Our Work

Collaboration for Collective Action

Leveraging twenty years of convenings, we collaborated with thought leaders like Lenny Lind, author of Virtuous Meetings: Technology + Design for High Engagement in Large Groups and Kevin Kelly, higher education thought leader and author of “Advancing Online Teaching: Creating Equity-based Digital Learning Environments” Together, we conceptualized how to catalyze collective action in the learn/earn ecosystem.

Our alliance with Todd Erickson, Principal of Collaboration Arts (formerly partnered with Lenny), enables us to design, facilitate, and accelerate convenings. These partnerships are integral in addressing the myriad challenges educational providers and employers face.

How Does It Work?

 

The proven methodology outlined in Virtuous Meetings uses design + technology + facilitation so all participants have the experience of working as an integrated team. We make the best use of the audience’s energy, ideas and time to transform what they can accomplish in collective action.

DESIGN + TECHNOLOGY + FACILITATION

Design

The focus of our designs is on “How will we engage a diverse audience for the best outcome?” instead of what will we show them. The design is created to give everyone a voice in the discussion.

 

A series of inquiries or collaborative activities are structured so a large group of people can achieve shared understanding – the same kind of processing common to small table discussions is possible when you combine collaborative design + technology + facilitation.

Technology

To solve challenges, the convening goal is to integrate the thinking, experience and passion of a broad range of people to a mutual solution or innovating focused and efficient actions. 

 

Technology allows participants to input their ideas anonymously.  It’s collected in a way that a design team can quickly distill statements for immediate presentation back to the group.  Technology enabled designs permits shifting from large group to small group and back again in minutes, not hours. 
In facilitated convenings without technology, no one knows what others are thinking.

Facilitation

An unbiased facilitator manages the design process and the interactions throughout the entire process. 

 

Distinct from a presenter, a facilitator works to understand participants’ concerns, unearth doubts or reservations that might go unresolved and gives control and ownership to the participants.
The facilitator listens to each stakeholder group/individual who may have distinctly different experiences and information about the shared challenge.  Trust emerges.

 

Most people attend a meeting instead of solving challenges. In our convenings, multiple departments or organizations solve challenges with participatory decision-making.

The combination of design + technology + facilitation results in a convergent outcome. The audience generates new insights, new understanding, and suggestions never thought of. Leaders, philanthropists, front-line educators, employers and government agencies embark on a transformative iterative process of change.

Success!

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