These days, there are many opportunities to not just visit another country for pleasure, but spend time getting to know a community and a culture. College education-abroad programs, faith-based experiences, international culture exchanges, and “voluntourism”...
Maximizing Your Global Learning Experience (a series) Part II: While There
This is Part 2 of a blog post series on maximizing your learning during an opportunity to spend time in another country getting to know a community and a culture. Part 1 was all about preparing for your trip. Today, author Pat Elson provides tips for those of you...
Maximizing Your Global Learning Experience (a series) Part III: Meaningful Action
This is Part 3 of a blog post series on maximizing your learning during an opportunity to spend time in another country getting to know a community and a culture. Part 2 was all about making the most of your time while there. You will most likely be changed by your...
Why stop with one open question? Dig Deeper.
I know the power of the open questions. I design with them, facilitate with them, and evaluate with them. But, are they enough? I often feel that some people are good at giving me just what they think I want. I ask a question and they give me an answer with just...
The Essence of a Good Question
On a recent Sunday morning, I was up early and listened to On Being with Krista Tippett. This morning’s broadcast guest was Pádraig Ó Tuama, who is a poet, theologian, and extraordinary healer in our fractured world. He leads the Corrymeela community of Northern...
Confessions of a Former Workshop Rockstar
Participating in a Dialogue Education course has been a game-changer for me. For more than a decade I’ve done presentations, designed curriculum, taught workshops, etc, and I was pretty sure that I was good at what I did! I prided myself on being an engaging...
Facilitation as Hospitality and Belonging
In Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Henri Nouwen states, “Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space...
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
My world is full of visuals. I can’t imagine life without art, and I can’t imagine a training without images. Whether I am designing a meeting, learning session, knowledge sharing event, strategic planning day or retreat, I include photos, drawings, art and other...
Wait… What? Hearing it Twice for Learner Engagement
Chatterbox is what teachers dubbed me from a young age. During class and on progress reports, I’d often be called out for jabbering to my comrades out of turn. In fact, for whispering while the directions were being given for a standardized test in 6th grade, I served...
Pick a Spot and Invite some Truth Telling
There are countless helpful ways to engage learners during a workshop or meeting. I get great joy designing ways to ensure purposeful and productive uses of solo and group activity.
Equipping Educators for Assessment: Tips for Resource Developers
Some years ago, I led a workshop that was based on an outline I had developed and used in previous settings. At earlier events, the activities and script had been well-received, including a humorous anecdote about shoveling snow in my hometown of Chicago that always...
Onboarding is a Dialogue Too
Onboarding is usually the first time someone is truly exposed to an organization. Hopefully, first on the training list are the values, mission and cultural expectations—these will set the foundation for employee conduct, collaboration and work expectations....