A Movement, Not a Checklist: What Ethiopia Built by Listening First

A Movement, Not a Checklist: What Ethiopia Built by Listening First

In 2019, Ethiopia's Federal Ministry of Health was doing something nobody else had done. They were building the first national Compassionate and Respectful Care initiative woven into a federal health transformation plan. And they were building it by listening. In this episode, I sit down with three of my former colleagues from the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program to talk about our work in Ethiopia, interviewing patients, providers, community health workers, ministry officials, NGO leaders, and professional associations across Addis Ababa, Oromia, and Amhara.  We talk about what we heard. That you cannot ask providers to be compassionate if the system isn't compassionate to them. That trainings alone don't hold unless leadership and culture hold them up. That compassion is subjective, which means measuring it without reducing it to a checklist requires a different kind of rigor. That the Ministry's incubation centers worked because facilities were given room to prototype in their specific contexts.  We also talk about what stayed with us and the impact of watching a federal body build strategy from the ground up. This conversation is years overdue, and I'm so glad we finally had it. Guests: Yuki Davis and Matt Hughsam -- 🔗 Stay Connected [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Take the Quiz [https://form.jotform.com/Mmbarney/storytelling-quiz] → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-murphy-barney/] Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com [mbarney@entangledhealth.com]

The Community Remembers: What Crows Teach Us About Trust, Memory, and Showing Up

Crows recognize individual faces. They remember who threatened them and who helped them, and they pass that knowledge to their young, to their flock, across generations. A crow you wronged once will tell crows who've never met you to watch out. A crow you consistently fed will bring you small gifts in return. They have community memory, just like the communities we serve as health and social justice organizations.   In this episode, we talk about listening fatigue, and why it's not apathy, it's the community's social intelligence functioning healthfully. We talk about what it looks like when an organization has already burned trust and what the slow road back requires. We make the case that reciprocity is earned through consistent behavior over time, not through better outreach materials or a flashier engagement strategy. If your organization has ever wondered why the community won't engage anymore, this episode is the mirror. IN THIS EPISODE Why communities carry long memories and what that means for organizational reputation. Listening fatigue as rational community self-protection, not a communication problem to solve. How consistent follow-through earns the kind of trust and intelligence no survey can surface. What collective threat response looks like in coalition work. And the case for frameworks that read context rather than running the same playbook everywhere. -- 🔗 Stay Connected [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Take the Quiz [https://form.jotform.com/Mmbarney/storytelling-quiz] → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-murphy-barney/] Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com [mbarney@entangledhealth.com]

The Work Beneath the Work: What Mushrooms Teach Us About The Work Nobody Sees

We see the mushroom and think that's the whole organism. But the mushroom is just the visible fruiting body. The real organism is the mycelium, a vast underground network connecting root systems, sharing nutrients, sending chemical signals across the forest floor. Most of what keeps the forest alive is invisible. In this episode, we talk about the work nobody puts on a slide deck and the gifts of decomposition as a precondition for growth. And we talk about mycoremediation: fungi that break down toxins in contaminated soil. Because sometimes the ground has been poisoned by broken promises and extractive practices, and our work starts with cleaning the soil before we try to plant anything new. IN THIS EPISODE Why the most important organizational work is the work nobody sees, and what happens when you invest only in the visible outputs. Decomposition as a precondition for growth, not a sign of failure. How healthy organizations redistribute narrative capacity the way mycelial networks redistribute nutrients. And what it looks like when community engagement is genuinely symbiotic, not a one-way transaction dressed up as service. -- 🔗 Stay Connected [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Take the Quiz [https://form.jotform.com/Mmbarney/storytelling-quiz] → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-murphy-barney/] Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com [mbarney@entangledhealth.com]

The Tree of Life: What Cedar Teaches Us About Endurance in Community Work

Cedar doesn't bloom and disappear. She stands, shelters, and heals, and the whole forest depends on it. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to build narrative practice that doesn't burn out, dry up, or blow over when leadership changes or funding shifts. Cedar grows slowly, roots deeply, and provides shelter year-round. Her fallen needles feed the soil. Her oils protect her without aggression. In temperate rainforests, she's a keystone species: remove cedar, and the whole system shifts. We make the case for evergreen narrative infrastructure over seasonal storytelling. We talk about why strategic pace is not the same as urgency: fast, efficient, impactful, just not urgent.  IN THIS EPISODE Why root work comes before visible growth, and what that means for StoryLab Sessions and trust-building. The argument against treating storytelling as a seasonal activity. How ethical storytelling guidelines and consent practices function like cedar's natural defenses. What it means to be a keystone in your organization, and why that's a vulnerability if it's held by one person. And why slow growth is key to the work of health and justice organizations. -- 🔗 Stay Connected [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Take the Quiz [https://form.jotform.com/Mmbarney/storytelling-quiz] → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-murphy-barney/] Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com [mbarney@entangledhealth.com]

Engineer the Conditions: What Beavers Teach Us About Building for the Ecosystem

Beavers are ecosystem engineers. Their dams create wetlands, improve water quality, support biodiversity, and benefit species they'll never meet. That's the argument for narrative infrastructure at its most expansive. In this episode, we talk about why a single story is not a strategy. Rather, a story bank and healthy narrative infrastructure create conditions for stories to do their work across time, across campaigns, across staff turnover. We make the case against siloing storytelling in the comms department, because beavers don't build as individuals, they build as a colony, and narrative strategy is organizational infrastructure that everyone maintains. We also talk about planning for winter, about building narrative reserves when things are flowing so you have what you need when they're not. And about repair: the dam breaks, you fix it.  IN THIS EPISODE Why a story bank is a dam and not a filing cabinet. The ripple effects of narrative infrastructure. The case for making storytelling everyone's work, not just comms. Why building from existing organizational assets beats importing frameworks from somewhere else. What beavers and disaster response have in common. -- 🔗 Stay Connected [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Take the Quiz [https://form.jotform.com/Mmbarney/storytelling-quiz] → Discover where your organization most needs storytelling Let's connect on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-murphy-barney/] Lean more about how we can work together at https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health [https://madisonmurphybarney.com/entangled-health] Reach out with questions and inquiries at mbarney@entangledhealth.com [mbarney@entangledhealth.com]