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 Once in a while, we come across a nice metaphor for our facilitation work. Mine came one saturday afternoon. Ducks and eagles. Here’s how it goes.
Don’t Send Your Ducks To Eagle School The first rule of management is this: don’t send your ducks to eagle school. Why? Because it won’t work. Good people are found not changed. They can change themselves, but you can’t change them. You want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them. I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full-page ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad read, “We do not teach our people to be nice.” Now that got my attention. More on Of Ducks and Eagles
 Following the launch of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) initiative during the fourth High-Level Forum in Busan, South Korea, Shaista Hussain shares her thoughts on improving project design to ensure the collection of gender-disaggregated data.
When Maya Angelou set out to write her classic poem on a woman’s work, she probably did not realize the challenges generations ahead would have to deal with, in capturing the woman’s work in empirical data.
When world leaders gathered in Busan in November 2011 for the fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), it was a chance for them to take stock of how international development dollars are spent, how governments work, and in turn, how development partners contribute to national and global goals. Gender equality was a top priority at HLF-4 with champions of this cause such as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading the way. There was also a sober acknowledgement that despite all efforts to mainstream gender equality across the world, it has not been achieved in any one country. It is widely accepted that no country, economy, society, or community can thrive when half of its population is marginalized. And yet, we lag behind in delivering on gender results, or at times, underreporting on gender issues. More on Staying on the EDGE! A Woman’s Work is Never Done
 Have you ever attended conferences that have lots of: (a) boring Powerpoint presenters; (b) brainstorming but too little documentation; or (c) actions but flat and text-heavy post-conference reports? Well, it’s time to bring-in the Visual Facilitator (VF)!
VFs are the new kids on the block who can work closely with the main conference facilitators like you. They draw and use symbols, images and words to capture the group conversations. They use visual facilitation techniques to build the knowledge, experience and capacity of groups and enable them to reach their desired outcomes. Their results are captivating visual record of the group’s memory about what happened.
More on Visual Facilitators…New Kids on your Block
 2012 is here. Will it be the same as 2011?
Well, not if we do a reflection and learned our lessons in 2011. Let us look back, reflect sincerely and move forward.
In looking back, let us consider these personal evaluation questions: (a) what was the most fun I had this past year? (b) what did I learn in 2011? (c) what did I adapt on a personal level (a change in the practice, procedures, and habits) for my own good? and (d) What books or concepts had the biggest impact on me?
In visioning 2012, let us consider: (a) what important projects (organizational or personal) would I like to achieve? (b) How do I see my career grow? (c) what skills and competencies do I like to obtain or sharpen? (d) how can I multiply services and deliver more? (e) how much can I learn? More on 2012 is Here
 You guessed it! Project management is discovering more and more uses of the power of the ever present cellphones. Like the internet, cellphones reached the remote rural areas much faster than refrigerators, TV, radio and even electricity did.
Now monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has invaded the cellphone space and is now gaining traction among development facilitators. They are joining the bandwagon for cost effectiveness and the fun of using a technology for the usually tiring and boring ME chores. In this method, the beneficiary-respondents use GMS-enabled phones as point of interest (POI) input devices that feed to a central data server via a database template for aggregation, visualization and even re-dissemination of the processed data over the internet. PMUs can do the four simple steps: (a) create an account, (b) download and install a software, (c) collect location data and More on M&E Systems & Your Cellphones
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Once in a while, we come across a nice metaphor for our facilitation work. Mine came one saturday afternoon. Ducks and eagles. Here’s how it goes.
