I work with a lot of nonprofit Boards of Directors.
I’m noticing that the ones I enjoy the most are the Boards who understand their role primarily as advancing the organization’s mission more than advancing the organization’s existence.
Continue reading “Collective Missions”In this last installment of my mini-series on ‘facilitation tips from the trenches,’ I’m turning my attention to how the feedback elicited shapes the decisions we make.
Remember that I am a fan of collaborative strategy building. Multiple perspectives are protective. They reduce blind spots and build buy-in.
Except…
…when they encourage us to play it too safe.
Continue reading “Vanilla Strategy”In this next installment of our mini-series on running better meetings based on what I’m learning as a facilitator lately, we’re going to focus on meeting formats.
It’s a conversation that I’m really sick of, but it keeps coming up in my work, so I guess it needs to come up in my writing too. Because it’s a decision that can make or break your meetings.
Continue reading “A Topic I’m Tired Of”This week, I’m shifting gears from “curated content” to “facilitation tips from the trenches,” to catch you up on what I’m learning in the rooms I’m leading.
As a facilitator, I find it much easier to help groups articulate their divergent ideas than to converge around a single idea. So maybe I’m just taking the easier road, but I find myself delaying the search for convergence these days. Here’s why:
Continue reading “Less Consensus Makes for Better Meetings”“People need spaciousness the way a plant needs water. When you give it to them, they come back to life.”
This observation by a colleague during my time in Fiji last week has me thinking, yet again, about my big word for 2023 which is “spaciousness.” It’s a word that makes me exhale and drop my shoulders — and it’s everywhere.
Continue reading “Well-Watered Plants”