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Last week, I got a call from a radio host, inquiring about my being a guest on his show. During the call, he stressed that he is a great interviewer. For 20 minutes, he told me about his interviewing skills. In that whole 20 minutes, I was never given the chance to speak. I am [...]
When working with clients, we consultants often feel like we are up against a seemingly immovable force. That brick wall may show its face before we get the gig, and often ramps up even stronger once we are in the midst of the work. It shows up as can’t and no and stuck. It shows [...]
The other day, as we were thinking about what to do for a special holiday edition of the #NPCons chat, several things happened all at once. First, I finally looked at the Flip video Dimitri shot of the Intro to Consulting to Create the Future session I taught in Omaha last month. Normally we use [...]
In July of this year, Newsweek shared a study that gave heft to a topic that has been gaining traction for a while: The Creativity Crisis. With this month’s Making Change podcast interview at the Chronicle of Philanthropy that conversation has begun to expand specifically into the Community Benefit sector. The interview focuses on the [...]
Consultants bring two types of wisdom to their clients. The first is all about the content – governance, planning, resource development, social media, program development, etc. When consultants are creating an environment where clients can thrive, however, they are adding an additional layer of wisdom to whatever content they provide. That layer includes ways of [...]
In honor of back-to-school days, @KimberlyTso and @NancyIannone suggested we focus this month’s chat on professional development. And while there are all sorts of ideas about where we all learn and what we all learn, perhaps the most unspoken issue is how we prioritize learning. How do we make professional development a priority? How do [...]
My friend and colleague Garth Nowland-Foreman likes to say that “Sacred cows make the best hamburger.” So for this month’s chat, I went searching for a topic that would go well with fries! After putting out a call for Consulting Sacred Cows – the “shoulds” we are all taught as if written on stone tablets – [...]
Sometimes the voices at play in this sector sound like Gilda Radner’s character, Emily Litella, from the old days of Saturday Night Live. “What’s all this I hear about abundance?” These days, we seem to hear about abundance more and more: Building on strengths Seeing the glass as half full Asset-based work Seeing community potential [...]
The following is our best attempt to summarize at least some of the salient issues that arose in the intense and brilliant June 15, 2010 Tweet Chat. You can see the full archive of the chat here. Topic: Evaluating the Consultant’s Own Effectiveness Many thanks to Nick Perona (@rawr_nickzilla) for the hours it took to [...]
After the chat draws to a close, let’s use this space to continue the conversation and learning together. When the chat is over, we will a) assemble key points and post them here, and b) post the whole chat to the archive. Thanks for the lively discussion!