One key to organizational success has to do with the capacity of people to learn - learn from mistakes as well as learn from successes.The call for organizational learning has escalated over the years ever since our culture and economy transitioned from a "we make things" focus to what is called a "knowledge society."
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I just came from an excellent meeting with local colleagues who lead some of the best known non profits in town. We were talking about a number of things, but one topic was the emergence of social impact bonds (SIBs) as another method of financing social/health programs. Social Impact Bonds are very new and the first one occurred in Great Britain in 2010. Today, there are 14 social impact bond projects in the United Kingdom, one in Australia, and a couple or so in the United States (as of 2013). There are none yet in Canada.
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INTRODUCTION
This piece is about our practice as community workers, our mindset, our tendencies to resist the transformative leap. Sometimes it feels like we are standing on the edge of convention, a wide chasm between us and the “New World,” and looking down at the gremlins of risk and failure.
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Sometimes, collaboration stinks.
Okay, I imagine I have your attention now.
Yes, I am being overly dramatic. I guess what I really want to say is that sometimes a really good idea gets overdone, twisted up, misguided. Collaboration is generally a good thing of course, but it seems sometimes we just do it or at least try to do it whether it is needed or not, whether or not we truly believe it makes sense. All of us know that sometimes we do it because funders require it. I called that “coerced collaboration."
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I wonder.
Have we have been hoodwinked. co-opted, and led to the altar of a false god – or at the very least, an imperfect one?
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The word "innovation" conjures up positive imagery. We see it as something we want to be known for. It's creative, desirable, inspiring, and we sense that if we can do it, if we can achieve it, we will lift ourselves up above the status quo, not to mention those who are quite comfortable in the box of convention.
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