Tunisia following the FCO warnings

On the 22 July, several insurance brokers were identified through the British Association for Insurers who will still provide insurance for travel to Tunisia. It was found that the main difference between standard insurance and the specialised insurance for amber (medium risk) countries is the repatriation cost. This also makes the insurance a lot more expensive at around 5 to 10 times higher, which makes it unaffordable for tourists. However, on the other hand, (and quite sadly), flights to Tunisia are quite cheap at the moment (GBP£70 with TunisAir). Maybe for some, this offsets the costs of travel?

---

On the 9th July 2015, the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised against all but essential travel to Tunisia. For me, the question is: Why?

Is the FCO advice on Tunisia is going to be helpful to Brits and to Tunisia. Who pays for the evacuation of British tourists? Was this the best way to spend this money?

This is important. Too little trust in the process renders the travel advisory ineffective. Also, preventing people from travelling to Tunisia by invalidating their travel insurance seems line a heavy-handed and quite vindictive way of responding to the security needs of British citizens abroad. There might as well be a ban on any travel for any British tourist. 

The other issue at hand is democracy and systems. When modern, democratic systems fail to provide decent, sane advice on security, do we not fail our core values? Do we not make the job of a terrorist easier? Do we not allow fundamentalism to step in and provide the solution for vulnerable people?

I think some intelligent advice from organisations that work with international staff and have field operations would be welcome.

------ 

• Holidays have been cancelled
• Security has been increased in all parts of the country
• Tunisia joins a list of other countries on the FCO list, including Kenya
• But, flights in an out of the country are still running
• There is little clarity around the warning or official definition of 'essential travel'
• The action underwrites payouts from insurance companies and tour operators

The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised against all but essential travel to Tunisia. A copy of the travel advice is printed below and the main elements are listed above. The Guardian says that tour operators have put on extra flights to fly back the remaining British tourists still in Tunisia.Tour operators have also cancelled outbound flights to Tunisia until October 2015. The foreign secretary, Phillip Hammond says that the British government has completed an assessment of the security measures in tourist areas and judge that "more work is needed to effectively protect tourists from the terrorist threat." According to the Guardian, a spokesman for a hotel in Tunisia said that the British authorities now have better access to the intelligence gathered by Tunisian security services. 

There has been increased security in most parts of the country. However, a Tunis-based North Africa analyst Monica Marks said that tourist zones are still vulnerable. “Securing tourist sites is a herculean task and Sousse was the definition of a soft-target attack, a gunman targeting people on their sun beds.” Moreover, it is claimed that the Tunisian prime minister has understood and accepted Britain’s decision to upgrade its travel advice.

A legal firm says that there is no official definition of 'essential travel'. It suggests that: "This is left to the individual although the FCO gives examples of urgent family or business commitments." Moreover, most travel insurance companies will not provide cover for countries to which the FCO have advised against all but essential travel. A tour operator or airline that cancels a trip will be responsible for refunding the cost. If the flight is cancelled because of travel advice from the FCO then the insurance policy may pay out for accommodation that has already been incurred. If however the trip is cancelled because there are personal concerns about the state of a country (and there is no FCO advice against travelling), the policy will not pay out.

A brief review of Twitter reactions indicates that there are mixed feelings towards the FCO advice.

Several concerns were raised over the impact to Tunisia’s economy. Some make the link between how a weak economy can open up gaps for political fundamentalism - allowing the latter to come forward as a system that is seen to provide a solution where democracy, and a functioning economy and market system cannot.

Some questions were asked around the purpose and the strategy behind the decision. some ask, how can Tunisia strengthen it's response to terrorists if it is now economically weaker? 

There are also questions of the extent of the reach of the security policy. For example, if Tunisia is being ‘evacuated’ of British tourists will the same measures be taken in other countries where British people are being killed, such as Thailand?

Some Twitter concerns and questions also reveals underlying racism. Some reflect on the beauty of the country, yet the savagery of the people – making broad assumptions on an ethnic group and using aggressive and pejorative language to describe culture and behaviour. 

One question that still needs to be answered is: who pays? In turn, this opens up the perspective around: what is the best way to use the money? It could be that it is the government who pays for the repatriation of British tourists because tour operators may not be expected to absorb the cost of what is effectively the government's sudden turnaround on security policy. And, to reiterate, is this the best use of money? Well, if the security situation needs strengthening, would it not be more sustainable for the British government to help build the capacity of security systems and possibly help train security personnel? How about sharing intelligence on Libya and Syria? And even good practices in protecting large complex systems, such as tourist spots and large towns. Britain should have something to share considering the need to protect high-profile targets, such as London.

----

Travel advice to Tunisia

A terrorist attack took place at Port El Kantaoui near Sousse on 26 June. Thirty eight foreign tourists were killed, including 30 British nationals. Further terrorist attacks are highly likely, including in tourist resorts, and by individuals unknown to the authorities whose actions may be inspired by terrorist groups via social media. You should be especially vigilant at this time and follow the advice of the Tunisian security authorities and your tour operator, if you have one.

There is a high threat from terrorism in Tunisia. On 4 July the Tunisian government announced it was reinstating the state of emergency, lifted in 2014, as part of its continuing response to the recent terrorist attacks. On 8 July the Tunisian Prime Minister stated publicly that further attacks are likely. The Tunisian authorities have increased their security measures but have also acknowledged the limitations in their ability to counter the current terrorist threat.

 9 July 2015 12 July 2015

Since the attack in Sousse, we have been working closely with the Tunisian authorities to investigate the attack and the wider threat from terrorist groups in Tunisia. Although we have had good co-operation from the Tunisian government, including putting in place additional security measures, the intelligence and threat picture has developed considerably, reinforcing our view that a further terrorist attack is highly likely. On balance, we do not believe the mitigation measures in place provide adequate protection for British tourists in Tunisia at the present time and we have therefore changed our travel advice accordingly.

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

A failure of systems thinking

The critique of systems thinking has some truth to it. 

A big problem is that a lot of time and effort goes in to just explaining the underlying principles. An example given in this Fast Company article shows that it can take 3 days or more to train managers and leaders on systems thinking. In many cases, the application comes later. This can be frustrating for practitioners.

In my work, I often train practitioners in systems thinking for market development. I mainly train practitioners in developing countries whose projects are funded by international aid agencies and donor funds. I work in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. These are some the tactics I have used.

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

Firstly, good systems training should allow practitioners to be comfortable with the language. The didactic approach doesn't work. People don't learn by being preached at and being told what they must know. So, at certain points, I provide space for the practitioners to reflect on the language. I allow practitioners to ask questions of common labels, such as 'counter-intuitiveness' and 'feedback loops'. I also allow room for re-wording and I give participants ownership of the lexicon.

Secondly, as a trainer, I am helping to re-energise and re-configure the mindset of practitioners to be able to practice systems thinking in actual projects. I help participants make those mental connections and I provide as many opportunities as possible to apply systems principles. I do this through appropriate case studies, stories, quotes, project briefs. I also provide lots of opportunities for discussion, analysis, and reflection.

Thirdly, as learners, we find it generally better to try out new ideas as we go along. What I like to do is couch training within a practical part of a project - a market study, a partners assessment, a strategy review, etc. I try to avoid having systems training as a disconnected piece either before a project, during a project as a response to a donor demand or as an afterthought as a posthumous project review. I try to be principled with the principles by offering the opportunity to dive deeply into specific principles. I provide an overview and then focus on certain key ideas, and I layer in opportunities for practical application as part of the training. The aim to to help participants get a specific piece of the project done. And still maintain the perspective of a systems thinker.

LESSONS LEARNED — WHY THE FAILURE OF SYSTEMS THINKING SHOULD INFORM THE FUTURE OF DESIGN THINKING BY FRED COLLOPY, June 7, 2009, available at www.fastcompany.com/1291598/lessons-learned-why-failure-systems-thinking-should-inform-future-design-thinking