Here’s a thread to discuss your takeaways from the recent webinar on leverage points for systems change:

Finding Your Leverage Points for Making Change

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After attending or watching the course, what resonates with your work? What leverages points do you see in your current or potential work?

For me,…

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Reflection over the past year means that I am grateful to the ones who have inspired me. Too often we are co-opting the work and ideas of others, claiming the work as our own and then situating the person or movement as, “the competition” when really, we owe them gratitude for their inspiration and the strong shoulders that we are able to…

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Hi everyone! I am co-leading an end of year reflection/gratitude session for our team, and wondering what practices or tools other use for these types of sessions? We have used rose/bud/thorn in the past, but I’m wondering what works for you? We have an hour to work and will have 12 team members on a virtual meeting. Any suggestions from…

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Thank you Joseph! Great to have these resources!

I agree with many of these recommendations that Joseph has shared and now also have got some new ones to check out. Thank you! I’m also interested in what other resources folks have found helpful and what the range of experiences have been in implementing new facilitation strategies that you have learned.

Hi Aryn,

There are so many great resources out there about facilitation basics. Here are some that I like and have been helpful to me:

* adrienne marie brown has two wonderful books, “Holding Change”, and “Emergent Strategy” that introduce her fluid and flexible approach to facilitation.

* Adam Kahane is another amazing facilitator who has…

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What are the best tools you have found when learning about facilitation basics, methods, and techniques?

We’ve been using Lucidchart for a few months and like it so far. We don’t use it a lot but since we’re a 100% virtual staff, it’s helpful as a shared whiteboard with saved workspaces. Miro seems to have steep-ish learning curve but when I’ve been in facilitated sessions by those who know how to use it well, it’s been really useful. Hope this…

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Does anyone have any thoughts about using Miro vs Google Whiteboard or Zoom Whiteboard? I’m trying to ascertain what the differences are between them (other than cost). Thanks!

Hello! I’m Chandler Rosenberg currently organizing a Utah Food Coalition — would love any insights from folks who have organized or been a part of Food Systems Coalitions or networks.

Hi Everyone,

I’m Suparna Kudesia on behalf of the FSLN Network Weavers of 2021 and along with the rest of my colleagues, we wanted to say hey and introduce ourselves! We’re trying to revitalize some of these discussion groups. We were excited to find these groups and would love to know how they are being used by FSLN members in order to ensure we…

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Thanks for sharing this Andrew. I’m not reading the book but I did skim the article. Is my impatience showing? Yes it is. I often myself impatient with small talk in meetings and it’s hard for me to accept it as a part of the work. I think we could all use training in Active Listening with an annual refresher. When I think about dialogue,…

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If you’re still looking for examples- we had a call on facilitating virtual meetings last year and created this shared list of tools people have found helpful.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cxrqci0JgKNDYnP4KrCVbD4gDXfwosjZ-07VwKKqmb0/edit#gid=0

I’ve been thinking a lot about dialogue lately, and after reading (most of) the book in the article below, I’m noticing how conversations do move through different phases. It’s so difficult to get out of the ‘polite’ and then ‘breakdown’ phases where people are either following a strict set of rules, or taking sides and focused on their…

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For projects with an action orientation (specific short term tasks and activities), we’re using Basecamp. Requires training and decent internet access speeds so important to be attentive to project people needs and access. We also using Mural for group brainstorming, but same limits for net access speeds plus comfort levels with technology.

I am a big proponent of slack channels for cross-organization efforts. I’d love to hear other ideas!!

Hello fellow food system leaders! After the awesome network chat yesterday I wanted to follow-up to see if folks have additional ideas or feedback on digital tools that have helped them in facilitation, network building, strategic planning, etc. in virtual setting. Yesterday we all tried Miro and I’ve recently been using MURAL. Any…

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