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This article was first published on Eugene Kim's blog, Faster Than 2.0.This is part three of a three-part essay on facilitating group learning. Part two of a three-part essay on facilitating group learning. See also part one, “Getting real about experiments and learning.” and two, "Documenting Is Not Learning."

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Two months ago, I blogged about my experiment with Dharmishta Rood and the Code for America Incubator, which wraps up in another few months. The goal is to help startups — in this case, a company called PostCode — develop great collaborative habits in its formative stage. The theory is that it’s more effective to build good habits from the start than it is to try to change bad habits later.

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Beth Tener and Carole Martin presented ways of transitioning our organizations into a network mindset. They presented applicable tools to transform any organization. They answered many questions live, however, here are a few more questions that they were able to dive deeper into. If you missed the webinar you can watch the recording and view the slides. Beth and Carole also share more resources in this blog.

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Join us for the third session of the Networks and Leadership Webinar Series on "Foundations as Network Leaders: Learning From One Foundation's Journey and Results"

What does it mean for a foundation to become a facilitative leader?  And how can foundation staff make the case for network-based funding approaches to boards and other stakeholders?  This two-part series will explore successes and insights from the DentaQuest Foundation’s national systems change strategy Oral Health 2020.  Started in 2011, this network-based strategy has achieved notable results—development of oral health leaders across the country, creation of new state partnerships connected to a national health improvement network, and tangible system and policy changes such as the expansion of public benefits in more than 15 states.  Come learn about what it took to make this work happen from the perspective of Foundation leaders Brian Souza and Mike Monopoli, initiative evaluator Clare Nolan (Harder+Company Community Research), and network weaver Marianne Hughes (Interaction Institute for Social Change).

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This article was first published on Eugene Kim's blog, Faster Than 2.0.This is part two of a three-part essay on facilitating group learning. Part two of a three-part essay on facilitating group learning. See also part one, “Getting real about experiments and learning.”

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A few years ago, my friend and colleague, Rebecca Petzel, wrote about a participatory art exhibit where the artist asked, “What is transformation?” One of the replies was, “Moving beyond documentation.”

I laugh every time I read this, but I also shake my head. How and why did documentation become so synonymous with learning (or worse, transformation)?

My mentor, Doug Engelbart, always said that the distinguishing characteristic of a high-performance group was its ability to learn and improve. One sign that a group was good at learning was its ongoing care and maintenance of what Doug described as a “dynamic knowledge repository.”

When people asked Doug what a “dynamic knowledge repository” looked like, he always described something digital. That made sense. Among the many things that made Doug a visionary was his recognition that digital technology had the ability to transform the speed at which we act and the quality of those actions. It’s something I still believe wholeheartedly.

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