I love talking with boards. Board members are caring individuals who volunteer a ton of time because they want to make a difference. And I love encouraging their highest potential to make that difference! During my first meeting with a board, I ask them, “Do you have a code of values?” More often than not, … Read more
One of the 2010 goals for Creating the Future is to aim the dialogue in this sector more towards what is possible than what is wrong. As part of that effort, we facilitate a monthly Twitter chat for consultants to Community Benefit Organizations. Every month, consultants from all over the world share their wisdom and … Read more
(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
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
The vision of the Community Driven Institute is a healthy, vibrant, resilient, peaceful, humane world. To make that vision a reality for all of us, the mission of the Institute is to encourage and support the Community Benefit sector to leverage its considerable resources to do so. In developing our plans for the next 12-24 … Read more
The more we dive into what it means to run the Community-Driven Institute with true transparency, the more we learn at every step. This week’s Q&A session on Community-Driven Consulting is turning out to be yet another example of that! Our intent had been simple: Folks have lots of questions and preconceived notions about what … Read more
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
Yesterday’s post originally ran 2 years ago. The comments following both the original post and its re-run yesterday talked about a hesitancy to be transparent, the desire to keep organizational issues in the “back yard” where no one would see them. I can understand that. Building the Community-Driven Institute, Dimitri and I often wonder how … Read more
(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
(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