As your mission partnership moves into operation, your group will need to consider how it will organize for effectiveness. Collaboration can be organized in many ways – from informal awareness of each other to highly structured initiatives with constitutions, membership, and significant budgets. Here are a few things to consider as you move forward…
02 Dec 2016 by Daniel Dow
As mission agencies, local churches, and other ministries begin to explore partnering efforts across the boundaries of their organizations, two key questions often emerge: (1) How can you know when it is right to partner with other organizations in pursuit of a God-given vision? and (2) What can you do to make those partnerships successful? …
24 Oct 2016 by Daniel Dow
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ” In the same way, effective mission partnerships do not “run aimlessly” or “beat the air”. They stay focused on turning talk into action as they work together to achieve their shared goals. One of the key attributes of an effective partnering initiative is the discipline of regular evaluation and reporting…
24 Oct 2016 by Daniel Dow
All mission networks and partnerships need resources to accomplish their shared goals. In many surveys we have done with network and partnership facilitators, one of the issues that always rises to the top is funding . The issue of funding can energize a group and help participants see that they can do things together they could never do separately, or it can be a major obstacle – yet another chance for pessimists to say: “I don’t see how this is going to work.” How you approach the issue can make all the difference…
08 Sep 2016 by Daniel Dow
Achieving dialogue and mutual understanding in any meeting is a challenge. When two or more languages — including sign language — are spoken, the facilitator’s task becomes even more difficult. Here are some practical suggestions for supporting all the participants in a multi-lingual situation.
02 Sep 2016 by Daniel Dow
In July 2016, visionSynergy and Mark Avery co-facilitated a global online learning conversation on the Synergy Commons. The burst group focused on exploring the key characteristics of organizational and network collaboration leaders and how organizations could best support and work with these leaders and their gifts. A Burst Group Summary was produced to collect the key ideas that were shared over the course of 14 days by participants from around the world.
19 Aug 2016 by Daniel Dow
In this Harvard Business Review article, the authors share their research about the four key things that great listeners (and leaders) do differently.
27 Jul 2016 by Daniel Dow
Ellen Livingood shares five lessons she learned / relearned as a founding member and leader of a diaspora outreach network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In this article, she reflects on the networking challenges — common to many networks — that they encountered their first year of operation.
