“I believe sorting out competitive from collaborative relationships is the key strategic challenge for nonprofit organizations today and for the distant future. Implicit in this statement are two important assumptions. The first is that no organization today can go at it alone; and second is that an organization cannot compete or collaborate with every other organization. The challenge for the CEO is how to sort out which organizations you collaborate with and at what partnership level, and which organizations you compete against and at what level.”
-Jay C. Bloom
“Our worldview is changing from one that sees all things as separate and competing for self-gratification, a sort of cosmic winner-take-all game show, to one which the parts of the whole are interconnected and interdependent, striving first for the preservation of the whole and only secondarily for the advancement of the self.”
-Michael Thompson, The Congruent Life
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
“The bulk of innovation today will take place not in programs and services but in management. And the thrust of that innovation will be toward greater collaboration between nonprofit organizations and all others carrying out similar missions. What we call mergers and alliances are really just a part of the innovation that the nonprofit sector must deliver over the next two or three decades.”
-Thomas A. McLaughlin
“In organizations we see it in the increasing recognition that with growing complexity and interdependence of society it is nearly impossible to accomplish anything of lasting importance while acting alone.”
-Michael Thompson
“How can we preserve our aspirations…and at the same time develop the toughness of mind and spirit to face the fact that there are no easy victories? One is a tough minded recognition that the fight for a better world is a long one.”
-John Gardner
An Administrator’s Prayer
Grant me the self-awareness to know honestly what I am, what I can do, and what I cannot;
Grant me the judgment to channel my energies into those avenues which best utilize my abilities and do not require talents which I do not possess;
Grant me the wisdom to admit error cheerfully and learn from my experiences, that I may grow and develop and avoid repetition of mistakes;
Grant me the humility to learn from others, even though they be younger, less experienced, or of humbler station than I;
Grant me the courage to make decisions whenever they are necessary and to avoid rashness when they are not;
Grant me the sensitivity to judge the reactions of others that I may modify my actions to meet the needs of those affected;
Grant me the consideration to recognize the worth of each individual, and to respect all those with whom I have contact, neither stifling their development nor exalting myself at their expense;
Grant me the perspicacity to acknowledge that I can be no more effective than my subordinates enable me to be, and to deal with them so that they can help me by helping themselves;
Grant me the tolerance to recognize mistakes as a cost of true learning and to stand behind my subordinates, accepting my responsibility for their actions;
Grant me the insight to develop a personal philosophy, that my life may have more meaning and satisfaction and that I may avoid capricious action under the pressures of expediency;
Grant me the patience to live realistically with my circumstances, striving always for the better, but recognizing the perils of too rapid or too drastic change;
Grant me all these things, dear Lord, that I may live a more useful life, through serving my fellow men, and, through them, serve Thee.
-Robert L. Katz , Harvard Business Review, January-February 1957
“The 21st century will be the century of the social sector organization. The more economy, money and information become global, the more community will matter. And only the social sector nonprofit organization performs in the community, exploits its opportunities, mobilizes its local resources, solves its problems. The leadership, competence, and management of the social sector nonprofit organization will thus largely determine the values, the vision, the cohesion, and the performance of the 21st century society.”
-Peter F. Drucker, The Drucker Foundation 1999 in Review
“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
-Frederick Douglass, 1857
“Leaders of all institutions will have to learn that it is not enough for them to lead their own institutions….they will also have to learn to become leaders in the community. In fact they will have to learn to create community.”
-Peter F. Drucker
“We must reject the idea – well intentioned, but dead wrong—that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become ‘more like a business.’”
-Jim Collins, author of “Built to Last”, “Good to Great” and “Social Sectors.”
“People care passionately about causes or institutions and they want the best for them now, but human institutions are all less than perfect, and voluntary organizations in particular can require more interaction than most of us can bear.”
-Brian O’Connell, former president of Independent Sector
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway!
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway!
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway!
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway!
Honesty and frankness makes you vulnerable.
Be honest anyway!
The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway!
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway!
People really need help, but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway!
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway!
-Bishop Abel T. Mulorewa; Zimbabwe, South Africa
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
-Mother Teresa
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
-Napoleon
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In a turbulent age, the only dependable advantage is a superior capacity for reinventing your business model before circumstances force you to. Institutions falter when they invest too much in ‘what is’ and too little in ‘what could be’.”
-Gary Hamel
“You would do nothing if you waited until you could do it so well no one could find fault.”
-John Henry Cardinal Newman
“Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and change it for you to a kind of wisdom. His mind had no horizon- and his sympathy had no warp…..He lived in a world of wonders, of excitement. He was concupiscent as a rabbit and gentle as hell.”
-John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
“There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level. Miss the moment, and you start to decline.”
-Andrew Grove, Chairman of Intel
“Nothing is more difficult than to introduce a new order. Because the innovator has enemies for all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”
-Niccolo Machiavelli
“In today’s complex world, operating without partners is not really an option for any but the simplest of businesses. The real choice is whether you will partner deliberately or inadvertently, effectively or ineffectively, thoughtfully or carelessly.”
-Jonathan Tisch, Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels
“The old paradigm of charity—writing checks to good people is not good enough. We have to think more like investors. We have to be very clear about the results we need to get, and we need to be accountable for those results.”
-Maxwell King, president of the Pittsburgh-based Heinz
“Well behaved women rarely make history.”
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
-John Quincy Adams
“Go to the people. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build on what they have. But of the best leaders, when their work is done, the people will remark: ‘We have done it ourselves.’”
-2000 year old Chinese Proverb
“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why….I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
-Robert Kennedy
“For the one certainty about the times ahead, the times in which managers will have to work and perform, is that they will be turbulent times. In turbulent times, the first task of management is to make sure of the institution’s capacity for survival, to make sure of its structural strength and soundness, of its capacity to survive a blow, to adapt to sudden change, and to avail itself of new opportunities.”
-Peter F. Drucker
“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time, but if you say your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together.”
-Aborigine Woman
“If you think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”
-Bette Reese
“All your knowledge is about the past, and all your decisions are about the future.”
-Ian Wilson
“The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we’re ready for it.”
-Arnold Glasow
“Detachment: act always as if the future of the universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference.”
-Unknown
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain with without thunder and lighting. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”
-Unknown
“The formulation of a problem is more important than the solution.”
-Albert Einstein
“The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we’re ready for it.”
-Arnold Glasow
“Do not expect Plato’s ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.”
-Marcus Aurelius
“Management is a calling, a life engagement that combines technical skill with vision, compassion, honesty, trust, and courage in order to create a place where people can do good work, grow personally, spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally – as well as financially – and reap the professional results of a job well done.”
-James Autry
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
“Things never were ‘the way they used to be.’ Things never will be ‘the way it’s going to be someday.’ Things are just always the way they are for the time being. And the time being is always in motion.”
-Unknown
“No ray of sunlight is ever lost, but the grain which it awakes into existence needs time to grow; and it is not always granted to the sower to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith.”
-Albert Schweitzer
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.”
-Reinhold Niebuhr
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
“Be kind—for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
-Philo of Alexandria
E-mail: jay@BloomAnew.com
Cell: 503-381-2649
Bloom Anew 