Strategic Insights
Explore the steady progress, improbable stories, astonishing people, and occasional heartbreaks that emerge from our client work
What We’re Working on this Quarter Whole Organization Work: Strategy + Search OE recently completed a year-long collaboration with the Mind & Life Institute, co-founded by the Dalai Lama, focusing on applying rigorous scientific methods
Since attending and presenting at Exponent Philanthropy’s 2023 Annual Conference in October, I’ve spent some time reflecting on how foundations and non-profits relate to one another and engage in social change. In particular, I’ve been thinking
What executives so often get wrong about talent acquisition. This is advice we pass on to every client we work with. Knowledge can be acquired. Skills can be learned. Character can’t.
Astounding Humans
The people we meet through our work make a case for hope in a hard world.
John W. Haines He’s ridden a bike up Everest, paddled down the Niger River, and been hit by a train. Now he’s creating wealth among working families, one mini-mall at a time. Who is this
The late Dmitri and his husband Tom were the first same-sex couple in the United States to adopt children, both of whom have entered into honorable adulthood. He founded an organization that made it possible for people with disabilities to use computer technology at school and work when few thought it was possible.
FULL STORY COMING SOON
For years, while raising her children and teaching school, Arlinda traveled the vast Navajo Nation, removing women and girls from abusive homes, educating her people about missing and murdered indigenous women, and lobbying for new legislation – and she did it all on her own time and her own dime.
FULL STORY COMING SOON
Receive expert advice, strategic insights, and stories of transformation to support your journey in driving meaningful change.
Impact Stories
Our clients are in the business of transformative change.
The Bears Ears region is slated to become the first National Monument in the United States to be co-managed by a tribal coalition and the U.S. government. This work provides a model for sharing power with Native people and creating a small measure of restorative justice. The Trump administration has expressed opposition, but as one of our Zuni colleagues says: ‘We’ve been here for a couple of thousand years, and we’ll still be here long after this President has moved along.”
FULL STORY COMING SOON
Thirty-five years ago, there was no field of contemplative science. Because of the Dalai Lama’s abiding interest in science, and the dedication of three generations of researchers around the world, we are beginning to understand the science of the mind in ways previously not possible – and this knowledge contributes to human well-being and even peace.
FULL STORY COMING SOON
Our client, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, has been a key investor in the Children’s Savings Accounts movement for over twenty years. We are now studying the first cohort as they enter college. Early indications are that even small amounts of savings change beliefs, behaviour, high school graduation rates, and college entrance rates.
FULL STORY COMING SOON
