Many people are afraid of sitting in silence with a group in a Zoom room. Don’t be afraid. Silence can be extremely helpful and needed if timed well. Here are reasons to design for silence: to give people time to think to make space for off-screen work before coming to the large group to consider content, ideas, […]
The Chat box is highly underrated. All meeting spaces have this feature, but it is not often used. And even more rarely, explored. Here are some great reasons to use the Chat box: to invite in all voices Rarely does everyone have a voice in a session (in-person or virtual). Since meaning-making is personal, every […]
Much has changed since pre-COVID. And in my view, our monthly all-staff meetings are better now that everyone is on a separate screen. It used to be that everyone in the International Budget Partnership Washington DC office would be in one room and on one screen while the rest of our staff in country offices […]
In mid-March, the Tax Equity team at the International Budget Partnership was faced with a dilemma – continue planning a two-day convening of researchers, staff, and civil society scheduled for May or take it completely online. Like many organizations in the face of COVID-19 uncertainty, we ultimately decided to turn the convening into a series […]
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 bank, the library, etc. During our outings […]
The Situation: Global Learning Partners, (GLP) Inc. was invited to support and fortify meetings among leadership and front-line staff of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for many years. The Journey: Over a hundred staff across the organization participated in GLP’s SURE-Fire Meetings courses. Each time we facilitated the course, […]
Recently, a client emailed me a few questions, unrelated to the work we were doing together. She was on a human resources committee and was working to revamp their performance review process. She was wondering, “Does Global Learning Partners have any resources for conducting performance reviews using a learning-centered approach?” What a great question! Performance […]
Increasingly many Boards, committee, working groups, and organizations need to meet in a way that is mixed or hybrid. Often, we have a meeting and want or need to bring in participants from other branch offices, cities or countries. When we do this the people in the room hosting the call have an “advantage” […]
At the end of our graduate class “Community Development: The Art of Facilitation and Design” with Jeanette Romkema we reflected on how principles and practices of Dialogue Education could also help ensure more effective and efficient meetings. It was eye-opening! Most of us are involved in or will be involved in way too many meetings. […]
I took the Foundations of Dialogue Education course with Global Learning Partners (GLP) in October 2017. The most powerful take-away for me was to think about what the learners will be doing with the content rather than what I will be saying or presenting. Perhaps it is my love of theater and dramatic arts, […]