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Communities of practice
27
Aug
August 27, 2019

Communities of Practice: a design guide (PDF)

This week I’d like to share a resource that a client shared with me… (Thank you, Lee!) Community of Practice Design Guide The link above takes you to a practical and simple guide developed by Darren Cambridge, Soren Kaplan, and Vicki Suter (2005). It explains what a Community of Practice (CoP) is and offers practical...
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21
May
May 21, 2019

Follow the Questions: 5 tips for strengthening your questioning muscles

[5-minute read] Follow the questions – they will lead you into the future. For most people, facts and certainties are more comfortable than questions. We want answers, clear direction, a way through the tangled jungle of our lives, and the grey areas of our organisations. But certainties don’t take us to new places. Questions do....
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14
May
May 14, 2019

Honouring our legacy & making change (exercise)

[4-minute read] Recently, I worked with a new client that was older than most — approaching its centenary. Its leaders, managers, staff and other stakeholders wanted to figure out how to remain relevant and cutting edge for another hundred years.  This post shares one of the steps we took together en route to figuring out their...
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02
May
May 2, 2019

Briefing and contracting consultants

[3-minute read] You may already have an effective way of hiring outside support people (consultants/contractors), but for those who don’t, or want to rethink their approach, here are a few quick thoughts… Steps 1. Know what you want to achieve What are the outcomes/results you want from the work? And what are the deliverables/outputs (if...
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23
Apr
April 23, 2019

Self-diagnosis (& briefing consultants)

[4-minute read] When leaders or managers approach organisation development (OD) consultants, facilitators or other kinds of helping professionals, they will often name an issue or problem and then request a fairly specific solution. The classic example is: ‘The team is not quite gelling and morale is a bit low.’ ‘I want a team building exercise!’...
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17
Apr
April 17, 2019

Crisis and development (Part 2)

[4 minute read] Facing crisis When we face crisis in our lives or in our organisations, we tend to ask: ‘Why is this happening?’ And perhaps even, ‘Why is this happening to me!?’ The first question can be useful, but it’s also risky to get stuck in a forensic exercise when the situation demands a...
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03
Apr
April 3, 2019

The power of conversation: Part 2

[ 4-minute read ] Conversation is a generative process: it’s about building something new together. And, conversations are emergent things: a flow of ideas, thoughts, feelings and concepts arise and join up, to form some new picture of the topic, of people’s experiences and insights, of possible solutions and next steps. Conversation is about building...
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22
Mar
March 22, 2019

Are we in balance?

[ 3-minute read ] The Three Bubbles Model The idea is simple: teams, organisations — and even events (like workshops or conferences) — work best if we find the right balance between three key elements: Task – WHAT we are here to do; what the work is about (purpose, goals, issues, content). Process – HOW...
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About these resources

These articles are for people who work with and in organisations of any kind – as leaders, managers, formal or informal change agents. If you are trying to work more consciously and effectively with change in your organisation, I hope you’ll find some ideas here that make your work (and your life) a bit easier, and your organisation a more effective, creative and positive place to be.

If you would like to engage around these ideas, ask a question or discuss the possibility of working together, please drop me a line.

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