This time of massive disruption and crisis, from COVID-19’s health, social, and economic impacts to the systemic change being demanded around police violence, racism, and white supremacy has caused us to reflect on our work. Al and I have spent time thinking and talking about what to continue and improve upon, what to change, and
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Planning Effective Online Meetings
As professional facilitators, we have been thinking a lot about how to bring the important elements of in-person meetings online. While we expect the same outcomes when meeting online or in person, we know that the meeting is fundamentally different when we are working together without sitting together. Instead of simply repurposing our in-person plans for
Read more »Relearning How To Meet
The abrupt switch to online meetings jolted many of us out of our meeting routines. We first had to acclimate to new technology. But, the switch has required more than just figuring out how to unmute yourself. If you have participated in an online meeting, you know it’s not just an in-person meeting on the
Read more »Affinity Mapping
What is affinity mapping? Affinity mapping is a simple and important tool for facilitative leadership. It is useful when you have a lot of ideas that you need to make sense of. Affinity mapping is a fancy term for categorizing and it’s a process that our brains do naturally all the time. Imagine you want
Read more »The Sticky Wall
We get so many questions about the sticky wall! People are amazed, confused, impressed, and skeptical all at the same time. Here are some of the most common queries. What is that? How does it stick? Our sticky wall is a sheet of thin nylon coated with 3M Spray Mount. Any paper sticks to the
Read more »Refreshing Your Strategic Plan? Five Questions to Ask Before You Begin
Your strategic plan is coming to an end and you are facing the prospect of creating a new one. After initial discussions, you find that some board or staff think that the expiring strategic plan is still relevant and why not refresh it instead of starting again? Sound familiar? Sound tempting? Here are the questions we ask to help an organization decide if refreshing their expiring strategic plan is the right course of action.
Read more »Strategic Layers in Planning
It is easy to get confused or distracted by all the jargon used in strategic planning: goals, tactics, strategies, directions, objectives, issues, activities, etc. No matter what terms you use, the information in a nonprofit strategic plan is often organized in layers. Understanding the purpose of these layers reduces the importance of their names, clarifies
Read more »Rescuing Outcomes from Measurement
Measurable outcomes is a phrase we hear a lot in nonprofit management. It comes from the practice of outcomes management or performance management – i.e. “What gets measured gets done” – and gets used a lot in planning, grant writing, and evaluation. We want measurable outcomes because they help us set achievable goals (think SMART
Read more »What is Bennett’s Hierarchy Logic Model?
Bennett’s Hierarchy is a type of logic model tailored for programs that provide information or education. Most of us are familiar with the Kellogg logic model which has buckets for inputs, activities, outputs, short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes. Bennett’s Hierarchy provides more specialized terminology for educational programs. If you’ve ever heard of “KASA,” that’s Bennett’s
Read more »Working Collaboratively
We’ve never had a client complain that they’re seeing too much of us. However, we often surprise them early on in our relationship with the depth of our collaboration. “Working collaboratively to achieve a common goal” is a core value at Aurora Consulting. In action, it means, all aspects of a project that can involve client participation, do.
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