Join us at The Harwood National Public Innovators Lab!

Posted on October 5, 2015 by NCDD Community

We are pleased to share the announcement below about a great opportunity coming up this Dec. 1-3 in Alexandria, VA that NCDD members can get a 15% discount on! This announcement came from Melissa Salzman of The Harwood Institute – an NCDD member organization – via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Co-hosted by United Way Worldwide and The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, The Harwood Public Innovators Lab is a 2.5-day experience to help you and your organization learn what it means to Turn Outward – to use the community, not your conference room, as your reference point for choices and action. This year’s Lab will take place December 1st – 3rd at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, VA.

If you Turn Outward and make more intentional judgments and choices in creating change, you will produce greater impact and relevance in your community. The Harwood Institute has partnered with some of the world’s largest nonprofit networks including United Way Worldwide, AARP, Goodwill Industries International, the American Library Association, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others to spread this approach, which is being used across the U.S. and increasingly worldwide.

The Lab was recently redesigned to be more applied, more practical, and more hands-on. You will leave with a clear action plan for things you can do to increase your impact the day you return home. Additionally, all Lab alumni receive:

Access to more than 2,000 public innovators worldwide through our Public Innovators Listserv
Three months of weekly tools, real world case studies, and tips on using what you’ve learned plus our monthly newsletter and Rich Harwood’s “Redeeming Hope” blog
A Public Innovator Toolkit print ready for you to use with your staff and partners
A library of videos featuring Rich Harwood that you can use to spread what it means to Turn Outward

The Public Innovators Lab is foundational for any organization seeking to drive change in their community. We encourage you to bring a cross-functional team if possible or at least another colleague to share the experience. The Lab is designed for senior teams or individuals that have responsibility for developing strategy and driving execution.

For more information and to register, visit https://conferences.unitedway.org/content/harwood-public-innovators-lab-0.

Don’t Miss Our Tech Tuesday Call with QiqoChat

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

As we recently announced, we are hosting another one of our free NCDD Tech Tuesday webinars this Tuesday, September 29th from 12-1pm Eastern/9-10am Pacific, this time featuring Lucas Cioffi and Michael Herman, the creators of the phone-based dialogue and video chat tool QiqoChat.

QiqoChat supports a variety of online D&D processes, and it is a great tool for practitioners to be familiar with. But spots for the webinar are filling up, so make sure to register today!

This Tech Tuesday event will be full of great insights on hosting online engagement events as well as a demonstration of the QiqoChat platform’s capabilities. Lucas and Michael have also hosted two online open space conferences for a global audience, and we will discuss the rich lessons they took from those experiences as well.

Join us this Tuesday to learn more about the wide world of open space and online facilitation – you won’t want to miss it!

Discover the Secrets of Successful Community Engagement

Posted on September 21, 2015 by NCDD Community

We are pleased to share the announcement below about a great workshop coming up this October 8 in Vancouver. NCDD Supporting Member Mark Pivon of Bang the Table shared this announcement via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

On October 8th, direct from Australia, Bang The Table’s CEO Matt Crozier, will deliver a free, fun and interactive workshop where he will reveal the Top Ten Best Practices of Community Engagement, distilled from thousands of events held by communities across Canada, and around the world.

Register here

Did you know, every week over 50 new consultations are launched using EngagementHQ? Over 140 organizations are currently engaging communities and stakeholders in important consultations this very moment. Organizations like The Canadian Department of the Environment, Alberta Energy Regulator, The City of Mississauga, The Regional Municipality of Halifax, The Vancouver Port Authority, The Vancouver Airport Authority, The Richmond School Board, The City of Richmond and dozens of others have chosen EngagementHQ and Budget Allocator from Bang The Table. What are they doing to ensure success? How are citizens responding?

These questions and more will be explored in our Vancouver EngagementHQ Roundtable.

Date: Thursday October 8th, 2015
Time: 7:30AM – 10:00AM
Location: SFU Morris J. Wosk Center for Dialog, 580 West Hastings Street, Salon B – ICBC Concourse

The registration desk will open at 7:30AM, and we will begin at 8:00AM sharp, so please be sure to arrive early.

Register here

What you can expect from attending this event:

Learn how to gather an unlimited number of ideas and enable your community to prioritize them in a democratic and transparent manner
Implement multi-channel communications strategies both offline and online to deliver consistency in messaging while securing the widest audience reach
Energize communities, build awareness, and secure consensus around important initiatives that eventually point to a record of accomplishment
Discover how to use social media in an effective and cross-collaborative manner
Mitigate risk and ensure compliance is upheld to all privacy standards while securing feedback from stakeholders, safely and securely
Gain insights from other practitioners in community and stakeholder engagement

Our demonstration and roundtable event is free and will provide the opportunity to review a variety of case studies, meet with fellow practitioners, and have your questions answered on online community and stakeholder engagement.

Hope to see you there. This event is free, but seating is limited. Please also note that attire is business casual.

Register for NCDD’s October 15th Confab on Brain Science

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Courtney Breese

Join us on Thursday, October 15th for NCDD’s next “Confab Call.” We’ll be talking with NCDD Members Mary Gelinas and Susan Stuart Clark about how brain science supports constructive dialogue and deliberation. The confab will take place from 2-3pm Eastern (11am-12pm Pacific). Register today to secure your spot!

What’s happening “beneath the surface” when people are participating in public meetings? Many conveners are nervous about emotions: those of the public and sometimes even their own. Understanding what evokes the potentially difficult emotions of fear and anger as well as the potentially constructive sense of compassion and hope, along with the conditions that help people notice and effectively manage such emotions, is critical to designing and conducting productive processes.

Mary V. Gelinas of Gelinas James, Inc. and Susan Stuart Clark of Common Knowledge both use the burgeoning findings from brain science to work with clients and plan interactive group processes that use emotions skillfully to help groups find common ground. They also use it to prepare themselves to facilitate such processes. They will share highlights about:

Triune brain theory;
What emotions are, along with why and how they get evoked in meetings;
Some key lessons from brain science for designing and conducting effective group processes;
How brain science can increase our ability to be instruments of change.

During this interactive session Mary and Susan will highlight the key elements of brain science they use in their work to provide a stepping off point for participants to ask questions and share their own insights and experiences.

Mary V. Gelinas, Ed.D. is the managing director of Gelinas James, Inc. and co-director of the Cascadia Center for Leadership. She is a committed student of how brain science and contemplative practices can strengthen the design and conduct of inclusive and collaborative processes. Her blog “How We Talk Matters” provides inspiration, tips, and tools to create constructive conversations about consequential questions.

Susan Stuart Clark is the founder and director of Common Knowledge, a mission driven organization dedicated to a more inclusive and innovative democracy. She works at the intersection of sectors and cultures, using insights about neuroscience to help people interact with “other.” A research deputy for the Kettering Foundation, Susan serves on the board of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and as an advisor to civic tech groups.

About NCDD’s Confab Calls…

NCDD’s Confab Calls are opportunities for members (and potential members) of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

PCP Launches 3 New Workshops this Fall

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

The good folks with Public Conversations Project (PCP) recently announced that they will offer three new workshops (and one of their classics) over the course of the next season, and we encourage our members to consider attending them! PCP shared the announcement below with us detailing the offerings, and you can find more info on their workshops by clicking here.

Public Conversations Project: Fall 2015 Workshops

At the core of many of today’s most complex social problems is a breakdown in relationships that leads to mistrust, gridlock, and fractured communities. Our method, Reflective Structured Dialogue, addresses the heart of this breakdown: we work to shift relationships, building the communication skills and trust needed to make action possible and collaboration sustainable. Reflective Structured Dialogue helps participants engage in constructive, often groundbreaking conversations that can restore trust and lay the foundation for collaborative action.

Public Conversations provides workshops in facilitation, dialogue and communication to equip people in this field to communicate more effectively. In addition to our flagship workshop (Power of Dialogue), Public Conversations is offering three new workshops this fall that delve deeper into specific components of our work. To learn more about Public Conversations, find more information on our workshops and continuing education opportunities, and register for our workshops, please visit our website. All of the workshops listed will take place in the Greater Boston area.

Inside Out: Leading from a Connected Place (Oct. 2, 8:30AM – 5:00PM)

Learn how to harness a deep understanding of your sub-personality “parts” and essential “self” to communicate with calmness, curiosity and compassion. This is a specialty workshop combining the best of Public Conversations’ and Internal Family Systems’ approaches to constructive communication across difference.

Power of Dialogue: Constructive Conversations on Divisive Issues (Oct. 22-24, 8:30AM -5:00PM)

Public Conversations’ flagship workshop, the Power of Dialogue is a highly interactive, widely applicable workshop for anyone interested in transforming conflicted conversations – among a working team, in a town hall, on a college campus, and beyond. Participants will build and expand their facilitation skills to create conversations that foster mutual understanding between groups and individuals divided by differences.

The Power of Stories: Moving Beyond “Them and Us” (Dec. 3, 8:30AM – 5:00PM)

Stories are how we make sense of the world. Stories can connect people or – when it’s about “us” vs. “them,” – drive people apart. Learn how to integrate the practice of storytelling and deep listening into facilitated dialogues, classrooms, meetings, and personal relationships. Through stories, we hear and are heard.

Becoming the Communicator You Want to Be (Dec. 10-12, 8:30AM – 5:00PM)

Have relationships that feel stuck? Want to make a dreaded conversation feel hopeful? In this workshop, participants will learn how to reflect, listen, speak, and inquire in ways that help them understand themselves and one another more deeply and communicate more effectively.

About Public Conversations: The Public Conversations Project fosters constructive conversation where there is conflict driven by differences in identity, beliefs, and values. We work locally, nationally, and globally to provide organizations, institutions, and communities dialogue facilitation, training, consultation, and coaching to discover new possibilities for coexistence and collaboration.

Join PACE Webinar on Civic Renewal Movement, 9/23

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

We encourage our members to join a webinar this Sept. 23 at 2pm EST to hear two of our distinguished NCDD members Peter Levine and Joan Blades, as well as former NCDD conference keynote Eric Liu discuss the implications a new paper on the civic renewal movement. The webinar, hosted by NCDD member organization PACE, will certainly be of interest to many of our members, so we encourage you to read their announcement below or register here.

On September 23 at 2 p.m. Eastern, PACE will hold a webinar to present and discuss the recent paper, “America’s Civic Renewal Movement: A View from Organizational Leaders.” Registration is complimentary but required.

This paper explores current sentiments toward civic engagement and identifies opportunities and challenges to expanding our civic infrastructure. This webinar and accompanying conversation will explore philanthropy’s role in supporting and engaging in this movement, and how practitioners perceive foundations’ willingness to partner on these efforts.

Presenters include the report authors, Peter Levine (Tufts University) and Eric Liu (Citizen University), as well as Kelly Born of the Hewlett Foundation and Joan Blades of the Living Room Conversations project.

We hope you will join us for this discussion.

Sign up for September’s Tech Tuesday with QiqoChat

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Courtney Breese

Registration is now open for September’s Tech Tuesday event featuring QiqoChat. Join us for this FREE event Tuesday, September 29th from 12:00-1:00pm Eastern/9:00-10:00am Pacific.

QiqoChat is a tool for phone-based dialogue and video chat. It supports dialogue methods such as online open space, Conversation Cafe, and liberating structures.

We will be joined by Lucas Cioffi and Michael Herman, who will provide a demonstration of the QiqoChat platform and discuss the lessons learned from hosting two open space conferences for the worldwide community of open space facilitators.

NCDD Member Lucas Cioffi served on the board of NCDD for three years. He is an Iraq War veteran and is the software developer that built QiqoChat. Michael Herman been a facilitator and trainer of many methods and approaches since 1991 and an active Open Space community member since 1996. Michael and Lucas co-convened the first ever “virtual open space on open space” gathering in July 2015.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about this platform and how it has been utilized – register today!

Tech Tuesdays are a series of learning events from NCDD focused on technology for engagement. These 1-hour events are designed to help dialogue and deliberation practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. You do not have to be a member of NCDD to participate in our Tech Tuesday learning events.

Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill

Posted on September 8, 2015 by NCDD Community

We are pleased to share the announcement below about a great workshop led by several NCDD members this October 22. NCDD Supporting Member Mary Gelinas shared this announcement via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Engaging the public in planning and policy making is a vital skill for leaders in all sectors, not just in government.

Join us for a half-day workshop on Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill led by Pete Peterson and Carol Rische on Thursday, Oct. 22nd from 9am to 12pm at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center in Eureka, CA.

Pete Peterson is the director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine University (and also an NCDD member). He speaks nationally on issues related to public participation and the use of technology to make government more responsive and transparent.

Carol Rische is the former General Manager of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District where she successfully led an award-winning, community based water resource planning process to address issues facing the District and our community.

If you are interested in becoming more effective in engaging the public in addressing tough issues, this workshop is for you. During this practical and interactive seminar you will learn:

A variety of ways to engage the public in meaningful and effective ways
The key questions to ask yourself before beginning a public engagement process
Criteria to follow while planning a public engagement process
How leaders and residents can engage one another more effectively, and
Why the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District’s public process so successful.

To register call 707-826-3731 or visit www.humboldt.edu/extended/register.

This session is being hosted by two members of NCDD: Mary Gelinas and Roger James.

Join Journalist & Community Gathering for Civic Impact

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

We hope our members will consider attending the Experience Engagement gathering this October 1-4 in Portland. This unique gathering is being supported by NCDD Board member Marla Crockett and NCDD Sustaining Member Peggy Holman, and we encourage you to learn more in the announcement that Peggy recently shared with us below. Take advantage of their freelancer and student rates by registering here!

Experience Engagement

Experience Engagement, How Journalism and Communities Can Thrive Together takes place October 1-4 at the University of Oregon’s facility in Portland, Oregon.

This meeting is unique in both format and intention.

Unique in format because it brings together a diversity of people for a peer-based learning exchange, including journalists, community activists, students, educators, researchers, funders, artists, social entrepreneurs, librarians, technologists and urban planners.

Unique in intention because we see it as a working session to not only meet personal and organizational needs but to advance the field by producing an interactive field guide – a site that articulates the best of what we learn from each other, for example, principles and practices for engagement and evaluating its impact.

We are looking for a mix that would include about 40% journalists, 40% community connectors and story tellers, and 20% students, academics, and people from organizations that support journalists and community connectors.

Please bring your brilliance to the conversation on community engagement and civic life. Together, we can make visible the best of what is and imagine a great future for news and information that supports communities to thrive.

Space is limited to 125 people so register soon.

To learn more or to register, please visit www.journalismthatmatters.org/experienceengagement.

Register to Attend the National Dialogue Awards, Oct. 9

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

We encourage our members to consider registering to attend the 2nd annual National Dialogue Awards this October 9 in DC, which are hosted by the Sustained Dialogue Institute and supported by the Kettering Foundation, both of which are NCDD member organizations. You can learn more about the awards in the SDI announcement below or by visiting SDI’s new website at www.sustaineddialogue.org.

2nd Annual National Dialogue Awards

We sincerely hope that you will join us for the Second Annual National Dialogue Awards on Friday, October 9th, 2015 beginning at 6:30 pm at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

We will honor those whose lives have been powerfully marked by the principles and values of Sustained Dialogue. Some recipients are drawn from our network, and some from beyond it, but all have displayed the qualities that our organization values. This year’s keynote awardee is Senator George Mitchell, a renowned diplomat and key architect of several peace agreements in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. Our corporate award will be presented to Evolent Health for its expression of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Additionally, we will recognize three leaders from the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network. These leaders include: Lane McLelland – a faculty member and administrator at the University of Alabama, Taylor Sawyer – an alumna of The Ohio State University, and Brittany Chung – a student at Case Western Reserve University.

We would be honored to have you and your guests attend.

Please RSVP at the event website to secure your tickets for this celebration. If you have any questions, please contact Sonia [soniaATsustaineddialogue.org].

Are you or your organization interested in becoming a sponsor? Learn more about sponsoring the National Dialogue Awards.

You can find the original version of this Sustained Dialogue Institute announcement at www.sustaineddialogue.org/?post_type=event&p=1333.

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