The Meeting Escape Hatch: Ritual Design Lab for Org Change from Margaret Hagan on Vimeo. I've been interested in organizational rituals that build resilience. Being in a meeting that is a waste of your time can suck your energy. How many meetings are you invited to that you where it isn't mission critical that you attend? What if you reclaim that wasted time? What if every meeting in your organization was optional? This is small, fun ritual for the start of meetings, … [Read more...]
How Can Elmo Make Your Nonprofit's Meetings More Effective?
No, I'm not talking about the cute red Muppet. ELMO stands for "Enough! Let's Move On." It is a ritual or organizational norm that can used during meetings to avoid unnecessary discussions that don't support the meeting objectives. It's a fun way to avoid one of the most common meeting productivity killers: Rabbit Holes. How does it work? Introduce the concept at the beginning of the meeting. If the discussion during the meeting has jumped down a rabbit and become a time waster, anyone … [Read more...]
How to Design an Effective Nonprofit Staff Retreat: A Lesson from Life
Note from Beth: Blocking out time for your nonprofit's staff to do planning and work on areas like organizational culture is essential for success. Designing the meeting so it is effective and encourages team-building can be tricky. Here's some terrific advice from Sarah Axelson. How to Design an Effective Staff Retreat: A Lesson from Life - Guest Post by Sarah Axelson from ETR When is the last time your organization held a staff retreat? Did it help you accomplish your organizational … [Read more...]
A Powerful Way for Nonprofits To Avoid Collaborative Overload
Online collaboration tools and platforms give nonprofits the opportunity for connectivity and collaboration internally as well as with external stakeholders like volunteers and board members. And, that's a good thing. But it can lead to being overwhelmed or what has been dubbed "Collaborative Overload" or "Collaboration Tech Tool Overload." This is the burnout from too many emails, meetings, and collaborative tech tools that limits our organization's ability to get stuff done. The worse part is … [Read more...]
Running Effective Virtual #Nonprofit Meetings: 9 Best Practices for Facilitating Engagement
[slideshare id=79702917&doc=skoll-presentation-9-13-17-170913005218] In many of the workshops I've been facilitating based on the Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout, many nonprofits are recognizing that offering some workplace flexibility to employees is not only an attractive benefit, but also can increases productivity and help with burnout prevention.Many nonprofits allow staff to work remotely one day a week. Workplace flexibility creates a need for better … [Read more...]
