sdclan

By Riff Fullan, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

“If many people from different hierarchies and countries come together there are always those who think they know less about a subject and participate less in the discussion. They may be afraid to say something wrong. To start with personal stories demonstrates that everyone has a valuable experience to share and we can share it in the language we feel comfortable” (reflection of SDC gender team member on using stories in a workshop context, SDC Story Guide, p. 30).

Conscious engagement with storytelling for knowledge sharing and learning began almost 10 years ago within SDC and was pursued with some energy, especially in the first years. (more…)

HIGHLIGHT

Improve your visualisation skills with Dilbert!

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By Manuel Flury

Haven’t we experienced it many times? Discovering new aspects while looking at things from a different angle? Colleagues ask us to review a text, we explain our children what we do in the office, we hold workshops outside of our offices, we meet colleagues in the cafeteria and hold meetings standing around filing cabinets, we discover new issues while jogging or taking a shower, we prepare a negotiation by arguing from the others’ position, we design a learning event in analogy with industrial car production, we think “out of the box”.

As a test: Do you manage to think “out of the box”? 9 points test
And here: the solutions to it! 9 points test – solutions

I am about to experience the change of my work context in three ways: (1) from working on methods and processes of learning and knowledge sharing to working on solutions to problems of food insecurity; (2) from working in a development agency to working in an Embassy; (3) from working (and living) in a European capital city to working (and living) in an African metropolis. Let me share with you two of my first learning experiences. (more…)

By Adrian Gnägi

A few weeks ago I participated in a training course on impact oriented monitoring and evaluation. The course really helped me organizing my thinking on managing development programs for impact. Time and money very well invested, I found. One critical moment for me was when one of the trainers presented an overview on results terminology. Even though her presentation was introduced with a Confucius citation (my translation: “if the concepts are not right, the order of things is lost”), she presented the 4 terminology clusters as “some do it like this, others do it like that”. I felt compelled to explain why I think this free choice of results terminology to be wrong. Since I was struggling to explain it in simple words, I decided to write it up. That’s what this post is all about: why results terminology matters. (more…)