Being Great Connectors by Marci Mayer Eisen

Those of you who work with me know that I am most motivated by creating connections. Social group work sees the small group experience kind of like a mini society – a place to not only develop friendships, but to also learn leadership & decision making, acquire new skills, enhance self-esteem, and on a very basic, human level, help create a sense of meaning and belonging. These theories can apply to all types of groups from a kids’ summer camp cabin to a board of directors.



This past summer I attended the International Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups in Chicago. We talked about the potential, the power of the small group to change lives. At the conference we also heard from one of the top influencers of the Obama campaign and his take on the reemergence of group work values and skills. You simply can’t talk about large scale community change without exploring the power of the small group to impact that change.



I worry that we rarely teach our staff to be great connectors. Oh yes, we work hard to help people connect to our organizations, but do we do our best to help participants connect with each other?


Malcolm Gladwell in the book Tipping Point has an entire chapter on Connectors. He describes them as people who help others connect up with the world. Research confirms that it’s hard to feel connected to a community - or even an organization - without having your own small group or groups through which you are strongly engaged. And it’s sure much easier to get people to make commitments, including time and money, when they have multiple connections.



I even recently learned about research that training “sticks” better when those in attendance feel connected to each other. And we all realize that Partnerships and collaborations flow so much more easily when the relationships, communication, mutual support and trust are already in place.



The more that technology isolates us, the more we want basic human connections. Just think about Facebook and Linked-In and other sites.



We, the Jewish community professionals, can create connections for so many. No matter your professional role – every single one of here has the ability to be a Connector. Let us think about our opportunities - and our responsibility - to take the initiative to help each person who walks through our doors (or calls us or emails us or messages us) find those experiences and relationships that will directly lead to a feeling of belonging and deeper sense of what it really means to be part of a community.

Marci Mayer Eisen
Professional Excellence Project/JProstl
www.jewishinstlouis.org/jprostl

CoP Facilitator as Talent Scout

I was thinking of facilitation this week as I had occasion to listen to Rabbi Yaakov Jaffee of the Maimonides School in Brookline talk about this week's Torah portion.


Exodus, 25 verse 2: 2 'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering; of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering.'


According to Rabbi Jaffee, Bezalel is described not only as the gifted artison of the Mishkan but also the kind of leader who recognized the individual gifts that each Israelite was moved by his heart to bring for the Mishkan and was able to foster the coming together of these diverse talents and gifts to create the magnificant and holy mishkan.

As a community of practice (CoP) facilitator I see part of my role as that of talent scout. My job, like Bezalel's, is to:


a) identify the gifts and talents of each member of my CoP -- their passion for technology, their ability to lead others, their writing skills, their ability to see and organize the details, their out of the box thinking, or their logical clarity.

b) help members recognize how their talents can make a significant contribution to the community -- pointing out the opportunities and needs of the community as they arise

c) motivate, coordinate and facilitate the collaborative efforts of many talented members toward collectively building the knowledge and practice of our community.


After assembling the talent in the community, my role (much like in corporate talent management) is to review the needs, talent and skills of the community and ask "what is missing?" What expertise do we need to have in our community in order to allow us to tackle the kinds of problems we need to in our field? And then to continue the search to bring in the appropriate talent, skills and knowledge to move our community forward.

Technology Adoption - a look under the hood

I want to thank Deborah Fishman of Present Tense Magzine for her recent article in eJewishphilanthropy sharing honestly, openly and clearly the technology adoption process experienced when the Present Tense Magazine staff adopted Googlewave. I am sure that many in the audience recognize this process — the benefits and new possibilities — along side the steep learning curve and the challenge of recreating our daily work habits.

We are likely to see and experience this exact same process again and again in the years to come. Lisa Colton of Darim Online mentioned in a recent Boston talk that experts estimate we are 10 years into the 50 year revolution emerging from the radical changes in technology.

How will we endure? Here are a few of my thoughts:
a) let's be realistic, its hard work getting a workforce up to speed on a new technology – make sure we calculate training, support and time into the plan before we get wowed by the next ‘technology superfix.’

b) let's build the capacity of our workforce for ongoing learning and support. Break down silos, form learning communities, support the informal conversations through which professionals become more competant on a daily basis

c)let's begin thinking about the role of a technology steward – someone whose job is not just to select a technology solution but to take into account the realistic learning needs of users and help those users master the technology so they can realize the potential gains the technology holds.

For more information on technology stewardship see the book Digital Habitats and accompanying blog or the Tech Stew blog by Caren Levine.

Naava Frank

Ten Tips on Managing Volunteers - from Hazon

This week I spoke with Judith Belasco the Director of Food Programs at Hazon, whom I met recently at a meeting for Covenant Foundation grantees. Hazon holds an annual food conference and bike ride that are entirely run by volunteers. I have always been eager to learn more about the wisdom of managing volunteers since a big part of what community of practice facilitators do is manage volunteers. Judith mentioned that the founder and Executive Director of Hazon, Nigel Savage, has a background in volunteer organizing that he learned from Limmud UK.

Below are a few key points that I learned from Judith.

1. We work hard to help people feel that the more they take on the more they are influencing the outcomes. Volunteering is an opportunity for them to learn new things, build new relationships and be changed by the process.
2. My approach is to understand ahead of time what the tasks are that need to be done and then invite volunteers in to help make things happen. That is in contrast to other approaches where you first ask a volunteer to engage with you and then figure out what they can do.
3. We have a document that lists all the various roles that we are looking for. We first show them the various options before we invite them to participate in any particular role.
4. It’s an ongoing job scouting for outstanding volunteers, when we hold a conference staff and current volunteers are told to "keep your eyes out for people who are amazing who should we have on the executive committee."
5. You don’t know who will say yes unless you ask. On average half of people say no or cannot do the job as needed so you need to have a long list of possible volunteers.
6. I ask people that I would like to work with. We will be spending a lot of time together so it’s great to enjoy the people you are working with.
7. Volunteer positions come in many sizes: from the chair and members of the executive committee who have 2 meetings per month ,a mandatory planning retreat in CA and work an average of 1 to 5 hours a week, to people who volunteer to call members to find out if they would be willing to read the Torah for the event.
8. Be clear about what you are asking from them, give people a clear sense of the time and financial commitments. Our volunteers are all also paying participants of the programs they plan. Be sure to raise the money issue even if they do not.
9. Develop templates and timelines and re-use documents from previous years so you get smarter and more efficient every year.
10. Staff works with volunteers to prepare agendas and organize monthly meetings, which is often a significant piece of work. If the meeting is well structured with clear next steps a lot of work will happen during the month.

Let us know what your tips are for managing volunteers! Do you think these tips all apply to your work managing volunteers in a community of practice? In what ways do they apply and in what ways do they not?

Naava

Sharing Anchors Community

A recent blog posting by Harlene Appelman, Director of the Covenant Foundation, quotes Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody on the notion of "sharing anchor[ing] community." Harlene, thank you for calling our attention to this concept.

What I find particularly exciting about how "sharing anchors community" is that the process is a spiral that builds community strength step by step, over time.

When one person shares and is well received, it helps others feel more trusting. When others feel safe and trusting it encourages them to share. As more people share, more people feel comfortable and share in turn, and so the cycle goes on.

What is going on? Why does it work? Often we do not share for fear of being judged, thinking something along the lines of "I wonder what others will think of what I am doing?" But once someone shares and is received well others realize "oh, I have something I can contribute to others." We all like to be recognized for what we do and to be validated for our accomplishments.

Over time, community members begin to share more deeply and readily, and over time a spiral of sharing leads to trust, which leads to more sharing, which leads to more trust -- creates a sense of community. Above is a diagram that captures the cycle.

So what can you do to help build a trusting community? Even the smallest step is important.

• Share something you know with someone or a group who might benefit from it.
• Express gratitude to someone who shares -- drop them an email or mention something the next time you see them.
  

As in a row of dominoes, you may set off a chain reaction of trust and sharing. And the world certainly needs much more of these!

Naava

Looking over each other's shoulders

The Kehilliyot CoP is exploring ways we can “look over each other's shoulders” to learn about community facilitation from the practice of peers. We are grateful to Darim Online, who recently invited Kehilliyot members to join the webinar "Foundations of Social Media" to learn about how Darim presents to their CoP members.

Several Kehilliyot members, including myself, joined Lisa and Caren on the webinars. We found it enlightening and useful. We learned alot from watching how Darim used the Webex software to share the desktop, use PowerPoint, and chat -- all in real time -- thus keeping up a variety of stimulating modes of conversation and interaction. The Webinar showed us some great examples of how some organizations are succesfully using social media.

One interesting concept we took away from the seminar was the notion of official and unofficial "outposts". Our Facebook profiles, Twitter feeds and other accounts on third party social networking sites are all examples of “official outposts.” When we comment on someone else’s blog, in their space, we are creating an “unofficial outpost.”

Participants felt they learned quite a bit from the session. Naomi Less (Storahtelling, Evaded Issues in Jewish Education,
Jewish Chicks Rock) said, “Amazing call.. I learned a great great deal. I was also struck by the "outpost" concept.”

Thanks Lisa and Caren. Great job! If you want to find out more contact them at info@darimonline.org. For information about becoming a Darim member, check out http://www.darimonline.org/capabilities/users_group.php.

Community Weaver Role for Kehilliyot

This is a protocol for a Kehilliyot Community Weaver Role. It was created on 8-17-09by Naava Frank of Knowledge Communities and Elana Rivel of Jewish Outreach Partnership based on the "Greeter Program" created by Jewish Outreach Partnership. We welcome your experimenting with this role and sharing your feedback.

Goals:

1. Help strengthen the community
   
2. Help individuals members get to know each other
   
3. Help new or peripheral members connect with the community and its tools
   
4. Help the community fine-tune its learning activities to meet the needs of members

Role: Two-Parts

Part I. 15-20 minute phone call

Talking points

• What CoP work do you do?
  
• Let me tell you what I do? A practice I am proud of, a challenge I am facing.
  
• Share 2 or 3 ways I use Kehilliyot
  
• How are you using Kehilliyot? Are you comfortable with the technology? Are learning activities working for you? Phone calls, Topics? Listserv?
  
• Who else do you know or are you contact with from Kehilliyot?

Part II. 2-3 contact points over the next 2-3 months (over email or phone)

Suggestions

• Connect over a resource shared (what did you think of the last email… I thought it might apply to your work)
  
• Ask how is it going?
  
• Send a resource you think might be of help
  
• Summarize a call they missed
  
• Share a problem or success of yours
  
• Inquire/follow-up about a problem they shared in the first conversation
  
• Respond to their posting
  
• Introduce them to someone else
  
• Ask to be introduced to someone else

Possible Hebrew terms for this role:

• Kashran (connector)
  
• Arev (a responsible community member – traditional Judaic texts)
  
• Oreg (weaver – modern Hebrew translation of weaver)

Let us know if you try this and how it works.

Naava