I'm facilitating a peer exchange for the Knight Foundation for a group of grantees that are hosting a Giving Days over the next year using its recently published Giving Day Playbook. The idea is not only for participants to acquire the skills and knowledge to host a successful giving day, but for them share and transform practices together. This is a design aspect called "Transformative Capacity Building," where a cohort of peer organizations come together to practice a skill and get better … [Read more...]
RIP Google Reader: Don't Scream Who Moved My Cheese, Pivot Your Reading
This past week, Google announced that it would close Google Reader on July 1st. Nonprofit technology colleague Nancy Schwartz shared that link and it prompted a lot of angst for many who had grown dependent on this free software. More than 125,000 people signed this online petition at Change.Org and lists of alternatives to Google Reader started popping up like this one from Lifehacker and list.ly. In online discussions with nonprofit techies, Megan Keane pointed to the loss of an … [Read more...]
How After Action Reviews Can Improve Your Digital Strategy
The After Action Review is a reflective practice that can be used for anything, but I find it especially valuable for social media pilots and experiments. The After Action Review (AAR) is a structured way to capture the lessons learned from any project, with the intent of improving future performance. It is an opportunity for a group to reflect on a project, activity, event or task so that they can do it better the next time. It can also be used in the middle of a project or strategy to … [Read more...]
Taking 18 Minutes Day Towards A Year-Long Focus
Over the holiday break, I read 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman who blogs at at the HBR. This book is a gem. Each chapter starts with a personal story that illustrates a concept related to managing unproductive distractions. What's refreshing and different about this book is that it isn't about trying to get everything done efficiently. Instead he guides you on how to focus on what matters and ignore the rest. He offers … [Read more...]
A Wiki Tribute to Stephanie McAuliffe
If you do any work in the field organizational effectiveness or nonprofit capacity building, whether you are a consultant or funder for such programs, then you know Stephanie McAuliffe, the Director of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Today is her last official work day at the foundation and tomorrow is the first day of her retirement. This post is my personal tribute - and a request to send her some good wishes on the Stephanie … [Read more...]
