Expanding Paradigms In my first post in this two part guest series, I presented an account of the contrast between ‘things’ and ‘people’ as it was framed in my 1997 book Whose Reality Counts? and as many people in the development sector still perceive it. As numerous responses – both here and on other fora [...]
Archive for the ‘Facilitation’ Category
Whose Paradigm Counts? Guest Post 2 of 2 By Robert Chambers
Posted in Accountability, Evolution, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy, Technology on February 15, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Whose Paradigm Counts? Guest Post 1 of 2 By Robert Chambers
Posted in Accountability, Evolution, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Public Policy, Self organisation on February 10, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Last year I wrote a paper called Paradigms, Poverty and Adaptive Pluralism. In it I explored how technological advances and complexity sciences were together helping to reframe a longstanding divide between two opposing paradigms in international development. Because of the relevance of this to current debates on complexity and aid, I welcome this opportunity to share these ideas here. I warmly invite feedback from [...]
A Q&A on Positive Deviance, Innovation and Complexity
Posted in Evaluation, Evolution, Facilitation, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Public Policy, Resilience, Self organisation, Strategy on February 8, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Positive deviance (PD) is a fascinating approach, a decade and a half old, and the focus of growing interest in health, education and numerous other sectors in domestic public policy. Interestingly, given PD saw first widespread application in an aid programme, it is still less well known than it should be across the international community. This post [...]
Towards the Twig-Frame: Update on Complex Adaptive System Conference in Arusha 31st Sept – 3rd September
Posted in Agriculture, Evaluation, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Meetings, Organisations, Resilience, Self organisation, Strategy on September 20, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Two weeks ago we blogged about a fascinating event taking place in Arusha, convened by World Vision, which aimed to explore how complex adaptive systems thinking can be used to transform approaches to rural development. Below is a round-up of the event. Special thanks are due to Miriam Booy of World Vision for both synthesising the material [...]
IMPROV-ing Aid Through Creative Rigour
Posted in Chaos, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Resilience, Self organisation on September 7, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Lessons from theatrical improvisation have clear parallels with group dynamics in other social systems, including aid agencies… Outside of work, theatre is one of my main passions. In my tentative attempts to learn more about different aspects of stagecraft, I have stumbled across some fascinating thinking which is of real relevance for Aid on the [...]
Governance, Ecosystems and Livelihoods: New Strategies for Transformational Development
Posted in Agriculture, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Organisations, Resilience, Strategy on August 31, 2010 | 2 Comments »
This week sees what promises to be a fascinating event bringing together practitioners and scientists to reflect on issues of complex adaptive systems and rural development, organised by World Vision Canada in Arusha. The three day conference has a special focus on the lessons from an innovative programme to enhance aid agency staff and community leaders [...]
The Aid Leadership Paradox
Posted in Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Resilience, Self organisation, Strategy on August 24, 2010 | 5 Comments »
“In these troubled, uncertain times, we don’t need more command and control; we need better means to engage everyone’s intelligence in solving challenges and crises as they arise.” Traditional perspectives on leadership are based on a view of organisations as mechanical systems. Organisations are made up of prescriptive rules, formalised control mechanisms and hierarchical authority [...]
Rethinking Trust (and a Doggy Footnote)
Posted in Conflict and peace building, Facilitation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy on August 19, 2010 | 7 Comments »
For one reason or another, I have been thinking about trust this week. Trust is regularly cited as a critical factor in effective aid organisations, is seen as the essential for partnerships, and creating it is seen as a primary task for aid leadership. But all too often trust is mentioned as if it can simply be [...]
Latest in “aid net-oric”?
Posted in Facilitation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Networks, Public Policy on April 22, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A recent piece of research led me to coin of the phrase ‘aid net-oric’ (pron: net-er-ik) – a form of rhetoric which applies to exaggerated and bombastic use of the term ‘network’ in the aid sector. Once you start looking, you can see potential examples of ‘aid net-oric’ everywhere, from political manifestos to organisational mission [...]
Complexity & Conversation: reflections 1 & 2
Posted in Facilitation, Meetings, tagged complexity, conversation, emergence, Facilitation on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Report of Complexity and Conversation meeting from October 2009, with reflections by Sean Lowrie and Vicky Cosstick.
