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Articles by Ama Marston
Fear, Forgiving, and the Future:
Navigating Turbulent Times Sesame Street has held a particularly special place in my heart since my earliest years. When I was three, my mother lay in a hospital bed in a full body cast in her childhood bedroom in New Jersey. She had broken her back and both legs in a car accident my parents and I were in, hurtling our van from a winding mountain road over a cliff between British Columbia and Washington, a single tree keeping us for an even further plummet and far worse fate.
ROAR: Finding our voices, strengths & resources in a turbulent world as we end the year
Photo: Evan Buckholz, Louvre Museum, Paris. Ama Marston · Follow 13 min read · -- Years ago my mother and I set out on an African road trip, driving the southern coast of the continent before getting on public buses over landmine pocked roads to reach my fellowship working for Mozambique’s first female Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. Along our travels we stopped at one of South Africa’s lesser-known national parks to see the country’s magnificent wildlife.
“We Can Do This, Do This”: Keeping Our Eyes on the Horizon
Mural detail, Los Angeles. Artist unknown. Photo: A Marston, 2024. Ama Marston · Follow 10 min read · -- If you have ever been an ocean swimmer, a surfer, even a boogie boarder, as I was reminded while out swimming with two young friends this past July, you will may experience being disoriented, caught between wave after wave. As a kid, having moved from a mountain town in New Mexico to a beach town in California, I quickly took to the ocean with the neighborhood boys.
Sometimes You Have to Meet the Bear. Sometimes You Have to “Be” the Bear
Ama Marston · Follow 12 min read · -- Though it has been two decades now, I can still see her, arms outstretched saying to me, “Am[a], Am[a], get big, get big…” We had backpacked into the wilds of Yosemite, California’s most known national park, and after setting up camp, enjoyed a simple dinner. We were seasoned outdoorswomen, by no means faint of heart. And, S.C. my statuesque, silly, and intrepid biologist best friend, had gone to get water. As she called to me, she gasped “be..bea…bear…bear”.
From the Redwoods to the Pact for the Future and Back
This week, with gatherings at the local, national, and global levels to discuss the most pressing challenges of our time — many which I have helped shape — I am urging you on from afar as I continue to heal from surgery. And still I can’t help but think of my journey introducing and leading conversations like these on transformative resilience, inclusive innovation and economies, climate change, gender and beyond, alongside some of you.
Nourishing and Fortifying Ourselves Amidst Disruption and Change
Across traditions May Day marks the start of summer. This includes the gods associated with wine, orchards, and fertility all appropriate as I return from camping with friends at the edge of wine country and Redwood forests brimming with wildflowers. And, May Day is also the day of laborers of which I was reminded seeing farm workers in the agricultural fields.
Change, Challenges, and Women Leading Systems Thinking
Star, inventor, Jew. Call her what you like. Hedy Lamarr was a trailblazer using change and challenges as a source of innovation, and working towards a larger purpose.Some simply saw her as one of Hollywood's most beautiful women. However, Lamarr, who escaped her Nazi husband in Austria and made her way to the U.S., eventually becoming an actress, was also a talented mathematician and engineer.
Women’s Voices, the Ukraine & Peace: A List of Female Experts & Resources
Photo: Max Kurkurudziak “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. First Lady (1933–45) The path ahead for the Ukraine is a difficult one as it faces invasion by Russian military forces, with attacks on civilians and infrastructure, among other impacts of an unprovoked war.
A mindset for transformative resilience.
Resilience has become the word of our time—search for it online and you get 216,000,000 results in Google alone. The term has become ubiquitous. Estée Lauder makes “resilience face crème.” Hanes makes “resilience pantyhose.” There’s “resilience” parenting, cities are now appointing Chief Resilience Officers and companies are hiring resilience specialists.
World Bank energy lending causes uproar
Infrastructure News 15 April 2010 by Ama Marston Debate about the World Bank energy portfolio and its impacts on climate change has reached boiling point with hundreds of civil society organisations campaigning against the Bank’s $3.75 billion loan, most of which will finance a new coal plant in South Africa.
It’s Time to Tackle the Gender Thought-Leadership Gap
I’m sitting in the neighborhood where British philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, began some of the world’s first writing on equal rights for women and men. On the eve of international women’s day I’ve opened the newspaper to find that a female competitive cyclist was forced to pause during her course because she had caught up to the men’s cycling race despite starting out ten minutes behind.
Transformative Resilience: The Way Forward for Women Leaders
Ama Marston discusses why resilience is critical for women’s leadership and how we begin to build it. This week’s guest blogger, Ama Marston will run a session on resilience and women’s leadership at Power Shift 2016 From the glass cliff to the gender stress gap, from financial crisis to family crisis, women leaders face a number of converging personal, professional and global challenges.
What leaders can learn from Facebook's data debacle
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress, sources told CNN, after Facebook admitted that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Trump's 2016 campaign, accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The controversy ignited a global conversation around the ethics of data mining. But Facebook's leaders are not alone in the hot seat.
Make Sure Your Resume Survives the Six-Seconds Test
When writing or revising your resumé, you ought to look at it as an advertisement you’re putting out in the job market. It is one advertisement among many thousands, competing for attention. How do you get your resumé to catch a recruiter’s eye? And how do you convince them — quickly — that you’re the perfect fit for the job they’re looking to close? According to research, recruiters spend an average of only six seconds on each resumé. That’s why the summary at the top is so important.
To Handle Increased Stress, Build Your Resilience
Wherever you live or work, stress is on the rise. According to the International Labour Organization, workers in developed and developing countries are facing increasing strain at work. The onslaught of mounting stressors include global challenges, such as climate change, terrorism, and political turmoil – as well as personal and professional challenges, such as illnesses, job changes, and organizational restructuring. For many of us, the initial response to stress is to look for external fixes.
How to Increase Your Influence at Work
To be effective in organizations today, you must be able to influence people. Your title alone isn’t always enough to sway others, nor do you always have a formal position. So, what’s the best way to position yourself as an informal leader? How do you motivate colleagues to support your initiatives and adopt your ideas? How can you become a go-to person that others look to for guidance and expert advice?
Nitin Paranjpe's Secrets For Managing Your Career
Simple lessons from Nitin Paranjpe, President Home Care at Unilever, on how you can manage and move ahead in your career.
Make Work Meaningful for Your Freelancers, Too
It’s your job as a manager to make work meaningful for the members of your team. But what about the freelancers with whom you work? Have you stopped to consider how they’re finding meaning in their careers? We answered this question by interviewing freelancers in a wide range of industries — from tech to advertising. And what we found in our interviews was an interesting reinforcement of our prior work on employer branding and agile talent.
How to Negotiate Situations That Feel Hopeless
Whether you’re angling for a raise or hammering out a deal there are times when the prospects for success can feel bleak at best. Nobody understands this better than Harvard Business School Professor Deepak Malhotra, whose teaching, research, and advisory work focuses on negotiation—including both deal-making and conflict resolution. In his book, Negotiating the Impossible, Malhotra outlines key lessons for negotiating sticky situations.
Facing Turbulence with Resilience
Amid increasing turbulence in business and the world around us, the future of organizations lies with Type Rs—people and entities that individually and collectively turn challenges into opportunity, progress and innovation. These are the types of leaders, businesses and communities we write about in our new book, Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World (PublicAffairs, 2018).
How women can benefit from being more “Type R” at work.
Wendy R. Anderson spent years navigating leadership in largely male environments, working six to seven days per week. As a deputy chief of staff in the Department of Defense, she found herself chronically stressed and ultimately made the difficult decision to leave government after taking a senior role that wasn’t the right fit in another department. Anderson is now a high-profile national security sexual harassment advocate who has helped build the momentum of the #MeTooNatSec movement.
Embracing Uncertainty And Leading Through Adversity
With the increasing disruption and complex challenges we face the future lies with Type R leaders — those who embrace uncertainty and use adversity, change and complex business and global challenges as opportunities for innovation and progress. This is true whether they are the head of a corporation, steering a team or project, charting the future of a not-for-profit or leading a city or nation.
To Handle Increased Stress, Build Your Resilience
Wherever you live or work, stress is on the rise. According to the International Labour Organization, workers in developed and developing countries are facing increasing strain at work. The onslaught of mounting stressors include global challenges, such as climate change, terrorism, and political turmoil – as well as personal and professional challenges, such as illnesses, job changes, and organizational restructuring. For many of us, the initial response to stress is to look for external fixes.
Facing Turbulence with Resilience
Amid increasing turbulence in business and the world around us, the future of organizations lies with Type Rs—people and entities that individually and collectively turn challenges into opportunity, progress and innovation. These are the types of leaders, businesses and communities we write about in our new book, Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World (PublicAffairs, 2018).
6 Things New Grads Should Know Before Joining a Startup
This year, as new college graduates charge out into the workforce, many will hunt for jobs at startups instead of big companies. In fact, according to a 2016 survey by Accenture, only 14% of U.S. graduates want to work at a large firm; 44% want to work in a startup or other small enterprise. Going to work at a startup has perks, from an informal atmosphere to faster on-the-job learning and more autonomy, but there are downsides, too.
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