Gatherings with Purpose: How to Design, Lead, and Engage Together
Week of September 24, 2022
Join foundation and nonprofit strategy consultant Melinda Fine, Ed.D., to explore how to design and engage in gatherings rich in meaning and value.
What Facilitating a Wedding, a Funeral, a Bat Mitzvah, and a Board Meeting Have in Common
We spend much of our lives gathering with others, but too often these experiences make poor use of our time. Sometimes we meet professionally, with staff, boards, or others in our fields of interest; at other times we meet with family and friends to mark rituals of passage and celebration. Whatever their setting, crafting gatherings rich in purpose takes intention and skill. Engaging in them fully takes similar intention. Join foundation and nonprofit strategy consultant Melinda Fine, Ed.D., to explore five ingredients essential to designing and engaging in gatherings that are powerful and meaningful for participants, setting the stage for more fulfilling experiences in the future.
Reflection Work Sheet, Fine Consulting, RLP Sept 2022
Success Ingredients Work Sheet, Fine Consulting, RLP Sept 2022
Resources, What Facilitating a Wedding, a Funeral, a Bat Mitzvah, and a Board Meeting Have in Common (Fine Consulting, Rancho La Puerta, September 2022)
What Facilitating a Wedding, a Funeral, a Bat Mitzvah, and a Board Meeting Have in Common (Fine Consulting, Rancho La Puerta, September 2022)
The Art of Bringing People Together for Shared Purpose
Accessible and useful for those who design, lead, or simply participate in gatherings in a professional or volunteer context, this session will explore how to participate in forums that challenge both the head and the heart. We will cover strategies to foster goal definition, framing work expectations, and collective sense-making. We will also problem-solve common challenges, such as people moving at different paces, holding different perspectives, and gravitating toward challenges rather than assets. Through individual reflection, group dialogue, and work sheets, participants will identify characteristics that have contributed to successful as well as unsuccessful gathering experiences in the past, and what they might plan to execute in the future.
Hand Out Resource, Fine Consulting, RLP Sept 2022
The Pragmatics of Bringing People Together for Shared Purpose
This session focuses on what lies beneath the surface in gathering design and execution – including the strengths (and potential inhibitions) we bring with us into spaces where we gather. We will consider planning for submerged dynamics (such as power differentials and hot button issues) and unpack the “choreography” of a meeting’s arc, mindful of the ebb and flow of participants’ energy and the time it takes to build community and foster candor. Through individual reflection, group dialogue, and work sheets, we will also explore how participants can build on their personal strengths when facilitating or simply joining in collective forums.
Post Session Work Sheet, Fine Consulting, RLP Sept 2022
Post Session Work Sheet, Fine Consulting, RLP Sept 2022
The Dance of Bringing People Together for Shared Purpose
This final session explores what it takes to ensure productive and inclusive engagement among diverse gatherers. We will problem-solve when events go off the rails, identifying common disrupters — the back seater, the nay sayer, the interrupter, the middle schooler, and more. To foster skills in building consensus in the conference room (and around the family dinner table), we will name dragons to slay, questions to consider, and tools to tap. Through individual reflection, group dialogue, and work sheets, participants will leave having committed to one concept, approach, or tool they will try out in a future gathering after their time at the Ranch.
Priority-Setting Exercise Hand Out, Fine Consulting, RLP 9-2022
What Facilitating a Wedding, a Funeral, a Bat Mitzvah, and a Board Meeting Have in Common (Fine Consulting, Rancho La Puerta, September 2022)
Resources Hand Out, Fine Consulting, RLP, Sept 2022
Melinda Fine, Ed.D. of FINE Consulting, is a seasoned strategy consultant and coach who has partnered with leaders, nonprofits, and foundations of all shapes and sizes for over three decades. A skilled facilitator known for listening deeply, asking probing questions, and crafting meaningful gatherings that foster collaboration and effectiveness, Melinda’s local, national, and global clients advance progressive social change through grantmaking, community organizing, advocacy, policy, and more. An avid potter, swimmer, mother, daughter, and friend, Melinda draws on insights gleaned through personal and professional experience, believing that successful collaboration requires embracing different ways of knowing and a hefty dose of emotional smarts.
http://www.fineconsultingllc.org (includes Resources)