Note from Beth: As a trainer and someone who teachers other trainers, I've been obsessed with improving my facilitation skills and written a lot about it on this blog. I'm always up for a conversation with other facilitators about shop talk and getting tips for improving my practice. So, I'm thrilled that fellow facilitators Cody Sigel, MPH, CHES and Tracy Wright, MAED from ETR agreed to share some of their secrets in this guest post. 7 Tips to Make You A Stronger Facilitator The first time … [Read more...]
Using Design Thinking for A Foundation's Investment Strategy
What if a funder got real-time input from its grantees and other partners to develop its investment strategy? What if they used a design thinking process to not only get feedback from grantees but as a way to develop a more agile way of working? I was thrilled to work with the Brainerd Foundation staff to help design and facilitate a design lab using techniques based on Luma Institute methods earlier this month. Here's what I learned about the facilitating design thinking processes: What … [Read more...]
Healthy Nonprofit Work Culture: Shouldn't That 2 Hour Conference Call Have Been An Email?
That is a slogan on a t-shirt, and while meant as a joke, it is all too familiar for many nonprofits. Meetings that waste your time! When we talk about healthy nonprofit work culture, the fit nonprofit, it goes beyond having organizations create wellness policies and practices that encourage staff to eat right, exercise, take vacation time, and get enough sleep. And, healthy meetings are not just about avoiding salty and sugary snacks. It's about creating collective organizational energy … [Read more...]
The Art of Facilitating Virtual Meetings with Sticky Notes
Last week, Andrea Kihlstedt and I did a reprise of our Guidestar webinar, "Healthy and Productive Meetings" as a learning session for Guidestar staff. Guidestar has multiple office locations, so this session was done as a virtual meeting using a platform and apps that offered features like chat, desktop sharing, polling, white board, sticky notes, and audio and video conferencing. As trainers, Andrea and I both know the value of "modeling the model," so we wanted to use and model best … [Read more...]
A Crash Course in Design Thinking for Network Leadership Skills
Last month, I participated in a Design Thinking Lab with network leadership practitioners convened by the Leadership Learning Community. The lab was facilitated by Heather Mcleod-Grant and Justin Ferrell, Director of Fellowships at the Stanford d-School. The session was an introduction to design thinking methods and to generate ideas for instructional modules for networked leadership development. The design challenge was: How do we come up with concrete tools, frameworks and methods for … [Read more...]
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