Akaya Windwood is the former president of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, a progressive leadership training organization that has certified more than 5,000 leaders over the past 20 years. Here she describes one of the key traps leaders face when they try to make change in their organizations — and why “listening to the edges” and […]
Terra Perma: innovating with worms and dirt
A sip of maple-water straight from an icy steel bucket in the forest is electric. It’s crisp, not too sweet, and tastes like trees and sky distilled into light. Perched on snowshoes, freezing your butt in the sugarbush, it’s like a little trickle of forest electricity down your throat. It’s a gorgeous winter day in the […]
Open Campaigns: how to take on Goliaths
Michael Silberman is Global Director of Greenpeace’s Mobilisation Lab, a network dedicated to envisioning, testing and rolling out innovation in people-powered campaigns around the world. Here’s an edited transcript of our recent conversation about network strength, organizational change and open source thinking in the battle for our planet. Matt: Mozilla has been thinking a lot about the need to build a network, […]
12 Ways to Work Open
Working open is about increasing our impact and getting more done — by making our work more transparent, agile and connected to the communities we serve. Here’s a dozen principles to get started. Think big. Have a mission, not just a bottom line. Tell a story about it that inspires others to help. Start small. […]
Open Leadership: roadies versus rock stars
Allen Gunn is a facilitator, convener and open source advocate. As Executive Director of Aspiration, he helps NGOs, activists and software developers maker smarter use of tech for social change. Later this month, Aspiration is partnering with Greenpeace’s Mobilisation Lab to host the first-ever Open Campaigns Camp in Berlin. We recently got together to chat […]
Designing for trust: why openness alone doesn’t work
“Open is a means to an end — and that end is trust.” So writes Steve Song, a social entrepreneur, Shuttleworth alum and blogger who writes about openness and access to affordable communication infrastructure in Africa. Steve’s posts exploring the paradoxes, moral philosophy and future of open are fascinating; here’s an edited transcript of a […]
How to work open
(Hint: it’s not all or nothing. There’s shades and degrees.) Note: this post was first published at openmatt.ca in 2011. I’ve moved it here as I wind down my old websites. Why do we work in the open? How do you do it? In what ways is it scary or difficult? Start with: “How does […]