Duncan Green Quotes

People think there's a single solution to complex problems, and the solution is often making an enemy of a group of people - pulling back and rejecting the other.

I sound like a church nut, but look at the role of the churches in the civil rights movement in the States. People are brought together in other ways that can become drivers of change.

We should look at how "the enemy" - people that you wouldn't necessarily agree with - have done change and see whether there's bits in there that we could learn from.

The question, "When did you last listen to a poor person properly and try to understand what's going on inside their own experience?" enables you to connect.

Activists can get very preachy about things. It's more about understanding people's own experiences and tapping into them.

What you don't do is just say, "I've got all the ideas and all the knowledge, and listen to me."

In the end, that's a blind alley - we have to get back to being able to think on our feet and react.

The magic formula is there is no magic formula.

I have to be sure of myself - in a conditional way, always being open to the possibility that I'm wrong.

In any system, there will be change happening without you.

I keep coming back to the phrase "Dance with the system" - not just march onwards no matter what happens.

There's no point in just hankering for the big trade unions of the 1950s or '60s.

I see [activists] getting really angry that people won't just do what the evidence tells them, and that's not very helpful. You need to actually think why that is.

To be effective at selling ideas, at being a lobbyist, influencing other people, you have to be very sure of yourself.

Lots of people in the open system are very determined to try and strengthen evidence-based policy.

There are always pressures on decision-makers other than just what is right or what is wrong.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.

If you were disabled in Russia, you had to re-register every year, and it took up to six months to re-register, so people who lost limbs in Afghanistan had to prove that their leg hadn't grown back.

Floundering around, learning by doing but also by failing, is not only good but inevitable.