Most of us have been in meetings where the energy dips, conflict flares or the conversation goes nowhere. Conventional facilitation techniques often aim to smooth things out, keep people comfortable

Leadership is often framed as knowing what to do, charting the path and mobilizing others to follow. But the deepest leadership moments rarely begin with certainty. They begin with saying

The traditional drivers of development and innovation are shifting. That is not necessarily a bad thing. For decades, a daunting adaptive challenge facing emerging market institutions and leaders was donor

You may think that your story doesn’t matter, that people aren’t interested, that you shouldn’t be talking about yourself. But when you do public work, you have a responsibility to

In times of uncertainty, leadership isn’t just about having answers — it’s about learning to live with the unknown. This essay explores an alternative approach to leadership rooted in curiosity, complexity, and the power of mystery. Drawing insights from a retreat with leading quantum physicists, it challenges the traditional model of fast solutions and absolute clarity. Instead, it invites leaders to embrace adaptive thinking, deepen their attention, and stay present long enough for new insights to emerge. When we lead with humility and imagination, mystery becomes not a threat — but a teacher.

Thank you to our friends at People Power Health for bringing me back to On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by historian Timothy Snyder — a book I drew on when

From Dialogue to Action One of the questions directed at me during a recent United Nations panel discussion was, “What have you learned from your leadership journey so far?”. If

Bridging Humanity and Leadership Leadership is not merely about strategy, authority or efficiency, it’s about humanity. In a world increasingly defined by division, polarization and transactional interactions, we need a

What struck me in that moment was that I did not see that man. I was walking in London’s Hyde Park with Vimal Kumar, an Acumen Fellow and close colleague.