David Sawyer is a strategy guy for a better world, specializing in networks, design, and systems thinking. He is active across all sectors and has played key roles in a variety of fields including education reform, national service, social entrepreneurship, empowerment of women and girls, venture philanthropy, and environmental preservation.

Interested in reading more on topics like this? View this selection on Giving Compass.

Here is a sneak peak of Katie Steedly's interview with David Sawyer, to read more click the link to the source article below. 

KSC:   What are some things you are grateful for?

DS:   I think, right now, the thing I am most grateful for is the work I am able to do in the world and the opportunity to contribute and to shine at full capacity even in times of darkness. There is a beautiful Buddhist prayer from eighth century AD by a monk named Shantideva, and this is the Dalai Lama’s favorite prayer:

May I become at all times, both now and forever, a protector for those without protection, a ship for those with an ocean to cross, a bridge for those with a river to ford, a sanctuary for those in danger, a lamp for those without light, a place of refuge for those who lack shelter, and a servant to all in need for as long as faith endures, and for as long as living beings remain. Until then, may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world.

So, I am grateful for the work I am doing in the world.… I am also grateful for the bright lights and teachers from all traditions who guide us onward, and the religious teachers and the teachers not in formal religions, the wise men and women of this planet who continue to shine their lights for all of us. Super grateful for the wise men and women on this planet and the teachings they have provided us and continue to provide us. I am really grateful for the community of inter-committed change makers, of which you are one.

I don’t really care what sector you are in because one of the things my career has shown me, sort of to my surprise–I did not expect it to show me this, and you knew me in the AmeriCorps, national service, social justice, racial equity period working with the White House, and all that kind of stuff–I always believed that the social sector, the nonprofit sector would be the place where change happens, and in effect our sector would be called upon to drive positive change on the planet. Having worked with government leaders, leadership coach to a mayor, and worked in the private sector. What I have come to realize is that there are good people waking up and doing good work in all sectors. When I became the leadership coach, [and] a close personal friend of the president of an oil company–which would be the least conceivable place, because it could be so easy to make an enemy of that person, what I learned was that the men and women inside are not the enemy. The system is broken. There is no question about that, and that is what the election has just shown us is that the system really is not working, and that just incrementally making little changes to it is not going to be sufficient.

The system is fundamentally flawed. The people that are in the system, there are good actors in bad places and good actors in good places. I see it in nonprofit sector all the time. That is by far the bulk of where my work is. People who are confused and making things darker around them, wherever they are. That is one point.

Read the source article at Katie Steedly