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What is the recipe to help people learn, remember, and take action?
“Learning new things for learning’s sake, without actually doing something new or different or better, is simply another form of entertainment.” – Endurance Learning’s Training Activity Cookbook by Brian Washburn & Lauren Wescott Our fall series kicks off on September 26 with training expert Brian Washburn leading “A Recipe for More Effective, Engaging Training Design.”…
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Thinking out loud about learning across time
How do we apply lessons from the past to make progress in the future when things in the present keep evolving? I’ve been thinking about this in the context of designing trainings, but it is applicable to fundraising, event planning, conference organizing, and nearly everything else we are doing in the social sector. It arose in…
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Show and tell: Projects designed to solve challenges
Summer is a great time to slow down and take stock of what we’ve been working on. Partners come to us with design challenges centered on how to help people take action on something. I want to share some of these challenges and solutions in case they might help you think about a challenge in…
Keep readingA conversation about the Nonprofit Learning Ecosystem
Truth be told, I have never worked in the corporate learning and development (L&D, as insiders call it) sector to know for sure how nonprofit learning differs. I have, however, spent hundreds of hours participating in L&D conferences, attending workshops, and listening to podcasts, and the reality of L&D programs in corporate settings feels very…
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People who manage people: Let’s set supervisors up for success
A free webinar on June 1 from 10am-11pm Pacific on how we can set people who manage people up for greater success The staff turnover that has happened over the past few years—and it still happening in many workplaces—is taking its toll on our nonprofit leaders. Executive Director’s are tired restaffing and then training new…
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Just don’t say the “S” word
Strategy. I said it. In one project, we danced around the word avoiding it valiantly because we didn’t want to scare anyone off. In two other projects, it became clear that the gerbil wheel of programming may need some “deeper thought and alignment” (did I avoid the word?). But no, we didn’t have time for…
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Lessons from a camel
And other reflections from Morocco Everything they say about time away is true. In March I was deeply fortunate to spend two weeks in Morocco with a group of college friends. I’ve been back for two weeks and think every day about how climate change is etching its impacts in every aspect of Moroccan life.…
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Learning styles are a myth… and why it matters to nonprofits
There’s so much magic at the intersection of adult learning and nonprofits. We can unlock our teams’ full potential when we look at how to reduce the information dump, tap into how spaced communications increase memory, or thinking about how our cognitive biases get in the way of making good decisions. (Got some free time? Explore…
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Boards ready to serve
On any pre-pandemic day, there were board members serving any nonprofit that might benefit from a clearer sense of their role. Two years of Zoom meetings challenged the best run organizations, and now a constant refrain among the nonprofits I work with is the need for effective, practice-changing board education. The research backs up the…
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Working Across Language and Culture
Early in my career, I taught English and social studies to students whose first languages spanned the globe. We understood that people learn best in their first language. Their second language acquisition builds off their first language knowledge. And language is nested within culture. Making education or information accessible to diverse audiences involved a curiosity…
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The power of curiosity
Curiosity is a powerful thing. It motivates people to learn. It inspires the hunt for information, leading to better decisions. It’s been shown to improve performance. A curious mind remembers more. (Look at the bottom of this article for the research behind these statements. When else today will you have the chance to read about…
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Nekya’s Two Cents
The Design Learning Spaces for Belonging series invites trainers, consultants, and learning leaders into conversations about strategies to ensure that everyone belongs in our learning spaces.
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