18 people and events that (re)shaped my thinking in 2009

1. Meeting with Damisa Moyo (Dead Aid). My lasting memories are her sense of humor, smiling face, and the deep awareness of the impact she is having on ‘opening up’ the ‘African economic development’ debate.

http://twitter.com/dambisamoyo
http://www.dambisamoyo.com/

2. Reading ‘One Hen‘, a wonderful story for people of all ages, that cuts through all the buzz words and captures the essence of the transformative power of ‘high human impact’ microfinance.

http://twitter.com/1hen
http://onehen.org/

3. Recording: Brighter Way; ‘The day it all came together’ – love. hope. joy.

“Those who see” – ‘l to r’ (links to Twitter): Jonathan Gornick (accoustic guitar), Nico Paul Bianco, Amy Carol Wolff (piano, voice, songwriter), Steve Jennings, Rachael Jennings, Evan Bogunia (bass guitar), Dave Cabanban.

http://twitter.com/brighter_way
http://brighterway.posterous.com/

4. Attending Opportunity International’s board of governors conference and meeting with remarkable, hard working people who enable purpose driven ‘microfinance and developing world financial services solutions’ to be delivered 365 days a year.

http://www.opportunity.org/
http://twitter.com/optinnow
http://www.optinnow.org/

5. Watching ‘Call + Response’ at ‘Willow Creek Community Church‘ with director Justin Dillon. A mind blowing ‘rockumentary’ about modern day slavery and the multi billion dollar industry fueled by the total disregard of woman’s human rights. ‘Call + Response‘ was the catalyst that has taken me on a new journey to try and understand more about how zyOzy can play a role in the 21st century ‘women’s economic empowerment movement’.

http://twitter.com/justindillon
http://www.callandresponse.com/home.html

6. Discovering SHE Innovation, an amazing initiative, pushing out the ‘microfranchise’ envelope, by bringing low cost and scalable ‘high impact’ sanitary towel innovation to millions of girls and women, and showing how to execute and implement around ‘The Girl Effect‘. “BRILLIANT”

http://www.sheinnovates.com/
http://twitter.com/SHEnterprises

7. Encountering the fantastic ’World Bicycle Relief’ video and the joy in the voices of the young girls whose lives are about to be transformed by the bicycle. This is another superb example of ‘The Girl Effect’ in ACTION.

http://twitter.com/PowerOfBicycles
http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/

8. Following Shawn Ahmed’s (aka @uncultured) amazing journey via Social Media. The magnitude of what Shawn is doing, mostly outside of the NGO ecosystem is nothing short of remarkable. This is what happens when you capture the heart and mind of a ’Millennial’. The learning comes from ‘just doing it’.

http://uncultured.com
http://twitter.com/uncultured

9. Guiding zyOzy’s journey is one book that has not left my side during 2009, ‘The Pollyanna Principles‘ by Hildy Gottlieb. What I really like about ‘The Pollyanna Principles’ is how it frames the ‘creating of extraordinary futures for our communities and planet’, and then acts as a guide to any progressive thinking ‘community benefit organization’ that recognizes the need to implement change if it is going to remain relevant, useful and meaningful in a rapidly changing world. Whether we want to accept it or not, ‘the rules of the game HAVE changed’, and for that reason alone, I’m optimistic about the ‘brighter, better and more beautiful’ future we are creating together.

http://www.pollyannaprinciples.org/
http://twitter.com/HILDYGOTTLIEB

Fotenote: The Pollyanna Principles enabled zyOzy Foundation to anchor its core beliefs in the following ’statement’: “zyOzy Foundation is a new kind of 501(c)(3) humanity benefit organization, changing the way WE think, make decisions, OUR habits of the heart, and how WE do business.”

10. Dreaming big and making things happen is social media and cause marketing savvy ’social entrepreneur (2.0)’ Scott Harrison, who also happens to be the visionary founder behind ‘Charity Water‘. During the Summer, I had the opportunity to finally meet with Scott in Chicago, when he shared with me his future vision for ‘Charity Water’, the scale of which is simply breathtaking. I came away from our meeting with these thoughts going around in my head; “this guy ‘dreams’ big, has absolute belief in the power of ‘faith’, and will not stop until his dream and ‘life mission’ becomes reality”. In my own mind, it is beyond any shadow of a doubt that Scott will make this happen. When he does, Scott will become a very real candidate for the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’!

http://www.charitywater.org/
http://twitter.com/charitywater
http://twitter.com/scottharrison

11. Thinking about the day John Haydon posted: ‘What my mom taught me about social media‘ and how it stopped me in my tracks and gave me a renewed reason to ‘reflect’ on the complexity of family relationships and the power of unconditional love. This is one of only 2 blog posts I printed out and and stuck on my office wall in 2009. I can’t thank John enough for writing and sharing this deeply moving and personal account of his relationship with his Mom.

http://johnhaydon.com/2009/05/what-my-mom-taught-me-about-social-media/
http://twitter.com/johnhaydon

12. Experiencing the daily updates from Mark Hovarth (@hardleynormal) as he shares the untold stories of the homeless right here on our doorstep in the USA. For anyone (especially young people) wanting to become actively involved in their local ‘community’ and experience ‘YES WE CAN’, just go onto the internet and search for local ‘food kitchen and homeless shelter’ groups who will warmly welcome your ‘hands-on’ support.

http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/
http://twitter.com/invisiblepeople
http://twitter.com/hardlynormal

13. Amplifying the journey of Mark Arnoldy and the ‘NepalNutrition’ project. This is a brilliant and inspiring example of how a ‘millennial social entrepreneur’ went to the far side of the planet with a single focus; to figure out how to build a ‘Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)‘ processing facility, in a country ravaged by infant malnutrition.

http://nepalnutrition.org/
http://twitter.com/nepalnutrition
http://twitter.com/markarnoldy

14. Awakening to Jean Russell’s (aka @nurturegirl) Thrivability or ‘what kind of world do we want to live in’ model – “The language of sustainability is about neutralizing. Thrivability is about succeeding.” Thrivability was a 2009 ‘ah ha’ moment and major high point, leading to a dramatic rethink in how zyOzy’ narrative is framed. I truly believe that ‘Thrivability’ is a basic ‘human right’.

http://twitter.com/NurtureGirl
http://thrivable.wagn.org/thrivable
http://twitter.com/thrivability

Footnote: zyOzy’ purpose: enable Humanity to experience ‘LIVE TO THRIVE’

15. Sharing in Emmanual Jal’s epic crusade to build a school in memory of Emma McCune in GUA, South Sudan.

http://www.gua-africa.org/index.php
http://twitter.com/emmanueljal
http://www.emmanueljal.org/

16. Realizing just how far ahead of the curve Paul Polak was 25 years ago when he began looking at ’Base of the pyramid’ (BOP) low cost, developing world innovation in a radically new way. As we prepare to enter the 2nd decade of the 21st century, Paul is still ahead of the curve and now inspiring a new generation of ‘Millennial’ BOP innovation change agents. Paul is the original disruptive, visionary ’social entrepreneur’ genius, who continues to discover obvious solutions to some of the biggest unmet needs in poverty stricken regions of the world.

http://twitter.com/outofpoverty
http://www.paulpolak.com/
http://www.ideorg.org/

17. Affirming much of what I have felt and sensed since my childhood; “we’re born with the capacity and potential to make a meaningful, relevant and remarkable contribution to society.” Leading ’religious philosopher’ Tom Morris was kind enough to explain this to me with immense clarity and understanding during one of the most memorable and epic telephone conversations I have ever experienced.

http://www.morrisinstitute.com/index.php
http://twitter.com/tomvmorris

18. Listening to Sam Pitroda’s thoughts on how we must ‘empower and unleash’ the huge pool of ‘human’ talent that resides in the developing world. This was the only time in 2009, that I left a meeting with tears running down my cheeks for all the right reasons, Sam is one of the most remarkable people I have ever had the privilege to spend time with.

Sam Pitroda [Development, democracy and the village telephone pdf]
http://www.sampitroda.com

2009 recap ‘key word’ cloud