Upswell
is a convening organized by the national organization Independent
Sector to bring
together those working towards change in the social sector in the US. The
following are a few themes and tips I took from participating in this convening
recently:
For our
organizations:
To get different results we need to do things differently. One practical way of doing that is to get out of our own bubbles and traditional networks for hiring new members to our teams and seeking new partners.
We can get very distracted by innovation. Holding up and strengthening good efforts that are already happening can
I’ve been leading an initiative that’s now going into its sixth year and have thus been thinking about some of our learning around long term change. Long term change for organizations and society does not come quickly and takes a lot of on-going commitment through the inevitable ups and downs. Here are some of things we’ve been learning as we head into our sixth year:
Leadership commitment – Organizations and networks that have been most successful with making significant changes, and most importantly increasing their impact due to these changes, understand that it is, and plan for it to be,
This post has been co-authored by Bonnie Koenig and Alyssa Smaldino
Last year we wrote about the importance of multi-generational dialogue. We noted a number of considerations to help make these exchanges effective including: two-way dialogue; ensuring that the approach is inclusive and intersectional; strong facilitation; and all participants make a genuine commitment to listen and understand.
Recently we facilitated a workshop for nonprofit leaders to delve further into the practicalities of engaging across generations, and integrating these approaches into organizational practices and cultures.
Some of what we discussed included:
The concept of a ‘generation’ has become fluid and often
A couple of years ago Bonnie wrote a series of posts on how our concept of networking has changed in a more globally connected world. We are continuing to see an increase in global networking and in the creation and expansion of new networks. Two new efforts provide interesting examples of how some of these new networks are being created and some of what is being learned.
Civil Society and Testing Change
The Civil Society and Testing Change project is a collaborative effort among a network of organizations and individuals interested in …
