Sue Nelson Cleveland

Music has a way of teaching us things we weren't learning in other ways.  The sustainability movement  has had trouble reaching some people.  Perhaps music could be a pathway to reaching some of them.  The scope and urgency of our problems is hard to grasp, frankly.  It's hard to contemplate a billion hungry people, let alone understand how my eating a hamburger on the 4th of July contributes to their lack of food.  So how could music help? I want to show you how combining a slide presentation on global sustainability problems with music affects the viewer’s experience:   http://tinyurl.com/69nytmf .   You’ve seen a thousand of these presentations, but please look at this one too.   Then come back to this post.   (You really should watch the whole video to get the effect, but if you're not going to watch the whole thing then watch a moment at these points:   The beginning, 1:42 and 5:40.) T...

Today a Board VP asked me, "Why don't Board members stay engaged?  They start out enthusiastic and then their activity tapers off."  There are basically three reasons why Board members participate in meetings, committees and fundraising:   They know the other members and are friendly with them.  They belong and want to contribute to their team. They know what to do and how to do it.  Offer samples and "a buddy" even if your member is successful in business. He or she may not feel confident about asking for a donation or leading a committee of volunteers. They know what they do or say matters.  They want to make a difference. Knowing these three motivators, it's easier to design activities, meetings or retreats that foster engagement.  For instance, a Fundraising Letter Writing Party ties all three reasons together.  Socializing, especially if there's food, sample letters for members to use as a basis for thei...

There is so much confusion about who entrepreneurs really are. They're mushed up together with small business owners and even independent insurance agents! So I want to tell you how I distinguish entrepreneurs from other folks. To my mind, entrepreneurs are people who invent a product or service and form a company to deliver that invention that operates in a new way because of that invention. Admittedly that diminishes the number of entrepreneurs around, but it also means we can see them more clearly and can honor their history making task. [1] The whole point about entrepreneurs is that they see things that could be, see why they would be useful, make them, and get them distributed to the rest of us. There may be a number of iterations before they get it right, but the concept won't let go of them. Sometimes it's as though the idea itself wants to be born. Entrepreneurs are not working on projects that the rest of us want or think would be great. Those people ...

             … It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The             dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion             is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case             is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves,             and then we shall save our country. [1] In his Annual Message in 1862, President Lincoln urged Congress to consider how to influence the fate of the nation.   Today his words inspire us to review our current conditions with greater acuity and reflect upon them from a more noble perspective.   How shall we disenthrall ourselves?...

Do you ever wonder how to get your message across to co-workers in a different department?  Do you have to work really hard to understand why someone else is talking about whatever it is they're describing to you?  How can companies help people communicate with each other, in a way that incorporates everyone's knowledge and talents without turning everyone bald from pulling out their own hair? Planning or working with people from different departments of an organization can be tough; and it's not just because you might be competing for scarce resources.  Almost always, people from one department genuinely like and respect the people from other departments in the organization.  But to really be able to collaborate -- work on something together -- people need more than appreciation.   They have to understand what the other person is saying and why it matters.  How does one get that common...

(Original Publication January 2010) Have you heard about it? In August 2009 Mayor Jackson hosted the first Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit : Building an Economic Engine to Empower a Green City on a Blue Lake which was an Appreciative Inquiry summit to create a 10-year strategic plan for the City and region. Over 700 people from all walks of life converged in Public Auditorium to co-develop the plan. The cool thing about this is that instead of writing a strategic plan, participants came up with 22 projects that collectively would be the plan and then developed prototypes – right there! – and began the work. My group, The Public Compact working group, was charged with writing a vision and pledge that individuals could sign that would help stimulate engagement with economic and community development throughout the region. (There’s also an Engage 1.6M group that is charged with reaching out to everyone. We’re helping to provide content for that outreach.)...

Do you ever wake up in the early morning with a random thought that answers a question you’ve had?  I’m talking about the kind of answer that isn’t the product of a logical thought process, but is the result of a kind of leap. One morning, I woke up with this phrase in my head, “generative vs. determinative thinking.” In my half-awake fog, I wrote it down, wondered what in the world this phrase was pertaining to, and fell back asleep. Once I was actually awake, I still had no clue what it was about.  So off to Google I went. Here’s the first entry from the search for generative vs. determinative thinking: Ontological and Epistemological Terrains Revisited  “…To grant thought generative and determinative functional properties is ...”Boy! Did that not clear anything up! The next source was a lot more interesting:  Why Nonprofits Have a Board Problem ( http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4735.html ).  This short interview and book r...