Insights
Ideas and practical tools for designing programs, leading institutions, and creating the conditions for brilliance to thrive.
FEATURED CASE STUDY
The Challenges of Living Out Values
Blue Engine | Promise54 | November 2019
Co-authored with Lucerito Ortiz and Xiomara Padamsee
When measures of success steer an organization away from its mission, what has to change? This case study examines the choices connecting program design, organizational values, staff experience, and accountability.
Selected ideas
POWER & POSSIBILITY
Afro-Futurist Innovators Know What We Should Build Next
What changes when funders trust the expertise of Black, African, and diaspora leaders? An argument for rethinking risk, measures of success, and who determines the future.
Business Fights Poverty | August 2024
GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
Feedback that Travels: 5 Moves for Cross-Cultural Teams
Candor depends on more than choosing the right words. A practical framework for navigating feedback across cultures, hierarchies, and distributed teams.
November 2025
IDENTITY & BELONGING
Juneteenth in Slovenia: Global Hearth Summit
A Nigerian name, an unexpected Juneteenth, and a circle of changemakers: a reflection on belonging, collective care, and being well while doing good.
July 2025
From the Archive
Feedback that Travels: 5 Moves for Cross-Cultural Teams
A field-tested framework for global teams. Five moves that make feedback travel across roles, cultures, and time zones, turning awkward moments into progress.
Crisis as a Mirror: 4 Ways to Rewrite Power Scripts
A reflection on how crises expose the power scripts inside our organizations. Four moves to break the loop: name the ghosts, close the theater, reward repair, and practice future tense.
Architecture of Motivation: Designing for What People Really Need
A practical frame for designing employee experience around what actually sustains people and performance. Uses the Four Drives of Human Behavior to spot cracks and make better choices.
When Good Leadership Dims: 6 Ways to Reset Cultural Signals
A diagnostic for spotting when cultures quietly dim strong leadership instead of nurturing it. Six subtle signals to watch for and practical ways to disrupt them so leaders can thrive instead of shrink.