Thoughts
Thinking, learning and stories from the Brink team.
Featured
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Is AI making your decisions better?
Improving decision making in your organisation isn’t just a matter of introducing AI; you have to design new ways for people and AI to work together.
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Why can’t we unlock billions in assets and save a million lives a year?
Medical oxygen reveals the missing work between proven solutions and investable markets.
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The Cognitive DownloadFor the unseeable future
Why preparing for uncertainty means taking a leap of imagination
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Is AI making your decisions better?
Improving decision making in your organisation isn’t just a matter of introducing AI; you have to design new ways for people and AI to work together.
Read the article - The Cognitive Download
For the unseeable future
Why preparing for uncertainty means taking a leap of imagination
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The Cognitive DownloadHow much more proof do you need?
On gold standards, good-enough evidence, and who pays for the difference
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Why can’t we unlock billions in assets and save a million lives a year?
Medical oxygen reveals the missing work between proven solutions and investable markets.
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How play, permission and imposter syndrome can shift narratives
In a world where tech is an unstoppable force, who gets to narrate a continent's relationship with technology?
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Climate capital is still struggling to scale promising innovations
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The Cognitive DownloadDon’t believe the hype
How not to get swept away on a wave of BS
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The Cognitive DownloadBricolage at large
Why borrowed tools tend to beat bespoke ones
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The Cognitive DownloadBeware the tool you reach for first
Why it's so crucial to break out of default mode
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The Cognitive DownloadWhy identity is so important to innovation
What it takes to go from knowing to doing
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Are accelerator programmes dead?
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Education in the age of AI needs both speed and endurance: What happens when fast meets slow?
Some thoughts from the India AI Impact Summit
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The Cognitive DownloadEcosystems don't photograph well
The problem with funding the things that work
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The Cognitive DownloadIf you know what works, why is it so hard to make it happen?
Why the knowing-doing gap appears and what it takes to bridge it
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Five uncomfortable truths at the heart of post-aid climate finance
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The Cognitive DownloadThe things that changed our minds in 2025
Some mind-altering book, articles, podcasts and films to kickstart your 2026
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The bridges we need between evidence and impact
Why we need griots more today than ever.
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Brink is now part of Africa Practice
We’re excited to announce that Brink has been acquired by Africa Practice.
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The Cognitive DownloadPermission to start wrong
How to experiment with AI in tough environments
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The Cognitive DownloadWhy you can't police collective intelligence
How to create coherence without choreography
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Brink in East Africa: the road so far, and the road ahead
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The Cognitive DownloadReal trust and how to build it
Treating trust less like a vibe, and more like plumbing
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The importance of context: A personal perspective on creating meaningful change
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Meet Brink Foundation's newest board member: Sheena Raikundalia
We're excited for you to meet the newest addition to our non-executive board.
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On scalable, irreversible Impact
Getting to impact at scale in five steps.
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The Cognitive DownloadHow do you imagine the future while surviving the present?
Plus: We're hiring in Rwanda
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How AI Is changing the way we imagine the future
How creating tangible things from the future to share today can help articulate the implications of long-term trends and changes.
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Minding the gap between funding and impact in Agritech
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The Cognitive DownloadCan certainty kill big ideas?
How simple stories trap us, and what happens when we invite complexity
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Fuelling civil society’s frontline against disinformation
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The Cognitive DownloadIf hierarchies are inevitable how do you make sure yours actually works?
Because ‘flat’ doesn’t always mean fair
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Why innovation has to start with humans (and pickles)
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Reflecting on the Brink Retreat, 2025
A few notes from our annual retreat
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The Cognitive DownloadFast Isn’t the Same as Forward
What it takes to create smart velocity
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Brink is joining forces with Enabel’s Innovation Hub
We're collaborating with Enabel, the Belgian government’s development agency with a mission to turn bold ideas into real-world progress.
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What we know to be true - A message from Brink's founders
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The psychology of next-century grantmaking
After years of experiencing this firsthand, we set up Brink Foundation to shift the grantmaking paradigm.
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Designing for equity and impact in AI
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The Cognitive DownloadStorms as a source of strength
A playbook for making the most of the unexpected
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The Future Starts Now: How foresight and behavioural innovation help us shape the future today
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Mastering Mindful Collaboration: Innovating with Government for Lasting Impact
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The Cognitive DownloadWhy it’s time to rethink Open Innovation
It's about open minds, not just open doors
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Tech for good? Lessons from 6 years of grappling with tech to make the world a better place
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The Cognitive DownloadDisagree to agree
Are polite teams where good ideas go to die?
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We're building a lodge (and we need your help to name it)
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The things that changed our minds in 2024
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The Cognitive DownloadThe things that changed our minds in 2024
11 mind-altering things to kickstart your new year
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Brink Foundation Announces Partnership with USAID to Boost Implementation Research in Global Education
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The Carve-Out: Innovation’s Next Evolutionary Step
A whitepaper proposing a behavioural framework to build agility and scale without burdening the core business.
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Building a different type of fund to transform literacy and numeracy in Sub-Saharan Africa
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What we learned from designing and running a six-week Behavioural Innovation course
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“It's easier to sign off a £50m project here than it is to sign off a £50k one.”
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An introduction to Behavioural Innovation
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Why complex global problems need ‘adaptive bureaucracies’ (and why that’s not an oxymoron)
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Nudging innovation: How to design enabling environments for real world change
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Harnessing the collective: Why it’s easy to say, but difficult to do
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Agency Growth Stories: Abi Freeman on building Brink
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To create anything, first build a team
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Innovating internal comms at Brink: testing and learning towards positive change
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Hear this: why innovators need to be better listeners.
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I disagree: the dangerous business of sharing ideas and giving feedback
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Informal Food Economy
Experiences from an exhibition at World Food Day 2024, built on research by Brink and its partners.
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Bringing everyone onboard: using virtual reality in the International Criminal Court
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Building high-trust teams to test edtech during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Directing money to the right lever, to help people access oxygen
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Scaling impact in the real world
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“Don’t learn about us, without us”
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How we changed our minds in 2023
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How the right stories help shift our thinking from probable to possible
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Early Insights about the Informal Economy in Kenya
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The Future of Work in the Informal Economy
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5 images that changed the way I think about organisational transformation
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Three things I learned from building a humanitarian innovation community
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Brink Foundation: Meet Magdalena Banasiak
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15 things Brinksters do to make better teams
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Brink Foundation: Meet Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino
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Brink Foundation: Meet Teresa Mbagaya
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We've launched a Foundation!
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To get better at changing things, get better at handling change
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ASToN Insights: what local authorities need to build their innovation capacity
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How citizens and the government can work together for change
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We're an Escape The City winner!
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The power of “we”: our emerging principles for collective intelligence
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Strength in numbers: changing minds and mindsets with data-driven stories
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World Wellbeing Week 2023
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Mental Health Awareness Week: we're making a commitment
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“A collective worldview means getting from head to heart”
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Supporting local organisations following the Turkey-Syria earthquake
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From algae to action: collective conversations on climate change
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Innovating internal comms at Brink: getting started
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What is the role of ritual in building resilient communities?
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5 principles for transformative organisations
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Why East Africa, what’s exciting, what next
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Building Brink: remixing how we show up in the world
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Becoming Brink. Landing on Brink's model for global business
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What can subterranean subcultures teach us about collective intelligence and action?
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Adaptive management and innovation
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Venturing: How we work with funds, portfolios, and ideas to make a dent in the world
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36 questions to fall in love with your team
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Transformative organisations: what if we do this right?
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Decentralised community building in Web3 — “Is it all nonsense” or could this change the world?
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How to get people to do what you want: The secrets of incentives
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Building Brink: 30 times we swiped left on accepted wisdom
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Brink’s in the ESC top 100 🥳
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4 inbuilt biases that get in the way of innovation, and what to do about them
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Exploring how groups can work together today to create a brighter tomorrow
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Choosing without choosing
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B is for Benefit
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The Great Resignation: A pandemic that has changed our relationship with work
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Tell me, what’s one thing you’d love to know about your team members?
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Harnessing the potential of the Collective
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How learning happens
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From freeze to finish
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Burnout beyond the individual: how workplaces are making us sick and how to change this
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What can businesses do to tackle the burnout epidemic?
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Field notes from COP26 — how to fund ‘Innovation for All’
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Tips for creating psychological safety
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How money is designed matters
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A less W.E.I.R.D take on government adaptation: join us on our learning journey.
The Cognitive Download: one idea from the behavioural sciences, every month.
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