Potential Workshop Topics

Each of these Peer-to-Peer Learning workshops are designed as structured conversations, building upon a central topic and deepening into a process of creative discovery. Participants focus on a current professional idea or challenge; share stories, insights, best practices and new possibilities; and develop a clear action plan to reach a new outcome. These topics can be combined or changed to meet the need of the sponsoring group or organization. Time allotted depends wholly on the number of people participating, whether the conversation takes place during a single day or over multiple meetings, and the depth of exploration desired by the hosts.

• Building Clear and Effective Collaboration
  Organizations are increasingly called upon to describe their collaborative partnerships. At its best, collaboration is not simply sharing services, but rather groups of organizations working together to continuously improve their ability to meet a common purpose. This workshop will support collaborative members in developing clear agreements and in establishing structures to foster a more evolved and aligned approach to common work.

• Developing a Learning Organization
  Given the fast pace and continuous demands of non-profit work, organizations may support the concept of reflection and learning, but rarely develop the structure, culture and agreements to foster and harvest the insights offered from experience. With shared reflection, a team can work together to establish the internal structures, intentions and facilitation to enable the members to continuously learn from the work taking place. Ultimately a team fosters an organizational culture in which learning is continuously applied to the work at hand, creating an increasingly responsive institution.

• Finding the Storyteller’s Voice
  Each of us knows when we hear a story told well, or when we witness others being moved by a powerful story. While a good story should not be formulaic, it is possible to focus on several clear elements that can be combined for effective non-profit storytelling. In this workshop, we integrate the voices of the scientist, the marketing executive and the artist to identify key elements of an organization’s story, in order to present them to a diverse audience.

• Identifying, Sharing and Learning from Best Practices in the Field
  Within every field of service [i.e. education; charter schools; domestic violence services; foster youth services] each organization develops numerous tools, strategies and techniques that lead to high levels of effectiveness. Often, individuals within the same organization are not fully familiar with the innovative techniques utilized by colleagues. Even more commonly, multiple organizations seeking to conduct similar work do not have the benefit of utilizing the learnings from partner organizations. This workshop allows individuals and organizations to identify and distill specific practices that lead to highly effective outcomes.

• Innovative Planning, Strategy & Resource Development
  The ongoing existence of non-profit organizations – built upon imagination, determination, volunteer service and generosity – demonstrates that there are many ways of getting things done. As each organization becomes accustomed to their own successful means of operating, opportunities to identify or discover alternative strategies or resources can get missed. This workshop allows us to slow down, identify and shape new and unexpected avenues to success.

• Navigating Challenge, Change and Uncertainty
  Each of us face elements of our work that can be frightening, problematic or preferably avoided. Working together, we can lay out a path with clear strategies, milestones and opportunities or reflection to allow us to move safely into promising – even if uncertain – new territory.

• Story as a Tool for Discernment, Discovery, Integration and Innovation
  When we approach a non-profit organization or a public sector program as an unfolding story, we gain access to the most dynamic elements of the institution. We provide a participatory learning process to engage people in using simple tools to clarify, convey and build upon elements of each organization’s story

• Working from a Place of Inspiration and Essential Meaning
  Veteran non-profit professionals often enter the field from a place of inspiration, but increasingly express their commitment to the work by simply getting the job done. This workshop delves down into the spirit of the work we all engage in, seeking to revisit the source of what gives the work its meaning.