"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
"Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard"
This is the title of a recently published book by Chip Heath and Da....
An excerpt published recently on the Fast Company website tells the story of a NGO working on the issue of hunger in Viet Nam. I highly recommend you read the article. It points to many important lessons learned about how to implement lasting change at a very realistic and grassroots level. It addresses many of the issues that were raised in the assigned reading in Lesson1.
From the article:
The conventional wisdom was that malnutrition was the result of an intertwined set of problems: Sanitation was poor. Poverty was nearly universal. Clean water was not readily available. The rural people tended to be ignorant about nutrition.
That analysis was, in Sternin's judgment, TBU -- true but useless. "Millions of kids can't wait for those issues to be addressed," he said. If addressing malnutrition required ending poverty and purifying water and building sanitation systems, then it would never happen. Especially in six months, with virtually no money to spend.
...
Ignoring the experts, Sternin traveled to a local village and called together all the village's mothers. He asked for their assistance in finding ways to nourish their kids better, and they agreed to help. As the first step, they went out in teams to weigh and measure every child in the village. Then, they pored over the results together with Sternin.
He asked them, "Did you find any very, very poor kids who are bigger and healthier than the typical child?" The women, scanning the data, nodded and said, "Có, có, có." (Yes, yes, yes.)
He said, "You mean it's possible today in this village for a very poor family to have a well-nourished child?"
"Có, có, có."
"Then let's go see what they're doing."
I hope I've posted enough to whet your interest and get you to read the wh*** article -- and maybe check out the book. I, for one, have already requested "Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard" from my local library.
Views: 28
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Comment by Arthur on March 9, 2010 at 6:11am
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A version of the story of sternin and the idea of positive deviance in an earlier edition of fast company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/41/sternin.html
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Comment by Fiacre on March 9, 2010 at 6:37am
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Again, thanks for passing this along. Very interesting.
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Comment by Murray Britton on March 11, 2010 at 1:09pm
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I just cant get enough of you! I wanted to send you a message but you aren't online to accept my friend request so I'll leave it here.
I just started reading your blogs and comments, and just about everyone makes me think...YES YES YES. I just wanted to let you know that i adore your brain and your line of thinking, keep sharing because i for one am truly inspired!
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