By Tom Peterson Jonas Salk asked, “What must we do to evoke the greatest potential from ourselves and from others?” Here’s a great starting point: a strong culture of innovation. That should result in better programs, stronger revenue streams, scaling up and revolutionary solutions to challenges. Note in the chart (right) the increased world […]
By Tom Peterson A group I work with has giant ambitions. It’s pioneering ways to better reach underserved people with quality healthcare, and doing it on a large scale. To pull this off, it’s asking already busy people in a complex institution to disrupt their routines and work differently. It’s shifting the internal culture. […]
By Tom Peterson “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,” said Helen Keller. It’s a repeated theme in this blog: The right social change partners can move a cause far beyond where it could have otherwise gone. For example, residents at an Oklahoma retirement center joined with the elementary school […]
By Tom Peterson I had a great conversation with long-time friend, Gary Gunderson. Read the Interview Here. During the 1980s, Gary and I edited Seeds, a magazine about U.S. and world hunger. He left for the Carter Center around the time I went to Heifer, but our work and lives have been […]
By Tom Peterson It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed when we see injustice, greed and a broken world with so many needs. Sometimes it’s just too much and we become paralyzed. Here’s a freeing thought: There’s no way you can save the world. No matter how much you’d like or how hard you […]
What’s better than when one person’s needs wonderfully matches with another’s? That’s what CNA, a 40 year-old language organization in Brazil, focused on when it began its Speaking Exchange program. CNA was trying to find a way to make learning English more real for the students. So it connected them students with seniors living in […]
Perhaps the most important word-changing task is getting others to see a vision and take action toward it. You can do this in many ways: videos, books, online. But nothing beats an in-person presentation. Done well, that is. You’ve been in that room…way too many times. The powerpoint presentation begins. By the third slide you […]
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” —Vincent Van Gogh. You’re going to be stuck a while longer in this chilling winter, with it’s polar vortexes and all. So you might as well try your hand at some winter creativity. […]
Rest In Peace, Pete Seeger. Whether we knew it or not, he touched all of our lives. Go here for not only Pete Seeger’s story, but for scores of heroes at Robert Shetterly’s Americans Who Tell the Truth. Song, songs kept them going and going; They didn’t realize the millions of seeds they […]
Care for the Vulnerable: It’s not like this is a new idea. “The test of morality of a society is what it does for its children.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to […]
