Group items tagged

News article on shooting death of Dan Markel, a rising star in the legal world and an FSU professor, 7.26.14. They describe his desire to create dialogue and how his blog PrawfsBlawg gained national attention. (and may have led to his irritating someone who killed him) "In Tallahassee, Markel's star ascended. He launched a legal blog, a forum for law professors called PrawfsBlawg. The site gave scholars an avenue to vet ideas and listed job opportunities. PrawfsBlawg attracted a national following, propelling Markel into a network of high-profile scholars. He was invited to conferences nationwide. Markel's scholarship, which raised philosophical questions about the justice system and argued against the death penalty, also received national attention. His writing was featured in the New York Times and Slate. "He was very eager to engage other academics in dialogue," said Berman, the Ohio State professor. "He believed the more you got resistance to your idea, the more refined and sophisticated the idea would become.""

Kate Murphy talks about how we are now a culture of always doing something, and we avoid any reflective time because we are so unpracticed at it that we dwell on the negative when we do have quiet time without distraction. People will go far to avoid introspection - in experiments they give themselves electric shocks rather than sit quietly alone without anything to do. Research, especially the new neural research, all show that allowing your mind to drift is healthy and productive. Google, for example, has courses for employees in mindfulness, meditation, and "Search Inside Yourself". The research also shows that not giving yourself time to reflect impairs your ability to empathize with others. "Feeling what you feel is an ability that atrophies if you don't use it."

Another example of why reflection is important to well being, creativity, satisfaction with life, and connections to others

Interview with Kat Cole on leadership and becoming a leader, July 19, 2014. Like her emphasis on coachability and feedback and unrelenting curiosity to learn. Supports learning, leading, connecting online. Also like her other leadership insights and how she hires new people. Excerpt "What advice do you give your employees who are ambitious and want to move up? First, I talk about being incredibly coachable, because we all give each other feedback. If you want to move up, you've got to get as many inputs as possible to continue to develop. Second, take your development into your own hands and be curious about the entire company. If there's something you want to learn, go learn it. The structure here is like a start-up. "

blog post by Charles Jennings cited by Jane Hart, published August 13, 2014. "And for Organisational Learning? The Web has allowed us to totally redefine our traditional learning models. It has allowed us to reach beyond content-rich learning approaches and focus on experience-rich learning. It has allowed an evolution from 'Know What' learning to 'Know Who' and 'Know How' learning; and it has allowed the emergence from learning in the silos of our own organisations to learning with and through others across the world - easily and transparently. The Collaboration Age On a wider plane the Web has been the harbinger of the Collaboration Age. It has blown away many of the barriers to access and has reinforced the power and influence of collaboration and co-operation1 over silo mentalities. In the Collaboration Age it is those who share and work together who are the winners. Those who hide behind organisational garden walls end up deep in weeds. "

blog post by Natalia Castaneda, 8/28/14, at Leadership Learning Community. Good reminder of how to take strategic plan and use it as a guide to implement. "1.View planning as an ongoing process It may be that you have to focus on the process first, trying to see what is the best way to implement an agile strategic planning process in your unique context Set 90 day goals, to keep the process dynamic 2.Keep it simple: "Simplicity allows people to act"[2] The plan should have three main components: identity (organizational vision, mission and values), goals (strategies and goals), and implementation (the actual plan) In terms of the implementation, it is helpful to think about not only the team members who will be implementing a given task, but also a 'champion' who is basically a project manager who is responsible for ensuring that the task gets completed 3.Create accountability among the organization's leadership team Organizational leaders should make strategic planning part of their responsibilities and develop accountability systems to ensure that the process is running well"

Fascinating interview with Vivek Wadhwa on "Innovating Women", August 20, 2014, published by Wharton School of Business. He has written a book. Believe this could be a Lean-In topic or book that we read and discuss? Also a great example of crowd sourcing to get the support he needed to do the research from women--research and $. "I decided to do more research and interview hundreds of women, and I have a research paper, which will be released soon, on women and innovation. At the same time, I wanted to express opinion, and in academic papers, you can't do that. What I decided to do was to write a book. The first thing that occurred to me was, who is a guy to tell women how to solve their problems? So, that was the dilemma. Also, I had to spend a lot of money on research. I wanted to fund it, and I spoke to my wife about it. She said, "Vivek, get women to help you." It was such an obvious answer. So, I decided to crowd-fund the book and then crowd-create it; I essentially did an Indiegogo campaign in which I raised money. Instead of the $40,000 I needed, I raised $96,000. All the money from this is going to a fund to educate and empower women, so it was great to get that kind of support. I wanted 30 or 40 women to help me with the research and writing. I ended up getting more than 500 women. It was an outpouring of support from women who were thrilled that I was stepping into this debate and that I would be researching and writing more about it."

Presentation by Stephen Downes to the London School of Economics, pretty ironic for Stephen to give a lecture on how learning is different now, August 2014. "People are looking for learning that isn't so much the repetition of their professors' ideas, but learning that they can apply, that is a part of their life, whether it's part of their life in work, part of their life in their hobbies or their avocations, or part of their life just in what interests them. They expect universities to be flexible."

From Nonprofit Tech for Good blog, 1/11/14 Interesting to see how this list meshes with the list from 2015 from the business and not for profit side. Top of the list is mobilizing online communications and fundraising campaigns. Although not free and costly to small not for profits, social media and responsive designs for websites, blogs, and e-newsletters will become common. Flat design - making sure everything is optimal for mobile is crucial. Donate buttons on social media sites. Google Wallet will be integrated into Google+ pages. Already on YouTube Channels that participate in YouTube's nonprofit program. Live reporting on social media of org events, maturation of mobile fundraising apps, and increased employment opportunities in new media jobs in the nonprofit sector are the other 2014 trends.

Guide for organizations to plan how to convene f2f diverse groups to top into groups' shared intelligence and problem solving skills. Based on the Foundation's extensive experience with convening, they created this guide to foster more collaboration outside of their funding. The link to the guide, entitled Gather, is contained in this web page.

Report on the Huffington Post on International Women's Day, 3/9/15 on the Q & A on Facebook that actress Emma Watson did on how critical it is for both men and women to come together in the fight for gender equality.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations report on food security and how women play a decisive role in household food security, dietary diversity, and children's health. When looking at making sure everyone has enough to eat, involving women is crucial, yet in many societies they are not allowed to be part of the process.

Interesting look at associations' challenges in 2014 Following 2013, a year in which 42 percent of the respondents to the "DC Associations Salary Survey Report 2013-2014" reported a decrease in membership revenues, 74 percent of respondents reported that increasing membership is their number-one challenge for 2014. The survey also identified several of the ways associations plan to foster growth this year. "This pressing issue is confirmed by plans to find innovative ways to deliver programs and services-clear paths to increasing membership and revenues," according to the report. Increasing staff performance and productivity was also reported as a strategic priority to ensure growth in 2014. Fifty-eight percent of respondents reported that they plan to do so. Roughly 50 percent plan to increase staff in key areas and increase staff training and coaching.

Another blog from workintelligent.ly. 3 simple signs your company is not understanding today's technology - most of which point to not trying to control what is used and how it is used, sharing tech info, knowledge and skills, and using the expertise of everyone that uses technology. A unnamed dig at Microsoft and Explorer as an example of what not to do.

A good model for us to think about: 3 signs your organization doesn't understand networked learning and/or PD could be a blog or promotional outreach for us.

I subscribe to Ramsey's Blog Tyrant blog and found this case study interesting. Although this is blog promotion, it seems as if it would be site promotion as well. Good info about Google Ads and Facebook ads and the return from them. Good information about the conversion of emails to subscribers and users, and the use of give aways. Most important - good content or no matter what you do people unsubscribe.

Some good lessons on marketing, content, conversions, launching or relaunching

A blog from Workintelligent.ly about how intranet, based on social media concepts but for working within a company, could supplant email. I found the comments very interesting - issues such as most projects are by independent contractors who don't benefit from intranets, etc.

Very key point that Beth Kanter makes in her blog post on LinkedIn "But in today's world, those boundaries are pretty blurred. As employees of nonprofits increasingly interact with their professional contacts in online social networks that favor individual participation, such as Facebook or Twitter, they are likely to experience a collision of their professional and personal identities"

Great blog on social enterprises and social entrepreneurs at the 7 Graces, Lynn Serafinn, June 13, 2014 Sounds like the WLS to me! "there are many more social entrepreneurs on the planet than there are those who own or operate 'official' social enterprises. Many independent business owners approach their enterprises in what I would call a new-paradigm way. Their mission is to use their businesses as vehicles to serve the public as well as make a living. They have clearly defined missions and sets of values by which they operate. They aim to address the specific needs of particular communities. They are passionate, value-driven business people who are dedicated to increasing happiness and wellbeing in the world and are able to see a 'meta-view' of the world and their places within it."

Age of Networked Matter Incredible map and booklet exploring how we will be linked from the micro- to global level. By Institute for the Future, Technology Horizons Program.

great four minute video by Charles Jennings on how workplace learning should change to reflect reality of 70:20:10 model

In this blog Jarche combines his work, David Ronfeldt's work, Stephen Downes work, and Dee Hock's work to look at how work gets done in various traditional, and also new networked ways. Good diagram of collaboration and cooperation from Goal-oriented to opportunity-driven (serendipitous)

Clear blog on cooperation trumps collaboration in networked working and learning