Join Organization Unbound and The Barefoot Guide Connection this October for our Tiny Open Online Course (TOOC)!

Who this TOOC is for

Are you involved in an NGO, civil society organization, or social movement? Do you work in a social enterprise? Are you a civil servant? Do you work for a foundation? Do you feel that how you experience organizational life on a daily basis is often hindering your capacity to effect deep and sustained change? Or have you noticed that the inner life of your organization is having a profoundly positive effect on your social innovation capacity and want to understand why this is and how to grow it even more? If so, then this TOOC is definitely for you!

What this TOOC is about

The Barefoot Guide Connection and Organization Unbound work from the conviction that “development” and “change” is not a process done by some people to other people. And that for change efforts to be transformative they must focus on the changemakers as well. The most transformative organizations we know ask themselves: “How can we become what we seek?” They don’t simply enact change on the world, they embody it. Their internal ways of working are deeply aligned with their larger social change goals. And as a result their levels of engagement, social innovation capacity, and impact are remarkably high. We hope this TOOC will inspire more social purpose organizations to approach their work in this way and help those already doing so to go deeper.

How it will work

We will cover four themes across four weeks, all of which provide an opportunity to explore the topic in a light and enjoyable way. Each theme builds on the previous one:

• Week 1 (Oct 3-7) Why organizations matter: Why do organizations matter in social change work, beyond the obvious structural/financial roles they play?

• Week 2 (Oct 10-14) Organizations as living systems: How do we engage with our organizations as the living organisms they are, rather than the machine-like entities we often treat them to be?

• Week 3 (Oct 17-21) Organizations as living laboratories: If a social purpose organization is alive then how do we leverage that aliveness in service of larger social change goals? What does it mean for an organization to be a living expression of its social purpose?

• Week 4 (Oct 24-28) Foregrounding experience: What kinds of daily mindsets & practices help an organization more fully embody its social purpose?

True to its name, this Tiny Open Online Course has been designed as a lightweight learning experience. It will be shorter than the typical MOOC (4 weeks rather than the average 6-10 weeks). And it will be presented on a platform (Facebook) that most people are already quite familiar with.

Each day (Mon-Fri) you will receive an email inviting you to engage with the ‘learning nugget’ for that day- in the form of a short reading, exercise, provocative question, video clip, podcast or other materials. You can choose to keep to this daily schedule or dip into the material as it suits your schedule.

We highly recommend that you find a few colleagues or peers to join you for this learning experience, as we’ve found that learning together leads to greater insight and will make it more likely that you’ll put your learnings into practice.

How to sign up

To sign-up, follow these two easy steps by September 30th:

1) Join our ‘Seeding Change from Within’ Facebook Group

2) Complete this sign-up form so that we can notify you when we post new learning content

What about cost?

There is no fee to participate. However, if you find the experience valuable and would like to show your appreciation through a financial contribution, we would deeply appreciate the support. All contributions received will help to fund the growth of our materials and communities of practice. Once the TOOC has come to a close, you will receive an email inviting you to make a contribution. However, you are under no obligation to do so.

Looking forward to learning with you!

Cristina & Tana

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