Systemic change is hard work. And, it doesn’t happen without courageous leadership. 

Last week I was in London, Ontario exchanging learnings regarding the how to’s of community building. The two days involved working with a stellar municipal team who’ve done a remarkable job of getting some 125 children, youth and family-serving organizations to commit to applying an integrated service delivery model.

While integrated, system-thinking services would seem like a no-brainer given that people don’t come in segregated departments, too often we’ve built systems to serve them as if they do.  Worse yet, these segregated systems become entrenched, bigger,… More Posted on 07-04-10

Leading Locally

Carrie’s decision to run for local election was prompted by frustration with a northern Town Council that too often overlooked social issues and quality of life in favour of economic development. As a young woman in her 20’s she also felt it was important to broaden the diversity in her community.

Upon retiring as a high school teacher, Bill made the decision to throw his hat in the ring in order to pursue a lifelong interest in politics. On the other hand, Tracey, an avid volunteer, had never even thought about running until someone asked her to consider it.

At a recent meeting, I listened as participants took turns providing updates on their work as it related to community capacity building. One government employee reported that a clear direction was being communicated at a number of different levels. The direction she and others were hearing? Action! Enough research and planning already!

Elected officials and senior staff were conveying that they wanted to see new or improved programs and initiatives delivering relevant and meaningful outcomes related to individual, social, economic and environmental well-being. Apparently, their current focus on research and conducting needs assessment was too often resulting in “analysis… More Posted on 06-21-10

It was a Good Plan

My husband and I are working hard to re-enter the real world as we’ve just returned from a fabulous vacation in Mexico. Having recently experienced a lack of life balance, simply anticipating the week had provided serious incentive for hanging on. However, being so busy also meant that while we had managed to book the flights and hotel, we hadn’t done much else in terms of planning our itinerary.  Or perhaps we had? 

If planning is addressing the gap in between where one is now, and where one wants to go, we did have a plan. We were stressed… More Posted on 06-14-10

Learnings from Youngstown and Avatar

Small town living and the movie Avatar might have something in common. 

Last week a colleague and I delivered a community building workshop in Youngstown, Alberta – population 190. Forty five people from a variety of backgrounds attended including business owners, elected officials, volunteers, and social profit and government staff.

As we were setting up for the workshop, Mayor Bob mentioned they had held a ceremony for a bumper crop of high school graduates in the same hall the previous week. Curious as to what “bumper crop” would translate to in a town of less than 200, I… More Posted on 05-30-10

Advocacy Doesn’t Mean Ankle-Biting

It might not have been ankle-biting but it wasn’t exactly an effective advocacy strategy either.

A number of years ago I was managing the Centre for Community Leadership at Niagara College during a period when the social profit sector was being subjected to a particularly brutal round of funding cuts. With little understanding of what advocacy really is, we took it upon ourselves to challenge regional government as one of the sector’s key funders. We asked for, and were granted, an opportunity to speak to a committee of Council to present our concerns regarding the sector.

We presented… More Posted on 05-23-10

Our Shared Value….Community Matters

There is wisdom in our communities.

That belief was reinforced for me last week after spending three days with a group of amazing local community leaders at a retreat designed to help them enhance the quality of life in their communities.  A unique mix of staff, volunteers, business owners, and elected officials, they came wearing different lenses and bringing diverse sets of skills and experience. But, as one participant pointed out, while the challenges and solutions within their respective communities were unique, their paths to success were in fact very similar. 

While I totally agreed with the statement, it… More Posted on 05-17-10

Public Policy Should Mean Doing the Right Thing

Are we scared to change, overwhelmed, or do we really think the challenges in our communities will go away if we ignore them? 

I’m currently reading Thomas L. Friedman’s book called “Hot, Flat and Crowded”. In it he makes the case that post 9/11 Americans have shifted to a defense mode that has resulted in them exporting their fears rather than their hopes. And, as he points out, it’s impossible to be visionary if you are in a defense mode. It has also meant Americans have neglected such critical issues as their health care system, crumbling infrastructure, immigration reform,… More Posted on 05-09-10

Building on our Assets

While many might not understand its significance, it was by far the most meaningful speaker’s gift I have ever been given.

I was presented with a beautiful eagle’s feather after delivering a workshop at an Indigenous community capacity building conference. The eagle plays an important spiritual role in aboriginal culture as it is the eagle that is identified as the messenger of the Creator and the creature who flies the highest and sees the furthest. I was told that when one receives an eagle feather, that person is being acknowledged with gratitude and respect.

It was another reminder… More Posted on 05-02-10

Being Open-minded about Spanning our Boundaries

While I like to think I’m pretty open-minded, this past weekend was a reminder of how much I still need to work at growing my receptiveness to boundary spanning.

I was honoured to be invited to take part in what was billed as an “Aboriginal Thought-Leaders Forum at the prestigious Banff Centre. The wisdom and experience of the predominantly academic participants, in combination with the inspiring mountain views, pushed me to a far greater receptiveness and understanding of narrative inquiry as a means or methodology that can be used to better understand and capture learnings.

To be honest,… More Posted on 04-25-10

On Being an Expert

As I am a reluctant speaker and presenter, one of the redeeming values of me delivering workshops at conferences is that I am often able to attend and learn from other people’s sessions. In a time of declining resources, it really is a free and often serendipitous kind of learning.

This week I sat in on a keynote address delivered by a vivacious and fun blonde who was presented as an expert able to assist participants with their management and leadership challenges. Without a doubt she knew how to engage an audience. She was cute and funny and moved… More Posted on 04-18-10

Just-in-Time-Feedback

Although I try really hard to avoid it, too often these days I find myself doing a little too much just-in-time, management-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. While often challenging, it only works because our team is pretty much a just-in-time workforce. And, while it means we’re nimble and entrepreneurial, it in turn is driving a need for just-in-time-feedback. The feedback we need in our day-to-day work, as well as in our individual performances, can’t always wait until the next meeting or the next performance review. Recently it became apparent that feedback sometimes even needs to happen on the fly.

We were on an Aboriginal… More Posted on 04-11-10

Challenge the Mundane

Maybe it’s because spring is a time of renewal and growth or perhaps I just need a dash of something different but this past weekend I found myself wandering through fabric stores. My overwhelming desire to create trumped the fact that I haven’t sewn in years.

According to many, everyone is creative and should be making the effort to nurture and celebrate it especially during World Creativity and Innovation Celebrations that occur every year from April 15-21st. 

It started as the result of a headline in the National Post in May 2001 that read, “Canada in Creativity Crisis”. Creativity… More Posted on 04-04-10

Learning for Learning’s Sake

It took more energy than I had anticipated and when it was over all I wanted to do was lay down and take a nap.

No, it wasn‘t the workout at the gym I should have been doing. Instead it was delivering a guest lecture for a class of first year university students studying leadership. While it might have been there, they definitely didn’t exude much energy or excitement about learning. I found myself practically tap dancing to keep them focused and resorted to sharing more stories than theory and asking questions just to keep them engaged.

It was… More Posted on 03-28-10

Messing with the Lyrics

It’s safe to say Stephen Harper and his team didn’t quite anticipate the brouhaha that greeted their recent speech from the throne promising to “examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem.’’

It’s no secret that the majority of Canadians were adamantly opposed to messing with lyrics such as “all thy sons command”. And, while I know I’m rowing upstream on this one and it makes me nervous to put it in writing, I have to admit I’m siding with Harper in thinking it might have been a good idea. After all, there is tremendous power in… More Posted on 03-14-10

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