“Turning outward is about our posture – a stance, an orientation toward the community, It is literally about the direction we are facing. Individuals and organizations that turn outward make the community their reference point for innovation and change, not their organization.

(…)

The problem is that too many groups, organizations and leaders committed to building healthier communities have turned inward. They’ve become captive to their internal operations – focused more on their own programs, branding and logos, strategic plans, and positioning, than on the communities they serve. When we face inward, we measure our effectiveness by the health of our organization and its initiatives rather than our eimpact in the community“.

This is a small stretch of the Intentionality Essay by Richard Harwood, entitled The Call do Turn Outward.

Called “a reasonable voice in unreasonable times”, Richard Harwood has – over the past twenty years – become a leading national authority on improving America’s communities, raising standards of political conduct an re-engaging citizens on today’s most complex and controversial public issues. He is president and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation – a catalytic nonprofit dedicated to helping people imagine an act for the public good.

As a result of a partnership between The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation and Odebrecht Foundation, celebrated on October 2011, the whole essay it’s avaiable to download.