Janet's Garden
Helping Great Ideas to Fly
Getting the Ball Rolling
Summary:I think I get it. Our key to dealing with the complex problems we face in our world today is through collaboration. But even so, on any given day, we don't have "collaboration" to deal with. That is just an idea. We have specific issues or pet projects or programs. How do we link the little to the large. How do we bring people along? How do we get the big picture ball rolling?
I've just come back from a great meeting with a service club in
my town. I "did" the guest spot route to getting the word out. The
people in the meeting were warm and friendly. I know many areÂ
also well connected in the community. The topic was introducing  a
youth group. I was there in the support role to the youth worker.
But I had a bigger agenda. Even with only two minutes on the
podium. IÂ wanted to connect the dots between the youth and the
idea of the healthy community. [...]
Do “Seedy Saturdays” grow collaboration?
Summary:I am part of a learning circle that is thinking about Shared Space in the Communities Agenda. A question came up. What is a cluster? What is a collaboration? I think that a cluster can emerge when number of independent actions and interests relate to something shared, even if serendipitously. A collaboration is a more purposeful effort to get something done that everyone agrees is important. Yet I’m thinking that a good collaboration derives strength from the power of a cluster. An event called Seedy Saturday helped me think about that. What made yesterday a successful event as a cluster of interests orienting toward a common vision?
I Â
spent my second day of February at
an event called Seedy Saturday. One way of looking at it was a good
way to spend a grey winter day, thinking of spring not far away.
But my way of looking at it was as an example of how interests can
come together in clusters and perhaps build scaffolds of common
experience that can then help collaborations to be built more
easily.What was it like?This Seedy Saturday is primarily an
occasion for seed swapping. It is part of, (ahem) a "budding"
movement that [...]
"To strive together". Is that all it takes?
Summary:Collaboration is cool, and everybody in the world of work is doing it, so it seems. But are they really? Sure, the word comes from Latin and means “to strive together” so in that sense everybody SHOULD be doing it. But the danger is that if everything is called collaborative, then nothing really is. So the question has been posed, what is real collaboration, not just warm fuzzies, but actually striving together for impact? I’m applying a self-check from the Wilder Research Center in Minnesota to a self identitifed collaboration in my home town, (one in my garden) and I don’t like what I see.
Last January, the 2007 theme of Communities Collaborating for
Impact was kicked off with a conversation between Mark Cabaj and
Paul Born. It was a pull no punches call.
Mark, for example, noted that a senior citizen once
challenged him that the word ‘collaborate’ was loaded for many in
his generation, since ‘collaborators’ in war torn Europe were shot.
Scott from Red Deer made the point that historically collaboration
was what families in communities did, so what is so darn new?
Several people [...]
Everyone loves a parade
Summary:Today I joined a throng who kicked off the 2007 United Way campaign in Calgary. The event was a parade through the downtown at lunch time. It got me thinking about the characteristics of collaboration.
I believe in serendipity. This morning I was on an errand in
downtown Calgary when I came across a gathering crowd. A little
investigation revealed it was the kick off parade for the 2007
United Way in Calgary. On a whim, and when an organizer passed me a
button and a pair of red gloves, I decided to join right in.
It wasn’t hard to choose a group to march with, among
the throng of organizations whose banners told of
work focused on youth at risk, children, families,
the homeless, the helpless, [...]
Facing up to Facebook
Summary:I’m a “method collaborator”. So rather than learn about Facebook, the new social networking tool that Louise introduced us to a few weeks ago, in a "wow" sort of way, I have climbed aboard. Here’s what I am doing with Facebook, and thinking about Facebook. After all, in CCI practice, we are asked to experience and "do", but also to reflect on experience. So here goes…
Did you know that there
are 2 million Canadian users on Facebook now?
And that
this lump of users is 10% of the whole Facebook
population all over the world?
Seems that in the on-line collaboration world, we
are punching above our weight by being so numerous. Beyond just a
factoid, this might
challenge
us as collaborators to see our power to innovate
quite differently.
But hold on!!
Here’s another interesting fact.
In Toronto there are half a million members, and
that means that 1.5 million [...]
