Your ideas are ready to change the world – but you have no idea how to get them out there? You’re a hero in saving the planet day-in and day-out – implementing projects, lobbying for policy changes and raising funds for good – but nobody seems to know about your great work?
Meet ON:SUBJECT. We help worldchanging organizations get their message across – online, offline and in person. Read more about us and how we can work together.
Yes, this was a first, and it was an experiment. A few weeks ago, the GIZ Leadership Lab attracted nearly thirty participants from all corners of the world. We had invited them to a co-creation session for a leadership approach for global sustainability – and we had invited them to join us from the comfort of their offices: online.
With five breakout sessions and three co-presenters, my task was to facilitate and hold the space for the entire session. Not an easy task, but I think it worked sufficiently well. It turns out that facilitating online events isn’t that different to in-person events:
Since Saturday, one of the world’s oldest digital rights organizations is operating under a new name. FoeBuD e.V. is now DigitalCourage.
The need for a new name was obvious. The organisation was tired of being referred to as ‘data protection activists from Bielefeld’, of having to clarify spelling or pronunciation at every occasion, and generally of the dreaded question: “What does the name stand for?”
The correct answer had been a joke already 25 years ago: Verein zur Förderung des öffentlichen bewegten und unbewegten Datenverkehrs, a riff on the absurd neologisms of the Deutsche Post at the time. As the internet grew in importance (and Deutsche Post lost its grip on it), this joke grew old. Continue reading
“We’re here to create something new”, Brigitta opened the GIZ Innovation Lab on 2-3 November. The invitation had spoken of innovative solutions for global challenges, and of pioneers that lead the way forward. The space was beautifully decorated and encouraging, the participants from all corners of the world. “This is a journey, and we’re here to explore”, she continued. “There’s only one rule: There are no rules.”
The implicit agenda: inspire the next version of GIZ’s leadership development programme. It’s already a life-changing experience, participants reported. We heard stories of new skills and motivations, support networks and friends – and of organisational resistance and the urge to quit. Being a change agent is not for the faint-hearted. Continue reading
“Let me know how it goes; I’ve been too chicken to try myself so far”, one of my mentors remarked after giving me feedback on my application to be certified as a Professional Facilitator (CPF). I was chicken, too, as I travelled to Geneva for the assessment day. “Please assume that the certification event will run from 8 AM until as late as 7 PM”, read the invitation. Intimidating indeed.
During the candidate briefing in the morning, the IAF stressed that they wanted us to enjoy the day, learn from each other and network. “Yeah, right”, I thought. I had other priorities in that moment. This was an exam, in the end, wasn’t it? Continue reading
Ever been in this situation? The more important the thing is that you want to write, the harder it becomes. You start avoiding it, doing endless research, falling into the vortex of the internet. Instead of even opening the document, you’re suddenly busy with everything else. In the end you wonder where all that time went. If there’s a deadline, you might write something you’re not happy with. If there’s none, you might drop the project.
Believe me, I’ve been there. Writing is hard. It’s the process of condensing your thinking in a way that another person might understand it (and ideally, do something as a result). Writing makes good communication, and good communication makes leadership and change. Still, scatterbrains as we are, we resist. Continue reading
Last weekend at the Transition Network Conference, R. asked me: “Can you give me the low-down of good communications in a minute? Our group is not doing so well at communicating.” We then got separated, and I promised to send him the link to a blog post about my favourite communications model. As it turns out, that blog post wasn’t written yet, so here we go. Continue reading
“Online Harvesting Practice” was the title of the first conversation I hosted at the Art of Hosting Learning Village in Statenberg Manor (Slovenia) a few weeks ago. I wanted to explore how we can use online tools to involve those in an event that couldn’t take part in person, and how we can collectively create the story of an event as it unfolds. Continue reading
This post might be overly technical, but hey, there were no good explanation on the web, and I think I’ve understood the issue now.
The Problem: You’ve built your website somewhere else, now you want it to show under your own domain. Continue reading
At yesterday’s online communications question time, we came to speak about Twitter. Here’s what I heard:
“Everybody tells me to use Twitter, but I can’t figure out how to make it useful.”
“I get so many Tweets and I feel really overwhelmed.”
“All I do is to broadcast whenever I’ve published a new article, but that doesn’t seem to have an impact.”
“I’m doing this project”, she said to me as we met for coffee, “and now I need a website and a blog, and I need to figure out all this social media stuff, and I’m completely overwhelmed.”
Facebook! Twitter! LinkedIn! Blogs! Everybody tells us that online marketing is important, and that we’re doomed to fail if we don’t show up in all these places. At the same time, everybody around us seems to be using the whole range of social media with ease – while we don’t even know where to start or what all these tools potentially could be good for. It’s easy to feel like a complete technological dinosaur in this world. Continue reading
Passionate environmentalist, savvy marketeer and generally helpful person. Speaks geek. More...
