Community-Driven Consulting Hits New Zealand

(Part 2: Community-Driven Tour 2010 in New Zealand. To read these posts from the beginning, head here.) The Class Consultant Class #8 in New Zealand.  Ten brilliant minds, all part of UNITEC’s Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management, spent 5 days re-training their brains to focus on potential and possibility (vs. problem-solving).  We learned from their … Read more

Catalyzing Community Change

It is the evening of Day 2 of our immersion course for Consultants as Catalysts for Community Change. And as always happens, teachers emerge everywhere – we are all learning, and all teaching. It is an honor to be part of this process. We were also honored last week, when 2 Immersion Course veterans, Randa … Read more

Creating the Future – Buckle Up!

As we head into the New Year, I was intending to take this space to share our plans for 2010 with you all. And then fate intervened, in the form of one of our Immersion Course graduates, Menachem Kniespeck. (I will indeed share those plans – you will see them here next week.) For those … Read more

What Management Support Orgs Make Possible

(This is the final installment in a 4-part  article. Head here to start with Part 1.) Management Support Organizations have immense potential. Looking beyond just helping the individual organizations they serve, their highest potential is the highest potential of our communities themselves. No one could be more interested in that potential than Gayle Valeriote and … Read more

Management Support Organizations – Catalysts for Community Potential

(This is Part 3 of a 4-part article. Head here to start with Part 1.) What would it look like in practice if Management Support Organizations were catalysts for Community Potential? Here is just some of what that might be: • The board and leadership of Management Support Organizations would see the organization’s purpose as … Read more

Management Support Organizations – Their Highest Potential

Management Support Organizations come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on the community, the list might include these and others who provide some form of management support for Community Benefit Organizations: • Nonprofit Resource Center • Volunteer Center • Leadership Organization • Coalitions, Federations, Associations • Neighborhood Empowerment / Community Organizing Organization • Community Convening … Read more

What Does It Mean to "Be the Change We Want to See?"

Five consultants from across the US walked into our class last Monday as “consultants to community benefit organizations.”  They left on Friday as facilitators of their communities’ highest potential for being amazing places to live. As it is with each of our Consultant Immersion Courses, the focus began far beyond the question “What do I … Read more