On August 1, I embarked on a month of “semi-sabbatical,” writing and exploring and planning and reading. I say “semi-sabbatical” because I only decided mid-July that the time was right. So there are still some tasks to be done, some projects with timelines that won’t allow me to simply abandon ship. This post is about one of those efforts.As part of this time of exploration, we were blessed to spend two days planning with one of the most brilliant minds and beautiful spirits we know, Christine Egger. The time flew, as the conversations built idea upon thought upon brainstorm upon wisdom.
As we reverse engineered our vision for the future we want to create, we found more and more clarity about the work we will be doing to achieve that vision.
Our vision is that our world is a healthy, vibrant, resilient and humane place to live – where people are being and doing from the richest and most joyful sense of our humanity.
Reverse engineering, we identified the pre-conditions to that joyful world. Asking “What needs to be in place for that to happen?” it became clear that our mission (the work we will do to achieve that vision) is the same as our tagline has been for years:
Making visionary social change practical and doable. And then making those approaches the standard for all social change / “nonprofit” work.
As we continued to ask, “What needs to be in place for that to happen?” it became clear that there need to be as many ways as possible for people to access these approaches. It needs to be as easy as possible for individuals already doing some form of “nonprofit” work to re-align that work to simultaneously create a better world. And that means it has to be easy for folks to first learn about this work and then to join in whatever ways suit their own needs right now.
That means our developing additional pieces to our curriculum. Soon that will include classes for funders and others in the community benefit world.
For now, though, we are excited to be expanding the curriculum for consultants. (Why consultants? Because for every consultant we teach, 10 or 20 or more organizations are then learning and adopting these approaches and ways of thinking.)
Building a Program Together
On September 23rd in Los Angeles, Dimitri and I will introduce a new workshop – a 3 hour facilitated session for consultants and coaches to organizations working to better our world. Its working title is “Intro to Consulting that Creates the Future.”
On September 23rd in Los Angeles, Dimitri and I will introduce a new workshop – a 3 hour facilitated session for consultants and coaches to organizations working to better our world. Its working title is “Intro to Consulting that Creates the Future.”
For several reasons, we will be developing that workshop here online.
1) We committed to make all major decisions openly. And what decision could be more important than crafting a new program?
2) We teach that the most effective programs are built with the individuals who will use them, rather than for those individuals. It would be silly for us not to take our own advice!
3) We know from our “name change” discussion that there are people learning from how we engage these conversations. If our developing this program together gives you ideas about how to use Community Engagement to build your own programs, that would be the best definition of “demonstration project” we could imagine.
And so that leads to my questions. As we move forward in developing this workshop,
- What is the highest potential outcome for a 3-hour workshop, Consulting that Creates the Future?
- What could be different after the workshop is done – for the participants, for their clients, for their communities?
- What results could we aim to achieve for participating consultants? For their clients? For their communities?
Looking forward to our building this program together!!
An interesting discussion ensued on Facebook the other day. As I pondered a blog post that has been brewing in my mind, I asked,
I confess that sometimes even this Pollyanna gets fed up.
