here are some definitions I ran across after reading Carter McNamara's blog titled Are You Doing OD? Training? Consulting? Coaching? All of These? enjoy

Is it fair to add contacts from business cards you collect at a business or social function? I’ve followed a group discussion on this topic for a few weeks now, and the feedback is quite divided.

Why a Policy for Making Decisions? How often have you heard Board members assert that they’d made a decision, when they really hadn’t — all they had done was talk about a topic for a long while? Or, how often have some Board members or the Executive Director asserted that a decision had been made, …

Too Often, What We Call a Program, Really Isn’t If you spent the day guiding old ladies across the street and someone gave you a dollar for doing it, would that mean you’re delivering a “program?” What many people call a program is too often just a sporadic set of disconnected activities — it’s not …

Over the years, I’ve noticed that when things get really tough or it’s difficult to identify strategies during planning, there are always three strategies you can try. My clients seem to love it when I describe the Solution to them. Try it yourself. Strategy #1: Try Get More Resources? This is the most popular, but …

OD vs. Training – Or Is It? I’ve watched over the years as various fields and professions form firm interpretations of others. For example, many Organization Development practitioners almost look down on training as scoped to working only with individuals and not the broader context of organizations as does OD (by the way, we OD’rs …

In a previous post, I discussed the need to not ignore the informal learning systems that are working within your organization. Research indicates that 70-80% of all learning comes in the form of informal learning; however, it seems to be largely ignored in training and HR departments across organizations. (By the way, if you are already thinking of ways to formalize informal learning, you are missing the mark.)

(Adapted from an Article on “Founders Syndrome) Written in 2004) In his blog, “Consulting Skills,” dated April 23, Carter McNamara asked, “What is a Mature Organization.” I’d like to try and answer that question from the perspective of a fundraising consultant. I have to base my “answer” on a couple of basic concepts — that …

from guest writer Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC Many Coaching Models Have Certain Approaches in Common About 15 years ago, I had the privilege of studying a variety of coaching models. When people asked me which model was best, I always answered that it was the last model I had studied. Each model seemed …

We occasionally come across organizations considering franchising as a strategy for developing a social enterprise. A franchisor is a company that has a successful product or service, business model and recognizable trade name (think chain stores), which it offers on a continuing contractual basis to other businesses (its franchisees), for a fee. The advantage of …