This blog is designed to encourage movement in the planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of development projects towards "awakened management". This starts with the development of awakening in ourselves and leads to solution oriented thought, speech and action. We have spent so much time reacting to rigidities in the systems that employ us that we have ourselves become rigid and disillusioned. We have spent so much time with rules, regulations, criteria and regulations that we have forgotten the underlying reasons why we do this work.
The way forward is first to wake up to ourselves as a continuous consciousness in the present moment. From this awareness we then expand and hone right thought, speech and action as managers, to both demonstrate our compassion for people and honour our responsibility to use taxpayer and contributed resources in ways that venerate and respect that generosity.
Please share your experience and resources for this dual task of being awake and effective as a manager. I am especially keen to get resources from different cultural contexts on how awakened management can speak to the diversity of our need in this area.
Be well. Be happy!!
- integrating spiritual practice and the management of international development assistance
Blog Archive
Post at awakenedmanagement@gmail.com
- Mike Adair -
- I have worked to foster economic and social development in 19 countries and with several bilateral and mulilateral agencies. Awakened management as I have come to see it, is an ongoing process that starts with the experience of the immediate reality of the present moment and links the insights gained with supporting people to be creative in their jobs. I look for and encourage inclusive forms of learning that support awakening to the growth of experience, responsibility and knowledge. I treasure mindfulness of the moment as a way to get and stay in touch through the body and mind with creative energies and practical skills that can make organizations work effectively. Over my 35 years of project management experience, I have become increasingly aware that developing capability and confidence with a mindfulness practice that supports personal awakening, provides an orientation to management and leadership that is empowering for myself and others. I want to encourage the growth of spiritual transformation that creates a deep satisfaction and takes it into our work to alleviate poverty of wealth, ideas and opportunity. May I join you?
Charter For Compassion
2 comments:
A friend commented to me 24-5-08: "Haven't been a manager for 15 years - TA only - and not sure how much i miss it...!"
My reply: I am sure that TA is an essential part of assisting host organizations improve management and getting better value for money. With your wide experience in so many environments I am sure you know exactly what I am driving at. So much management effort starts from the wrong place, with the wrong assumptions. I hope the networks, approaches and ideas that may touch and be touched by the blog will assist. Thanks for this!!
I fully agree with your points here and would very much like to support this idea on spirituality, finding rationale to what we are doing in development work and being responsible to the outcome of our intervention in different programs and communities that we work with.
I believe that all our efforts and resources in development programs can be wasted if we do not develop with the organization their own philosophy, values and work ethics.
I am doing a research on OD in microfinance institutions, which I believe contain resources on awakened management. I will share later.
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