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The Power of the Negative

It's great to see a glimpse of the synergy that I hope to see emerge in the coming years from The Gilbert Author's Network: In The Power of the Negative, Asher Bey explores a topic previously raised by Burt Webb at The Nexilist's Notebook - how a single negative comment can have greater influence than a comparable positive comment. As with so many such phenomena, I am curious to know whether this is culturally universal. But there is no doubt in my mind that, whether you're a teacher, counselor, or advocate, it's tremendously important to be mindful of this dynamic. Posted: 8/7/07; 7:25:30 AM #

Methods for Facilitating Organizational Change, from The Change Handbook

The website for The Change Handbook maintains practical descriptions of a growing list of methods for facilitating change in organizations. On a single, easy-to-digest page, each description includes the method's purpose and intended outcomes, when to use it and when not to use it, the appropriate number of participants, the types of participants, the duration, a brief example, some historical context, and a link to more information. Some of these methods will be familiar to you and others are likely to be new discoveries. The list includes: Action Learning, Ancient Wisdom Council, Appreciative Inquiry, Balanced Scorecard, Collaborative Work Systems Design, Consensus Decision Making, Dynamic Planning Charrettes, Human Systems Dynamics, Idealized Design, Open Space Technology, Open Systems Theory, Scenario Thinking, Search Conference, Study Circles, Technology of Participation, , Whole Systems Approach, and The World Cafe. Posted: 8/7/07; 7:13:00 AM #

The Leadership Deficit

I just got around to reading the research behind Tom Tierney's paper on The Leadership Deficit in the U.S. nonprofit sector. The basic issue here is what is now fairly widely recognized as a severe and growing shortfall of senior staff. Tierney's suggested solutions include: invest in leadership capacity, improve management compensation, and explore new talent pools. The danger is that in the typical hand-to-mouth planning environment of most organizations, leadership development will continue to take a back seat, leading to a systematic weakness in the sector in the coming years. Posted: 8/7/07; 6:38:09 AM #