About 15 years ago, I discovered an innovation from Australia called Photolanguage, a set of black and white image cards depicting various slices of Australian...
05.082015November 2, 2016
Kinesthetic Enhancers
What’s on your desk right now that you’ve fiddled with today? It’s okay, we all do it. And our experience suggests that all those paper clips, squeeze balls and clicking pens could be helping us to pay attention to our work.
25.062015November 2, 2016
Facilitate to Innovate, Part 2: Focused Conversation and ORID
By Galen EllisIn UncategorizedTags group prioritization, guide groups, help with group sessions, planning
A few weeks ago we discussed the importance of question design in my role as a facilitator hired to swiftly—yet very effectively—guide groups through various...
02.062015November 2, 2016
Facilitate to Innovate, Part 1: Appreciative Inquiry
By Galen EllisIn UncategorizedTags empowerment, group prioritization, guide groups, help with group sessions, learning, planning, process
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is one model that can help structure these questions, tapping into each participant’s potential to innovate toward successful outcomes. It grounds participants in the best of what has been, in order to envision the best possible future.
09.042015June 5, 2017
Getting There
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
Our voice in the national conversations about Logic Models and Virtual Meeting Spaces The American Evaluation Association (AEA), the premier organization for evaluators in...
18.032015September 22, 2016
Feeling Cornered?
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
So you’ve just been tasked with gaining engagement and input from community stakeholders throughout the state for a strategic planning process. You have six months....
23.022015September 22, 2016
Remember those heady days of taking on Big Tobacco?
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
The news clip below is from a defining moment early in my career in 1993, when I was at the Contra Costa County Public Health...
02.022015September 22, 2016
My top accomplishment of 2014? I learned I’m good at handling elephants.
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
No, I didn’t run off and join the circus—but I’ve learned how to use some familiar tools in new ways. Planning and evaluation are often...
28.102013September 22, 2016
“Falling in Love with Our Work”
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
Fellow consultant Laurin Mayeno published the following post on her website, www.mayenoconsulting.com, on September 27, 2013. It resonated with our work interests so much that...
12.092013September 22, 2016
Participatory Assessment, Evaluation and Planning Methods
By Galen EllisIn Uncategorized
Ellis Planning Associates draws from various community engagement and participatory planning approaches. A few of these methods are described here. Consensus Workshop Method/Modified Delphi...