will never be enough jobs [in South Africa]. Instead we motivate them to focus on the work that needs to be done in our communities. We have an abundance of work to do but limited jobs. So we focus on turning the work into economic opportunities – into a Hope Economy." So far, RLabs and the IT innovations designed in its incubators have created 20,000 jobs (directly and indirectly), by addressing social challenges through 22 IT-powered social enterprises and 185 RLabs-inspired business products. RLabs has also provided free training to more than 27,000 people and university scholarships to 438. RLabs is building momentum for a "Hope Economy" movement globally i... posted on Apr 20 2015 (173,266 reads)

in reference to our time; when’s the last time you invested in developing the skills you use at work? It could become the single best investment in your portfolio.    *  Experimenting with new interests. You can look at other people’s vacation photos on Facebook, or you could read How to Travel the World on $50 a Day and take the first step in planning that backpacking adventure you’ve put off. You can watch Shark Tank, or you could pick up a few business books.    *  Creating more work/art. We’re all strapped for time. It’s often the case that the most productive thing you can do all day is say “No” t... posted on May 4 2015 (20,929 reads)

for women in a village gripped by poverty, at a women’s prison and at a children’s home with teenage girls. A nervous Kay ventured in with hand-sewing kits and an interpreter. She taught them how to thread needles, to sew in a straight line. Interest soared. Kay bought several sewing machines and soon her students were cutting patterns and making children’s clothes. The most promising students were given their own sewing machines to take home and start their own business. “They were wildly excited and started coming from miles around to learn how to sew,” Kay says. “We trained 24 women from the village on that trip and more than half of them... posted on May 17 2015 (15,856 reads)

the deadline to apply to MIT, I started the application process. And, voila! I got in. People may think it's an overnight success, but that only worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and education seriously. Your overnight success story is always a result of everything you've done in your life through that moment. Two: Believe someone else has the answers for you. Constantly, people want to help out, right? All sorts of people: your family, your friends, your business partners, they all have opinions on which path you should take: "And let me tell you, go through this pipe." But whenever you go inside, there are other ways you have to pick as wel... posted on May 13 2015 (34,662 reads)

in new light through chinks that time has made; Stronger by weakness, wiser men become 4. For those of a more cynical cast of mind, you can't do better than to engage and inspire your team with extracts from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man: 'presume not God to scan/the proper study of Mankind is Man'. Poetry is all about human values, and almost any poem will offer an opportunity to discuss the personal elements behind every problem and every solution in business. What kind of people are you? Poetry will tell.  ... posted on Jul 3 2015 (10,073 reads)

soul. But I think the fullest people, the people most whole and most alive, are always those unafraid and unashamed of the soul. And the soul is never an assemblage of fragments. And it always is. MS. TIPPETT: Maria Popova is the creator and presence behind Brainpickings.org. In 2012, Brain Pickings was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive. You can listen again or share this conversation with her at onbeing.org. MS. TIPPETT: Like Maria Popova, On Being is also in the business of curation. Each week, our executive editor pulls together the best of what’s happening in all of our media spaces into an email newsletter — connecting ideas from inside On Bein... posted on Jul 15 2015 (11,671 reads)

years, he looked back and realized he achieved all that he had set out to do. He could run an organization and manage lots of people, but it didn’t engage him in the same way anymore. “I had a conversation with him once. He said it just didn’t seem that important to figure out what button should go where on an operative UI.” Kentaro recalls. “Until that moment, that was his primary occupation.”  So eventually, Patrick left Microsoft, went to business school to gain knowledge to start a university in Ghana. In 2002, Ashesi University was founded. Kentaro taught there the first year. Today, they have 400 students at any given point, and man... posted on Aug 12 2015 (14,269 reads)

other people, if they learn to cultivate compassion—for example, by doing traditional meditation practices of loving kindness. This is so encouraging, because it’s a fundamental imperative that we need compassion as our moral rudder. JS: You use the term “muscular compassion” in your book. What do you mean by that? DG: Compassion is not just some Sunday school niceness; it’s important for attacking social issues—things like corruption and collusion in business, government, and throughout the public sphere. It’s important for looking at economics, to see if there is a way to make it more caring and not just about greed, or to create economic p... posted on Jul 9 2015 (20,405 reads)

dropped by 56%, even as “modesty” and “humbleness” dropped by 52%. Our language reflects our lives. Phrases like "community" and "common good" lost in popularity to "I can do it myself" and “I come first.” We moved from We to Me. The archetype of today’s hero is a go-getter, with a nice-guys-finish-last mindset. Our systems are designed to privilege power, where respect is calibrated by our titles and bank balances. As business cards lead our handshakes and hugs, our daily lives have morphed into a relay of commercial intentions. In a rat-race to pad our resumes, we’ve condensed our nuanced experiences into el... posted on Jul 7 2015 (116,826 reads)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the best-known “number” in economic governance. It drives national policies, sets priorities in the social fields (e.g. there exists a ratio between GDP and how much spending in welfare is considered appropriate by many countries) and ultimately affects the societal landscape of a country (e.g. by determining labour-business relations, work-life balances and the type of consumption patterns adopted by citizens). The type of industrial model supported by GDP dominates physical and infrastructural â€‹geography, from the shape of cities and their relation with the countryside to the management of parks and natural resources. Marketing st... posted on Aug 22 2015 (13,304 reads)

fantastic! [laughs] Then, in the next year or two, I was doing this reclining figure, and the pelvic area was a kind of critical part of the sculpture. I climbed up on the mezzanine of the studio and I jumped, feet first, onto the clay in progress. It turned into this incredible pelvic area. What made me think of that at all is this little balcony in my studio here [points]. Actually, I only tried jumping from that one once. I guess I'd gotten just enough older to realize this is risky business. RW: It's pretty far up there. SDeS: It's about nine feet. RW: Well, going back, I don't feel that I understood what you meant when you said you had a "conversion ex... posted on Aug 9 2015 (9,158 reads)

other people, if they learn to cultivate compassion—for example, by doing traditional meditation practices of loving kindness. This is so encouraging, because it’s a fundamental imperative that we need compassion as our moral rudder. JS: You use the term “muscular compassion” in your book. What do you mean by that? DG: Compassion is not just some Sunday school niceness; it’s important for attacking social issues—things like corruption and collusion in business, government, and throughout the public sphere. It’s important for looking at economics, to see if there is a way to make it more caring and not just about greed, or to create economic p... posted on Sep 4 2015 (16,053 reads)

are rubbing off on us. You might go to bed at nine o’clock, except your husband goes to bed at midnight, right? So, he’s pulling you later and maybe you’re pulling him earlier. Your habits are interacting with each other. It’s very important to think it through and to [ask], “What do I want to be true for me?” Often, one loophole … is the “concern for others” loophole:Others will be uncomfortable if I don’t have a drink at this business dinner. It’s a birthday. I have to have a piece of your birthday cake or it’s going to hurt your feelings. Really? Is it going to? Part of it is to really look very closely at wha... posted on Sep 6 2015 (20,077 reads)

those with a growth one, “personal success is when you work your hardest to become your best,” whereas for those with a fixed one, “success is about establishing their superiority, pure and simple. Being that somebody who is worthier than the nobodies.” For the latter, setbacks are a sentence and a label. For the former, they’re motivating, informative input — a wakeup call. But one of the most profound applications of this insight has to do not with business or education but with love. Dweck found that people exhibited the same dichotomy of dispositions in their personal relationships: Those with a fixed mindset believed their ideal mate would pu... posted on Oct 9 2015 (25,947 reads)

– in effect, getting your brain on your side to help you get a better grip on this spotlight/vacuum cleaner. How? We're pleased to bring you another installment of Rick Hanson's Just One Thing (JOT) newsletter, which each week offers a simple practice designed to bring you more joy and more fulfilling relationships. You can use one or more of the seven factors below at the start of any deliberate focusing of attention—from keeping your head in a dull business meeting to contemplative practices such as meditation or prayer—and then let them move to the background as you shift into whatever the activity is. You can also draw upon one or mor... posted on Oct 16 2015 (34,261 reads)

not mean perfection, it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of your life. As a person who … has made three deep dives into depression along the way, I do not speak lightly of this. I simply know that it is true. As you acknowledge and embrace all that you are, you give yourself a gift that will benefit the rest of us as well. Our world is in desperate need of leaders who live what Socrates called “an examined life.” In critical areas like politics, religion, business, and the mass media, too many leaders refuse to name and claim their shadows because they don’t want to look weak. With shadows that go unexamined and unchecked, they use power heedless... posted on Nov 3 2015 (59,958 reads)

more — the book is both quintessentially New York and astonishingly universal, a reminder that however much we may think with animals, we feel with them infinitely more. Kalman, an irrepressible humanist and patron saint of presence, writes: When I go out for a walk, there is so much that makes me happy to be alive. Breathing. Not thinking. Observing. I am grateful beyond measure to be part of it all. There are people, of course, heroic and heartbreaking, going about their business in splendid fashion. There are the discarded items — chairs, sofas, tables, umbrellas, shoes — also heroic for having lived life in happy (or unhappy) homes. There are trees... posted on Nov 8 2015 (14,410 reads)

who start their staff meetings with a moment to breathe in and breathe out are communicating to teachers that their well-being is important. Many studies show that a few mindfully taken deep breaths can also help everyone let go of the anxiety, stress, and negative emotions that are so often pervasive in our schools. Slowing down to breathe gives everyone permission to stop and connect with that part of themselves that makes them human—a good reminder given that schools are in the business of developing human beings! For a fun and light way to introduce this practice, try playing Holly Near’s Uh Huh (many thanks toPamela Seigle from Open Circle and Leading Together for... posted on Nov 11 2015 (13,799 reads)

to fend for themselves, the model calls on well-connected friends to mentor and help them find the sources of income they’ll need.This is something that happens all the time. People lend to and borrow from people they know and trust; they share the responsibility and the outcome. In these cases, it would be senseless to design predatory terms since nobody wants to see their friends or family go broke. But not everyone can find the resources they need—to buy a house, to start a business, to build a skyscraper—in their immediate communities; maybe there’s not enough capital available or maybe the community fails to understand a good idea well enough to support it.... posted on Dec 7 2015 (8,930 reads)

knew she was a chemo patient. It meant going from an active, athletic person to someone who was always looked at with sadness or pity. Of course people meant well but they would never say anything, which was even more painful. Until this UPS guy walked into her work and simply asked, “So, are you on chemo?” She felt like a human and responded with “Yes, thank you for asking, you are the first person to actually acknowledge that fact.” She gave him some “gag” business cards which listed her title as the “Supreme Commander of the Universe.” This was followed by many sweet encounters every time he came by, and he always addressed her with that ti... posted on Jan 5 2016 (35,743 reads)