Full Circle Associates

Two of my favorite colleagues in international development work for Bellanet -- and now they are blogging! I can almost hear their voices as they write, as Lucie did on this post on about a meeting on organizational development:

This basically led us to discuss the fact that for many of us, the walls of the "official" organisation have been broken down by the various communities or networks that we are involved in. We sometimes share more work ideas with colleagues located in another continent than in the office next door, and this has huge impact on "organisational learning" as it has been understood in the past. There is often more of a kinship with people doing similar work elsewhere than with our own colleagues. The analogy I came up with was that organisations are a bit like family... you can't choose your family members but you can choose your friends ;-) Anyway, it gave me pause. Maybe the term "organisation" needs a re-definition?

and Allison here reflecting on a MashupCamp :

One fellow OS community member, Chris Collison shares his thoughts on this kind of straw polling approach: "To do so in the middle of the offerings being made slows things down and seems premature until all the agenda offerings are made and to do so later introduces a level of complexity that also inhibits flow. Having people sign up for sessions gives an indication of interest, but in my experience, if a session is too big for it's space, the convenors usually find a way to swap with others or to relocate. In my opinion, well said, Chris.

Their voices are personal, their insights are both specific enough to help me get a sense of what they are talking about, but also generalized in some way to be more broadly useful. I keep thinking of the word "USEFUL" as a descriptor of their blogging practices. Human voice and useful. Not a bad combination. Hey women, are you coming to Blogher?

Tags: Bellanet, blogging