In our new reality, this is a very challenging time in higher education with information changing hourly. Suddenly, many colleges and universities have been thrust into teaching online whether they are prepared or not. Here are few tips to survive this semester and...
3 Tips to Invite Engagement During a Webinar
So … you’ve scheduled your webinar, sent out the invitations and marked your calendar with a reminder to log onto your selected platform 15-20 minutes early to make sure everything is ready to go. You’ll be ready to start on time – which will please your online crowd....
Co-Designing and Facilitating High-Level Meetings
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) invited Global Learning Partners, (GLP) Inc. to support and fortify meetings among leadership and front-line staff for many years.
Designing for People
At GLP we use the word “design” to describe what we do when we create learning events. I’ve always loved that term (Thank you, Jane). It has to do not only with how a learning process “looks” on the outside – but how it FEELS on the inside. I think of it like this…...
Courage and Bravery in Addition to Safety and Respect
During the first day of the Foundations of Dialogue Education course and many other Global Learning Partners learning events, we ask participants to identify guidelines that will support each other’s learning. The generated lists usually include expectations about...
Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes
A while ago, my colleagues and I invited the people in our training to imagine they were someone they were not. For a while they had to “be” this person and experience the joys and challenges of this role. They had to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and look from a different perspective.
What Jane is Reading: Parker Palmer’s Newest Book
By Jane Vella with Valerie Uccellani On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old by Parker Palmer, 2019 From Jane I found this a delightful, informative, funny, inspiring and honest book. Parker is a contemporary of mine (I’m his older sister!)...
School of the 80’s: Learning from Stillness and Suspending
How fortunate I am to have such a forum as this GLP blog to share my new learning! In School of the 80s: Learning from Leisure, Experience and Vulnerability, I said I was learning apace as I turn 88! I realized that there were four factors at play in this learning: I...
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....
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...
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.
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...




