The Organizational Development Muse

The Steward Leader Needs Deep Community

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Jan 11, 2017 6:28:00 AM

Over the years, we've turned, repeatedly, to the subject of Steward Leadership, especially as articulated in Scott Rodin's book on the Steward Leader. I've been privileged to support this work through some writing contributions to other titles:

Design Group International launches Sustainable Vision

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Oct 5, 2012 2:30:00 PM

Introducing a New Blogger

One of our Senior Consultants, Matthew M. Thomas, is joining our blogging team with his blog Sustainable Vision (it launches next Tuesda). We’d like to take a moment to introduce Matt to you.

Strategy, Learning, Idea Generation

Matthew M. Thomas has been with Design Group International since 2010. Matt is a strategic thinker whose passion for life-long learning gives him strength in generating ideas, procedures and perspective for organizations in the areas of vision, governance and finances based in his technical, classical, historical and theological training and his business, pastoral and non-profit experience. Matt has shown that he quickly adapts to changing situations and new clients’ needs through his intuitive sense of how things interconnect and fit together, and is particularly interested in how the unique qualities of each person work together in an organization to bring it to greater health and the fullness of what it is designed to do.

Investing in the New Normal: economic reflections from Matthew Thomas

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Aug 20, 2011 12:25:00 PM

Churches, denominations and non-profits are all stuck in the same economic mud as businesses, people saving for retirement, or those living on fixed incomes. With extremely low interest rates, traditionally safe investments (savings accounts, bank certificates of deposit and money market accounts) do not make enough money to keep up with inflation. Thus, investing in what are usually considered safe vehicles actually cause long-term devaluation of savings because of inflation’s modest, but upward trend. For instance, what cost $10,000.00 in 1980 cost $26,110.95 in 2010[1]--a 3.2% average annual percentage rate.[2]

Unfortunately, most savings account rates are 1/300^th of that right now, and most CDs don’t get over 1% without having quite a bit of money in for a long time. This means that the real dollar value of investments in such instruments is declining faster than interest can be added to make up for inflation.