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My personal year of learning about evaluation

January 16, 2019 By Evaluation, Featured One Comment

For a number of years I have been studying and learning about evaluation. To be honest, working primarily in the non-profit world and working for social good and social change, evaluation always seemed to me to be the bugaboo that ruined the party. While we’re out there trying to create new things, innovate and respond to novel challenges, build relationships and community, and experiment and fail, evaluation loomed over us like a dark spectre, scolding us for being flakey or demanding that we be more grown up and more responsible. More than that, I had many experiences of evaluation being …

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Walking away from facebook

January 15, 2019 By Being, Culture, Democracy, Featured, Wordpress 15 Comments

Back in December I announced my intention to take a sabbatical from Facebook and see what would happen. There were a number of factors in that decision, and I’ll share what I learned and what I’m doing now.  I had a few reasons for wanting to take a break: Facebook was a huge time waster, and earlier last year I deleted the app from my phone (it and Messenger and Instagram track your life your life and serve you ads based on what you’ve been doing). As a result, I have spent a lot less time there, although I do …

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From the feed

January 14, 2019 By Complexity, Design, Evaluation, Leadership, Learning, Power 2 Comments

Five links that caught my eye over the holiday. New Power: How it’s Changing the 21st Century and Why you need to Know A book review from Duncan Green, whose work on power, evaluation, and complexity in international development, I much admire. Seems this new book invites a shift in thinking about power from quantity to flows: Old Power works like a currency. It is held by a few. It is closed, inaccessible and leader-driven. It downloads and it captures. New Power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It uploads, and it distributes. The goal with …

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Capacity building and scaling a participatory approach

January 3, 2019 By Art of Hosting, Collaboration, Evaluation, Featured, First Nations, Leadership, Learning No Comments

On the Art of Hosting email list last month, there was an inquiry posted by Monica Nissén asking about scaling the Art of Hosting as a leadership practice through levels of engagement. By “Art of Hosting” Monica means the four fold practice, which is the basic framework for leadership that gives our community a coherent centre of practice, around presence, participation, hosting others, and co-creation.  Monica asked whether hoping these practices would just go viral in a networked way is enough, and I replied with the following, tracing a couple of long term projects I have been involved in that …

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Gratitude to my partners

December 31, 2018 By Uncategorized 2 Comments

Several years ago I made it a goal to work wth more collaborators than clients. I think I did it again this year. These days there is a beautiful blend between those with whom I collaborate and create projects and those whom I call friends.   I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my partners this year, who make me way better at what I do.  Happy New Year to all. Caitlin Frost, my partner in business and life.Tenneson WolfBronagh GallagherCaroline RennieLily MartinsHelen KuyperAvril OrloffRowan SimonsenAmy LenzoPhil CassDawn FlemingAnnemarie TraversJennifer CharlesworthRebecca AtayaMatt MayerCheryl DePaoliRob SInclairSam BraddCorrina KeelingTrilby SmithKelly PoirierKris …

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