I love streets, healthy cities, and all the policies and research behind them. To get my fix of news, I’ve been reading The Direct Transfer‘s daily Overhead Wire newsletter (subscribe here). I was honored when Jeff Wood, the guy behind those things, invited me to be the featured guest on his StreetsBlog Talking Headways podcast. It was […]
A couple weeks ago, I was prepping for a workshop. I knew I wanted to include a modified Open Space session at the end of the day. The catch was that I’d never facilitated or even participated in an Open Space session, and I was nervous about faking it in a room with 30 […]
I’ve been experimenting with ways to have interactive, relationship-building meetings for attendees spread across the country. One of my favorite so far combines a mix of video calls, Google Forms, phone calls and chat boxes.
These one-time events are an opportunity to get practical and imaginative help from network members immediately. It’s perfect for people tackling a challenge or new project to get a bit of insight from peers who have useful perspectives or who have done the same thing before. Each event has an “assistee” who shares a challenge, […]
You may know that I also blog over at streets.mn, and I just posted a three-part series on rental housing markets, affordable rental housing and related policy. (Three posts so far, it may grow). It was inspired by things happening in my back yard: a lot of hand-wringing about affordable housing, concerns about luxury buildings forcing up […]
As we design our new network, I’m very focused on learning. I’m reading books, reading blogs, asking friends, piloting ideas on groups where I volunteer, hiring a coach, and discussing challenges with colleagues. Because we are inventing something new, I also want to learn from what we do. I’m encouraging activities that move our work […]
As we develop NEWHAB, we’re using short cycles of doing followed by reflection to quickly try out strategies and either make them better or decide they aren’t the right ones for us. Six months ago, we started our second round of “work groups,” having learned from some struggles on the first set. When I solicited co-conveners then, […]
I identify as an anthropologist, among other things. Anyone who ever studied anthropology, me included, needs an answer to, “What job can you get with an anthro major?” In jokes about useless majors, it ranks up there with art and philosophy. In 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott took on the whole discipline, noting, “We don’t […]
Supporting networks, or volunteers, or project teams, I find it’s critical to teach people how to use the tools we have effectively. I try to sneak tips into e-mails and to model good habits — hard when you’re in a hurry! I’ve been leaning on Kathy Choh of Management HQ to help me with this. She provides […]
Something I love about networked working is that it’s enough to Just Do Something. Almost anything. Preferably in person. It’s human to want to plan things out, to get them right. It’s so easy to wait until we have time to do it right to do anything. Luckily, there are plenty of examples around of just […]