Author Archives: Alessandra Pigni
A Day With Dignity
Amira is the director of a human rights organisation, over the years she’s seen colleagues burnout and she wants to do something preventive about it. While sipping a coffee we discuss the value of creating a caring and learning organisational … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged activism and aid work, reflection and action
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Good people, bad leaders
Why are good people bad leaders? How to deal with a toxic boss or a toxic work environment? Why change can be a good and meaningful thing? I picked this video especially for my friends in the nonprofit sector who … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' burnout, organizational culture in aid
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Being mindful of power and wealth
In the nonprofit sector power and money are two big taboos. I love the way in this video Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg talks about how we need to ‘stop making power a dirty word’ and stop behaving as if money didn’t matter … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged activism and aid work, reflection and action
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The antidote to burnout is meaning
I came across a post on LinkedIn claiming that ‘progress is the antidote to burnout’. Apparently all you need to do, in order to prevent burnout, is to get better at organising your ‘to do list’ and download an app to track … Continue reading
Posted in Burnout
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Disengaged: burned-out or ‘bored-out’?
Today I want to explore two ways that lead to disengagement at work: burnout and boredom. Burnout as exhaustion and loss of meaning Burnout is a common malaise in the nonprofit sector. Individuals (and organisations) don’t burnout simply because of … Continue reading
War and Peace
‘War and peace start in the hearts of individuals. Strangely enough, even though all beings would like to live in peace, our method for obtaining peace over the generations seems not to be very effective: we seek peace and happiness … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged activism and aid work, reflection and action
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Building healthy organisations: resilience and burnout
Resilience I like to think of resilience as the ability to ‘fall seven times and stand up eight’ as a Japanese proverb says. In organisations it also means being mindful of each other and ‘seeing beyond what is’. ‘In resilient cultures, members have figured out … Continue reading
Posted in Burnout
Tagged aid workers' burnout, organizational culture in aid
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Helping others, helping oneself
‘Nowadays we find many people involved in “altruistic jobs”, spending all day helping others and then coming back home, shutting the door behind and throwing themselves on the bed crying, as they feel so lonely and desperate. We do have this … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged reflection and action
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Self-care: selfish or intelligent?
‘Some people have resistance to the whole idea of taking time for themselves. The Puritan ethic has left a legacy of guilt when we do something for ourselves. Some people discover that they have a little voice inside that tells … Continue reading
Posted in Burnout
Tagged mindfulness for aid workers, reflection and action
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‘Don’t take it personally’…a useful advice?
‘Don’t take it personally….’ it’s an advice that I have both given and received. I was wrong in offering it, and in not challenging it when I received it. Akaya Windwood, CEO of Rockwood Leadership Institute, charismatically explains why it’s ok … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged activism and aid work, reflection and action
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