Shotgun Shack's bid for an unprecedented back-to-back win of the "Best New Blog" title was derailed by a surge in votes for Shana Johnson's Development Crossroads. Shana is a unique entrant in the group as she provides advice and coaching for international aid and development professionals.
The voting* proceeded a follows:
The voting* proceeded a follows:
| Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like -http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/ |  | 23.8% | |
| World Bank Development Impact Blog -http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/ | | 17.4% | |
| Marc Bellemare - http://marcfbellemare.com/ | | 11.5% | |
| Development Crossroads -http://www.developmentcrossroads.com/ | | 43.9% | |
| Evan Lieberman -http://evanlieberman.org | | 3.3% | |
Here Shana discusses how to take small victories and avoid burn out. She is working to end this problem by teaming up with the folks at Why Dev to start a peer coaching platform.
And now some ABBA:
Wouldn’t we all like to be more creatively productive? Wouldn’t all aid and international development work improve with greater creative productivity? Wouldn’t aid workers and international development professionals make a bigger impact through their work, experience greater personal satisfaction and happiness, and find themselves more motivated and less burned out?
Sounds pretty good to me. So how can we leverage the power of small wins to make us more creatively productive? Here are three ways.
1. Take time for work that matters. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of our To Do lists, the endless meetings, the grind of overflowing email inboxes. It’s easy to becomeexhausted and overwhelmed by the bureaucratic nature of some aid work. It’s easy to lose sight of “meaningful work,” much less make progress on it. Amabile’s recommendation: Carve out at least 20 minutes every day to work on a project that matters the most to you. Afterward, reflect on any progress made, and decide where to pick up again the next day.
2. Keep a work diary where you reflect on your work, the progress you’ve made, the setbacks you’ve encountered. You can write freestyle, or, if you prefer a bit more structure, Amabile provides a terrific template here. I’m excited to try it.
3. Celebrate small wins. You don’t have to break out the champagne, but at least talk about your progress. Share your small wins with your colleagues, boss, spouse/partner, friends.
There has been a lot of discussion recently in the aid community about “admitting failure.” While there may be value in this approach, there is also value in celebrating successes, even when they are small.
The more we experience progress on the job, the more we will experience motivation, pride, and even joy in our work.
And now some ABBA:
*For those keeping count, there were 917 voters in total who participated. Certainly enough to make this contest the definitive** listing of the best aid blogs.
**Heavy sarcasm alert.
7 comments:
While I appreciate your caution Tom in the robustness of the voting, such should not take away from the fact that Shana captured 43.9% of the votes. Particularly, in the context of the gender imbalances in the ABBA nominations. The tone and content of Shana's writings sets her apart from many other writers and blogs: it is useful, reflexive, and challenging. If you are not already reading her writings and following on Twitter, now you should be.
Oh yea, did not mean to undermine Shana one bit. That number applies to the voting as a whole. She is everything you said and I could not agree with you more.
I know you didn't Tom! I would just like to hear more about Shana and her blog; similar to what you have done for the other two winners so far - J and SEAWL - w/ a short description, quotes. This one is not getting much attention!
Brendan and Tom,
I had to weigh in here -- Brendan, thank you for your kind words and advocacy for my work. Love the passion, but dude/mate, back off! :) Please cut Tom some slack, he's single-handedly carrying the weight of the ABBAs on his shoulders! :) I think he has done a great job through this process of highlighting blogs and bloggers. There are so many that are worthy of recognition. I know that my own list of blogs to read and Twitter-ers to follow has been enhanced as a result.
I am honored and delighted that Development Crossroads was voted Best New Blog. It's an honor simply to be nominated and to be listed among such worthy contenders.
Thank you to Tom Murphy for his brilliant idea to launch the ABBAs and his tireless efforts to highlight aid blogs.
Many, many thanks to all of the readers, friends, and supporters whose votes made this possible! I'm going to celebrate by listening to some ABBA music...and brainstorming some new blog posts!
I am sure Tom knows that I am just keeping him honest, and admire the effort he puts into the ABBAs :) As we say in Australia mates, just making sure 'you get a fair shake of the sauce bottle'.
Yup, no hard feelings from Brendan. I am happy he kept my feet to the fire. It is only right. If I expect it from others I should be held to the same standards.
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