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!) so...
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.
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...
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…...
Four Tips to Ease Your Virtual Meeting Stress
Many companies are taking recent measures to either encourage, or in some cases mandate, employees to work from home to curtail the spread of the Coronavirus. Pandemic worries aside, working from home brings its own set of challenges like resisting distractions and...
Moving My University Class Online – Where do I start?
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...
Adapting Social and Behavior Change Materials in the Time of COVID-19
Thank you to Mary DeCoster and our friends at Food for the Hungry for sharing this valuable tip sheet from their work. We are featuring an excerpt on our blog, you can access the entire tip sheet on our website here. In fast moving emergencies, such as the...
Proper Planning Delivers Success
In the past few weeks, organizations around the world have faced the challenge of converting their in-person meetings to virtual ones. Our organization, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) is no exception. Every month, IBP holds an all-staff meeting via Zoom, a...
Supporting the Offline Participant in an Online Setting
This recent demand that we all become online participants and facilitators has many rewards and challenges. There is a different intention to our interaction and our time together. Our learning environment has become more isolated and independent, regardless of a...
Nonviolent Communication: Meeting the Needs of Learners
We talk a lot about attending to needs of learners when designing and facilitating learning events using the GLP principles to practice framework. I find Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to be very compatible with a learning-centered approach in that it also is about...
Expecting the Unexpected
When my kids were very young, I would take them with me to run errands. They’d say, “Momma, what’s our plan today?” with excitement in their voices. They wondered what our adventure to town would include! I would list things such as stopping at the post office, the...
Using PowerPoint as a Learning Tool
As of late, PowerPoint has gotten a bad rap ... at least we think so. In many cases, this is for good reason. However, we are too easily lured in by slick technology with tons of bells and whistles. PowerPoint can be used in all sorts of different ways to enhance...