Archive for the ‘Training Design’ Category

Apr

2011

24

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Promotions, Training Design

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What’s Your Calling?

Flickr Photo by SMEXbeirut

At SXSW and facilitating a panel called  A Global Discussion About Networked Nonprofits and Free Agents,  I introduced myself with this photo of me and Lena, the master trainer from Yemen for the E-Mediat Project.   The photo shows us modeling “shoulder to shoulder” learning.  Told the room that nonprofit capacity building was my calling.

Later,  Michael Hoffman, who was in the audience,  introduced me to his friends at “The Calling” and they suggested  I write a guest post about anything I’m passionate about!    So, here it is …

Last summer, at Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Bootcamp, Chip Conley was the keynote speaker.   He is the author of  of ‘PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow’, and founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality
He spoke about leadership from the heart.    He applies Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to his career in business and his leadership style.

One of the many inspiring things he shared in his talk was the phrase:  “You can have a  job, career, or calling.”    It resonated.

His comment made me reflect over the past 32 years of working in the nonprofit sector.   I had not planned to work in the nonprofit sector.   In 1979, I was in music school as a classical flute performance major.    I found myself more interested in what was going on backstage and than on stage – and followed my passion to working as an arts administrator of  large and small nonprofit arts organizations in all different areas, including executive director of a small chamber orchestra.    My passion was the opportunity for learning and that’s what motivated me.

In 1992, I discovered the Internet, Well, and was hired by the New York Foundation of the Arts to be the Network Weaver for a network for artists, Arts Wire.   In my interview,  I shared that I didn’t know a modem from microwave, but that I had the passion and curiosity to learn and teach others.  They hired me and it turned into a decade of learning and teaching others (artists, arts organizations, and arts educators) how to integrate this technology into their work and organizations.

I had a chance to collaborate with every type of art form, arts management programs,  arts education, and individual artists.   It was always peer learning – I’d share about the technology and they’d teach me about their work.  I learned an incredible amount from collaborating with arts teachers.

Since I believe that it is important to learn from adjacent practices,  I started engaging with the nonprofit technology community in the late 1990′s when it was just a handful of people.  In the early days, the nonprofit technology community  was a small community of that was generously shared its knowledge and skills.  (The same values hold true today over at NTEN).

In 2000,  a nonprofit technology colleague introduced me to blogging and set up a blog on his server.     Later,  he introduced me to Typepad where I started Beth’s Blog in 2003.     My blog started as my Trainer’s Learning Journal – a place to jot down practice and content related to building nonprofit technology capacity!

I feel blessed that what I have gotten paid to do over the past 32 years is something that I love, I’m passionate about, and highly motivated to do.

The above photo is one of my favorites.  The E-Mediat project where  Zoetica was hired to design and deliver the train the trainer’s session.   It was a pleasure to work with experienced trainers – the energy and new ideas were fantastic.  The photo captures a improvised moment in one of the sessions of modeling  “Learning Over Each Other’s Shoulders” as Nancy White likes to call it.

I first heard the phrase ten years ago from a long-time nonprofit technology colleague, Andrew Gianni.  He described the method as an alternative to technology lab classroom skills-based trainings.   His definition:

A style in which the trainer acts as a peer to the student, physically sitting with the student and explaining technical concepts simply. There is a great psychological benefit to this style of training because it helps eliminate notions of superiority and inferiority, and brings the teacher to the same level as the student.

Sticky Note from TechSoup Global Summit (click on image for wiki)

As a trainer and coach,  my experience has been in the “doing” or delivery.   Now, I finding my interests more in the “being” or  train the trainers or process vs content.     This lends itself to a more networked way of working, although it isn’t easy.

Is your work a job or career or is it a calling?

Note from Beth: This post is from the blog tour on the What’s Your Calling? Facebook Page You can subscribe for a chance to win a Calling Dream Kit including $200 in Amazon.com gift credit to buy supplies you’ll need as you pursue your calling, a DVD and poster of The Calling, and an hour of coaching to help plan your project and the chance to share your calling with the community.   This post is cross posted on the site here.

Apr

2011

05

Category:

Capacity, Training Design

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Reflections: Center for Health Leadership Social Media Workshop

The Networked Health Organization

View more presentations from Beth Kanter

I was honored to be included as one of the instructors for the  Center for Health Leadership (CHL) at UC Berkeley 21st Century New Media Training Series, designed for health professionals to learn how to strategically use new media for public health practice and health care.      I couldn’t resist the opportunity to facilitate workshops in the context of a leadership program.

My last deep dive into social media and health care was when I delivered this keynote for a health care organization  so this was an opportunity to see how the field has progressed.  But the best part was the chance to work with Ellie  Schindelman, director of education, who is a dynamic trainer – on the design of the program.  I got to learn a few new tricks and continued to polish approaches already in my toolbox.

Some reflections:

Health Organizations: Social Media

View more presentations from Beth Kanter

1.    Deep Analysis of Your Audience: I always (try) to do a thorough participant assessment before I teach any workshop or do a presentation.   I conduct a survey that collects information that I can analyze against a maturity of practice model I’ve created called “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly.”

I had a fairly large group and an excellent space to work in.  So, I was able to get folks to self-assess where they were on the on the model and then group themselves in the room.   For each group,  I had them create a spectra-gram and interviewed them and gave advice on next steps.    Having a metaphor,  made it easy.   For example, I asked the runners to line up from “just bought my nikes” to “training for my third 30 mile marathon.”

2.    Living Case Study Technique: Assessment also helps find examples from the participants themselves.   User-generated content for training can be powerful and also make participants more open to subject matter.  I play a little PowerPoint Karoke.  I pull out a few screen captures and then do an interview with the organization in front of the room.    This typically unpacks more insightful information and nuggets of wisdom.

For example,  Ana-Marie Jones from Card Can Help shared how her small agency has implemented an effective social media strategy.    I was able to capture some of her story with a FLIP camera.

3.   Role Playing Simulation For Making ROI Argument: . Many nonprofits are often faced with the question, “What the value of social media” from senior management. I introduced some concepts about Social Media ROI and steps to making a case. Then I used the Salt Lake County Public Health Department Social Media Case Study to do a simulation.

Participants worked in groups to identify the benefits, tangible/intangible value, and financial analysis. Next, we did a role-play. I pretended to be the skeptical executive director of the Salt Lake County and had called a meeting with staff person implementing social media to ask why they were spending so much time using social media when I thought it was clearly a waste of time. I had a brave volunteer from the audience and we did a role play.

These participants clearly understood the concepts of making a ROI case – and how to transfer those techniques to social media.

4.   Audience Check-Ins and Real-Time Curriculum Tweaks: As a trainer, it is important to feel the room and verbally check-in with participants.    Since this was an all-day workshop,  after lunch – I asked participants to reflect on the morning and jot down the one burning question they’d like answered on a sticky note.   These were posted on the board when they were finished.

I was able to do a quick content analysis and compare against the rest of the agenda to make sure I covered what the audience wanted without derailing my entire workshop.

You also need to use these techniques if you’ve planned too much content and you’re running out of time.  Ellie taught a great trick.   You tell participants you might not have time to cover all the content.  Then ask them to review the agenda and then ask for feedback on what they want to hear most.

5.   Active Learning Through Play: Another trick that I learned from Ellie was having toys on the tables for participants to play with.  In this case, it was pipe cleaner.    I used the pipe cleaner in a couple ways.  I needed to distinguish between those who were hands-on with social media and those who were not.  So I asked them to create a pipe cleaner decoration for their name tag if they were hands-on.     Also, freely encouraging people to play with a small objective on the table might help some learners pay attention and not check out.   In Beirut, we did another version of this by adding a ball to toss to each other while we were discussing a topic.

6.    Creative Use of Energizers:  Avoiding the 3:00 PM My Brain Is Full Slump: No matter how engaging your content or instructional technique is – people get tired towards the end of a whole day of training. That’s why you need energizers. Movement can really help.

I had participants do the chicken dance and gave away prize for the most creative chicken dance. (I learned this particular energizer from Naeema Zarif in Beirut last month.  It is a well known fact that exercise helps you think better.  (And I know a few participants are very relieved that I didn’t have my FLIP camera handy)

All in all, a great learning experience for me and it was fun!   I got many new ideas for a workshop and peer learning program I’m designing on social media ROI and measurement.

Feb

2011

04

Category:

Guest Post, Training Design

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Guided Visualizations at a Social Media Strategy Workshop

Flickr Photo by El Dave

Note from Beth: As a trainer,  I’m constantly on the prowl for new ideas for activities and exercises that get beyond death by PowerPoint.    After spending a lot of time developing trainer of trainers curriculum, it is also fun to incorporate new ideas.      I’ve looked to meditation and reflection practices before – in fact – last year during a guest instructor appearance in Jennifer Aaker‘s “Power of Social Technology” class at Stanford,  I had the class do a reflection activity that involved eating a Hershy kiss.

When colleague Dan Cohen told me of his recent experience using guided imagery in a social media workshop, I thought it was definitely valuable to share with others.

Seeing Social Media Success Before It Happens by Dan Cohen

A powerful lesson hit home during a recent two-day training.

Before starting work on developing a social media plan, a communications plan, or even just pieces of it, take some deep breaths. Then, in that quiet moment that follows, think about what fantastic success might look like.  Examine all the reasons it was such a success.

After you do all that — and only then — set off to make it happen.

Ironically, and what made that lesson so powerful, is that I wasn’t at the training program on social media to learn, but to conduct it with Ana-Marie Jones of CARD – Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster. Our trainees represented a cohort of 50 health and public health officials connected with the UC Berkeley School for Public Health – Center for Health Leadership.

As you might expect, the 16-hour program covered all the basics of social media: from how and why to write a social media plan, to a review of the major social media tools, including LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook and WordPress.

When it came time for an afternoon session on using Facebook to build organizational capacity, we all took a pause. Berkeley Prof. Ellie Schindelman, the host of the event, said she wanted to approach things a little differently.

Instead of jumping right into the topic, she decided that the session should begin with a guided visualization.  Ellie thought a moment of serenity in the heat of a very intensive training and cohort-building workshop might be a good idea. Whatever the participants were expecting as they returned from lunch, there was Ellie telling them to tune everything out, close their eyes and imagine it was January 2012.

She asked the group to think about what their social media usage might look like within their organizations.  She asked then to think who their allies were.  She asked what tools they thought made the most impact over the “past” year.

I admit that when I’d first heard Ellie suggest this approach, I was skeptical. However, I figured I might as well try the exercise myself to see if it could help me solve a problem that had been stumping me back at the office.

I have become a big believer in social media, and am convinced it can help advance the social change work that binds all of us in the Communications Network.  However, in a true “Doctor, heal thyself” moment, I recognized that some of my colleagues at FCP haven’t been gravitating toward it as quickly as I would like them to do.  We face the same organizational challenges that everyone does – too many demands on our time and balancing the tactical vs. strategic dilemma for engaging with these tools.

In my visualization, I saw a path to empower each of my FCP colleagues to “own” a topic or an issue, and develop a unique voice and expertise.  For example, our staff guides a coalition in California to preserve the state’s investment in health and human services. While our point person continually works to empower advocates to stay on message, she has not used social media tools to broaden the reach of these messages.  It was powerful to visualize how a year from now we could be using these tools to create a statewide echo chamber among a vast network of opinion leaders.

It wasn’t rocket science, but a moment of peace helped me see a new way to solve the problem.  Once I could see what success looked like, I started to work backward on how to implement the vision.

I wasn’t the only one, who felt that way either. A participant said to me afterward, “I liked it. If you can see it in your mind, you can create it in your life.”

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised.  A long time ago, I had a colleague who would visualize successful pitches to the toughest reporters.  He would imagine the conversation before it happened, see the path he had to take to be successful, and then implement it in real time.  It was astounding.  Seeing success before it happened made him more confident when he picked up the phone.

Ironically, even in today’s world, where the velocity of information is overwhelming, taking a moment to breathe and to think about what success looks like can make a huge difference before actually jumping in and doing the work.

Don’t just take my word for it. Here are the questions Ellie Schindelman posed–try them on yourself or better yet, partner with a social media skeptic at the office

I invite you to close your eyes, get comfortable, and take 3 long, deep breaths…

Now, imagine that it is January 2012.

Last year at this time, you decided to focus on one communication goal for your organization – such as increased visibility, community engagement, advocacy, or education. Then you decided on one social media strategy to help you meet that goal, focusing on one audience.

Take a couple of minutes to think about this goal and social media strategy that you selected.

You are at your office today, and thinking about how everything has turned out so well with your social media strategy. Look around your organization.

What is different today from last year?
How are you using this social media strategy?
Who is working on this and what are they doing? How do they feel about it?
How do you feel about what is happening?
How do you know your plan is working?
What evidence do you see of the impact of your social media plan?
What do you hear from staff, clients, customers, your boss, your funders?

Take a few more minutes to look around and observe what is different in your organization, feeling really, really good about what you have accomplished.

Now, take 3 more long, deep breaths, open your eyes, and write down what you saw in your visualization.

This blog post was originally published on the Communications Network Blog.

Dan Cohen is the Principal and Founder of Full Court Press Communications – a firm dedicated to providing strategic communications counsel to foundations and others working to make social change.

You can find more social media training resources here on the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Center for Health Leadership website.

Nov

2010

21

Category:

Civil Society 2.0, Experimentation, Networked Nonprofit, Training Design, Transparency

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14 Comments

The Networked Nonprofit in Kenya

Ushahidi Board Meeting at iHub in Kenya

I’ve just spent the last couple of days in  Nairobi, Kenya because I’m a board member of an NGO based here, Ushahidi, an organization that builds tools for democratizing information and increasing transparency.  I decided to stay a few extra days and facilitate a workshop on the Networked Nonprofit for local NGOs.   This blog post includes some reflections about my first visit to Africa, the importance of face-to-face meetings and building relationships, and some thoughts about how some of the ideas in the Networked Nonprofit transcend  boundaries.

Ushahidi has had impressive growth over the past 18 months and most visible was its work with Haiti.  What started as an ad hoc group of volunteers is growing into an impressive organization building out a platform that can be deployed for different purposes, from election monitoring to disaster relief.    (Even in unintended and surprising ways). I also learned more about crowdmap, a hosted version of the  Ushahidi code – in other words you don’t have to install it on your own web server.

I’ve had the honor of serving on the Ushahidi board for almost a year and have known two of Ushahidi’s co-founders, Ory Okolloh and Erik Hersman, for several years. Ushahidi’s board, like its staff, work together virtually across many time zones using different online tools for meetings and collaborative work. While virtual tools make it possible for a far-flung team to work with or for an organization that has global impact, I am reminded about the importance of “face time” for effectiveness – there is simply no other way to build relationships.   One of the things I like best about being on the Ushahidi board is that it was acceptable for us be also on our laptops and smart phones – and even tweet during the meeting.    Ethan Zuckerman, fellow board members, shares his impressions here.

iHub one of the best ever co-working technology spaces I've been in ...

The meeting and the workshop I facilitated took place in iHub, an open innovation space.  The space is available to any tech person in Nairobi to use once they become a green member.    With over 1900 members, the space offers a connection point and co-working space for the community, a fast Internet connection, lots of light, great views, and fantastic latte!    I thought I had died and gone to heaven.   I need to find a space like this in Silicon Valley for 2011.

Jessica Colaco places books in the iHub Community Library

In addition to the Networked Nonprofit,  I brought copies of books from colleagues that might be of interest to local NGOs. This includes:   Mary Joyce’s Digital Activism,  Charlene Li’s Open Leadership,  Jennifer Aaker’s DragonFly Effect, and  Carol Cone’s Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding.   Jessica Colaco who is the manager poses for a photo.

Just to illustrate how spaces like iHub act as connectors, while I was setting up for the workshop, Tiffany von Emmel, a colleague from San Francisco was in the room!  She kindly live tweeted the workshop and took some photos.

Photo by Tiffany von Emmel - MissionFish

I facilitated a workshop on the Networked Nonprofit, covering the concepts of social culture, simplicity, and transparency.  I also hung out at the iHub and held “office hours” for folks who wanted to work one-on-one and go into more technical depth in using the tools.     I was curious if these concepts were adaptable or relevant for NGOs in Kenya as it was my first time presenting these ideas in Africa.   When I work outside of the US, my process is to listen and observe as much as possible.     I also do not over prepare so I can be more flexible in the delivery and spark conversations around what is relevant or what isn’t.

The Networked Nonprofit In Kenya

View more presentations from Beth Kanter.

It is always eye-opening to work on the social web from developing countries and realized just how spoiled we are in the US with fast and plentiful bandwidth.    It requires a different way of working.  I was most surprised how many online applications that I use daily in the US were slow loading and impossible to use.  I was also surprised that Facebook loaded easily, even posting photos.

I did a lot of adjusting in real time and was very transparent with the group about this idea might get “lost in translation” or “not be relevant” and that’s okay.    I designed share pair exercises that incorporated reflective questions about translation.   A few learnings:

  • Just Mibli (2)Words:  I have been using an icebreaker called “Just Two Words.” I ask people to share what is top of mind when they think about social media and their NGO.   I asked for the words in English or Swahili.    The themes that emerged were identical to what I hear in the US, generally falling into these three themes:  community, connections and concerns.  Privacy and security were brought up, but I also heard the phrase “time .”   I asked for clarification and the person indicated that social media takes a lot of time.  I mentioned that in the US, we use the phrase “time suck” this was met with laughter.    The idea of social media potentially being a huge time waster if not done effectively resonated with the group.
  • Cultural Norms Around Instructional Delivery: I had learned that instructional delivery in Kenya tends to be very formal, mostly the “sage on the stage” lecture approach.  I don’t teach that way.  I favor a participatory approach with full room discussion.   I had a wireless mic that was passed and included share pairs with reflective exercises.   I felt some discomfort in the room at first, some hesitancy to speak up – there were some long silent pauses.    Some of this also might have to do with gender roles.   But after a couple of share pairs, the group warmed up and several folks took the mic and shared their ideas    Needless to say I learned an enormous amount.
  • What Surprised Me: On top of a concern that some of the ideas/content might not be relevant, I was worried that a lot of my verbal and visual humor might not translate either.  And, terrified that I might inadvertently be insulting or appear rude.   Humor  is a natural part of my presentation style – so it came out.   I surprised that people laughed at the some of the same  jokes that they do in the US.   Some concepts and ways of expressing them can be universal.   While I didn’t do this on purpose,  people thought my creative pronunciation of Kenyan names  and understanding Kenyan accents was funny.

Translating Networked Nonprofits Ideas Into A Kenyan Context

  • Learning from Mistakes: I talk a lot about the importance of learning from failing and rapid experimentation of small pilots using social media.  I noticed that this resonated really, particularly the MomsRising approach of using  “Joyful Funerals.“  I set up the idea using the “I Can Make Better Choices Chair” photo that my son’s kindergarten class teacher used to teach the children self-reflection.     I guess the idea of children needing to learn reflective practice is a universal because there was a lot of laughter in the room.     Later, in the market,  I saw this beautiful brass chair necklace (which I purchased).
  • Fortress and Sponge: We use these metaphors in the book to discuss different approaches to transparency – with the fortress being less transparent.   The image I used is one of a Russian fort.   I asked the group if anyone worked for a fortress (some people raised their hands) and I also asked if those NGOs were ones from the US or new ones created in Kenya.  (Response was laughter).   The sponge metaphor was not quite right because I realized we were pretty fair from the Ocean.  Nonetheless, this ideas prompted an interesting discussion about social media policy for NGOs.
  • Simplicity: The concept of not having to do everything and focusing on what you do best and network the rest resonated.  I learned later that simplicity is a very African concept.    When I asked folks what they could do less of,  I heard what I usually hear in the US: meetings.    Perhaps there should be a global law to ban meetings in NGOs of more than 30 minutes!    One participant’s takeaway was a wonderful translation of the simplicity concept:  “Do less of the unnecessary to do more of the necessary.”

@inspireharvest one of the book winners

Book Giveaways

International travel has some restrictions on the weight of your suitcase, so I only could pack 10 books to giveaway (I was not able to find a sponsor to cover the luggage fees to bring a case of books) and I wanted to leave some room to bring books from colleagues.   As part of the book raffle,   I had people write down something they could put into practice on an index card and we did a drawing.  Here’s a couple of the takeaways:

  • Share more about what we’re doing on social networks to become less of fortress
  • Identify specific, measurable outcomes for how we want to use social media to support our mission
  • Have our organization become more like a Sponge
  • Create a “I Can Make Better Decisions” chair for our office
  • Identify conversation starters with our audience to engage them more on social networks
  • Encourage our audience to share their stories, not just tell people what we do

Shoulder-to-Shoulder Learning

After the formal part of the workshop,  I just hung out at iHub and engaged in a little “shoulder-to-shoulder” learning.  Huddled around our laptops,  I answered some nitty gritty questions about tools, shared resources (like the local TechSoup Global partner) and got to learn quite a bit about some NGOS in Kenya are putting social media strategies into practice – their successes and challenges.  I find this quiet observation of how people interact with social networking sites one of the best ways to learn about how different cultures approach social media.    I made some good friends like Zawadi Nyongo, a feminist social justice consultant and Kamau Sammy, who is starting an NGO to work with kids in Kenyan slums.


In this video, Wambui Gicheru and Njern Wangethi from African Woman and Children Feature Service and Ephraim Muchleau of the Media Council of Kenya talk about using Twitter for the organizations.

All in all, I loved my time in Kenya.  I did get to spend an afternoon seeing some of the local sites, including the Elephant orphanage and Giraffe reserve where I got a warm welcome from one of the residents.  I  hope to return and spend more time here.

Nov

2010

13

Category:

Training Design

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Reflections from Monterey Community Foundation Workshop

As part of my work as Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation this year, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of models for workshop delivery and curriculum for social media. This workshop, graciously hosted by the Community Foundation of Monterey County with support from the Packard Foundation, was a two-part session. The first session, facilitated by colleague Daniel Cohen, focused on creating a communications strategy.  The second session, a month later, was focused on social media strategy to support the overall communications strategy.

It was fun to feature local participants as living case studies.      Here’s an example from the Food Bank of Monterey County, a Lucile and David Packard Grantee that I’m coaching this year.

They launched their page slowly and had about 100 fans.    Earlier this week,  TysonFood Hunger Relief blog offered to donate 100 pounds of food product for every “like” on their page.    They’ve increased their fan base by 4 times or over 400 now – and the odds are good that there will be a truckload of food delivered to the Food Bank on October 4th.    What’s nice about this approach is that it isn’t a contest and the only “winners” are the people who are served by the Food Bank.  The very first step is getting attention and getting people to “like” or join your Facebook page.    There are many creative ways to promote your Facebook page to promote your page to your target audience and get them join or like.

Community Foundation of Monterey

View more presentations from Beth Kanter.

The resources can be found here.

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