“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.”— Zeno of Citium The other day I was reminded of the group working agreement “W.A.I.T.”…
Continue Reading
Thinking Like an Octopus (and With a Collaborative Heart): Evolving and Interlocking Networks
“You’ve got to keep asserting the complexity and the originality of life, and the multiplicity of it, and the facets of it.”Toni Morrison A network that I have been a…
Continue Reading
Trust Emerges Over Time
Imagine a research-intensive organization where scientists should be sharing what they learn, and the official company policy is to share information and expertise among public and private partners. However, the…
Continue Reading
Weaving Together a World Without Violence
The Medicine Cards Companion to the healing cookbook, the medicine card deck is arranged into five suits: invocations, principles, ingredients, recipes and wild card. These cards are designed to invoke the senses as well as the intellect,…
Continue Reading
Learning to Breathe in the Network Era
The networked workplace is the new reality. It’s always on and globally connected. This is where all organizations are going, at different speeds and in a variety of ways. Some…
Continue Reading
The Importance of Learning in Networks
We are seeing a shift in the social transformation space from evaluation to learning and support for change. Evaluation has too often been a judgment-based, funder driven approach to determining whether…
Continue Reading
Start At Yes : building resilient networks
In working with communities to build resilient networks, I’ve noticed a pattern. Those who “start at yes” – listening for the possibilities, helping others make sense of their ideas, shining…
Continue Reading
MENDING THE COMMUNITY CUP
For years in conversations in organizations, within advocacy groups, and social change initiatives, I have heard variations of these themes: “We know we have to move beyond top-down approaches –…
Continue Reading
Awareness Activities
A lot of research has been conducted lately to identify how awareness or mindfulness operates in our brain, the benefits of this mental state, and how we can spend more…
Continue Reading
A Network Connector Story
Sometimes a story can convey meaning better than a lecture. This week’s free resource is a story from the early days of the Appalachian Center for Economic Network’s (ACEnet) Kitchen…
Continue Reading