Monday, October 24, 2011

10 Links for Changing the World (and World of Work)


Great links I've collected over the last few weeks, of things I've read and people I've met. 

Changing the World of Work
  1. How Willow Creek Is Leading the Church by Learning From the Business World | Fast Company - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/what-would-jack-do.html A great, thorough article from Fast Company about the Leadership Summit, that blends faith and business speakers and topics. I attended the Leadership Summit this year and am posting summaries on my blog. Click the Leadership Summit tag to read those.
  2. Circles and Soup Tool for Team Collaboration  - http://www.futureworksconsulting.com/blog/2010/07/26/circles-and-soup/ Circles and Soup tool/metaphor is a nice graphic way to capture issues in retrospectives into categories that give clarity around ownership and action: what the team controls and can take direct action on, what the team can influence and should have persuasive or recommending action, and finally what is just the organizational environment that they will have response actions for.
  3. People Don’t Shop for Organizational Changehttp://agilesoftwarequalities.blogspot.com/2011/09/people-dont-shop-for-organizational.html Great post by @softqual that points out that what business come to agile for is often not what the actually need. Though we may go on about changing organizations to be agile, that's not what they're signing up for at first.
  4. Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset | The Mindset Maven - http://themindsetmaven.com/fix-growth-mindset/ The topic of the Agile 2011 closing talk by Linda Rising was about Mindset. Here is a good personal story and short summary of the book's most pertinent points.
  5. Getting to “Done” - http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/column-articles/6420-getting-to-done Is the boundary of "done, done" within the team (and their capability) or the end of the value stream? And Lean Startup would say it's not "done, done" until the learning loop is completed…


Changing the World
  1. Welcome Home Ministries, Africa - http://www.welcomehomeafrica.com/ This is the orphanage my family visited last year. We decided to adopt at the end of the trip, and now we are back here for several weeks completing our adoption. 
  2. Hackers For Charity - http://www.hackersforcharity.org/ I met Johnny Long at his restaurant, The Keep in Jinja, Uganda. Applying his technical skills and professional network to helping nonprofits and training locals in computer skills is great. His restaurant is our favorite here as well.
  3. Kirabo - http://www.kirabofoundation.org/wordpress/  We met the founder here in Jinja, and were so taken by the videos (linked on Vimeo from the site above). Kirabo Foundation has been providing scholarships and support to orphaned and disadvantaged children of Uganda. My wife and I were really impressed with the person running Kirabo, her heart, humility and the effort she and others are putting in to this effort to make education a reality for those who otherwise would never have a chance.
  4. Kiva - http://www.kiva.org/ Kiva is a microfinance site that lets you search for needs around the world and lend money for specific people. You get to see a picture of the person and see their description of the request. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.Watch a great profile video from PBS
  5. the Journey - Kisses from Katie - http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ After graduation from high school, Katie returned to Uganda, leaving behind family, college, friends, her boyfriend, and the American dream, to teach Kindergarten at an orphanage. She has stayed and adopted 13 girls, as well as started a nonprofit for community outreach, medical care/training, vocational training, spiritual discipleship, a preschool, and several other initiatives. There's a nice short  video about her work and a reference to the book that chronicles it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfXgCx3f_1c

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elvin said...
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