Using Events to Close Triangles

We have been experimenting with a technique to encourage and strengthen network connections at conferences. In this great blog post from our colleague, Janne Flisrand of Flisrand Consulting, she shares how it works and her experience using it at a recent conference. Janne is a network building facilitation consultant, based in Minneapolis. This is cross-posted… Read more

Preparing for the Unexpected

Outside my window, the snow is heavily streaming down as New England is being buried in a blizzard. In the hype of media coverage about the approaching big storm, emergency response officials talked about their efforts to be prepared for whatever would come. This got me thinking about how leaders in any type of work… Read more

Horizontal Loyalty

Imagine this time of sustainability transition as a wave, where all along the leading edge are people and organizations inventing new ways of using clean energy, renewing democracy, creating businesses that solve social problems, and thousands of other innovations to create a better future. Each person or initiative, in their own way, has to go… Read more

Building Trust before a Crisis

One of the memorable stories of 9/11 is what unfolded in response to the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 at the Pentagon. On that Tuesday morning, a plane carrying 10,000 gallons of fuel going over 300 miles an hour crashed into the building, ultimately killing close to 200 people. Consider the challenge emergency responders… Read more

The Power of Potlucks: Place-Based Networks

One of the most inspiring speeches we heard at the Slow Money National Gathering was from Tom Stearns, President of High Mowing Organic Seeds. His company is based in Hardwick, a small town in northern Vermont, which was featured in The New York Times article entitled “Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town”. Remarkably,… Read more