Seth Godin has a new book called Linchpins. I heard that it is outstanding. When I viewed this video I could understand why the book will be another bestseller. I think linchpin people are popping up all over as more and more workers are breaking out of the compliance mind set and getting creative. Here is what Josh Bernoff from Forester Research/the Groundswell says about Seth’s new book. “You need to read Seth Godin’s Linchpin. Or be a cog in the machine. Your choice.”

Jacqueline Novogratz on how to recognize a linchpin from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

Brent Uncategorized

An interview with Will Davis on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion I have looked at and read many accounts of the UK online learning centres. In Britain, they are so far ahead of Canada in terms of understanding the importance of digital literacy for everyone, especially those that are disenfranchised, without family supports, the unemployed or those experiencing poverty and homelessness (or at risk of). We can learn from their experience.

Will Davies reflects on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion from Tim Davies on Vimeo.

Brent Uncategorized socialinclusion britain digitalliteracy

I’m participating and investing in a dialogue between community organizations and our local school systems.

One of the starting points taken by the planning group for the round-table discussion is framing the purpose as an opportunity to “explore different conversations about our school – community relations”.

I am very pleased to see this initiative move forward as I believe the round-table discussion has great potential to engage community in a new way.

That said, I think that while it’s useful to talk about school – community relations, I am supporting the notion that our discussion includes a critical point, namely that our community is what is in trouble and at risk.

My view and starting point is that both the school and social service system live within the community. By framing the community as our primary discussion topic (or domain) I believe our process will be much more targeted on tapping in on our community’s strengths. We will also have an opportunity to support an engagement structure that has the potential of widening our circle of members.

In our round-table discussions, these 2 sectors can learn how to communicate and collaborate more effectively together, however I believe our time together would be more productive if we focused our discussions on how we as community members (not system or service representatives) can restore community.

Read more…

Brent Uncategorized community dialogue roundtable

I found these videos in my research on A Small Group and the work of Peter Block. I haven’t watched all of them yet however Margaret Wheatley is a world renowned thought leader on community change so I don’t expect to be disappointed. There are 10 videos in all with each one covering a unique aspects of healthy community change.

Lately I’ve being immersed in a variety of community restoration and change groups. The focus for many of these efforts seem to default to righting inequities and fixing long standing communication and power issues. People like Margaret Wheatley and Peter Block offer alternative strategies for community change. I am suggesting that we use or integrate elements of these community engagement strategies however the shift to that thinking is pretty hard to make.

Despicte these challenges, I’m enjoying the planning sessions and I especially like contributing my experience in online communication strategies and tools to support these change processes. I hope you find some great questions in watching these videos. As Peter Block says, the right questions can be more transformative than answers.

Brent Uncategorized community change peterblock restorative