The first is that many NGOs are characterized by a ‘culture of action* in which NGO leaders and staff arc reluctant to devote significant amounts of time to thinking about organizational questions, because such a prioritization might interfere with the primary task of ‘getting out there and doing something*. This may, as Korten suggests, be particularly true of NGOs in their early stages of evolution, since the origins of many NGOs lie in the efforts of key individuals to mobilize action based on altruism: