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Rethink Who You Call an Expert

Community Animator's Note: This blog was originally published on FSG's Strategic Evaluation Blog by Katelyn Mack on October 15, 2014. It has been re-posted with permission.

Have you ever been called an expert? If you are reading this post, chances are you have. It may have been by a colleague, a boss, a client, a professor…or maybe, by a parent. I’m not sure about you, but I sometimes get an uneasy feeling when I am referred to as an “expert.” People usually mean it as a compliment. In essence, there is some innate knowledge I have from my training or experience that they don’t have.

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Heart Work for #socialgood

Children are wonderful teachers.

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On Creativity and Collective Impact

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking” 

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Collective Impact in Action: Thinking Differently and Embracing Paradox

In the September 2014 issue of Engage! I profiled a new article co-authored by John Kania, Fay Hanleybrown and Jennifer Splansky Juster of FSG entitled Essential Mindset Shifts for Collective Impact, which is included in Collective Insights on Collective Impact a new resource published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. 

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"The Least of These"

My life is haunted. Some of the things that haunt me are the ghosts of stupid things I have done over the course of my life. Many, though, are the spirits of compelling ideas that just will not let go of me.

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Understanding Complexity and Developmental Evaluation

Complexity -- it's everywhere we look. If you're working to engage communities and create meaningful, sustainable change, then you're going to come up against complexity. This becomes even more complicated when you're not only trying to make change, but evaluate your efforts in making change.

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