This year, the team I’m a part of has add new team members – all of whom are brilliant, I might add. Some have a deep understanding of the humanitarian industry, while some don’t. None know our organisation well. Therefore there has been the inevitable and ongoing ‘onboarding’ and ‘orientation’, which is a bit overwhelming. I wish I would have come across this quote from John T. Reed in his book ‘Succeeding’.

“When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.”

Three to twelve principles…that feels doable. The thing to remember is that you don’t need to agree with the principles, but you do need to know them. Especially if you are seeking change within it. So what are principles in your area of work? How can you use them to leverage the change you are seeking to create?

Photo by Kelly Sikkema