Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Foundation Flounders

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Foundation Flounders

Gates Foundation Flounders

An interesting article from Geek Wire which itself comes from one in Non-Profit Quarterly in August of this year.  I loved the NPQ title:

Why Smart People (at the Gates Foundation) Can’t Learn

An article in the latest World Development Journal finds that staff at the Gates Foundation have trouble making effective grants because they are all trying so hard to be the smartest guy in the room.

The article examines the organizational culture of the foundation’s Agriculture Developmental program and finds that its heavy emphasis on strategic planning distracts from the practices on the ground from which they might learn and build. Specifically, it “abstracts away from smallholder farmers’ sociocultural worlds and relies on a generalizable set of development solutions.” The “bright, high achievers” on staff end up learning to manage up to Bill, presumably the alpha smartest-guy-in-the-room, instead of Continue reading: 
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Foundation Flounders