Published March 18, 2010
by iris_author
CHANGING THE WORLD BY CHANGING OUR ORGANIZATIONS
Time: Friday, March 19
3:00pm - 4:30pm
Location: Centre for Social Innovation
Alterna Savings Boardroom
Free
Presented by Organization Unbound and the Centre for Social Innovation
Many of us involved in social service and social change work have been frustrated by the incoherence that can exist between our organizations' overarching visions and their internal cultures and practices. How many community organizations have we encountered that don't feel like communities? How many advocacy groups that forget to practice the things they themselves advocate?
Our experiences and early research suggest that the distinction between serving the world and nurturing our organizations is a false one. Some of the most vibrant and socially catalytic organizations we have seen are places where there is a promising confusion about who is serving whom - schools where teachers learn and grow, food banks where staff and volunteers are nourished, hospitals where doctors are healed, social justice groups where activists are surprised to find their vision of a better world taking root in their own offices. These organizations are invoking the power of something we might call expressive change - a pattern of change rooted in who they are as much as in what they do. They ask themselves: "How can we become what we seek?"
Organization Unbound presents Changing the World by Changing Our Organizations, an exploration and dialogue into the specific practices of expressive social change. RSVP to warren@organizationunbound.org.
About the Presenters
Warren Nilsson and Tana Paddock are co-founders of Organization Unbound. Warren is a teacher and writer with a Ph.D. in organization studies from McGill University. His work focuses on how social purpose organizations can foster deep engagement and on how such engagement might lead to broader institutional transformation. Tana has spent fourteen years working in the United States and Canada as a facilitator, organizer, and trainer on a variety of community-based projects including sustainable design, micro-enterprise development, community economic development, food security, public education, the arts, and affordable housing. Her work explores ways of creating more vibrant community organizations through reflection, dialogue, and appreciative attention.
Event description link: http://socialinnovation.ca/changing-world-changing-our-organizations
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