This week, Foreign Policy published its list of 100 Top Global Thinkers. Among them were Jacqueline Novogratz for helping build a new generation of social entrepreneurs and Muhammad Yunus for proving that the poor are profitable.
Perhaps one of the reasons they're such great thinkers is that they're amazing listeners. Each time Jacqueline visits LifeSpring, I'm inspired by the extent to which she wants to interact directly with our customers -- not just talk to them superficially, but really learn about their needs, how they make decisions, and what matters most to them. During her last visit to LifeSpring earlier this fall, she and Catherine spent time at our new hospitals, went to visit our customers in their homes and in our communities, and spent time at a nearby government hospital to see the vast gulf that exists, yet is often hard to communicate with hard metrics and figures.
Additionally, when I met Muhammad Yunus at this year's World Health Congress in Washington, D.C., I was humbled by how interested he was about LifeSpring's model -- asking numerous questions and asking how our lessons learned can be applied to Bangladesh.
During our first few days of the Acumen Fund fellowship, Wangari told us an African saying: "There's a reason you have two ears and only one mouth."
Looking at the Foreign Policy list, maybe this crucial skill of asking the right questions and truly listening is one of the key determinants to being an effective global thinker.
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