I work at the intersection of learning, nonprofits, and leadership. I am a teacher, instructional designer, and nonprofit person who has worn every hat possible. I regular write, speak, and consult on learning strategy, design, and leadership.
Brazilian educator and sociologist Paulo Freire wrote in Pedagogy of Hope: “Through the process of reflection, individuals may become conscious of the realities other than… Read More »“The future is something we build in the present.”
Imagine an in-person workshop. The speaker is setting up materials in the front of the room, organizing her props, and making sure she has her… Read More »The Producer Role: Ensuring Online Success
Colleagues across the country are thinking about converting their in-person conferences into online learning events. I offer these reflections on how we implemented this shift… Read More »Virtual Conference Reflection: How did it go?
Change will come when we enlist our research-based, strategically-aligned learning resources in support of the goals we have for our organization and sector. Nonprofits are… Read More »Why have a learning strategy
Margaret Schulte and I explain instructional design in our new e-book “How to Design for Action.” We define the term in the introduction, which I… Read More »What is instructional design?
After seven years in my current position and five years writing about learning in the nonprofit sector, I am changing my focus.
I work with a learning team that inspires me everyday. I dedicate this end-of-year reflection to them.
Two years ago, my family bought land north of the city. Laboring with hand tools quickly proved futile, so we acquired a tractor. The tractor’s job is to push dirt around to flatten the land for a future orchard. The challenge is that the dirt is filled with large rocks, glacial erratic boulders to be precise, so it is hard to push that dirt around. It would be a lot easier if we could grab the boulders from above and pull them up and out of the dirt.
Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits (FUN) launched five years ago this week at the Washington State Nonprofit Conference. We shared the five buckets of basic nonprofit… Read More »Five Years Later: Lessons from FUN
In 2019, I co-authored an ebook on how to make conferences more learningful.
Love is a radical word that is both weak and bold, vague and crisp, all at the same time. It’s a word I lean on when no other seems to fit. What is the right word to describe the feeling in a room when people become so motivated by something they just heard or learned that they form connections that transcend that time and space? The word, I believe, is love.
We remember the songs from Mary Poppins, but not from its sequel. Why? There is a good reason.