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Top 10 Social Enterprise Sound Bites

From dozens of suggestions in the npEnterprise Forum, our social enterprise social media site, here is our: TOP 10 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SOUND BITES Social enterprises are businesses that: Use the marketplace to solve pressing social problems. Have a primary purpose to do social good. Serve the common good, making money while solving social problems. Are …

Useful Quotes for Training and Education, Part I

Quotes. Every speaker, teacher and trainer uses them so I thought I gather a few and place them here. It is interesting to note that some are subtle in meaning and some are not. Some will reach all of your audiences, some will not. Most importantly, I suggest to you that if the total meaning …

Start Promoting Planned Giving: Bequests I

This posting by: Tony Martignetti. Last month I gave you two things you need in place to make Planned Giving feasible. Now we’re ready to start promoting your inaugural Planned Giving program. Who are the prospects? Your best prospects are:  55 and over  loyal, consistent donors, irrespective of dollar amount  board members, …

Why Do You Need a Plan?

Developing strategy takes time and resources. It requires the time and commitment of some of the most highly paid and highly experienced people in your organization. So if your team is not willing to invest the necessary time, I recommend that you don’t do it. Poor planning is often worse than not planning at all.

So why do you need a strategy? Why take time for planning? There are many reasons. But Leadership Strategies’ Drivers Model focuses on five in particular.

The Power of the Pen – 2 ways to use it, not abuse it

ew facilitators truly understand the power of the pen. When facilitators don’t record what participants say or when facilitators record their own words and not the words of the participants, we are abusing the power of the pen. Abuse of the pen can very easily lead to participants dropping out, participants arguing with the facilitator, and participants not buying into the overall result.

How does the facilitator prevent abuse of the power of the pen? Here are two ways:

Placement Of Text

There are many answers to the question on how and where to place text for images, figures, snapshots, etc. Should text be embedded or placed below, beside, above, or to the left or right of the image. It depends. For simplicity, let’s use the word ‘diagram’ to represent images, figures, snapshots, pictures, charts, etc., in …

Temperament: The Key To A Development Professional’s Success

This posting by: Tony Poderis When hiring a professional development officer, the emphasis should be placed on the personality characteristics which are important for the appointed person to be able to effectively carry out the position requirements. Specifically, you hire someone who can accurately and effectively communicate the mission of the organization, and who understands …

Five Steps to Analyzing Training Needs and Solutions

Don’t believe me? It’s basic critical thinking. I look around the internet and people are always asking how do you do this or that, what are the steps? Sometimes I smile and say, “If I tell all my secrets…” Actually I have Mary Ellen Guffey to thank for her article, Five Steps to Better Critical-Thinking, …

Introversion Isn’t Something to be Managed

(Guest post from Jan Terkelsen ) Have you ever thought that managing people with introversion is challenging? Or that you have to “manage” them in some way. I’m guilty. Yes, guilty of seeing introversion as something that you have to change or manage. As a Myers Briggs practitioner and workshop facilitator I am often asked …

Why I’m Cynical about the Consulting Profession

Years ago, I remember going out on sales calls with one of the partners in our consulting firm, Marv Weisbord. We would most often be asked in to help a leadership team that was struggling. So, we’d be sitting with a group of managers listening to them talk about their difficult issues. I’d find myself …