COP Overview
- 1. 1 NYC Sustained Global Impact Community of Practice Who are we? The NYC Sustained Global Impact Community of Practice (COP) is a new forum for sharing ideas and issues in the international development and global social impact space. Think less networking, more collaboration. Launched in October 2016, we tap into the unique mix of professionals and organizations working here in New York City on global sustainable development. This includes traditional actors, such as the United Nations, nonprofits, and NGOs, plus consultants, social entrepreneurs, academia, and the private sector. As international development professionals, our bottom-‐line goal is to create impact that endures. We’re not alone in that. And with such a diverse community, we want to create new connections and cross-‐pollinate approaches, lessons learned, and impact for lasting results. Each meeting features a speaker, panel, or voice from within the group focused on knowledge sharing, problem solving, case studies, and innovative tools and technologies. The group is highly participatory and members are encouraged to view each session as a platform for both sharing and listening to viewpoints, insights, challenges, opportunities, and solutions in the international development and global impact sector. Who is this for? If you are working fully or partly in the international development or global social impact sector and genuinely want to share ideas and address challenges across this community, then this group is for you! As a COP member, you are an experienced and active practitioner in this field. You are someone with a broader view of your role in the sector beyond your specific expertise and your work. We talk with all prospective members beforehand, so if you or someone you know might be a great fit, reach out and we’ll schedule an introductory meeting / call. Let’s build this together This is an interactive group. We want your input as we continue to grow. * We are always looking for speakers: reach out to be a speaker or share a recommendation. * Pass it along! Feel free to share this announcement with other like-‐minded professionals. We’re low-‐tech right now, so please email elle.dilorenzo@gmail.com to learn more about joining or speaking. Want more detail on our vision? No problem! More information on how the group got started, target membership, and session topics ideas can be found on the next page.
- 2. 2 More about the NYC Sustained Global Impact Community of Practice What do our ideal members do? What do they care about? This community is a curated group of professionals who currently work in this space (not those who are aspirational). Members are interested in joining and being active in an ongoing community, not just attending a one-‐off session on a thought-‐provoking topic. The core theme across our members and speakers is that we focus -‐ or want to increase our focus -‐ on making a lasting impact in our international work. In other words, how do we employ traditional and emerging ways of looking at international development to have a more sustained impact? Topics focus on how we work: organizational systems analysis, financial sustainability of local organizations, organizational development, how to move from awareness to engagement to implementation (The UN Sustainable Development Goals reflect this -‐ lots of talk, but how will we move to measurable and sustainable action?), sound program design, moving from donor/recipient mindsets to partnership, etc. We also explore how we think: design thinking, radical listening, storytelling, and other methods that examine the relationship between how people see the world and how that affects the way we all work within it. We are very purposeful about bringing the NYC landscape into the mix. There’s such a different character to development and impact here than say DC (all policy, all the time), but we think it can be channeled and cross-‐channeled more effectively. The UN, social entrepreneurs, academics, nonprofits, and private corporations have interactions, but largely operate in their own worlds. And this is a true Community of Practice, which is not really about networking (though that is often a by-‐product), but more about peer-‐to-‐peer learning among members and likely paving the way for collaborative initiatives. Who are our founders? The Community of Practice was created by Elle DiLorenzo, a Consultant / Advisor at Designing Programs for Lasting Impact (www.enduringimpact.org), specializing in program management and advising like-‐minded organizations on how to design programs and initiatives that last, and Rich Fromer, who is Managing Director at LINC (www.linclocal.org), an international development firm rooted in systems analysis. Why join us as a speaker? There is no financial incentive available for speakers, so the impetus would be exposure to the membership. As well as a platform to share ideas and challenges and gain feedback from this community. We expect the speaking engagements to be less like lectures and more two-‐way dialogue. We’re looking for speakers and members that are truly committed to moving this sector forward in a tangible fashion, so collaboration opportunities outside of the group are quite possible as well. Speakers don’t need to live in NY to join us. If you will be travelling to the New York City area, let us know!
- 3. 3 Session Topic Snapshot Learn more about our meetings We meet monthly, except December (holiday time) and August (vacation time). Each session includes community interactions as well as a Featured Discussion. All members are invited to our LinkedIn group to keep the collaboration going between meetings. See recent themes: Why Change Interventions Often Fail: Understanding Complexity in Social Systems Development interventions generally address symptom-‐level issues such as poverty, violence, unemployment or other visible social ills. However most often these symptoms are highly inter-‐related and a result of underlying societal dynamics and structures that are less visible or tangible for most development practitioners. Moreover, even when the structural issues are identified, actual resource limitations of development initiatives hinder tackling the main issues at hand. Looking through the lens of systems analysis, Ali Mostashari, Ph.D. will lead us as we examine complexity iceberg of structure, dynamics and events and why systems tend to go back to their original dynamics when a symptom-‐level intervention is performed. Emerging Tools in Development Programming: Social Network Analysis Building on last month’s engaging discussion on Systems and Complexity, Rich Fromer will introduce a tool for systems analysis that is just starting to gain traction in International Development. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a way of thinking about social systems by focusing attention on relationships among the actors in a system. In this session, we will discuss the uses of SNA for development, the methods for conducting SNA, and a case study example drawn from Rich’s work in the field with his company, LINC. Understand and Practice Storytelling in an Advocacy and Development Context Humans are hard wired to understand the world through narrative – and it’s been going on since fire was discovered. Now, everyone is telling stories, 24/7, across gazillions of platforms and channels. Storytelling is a buzzword and it’s almost impossible to hear a clear signal. Deborah Brozina of Making Change will guide you thorough a structured approach to storytelling within the advocacy and development space. She will show her approach to identifying the characters, plot and action that make up your narrative. And with that, you can focus your attention and effort where it works and drop the stuff that doesn't. Design Thinking: Hone your Mindset for Empathy and Impact Design Thinking has entered the mainstream, being used throughout the development and impact sector, as well as academia and the corporate world. But, what is it really all about? And how can we use it to better inform the work we do and how we relate to others? In this interactive workshop, Elle DiLorenzo of Designing Programs for Lasting Impact will guide you through an overview of design thinking and explore DT exercises to help you understand yourself, your audience, and your approach to problem solving for impact.