In our NMP 650 course called “Leading Change in Nonprofits”
we discuss how effective leaders create a belief among an organization’s
stakeholders that they are all working together toward a meaningful common
goal.
This theme is beautifully expressed in the following passage
from a commencement address given this year by Atul Gawande at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
“Ultimately, it turns out we all have an intrinsic need to
pursue purposes larger than ourselves, purposes worth making sacrifices
for. People often say, “Find your
passion.” But there’s more to it than that.
Not all passions are enough. Just
existing for you desires feels empty and insufficient, because our desires are
fleeting and insatiable. You need a loyalty. The only way life is not meaningless is to see
yourself as part of something greater: a
family, a community, a society. And that
is the best part of what college has allowed you to do. College made it easy. It gave you an automatic place in the world where
you could feel part of something greater.
The supposedly “real world” you are joining does not…..
“One thing I came to realize after college was that the
search for purpose is really a search for a place, not an idea. It is a search for a location in the world
where you want to be part of making things better for others in your own small
way. It could be a classroom where you
teach, a business where you work, a neighborhood where you live. The key is, if you find yourself in a place
where you stop caring—where your greatest concern becomes only you----get out
of there.”
Source: NYTIMES June
15, 2014, Section 1 Page 20.
On the Web at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/us/2014-commencement-speakers.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&_r=0
