Is 40 hours not enough? Is it too much?

You might know the answer already.

Learning and the company's lifecycle.

It's always been said that a 4-year-old kid learns easier and faster that a 40-year-old grown-up. But is that a scientific truth, or just the result of lacking some exercise?

From the minute we are born we spend the entire life learning, or at least we should if we want to progress in our skills, knowledge and values. But then, the pace and efficiency this occurs changes from case to case. Of course, at the end this defines how we evolve.

And the most curious is that the same happens in the lifetime of any organization.

In business schools is taught that companies have the same life-cycle as people, with the same phases (Birth, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Death). But it's not that common to hear that, also like humans, an organization goes through different phases of learning.

Actually it seems sound to state that the attitude on learning might make the difference on how well the company evolves through it's life-cycle phases and if, finally, it ends up dying or being born again.

At the end it's coming back to the same principle as usual: Attitude. In this case expressed as humility, motivation, attention, questioning and inquisitiveness.



One of the first premises to learn something is always humility. Without the humility of admitting that we still need to learn any effort is useless. Someone (or some company) who believes to know enough will find it very hard to find the willingness to learn new things.

That is why children learn faster an easier than adults, their still don't have all the arrangements from education and pride that make our learning slower and harder. What makes us a sponge when we are kids is our undiluted eagerness to explore.

There are many young and old organizations that didn't give learning, examination and change the importance they deserve. They sacrificed them for execution, because time was everything.

And the point is that learning is the cornerstone for adaptation and agility. So, since it's true that time is everything, any company should develop during it's first years the procedures and models to learn fast and deep.

Keeping always an flexible attitude and being open to questioning shouldn't be fashion terms limited being used on conventions and the Values Statement of the company (as Flat Hierarchy is). They should be the foundations of any company that wants to survive these days.

The future of the Third Sector

Almost everyone would agree that NGOs are a good thing, that Cooperation is positive and that Development Projects are necessary. That's why many of us think about donating money to an NGO, but then various kinds of criticism come to join our natural reluctance to give money away. Even when we trust  that a NGO is not corrupted, and that they really want to make a difference, we keep on worrying about "what are they going to do with the money". 

Well, we all should realize that our criticism of the Third Sector has a totally mistaken focus. We have thought that non-profit Companies shouldn't work under the same rules as the rest. That Marketing, Business Models and Investments are evil tools that the Third Sector must avoid.

This video is a must if you ever thought this. It tells the five ways in which we are judging the Third Sector the wrong way:

But it’s also true that in many NGOs is needed a change in the way things are done. Many of them manage enormous amounts of money and their impact is either small (the money is useless) or negative (they create dependency).

In this other talk, Ernesto Sirolli sets the key of NGOs efficiency when it comes to development projects: Listen to the local entrepreneurs:

If both the people around and the people inside NGOs follow this simple yet effective tips, the future of the Third Sector can be very fruitful. I'm convinced that a change in this direction will lead to finally see non-profit organizations making a big difference.

So please, share it: http://notjustmarketing.blogspot.de/2013/03/the-future-of-third-sector.html