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As I was reviewing Nancy White's blogs, one included a link to this page on virtual leadership development. Knowing Nancy, I was confident that it would be good and it is. What I like about it is the emphasis on developing leadership skills within an organization for a bunch of people, not just a few named leaders at the top. Plus the integration of the online work with an onsite team that chooses and collaborates on a critical issue in the workplace--this is real world leadership to solve problems facing the organization or environment, etc.

Nancy White's list of quick tips for online facilitation. She groups them into General, Process, Task-Oriented groups, Difficult Situations, Structural and Content, and One for the Road. Great reminder of any kind of facilitation but is specific for online.

An oldy but goody from Nancy White.

Interesting interview Nancy did with Aaron Leonard at World Bank in September 2013. Makes me think about a lot of things, including how different technologies label us generationally with each generation (only ten years apart in some cases because of the creation and adoption of new communications media) using different tools and how this affects collaboration choices. Excerpt: "Right now email is the reigning champion in the Bank and if we have any hope of getting people to work differently and collaboratively we have to first get rid of email."

Reflection blog post by Nancy White on 1.9.13 on her Project Community course that she co-taught at the Hague. Offers many insights including this jewel below on what the learning design must bring together: "The other aspect of the design was to bring three elements together: sense making discussions about the subject matter (synchronously in class and asynchronously on the class website), insights from weekly "guests" shared via 5-10 minute videos (to bring a variety of voices), and action learning through small group experiences and team projects. I know there are strong feelings about team projects, but building collaboration skills was part of the course learning objectives, so this was a "must do." And we spent time talking about the how - -and reflecting on what was and wasn't working as a vector for learning these skills."

WordPress designer of courses, communities, etc. Endorsed by Nancy White. 1/2013 May be someone we should consider for future customization?

Very wonderful blog post by Nancy Dixon, KM and social learning maven/professor/writer, on how talking with each other produces learning as we try to articulate what we know and what we might need help with, March 9, 2009.

Description of a course offered by the Hague University of Applied Sciences, Fall 2012. Nancy White is one of the faculty. "The intersection of technology and social processes has changed what it means to "be together." No longer confined to an engineering team, a company, a market segment or country, we have the opportunity to tap into different groups of people using online tools and processes. While we initially recognized this as "online communities," the ubiquity and diversity of technology and access has widened our possibilities. When we want to "organize our passion" into something, we have interesting choices. It is time to think about a more diverse ecosystem of interaction possibilities which embrace things such as different group configurations, online + offline, short and long term interactions, etc. In this course we will consider the range of options that can be utilized in the design, testing, marketing and use of engineering products. In this course, we'll also begin to pay attention to "The Four i's of Innovation." You'll be learning a lot about these in the coming courses, but consider this a preview. The first i is the itch; "a hunch" that there is something going on. This inclination can indicate the sublime starting point for change or an innovation The second i is insight; the research framework to base the fundamentals of the innovation on The i for idea; the experimenting towards potential solutions ("what if"- approach) The final i is for impact; the realization of the changes and innovations."

Article on Leaning into Discomfort: Social Sector Leadership inthe 21st Century, NPQ (Nonprofit Quarterly), May 7, 2012 Excerpt from interview with Nancy Northup, Center for Reproductive Rights: ""In fact, leaning into discomfort, I think, is critical, to make sure that what we are doing-both externally, as we work to establish reproductive rights around the world, and internally, at the organization level-is bold enough. The organization had better be feeling discomfort if it's leaning into new strategies and ways of working. "You have always to ask, Am I pushing for the change that's really needed? On all of those levels, you have to continually refresh and check and make sure that you're getting the most power for the mission by being as uncomfortable as possible. Because change is hard, and the reason why you have to look at all those different levels-yourself, your organization, and then the world-is that if you're not willing to hold the tension of change as an organization, how can you begin to understand what you have to risk and what others have to risk to make change happen in the world?"" Excerpt from interview with Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance: As Poo observed, "Domestic workers work in isolated workplaces. They don't have any job security whatsoever, and there are no labor standards or protections, except-for now-in New York, because of us. But really, there's nothing mediating the relationship between a worker and an employer-your workplace is somebody else's so-called castle. It already takes a lot of courage to assert your rights and dignity, and to make sure that you get paid on time, and to make sure that you can get home on time to your own children. And all of these challenges that are just day-to-day challenges of living in that environment already demonstrate a tremendous amount of day-to-day courage." Excerpt from interview with George Goehl, National People's Action �

Nancy Duarte's free ebook on Slideshare on how to do effective visual documents.

Excellent slidedoc on why slidedocs are important by Nancy Duarte. Really like the distinctions made on slide 15 between presentations and conversations in two columns. Use presentations when you need to communicate an already-formed idea; already have information about the audience's wants and needs; need to inform, persuade, or entertain an audience; does not require real-time feedback from the audience; or need a single event to move an audience toward your objective. Use conversation when you need to build upon, get consensus on, or more fully develop an idea; need more information about the group's wants and ideas; need to build a personal relationship with the audience; need the group's input in order to move forward; need continuous engagement to accomplish your objective. I believe that we are much more about conversation at the Studio.

Post by Chris Corrigan on need to build reflection and quiet time for individuals into group designs. November 25, 2013. Nancy White identified this post for me in her blog. ""Please consider integrating some introvert work into your designs. You don't have to worry about the extroverts: while you give the group quiet time, which is giving the introverts permission to reflect inwardly, most extroverts will just go on doing whatever they want to do but the introverts will feel better if you give them permission to reflect. It only has to be a minute of reflection before speaking but it can make a huge difference to the introvert's experience in small group talk.""

Bob Marshall on what an effective group workshop looks like--September 30, 2014, quite demanding yet doable. he above story illustrates a range of features of an effective workshop: Certain shared proficiencies in e.g. Skilled Dialogue, Lean Coffee, etc.. Pre-reading (shared), including "standard" texts - here including Nancy Kline and Chris Argyris. Clarity of purpose "just why are we here?". Shared purpose "we're all here for the same things". Folks tweeting and googling continuously during the workshop. Amanuensis / cybrarian to facilitate shared learning in the workshops. Democratic agenda-setting. Mutual exploration of topics. Active curiosity. "Essentiality" - avoidance of rabbit-holes and extraneous discussion of details. Focus on impacts (as compared to busyness, or outputs, or even outcomes). Post-reading - following up new references. Follow-up conversations, actions. Feedback. - Bob Afterword In writing this story, it seemed to me that a video of a workshop in action would be a great addition to the resources available to BaCo staff to help them appreciate the nature of an effective workshop. Maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to write and/or direct such a video. Further Reading What is Dialogue? ~ Susan Taylor (pdf) Share this: inShare10 Email Print More

White paper by Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk, and Nancy White, April 21, 2008 on Building a collaborative workplace "THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP Leadership is a keystone for establishing supportive collaboration cultures, especially in teams and communities. This is based on how leaders mainly embed their beliefs, values and assumptions in the fabric of their organisation. There are six main behaviours that leaders display that mould the organisation's culture.[3] What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis-are they paying attention to collaborative strategies and behaviours from team, community and network perspectives? How leaders react to critical incidents and organisational crises-are they sacrificing long-term goals for short-term fixes which sabotage collaboration? Does fear of connecting to the larger network keep them from tapping into it? How leaders allocate resources-are they investing in the collaboration capability? Is it attentive to all three types of collaboration? How leaders express their identity through deliberate role modelling, teaching, and coaching-as our leaders collaborate, so do we! How leaders allocate rewards and status-are your leaders rewarding individual or collaborative behaviours? Or both? How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate-are collaborative talents sought and nurtured?"

An unbelievable organization concerned with many of the same things that we are. Amazing website, too. Found it through a year old blog post from Nancy White.

great study on costs of intermittent employment on low-income wage earners and their families, by Nancy K. Cauthen, Annette Case, Sarah Wilhelm, September 2015, funding by Annie B. Casey Foundation