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NAFE (National Association of Female Executives) has a women of excellence award and interviews with the women on their site. Reminds me of our women of worth. This is the call for entries as well as the link to the previous winners' interviews.

"Small businesses are eager to find valuable tools that take a lot of the time and trouble out of social media marketing and that do so without costing an arm and a leg. I think we'd all want tools like that, right? Well, I went searching for just this kind of simple, easy, cost-effective tool, and I came up with 61 that made the cut. I tried out more than 100 in total, and I'm sure I missed a few along the way (please tell me in the comments or on Twitter which ones deserve a look)."

Quote that Jane Hart found from Jane Bozarth, 12/6/14, rest of Jane Hart's post is just as interesting. well worth reading. "The thing that is going to change the game is - the learners …. They are changing the concept of training, and we are increasingly moving toward an age in which the adult worker will not sit still for training that just looks like more "school". They're becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of how learning looks and how it happens. We're going to have to figure out how to provide better performance support, in smaller bites, in places easy for them to access. And we'll need to offer time and space and support so they can create the user-generated help that others need. And if we don't? They won't wait for us. They'll find the means to do it anyway.""

TED talk that goes with his book, Cognitive Surplus. Very good talk about how we can now use internet and smartphones to really impact not only local but global political structures and systems, as well as get information out in real time that benefits everyone.

Blog by Susan Freeman, StepUpLeader, June 2014 Talks about leaders and learning and honesty. "Upon deeper reflection, there is something they absolutely must possess in order for us to work well together; That is being a LEARNER. By this I mean the willingness to admit that they don't know what they don't know. They will approach the learning process with an attitude of curiosity, appreciating each new discovery with gusto. They don't resist it; they EMBRACE it. I call it leadership resilience. Leadership resilience is crucial for leaders. When a leader can't be honest about what he doesn't know, it shuts down the ability for others to learn and innovate within the organization. In order to move from where we are now to a future desired result, we must let go of our need to know. When a leader can embrace curiosity, wonder and being comfortable with uncertainty, it makes it acceptable for others to do so."

article by John Michel, August 22, 2014. Like this excerpt: "The lesson Washington's profoundly positive example teaches is that leading people well isn't about driving them, directing them, or coercing them; it is about compelling them to join you in pushing into new territory. It is motivating them to share your enthusiasm for pursuing a shared ideal, objective, cause, or mission. In essence, it is to always conduct yourself in ways that communicates to others that you believe people are always more important than things."

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"

Melinda Gates wrote this for International Women's Day - when you invest in women, you invest in the people who invest in everybody else. Empowering women makes good economic sense because the GDP rises when women do. Since they are the ones who are encouraging and caring for their children, their investment in their children's education impacts the future generation as well.

Principles of Feminist Social Work Process by Jenny Gilmore. These principles mesh well with the work on systems leaders, as really all that is written about systems leaders are found in these principles which have been practiced since the 1960's by feminist leaders.

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

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."

by Kelly Wallace Finding work life balance needs to be reframed as a person, not working Mom, issue, especially since we are all connected 24/7. Companies are becoming less flexible, not more, especially after Yahoo banned working from home. Men want flexibility as well, and statistics show more men than women telecommute, which defies the popular conception of working moms being the highest percentage of telecommunters. Until the conversation includes everyone, not just focuses on women, there will be no change in perception of the issue in the c-suite.

excellent assessment in The Saturday Essay on helping well-intentioned male managers support and guide their women employees who are potential leaders more effectively, December 2014. Came up in LeanIn materials submitted by members.

Lorenzo Grandi is founder of Startupbootcamp Amerstam. He outlines what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign. Ask: what do you or can you offer? Who is your competition? What has worked well for them? Feature a video - more likely to get funded if you have one. Although this is geared toward business, it has a lot of good tips and links to other blogs and sites (including Kickstarter and their help area), and is easy to understand and practical.

Article by Robert Whipple, on how to overcome distance in building trust. "How can a leader effectively use technology to build trust and cohesion in a decentralized team environment? * Clarify a strategy for how communication should be optimized for their particular team dynamic. * Ensure all team members are trained to use all the different communication methods properly and have the proper equipment to use it easily. * Have a well understood policy for when to use each type of communication. What sorts of communications need a permanent record? When is it important to be able to see a person, face to face? Some decisions are not clear cut, but it is important for the leader to teach the team what to consider when making the choice of how to communicate. * Model the behavior you wish to see."

a blog post by Maish Nichani with PebbleRoad, 12/21/2009 on collaboration. Because they work on developing the technology, they use examples of well-matched technology and developed collaboration cultures and one "idiot" poorly matched tech/culture example.

Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey of Rethinkinglearning have, with the input of those who took their Personalized Learning eCourse, revised the chart for the Stages of Personalized Learning Environments. They now have a chart for Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization, an adapted chart to transform learning to Personalized Learning, and the Stages of Personalized Learning Environments chart. This bookmark brings you to the page to download all 3 charts, as well as their report explaining the Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization chart.

Excellent catch, Lisa. I commented on Barbara's page about its utility and shared the cpsquare.org page with her on our inquiry last Fall and our use of Jane Hart's matrix on the evolution of the learning support professional's role.

Brian Anderson discusses continuous improvement using a Kata process (understand the direction or challenge; grasp the current condition; establish the next target condition; iterate toward the target condition). He discusses single and double-loop learning to achieve the Kata model. Good graphics of KATA as well as single and double-loop learning.

Although from a religious viewpoint, the authors Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons have a concise definition of single, double, and triple-loop learning as well as a great chart of the modes of learning each one requires.

Gregory Ciotti on writing well--great tips