Author: Donovan Palmer
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Business Unusual: Every Organisation is a Turnaround Project
Summary: All organisations, from startups to established giants, exist in a perpetual state of turnaround. Drawing on Michael D. Watkins’ STARS model, I want to explore how to diagnose an organisation’s current state and apply this lens to understand why a constant focus on renewal, adaptation, and correction is vital for long-term success, regardless of…
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It is 2025. What Matters Most?
Reflecting on the future possibilities of 2025, I am reminded of the words of the late Clayton M. Christensen, an outstanding Harvard Business School professor. ‘I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.’ I believe this can go both ways. There…
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Leading with Purpose in the Age of Deep Learning: A Christian Perspective on International Development and AI
Summary: The landscape of international development is undergoing a profound transformation. Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how we work; it is creating new ways to serve others. As Christian leaders in international development, we stand at a crucial intersection where we must understand what this technological revolution means and how we adapt to it. This…
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Risk Management? The Sermon on the Mount
I recently blogged about my plan to spend 40 Days With the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5 – 7, and here is a short update… Some questions I can’t get out of my head are based at the conclusion of chapter 7. Sometimes it useful to start with the end in mind and…
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What Does Flying For Life Look Like?
Our tagline to summarise the mission of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is ‘Flying for Life’. What does this look like? It can be looked at in many ways, but here are three healthcare and medical related examples that bubbled up on the internet in the last week. Delivering Essential Medicines Delivering essential medicines to the…
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More is not always more…
An image that I will never forget is when I told a friend that I was going to take a short sabbatical. It was almost as if an electrical shock went through his body as he repulsed against it. I was really surprised. It was 2019 and for 10 years I had been on a…
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40 Days With the Sermon on the Mount
I am not sure how I wound up here, but several podcasts I listened to and articles I have read, have focused my attention on Jesus’ sermon on the mount, Matthew 5 – 7. For the next 40 days, I have decided to read, study and meditate on it at least once a day. With…
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Marketing Claims that Sell, but Are Not Good Programmatically…
Years ago a fellow worker, who I respected highly, made a ‘marketing’ type of claim that his medical programme was ‘eradicating the diseases of poverty’. I loved my colleague’s work, yet we had different points of view about the validity of this statement. My view of validity was on the basis of two premises: The…
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Have you heard of Cabo Verde? It’s Malaria Free!
Here is some good news, and some bad news. First, the good news. I noticed when I was catching up this weekend on some reading, that several weeks ago Cabo Verde was certified as malaria free. Don’t know where Cabo Verde is? It is due west off of the coast of Africa from Senegal, The…
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Tidy, tidy, tidy…
Now that my blog is living again, I am tidying up things. I fixed my ‘About’ Page and has a really cool video clip on Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). I need to fix my contact form. Sadly, it was being abused by spammers. I am also aware that the front graphic and the twitter feed…
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Taming the Flood of Leadership and Management Information
When I moved onboard to direct the Africa Mercy in 2010, it completed a transition that I was on to be paperless. Being on a ship, there was not a lot of room for paper filing cabinets. Additionally, I also travelled a fair bit in Africa, so I needed my office with me at all…
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Multi-dimensional Poverty Measurements
Probably the title of this blog does not excite most. However, in a vocational and missional way, it does excite me. One of the things that I have wrestled with for years is finding better ways to measure impact in international development. It is important and right to track service metrics… a surgery given, a…