With the holiday season in full swing and the end of 2014 soon approaching, gratitude and generosity fills the air. People are making time to help others, and reflect on how others have helped them the past year. What if instead of focusing on the values of gratitude and generosity once a year, individuals focused … Read more
To hear the full story of this case study, including the various strategies we are using, watch the video at the end of this post. This post may feel a bit unusual. Normally a case study has a beginning, middle and end. We’re still in the middle of this case study, though. As a fellow … Read more
Creating the Future’s Community Engagement planning work will continue on Friday, July 11th at 9am Pacific time. To participate in that meeting (or to just watch) scroll to the bottom of this screen for details. If you are just tuning in to our Community Engagement Planning process, welcome! To prepare you and provide some background, … Read more
We will continue Creating the Future's Community Engagement planning work on Wednesday June 25th at 11am Pacific time. To participate in that meeting (or to just watch) scroll to the bottom of this screen. Per the planning format described in this post, the process we are using follows Creating the Future's causality framework. Determine what we … Read more
At our most recent board meeting for Creating the Future, we took time to deeply explore the role financial management, reporting, and leadership should play in the organization. As a demonstration project exploring what could be possible for all boards, we spend a fair amount of time engaged in a process talking about process. I personally … Read more
We hear a lot these days about “engaging the community,” whether that community is online or in our real life neighborhood. Often “engagement” is seen as a form of marketing – yet another way to get others to do what we want them to do. That is not what this post is about. This post … Read more
Walking to work this morning, I passed a house that had replaced a window with glass bricks. That certainly provides for lots of security, and light does come through, but not much else. That started me thinking about the whole question of transparency in organizations. What comes through and what doesn’t? What is the difference … Read more
What changes when we see community members as agents for their own change? According to Dan Duncan – a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute – everything! And what can organizations and enterprises do to nourish and nurture the gifts and abilities of community members? In just 3 minutes, Dan shares how … Read more
Imagine if your board members were more deeply engaged in your organization’s work had all the information they needed AND read it / understood it each month had critical documents such as bylaws at their fingertips (without having to haul around a 3-inch-thick policy binder). knew each other as people (rather than as “Bob – … Read more
If we say, “Craigslist,” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Finding a deal on a used guitar? Selling your kids’ old bikes? Finding a roommate? For Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, it is about connecting. In his words, it is about the assumption that people will work together and “give each … Read more