Over the last year, I have had the privilege of working with clients from the social sector including: nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and government agencies. This year confirmed for me that “change” is the new normal for the social sector and that, for many organizations, the old tired solutions are no longer strategic and forward-thinking. Those contacting me over the last year have often expressed frustration that they have been to “the local workshops,” attended the right “networks” and have tried cookie cutter templates and yet their organizations are stagnant with their resources and impact continuing to erode.
Crowd sourcing is an increasingly trendy concept that is popping up in the world of group dynamics, network development and strategic planning. Elevated to prominence by books with titles like “Here Comes Everybody” and the “Wisdom of Crowds” the concept is that if you get enough people engaged and contributing ideas, unstructured, then breakthrough thinking can occur. Couple the “crowd concept” with social media technology that enables the “viral” spread of the idea and the distributed connection of larger groups, and the result is that even corporate marketing departments like Pepsi see the value in the crowd.
When convening a group, two of the primary tasks of a facilitator are to clearly articulate the label that is applied to the group and to create an appropriate social contract between group members. The terms “workgroup,” “taskforce,” “coalition” and “advisory group” are labels that are often used loosely and sometimes even used interchangeably. However, [...]
. Once a couple of years ago, I was in a car listening to my sister swear at the voice on her car’s GPS system and I once rented a car with the sometimes handy device. Until recently, that was the extent of my expertise with car directional GPS systems but in the last month [...]
. Raise you hand if in the last three months you have sat in a meeting that was dominated by process model of information presentation ==> discussion ==> and decision; followed by information presentation ==> discussion ==> and decision, in a pattern that was repeated until the end of the meeting? Unfortunately hierarchical meeting structures [...]
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- Mark P Fulop, MA, MPH
PO Box 18144
Portland, OR 97218-0144
(503) 928-4082
mark@facilitationprocess.com Facebook Like Box
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