As professional facilitators, we have been thinking a lot about how to bring the important elements of in-person meetings online. While we expect the same outcomes when meeting online or in person, we know that the meeting is fundamentally different when we are working together without sitting together. Instead of simply repurposing our in-person plans for
Read more »Leadership Development
Working Together: Four Values for Collaboration
Being together feels a little different now. We needn’t be physically near to be together. Personally, I’m thrilled to find that my kids spend more time with their grandparents during isolation than they did before – it is possible to babysit a three-year old over FaceTime! In the same way, our society’s understanding of working together is changing in
Read more »Board Planning: The Annual Agenda
A board does critical work for their organization, yet many spend little time planning ahead. Sarah and I believe that every board should spend time each year planning for their work together. An organization’s staff does annual work planning, the board should too. An annual plan outlines what a group wants to accomplish in the
Read more »Affinity Mapping
What is affinity mapping? Affinity mapping is a simple and important tool for facilitative leadership. It is useful when you have a lot of ideas that you need to make sense of. Affinity mapping is a fancy term for categorizing and it’s a process that our brains do naturally all the time. Imagine you want
Read more »The Sticky Wall
We get so many questions about the sticky wall! People are amazed, confused, impressed, and skeptical all at the same time. Here are some of the most common queries. What is that? How does it stick? Our sticky wall is a sheet of thin nylon coated with 3M Spray Mount. Any paper sticks to the
Read more »Working Collaboratively
We’ve never had a client complain that they’re seeing too much of us. However, we often surprise them early on in our relationship with the depth of our collaboration. “Working collaboratively to achieve a common goal” is a core value at Aurora Consulting. In action, it means, all aspects of a project that can involve client participation, do.
Read more »Leading with Honesty, Humility, and Joy
At Aurora, we work hard to lead with honesty, humility, and joy. Of our three core values, we believe this one offers the most insight to who we strive to be in and through our work. We like it because it lets us be us. It reflects our vision for ourselves as leaders and our vision for how we interact with other nonprofit professionals.
Read more »What’s Your Piece of the Puzzle?
Much has changed in the world since 2002. I’m proud of the way people and practices in the nonprofit sector have adapted and grown. The best leaders in this sector are relentlessly generous, and I admire them greatly. It takes a special energy and strength of will to hold onto that spirit of giving and kindness in the face of intractable challenges. If someone asked me to identify essential changes I’ve seen during my career with Aurora, I would point to these shifts:
Read more »Four Tips for Leading from the Middle of Your Board
What does leadership look like when you aren’t in charge? We often do this in our professional and personal lives – managing up, down, and sometimes upside-down. This is what it means to “lead from the middle,” and the concept can be useful to board members.
Read more »Facilitative Leadership
Facilitation is an essential leadership competency. Facilitative leaders take a step back and nurture collaboration, capacity, and commitment with employees, colleagues, and stakeholders. With effective facilitation, groups can work together to assess a situation, analyze information, create a plan, and make group decisions that stick.
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