Community-based Problem Solving Events

As we draw close to the holidays and plan for a new term, I want to share an insight into how supporting Fellows to harness the power of their communities has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my work since the inception of my coaching journey with Teach For Nigeria. Through the Teaching as Collective Leadership (TACL) framework, "Community as Power," I guided over 23 Fellows (teachers) across Ogun Waterside, Ijebu East, and Ijebu North-East to engage their local communities in ways that fostered a collaborative approach to education. Through meticulous planning and goal setting, each Fellow was tasked with conducting in-depth research to understand the unique educational needs of their assigned community. The findings revealed that true educational change could only happen with active community involvement, particularly from parents, local leaders, and stakeholders. By facilitating these community engagements, Fellows created platforms for dialogue, organized sensitization programs, and mobilized resources to meet the needs of their schools. A key part of the strategy involved working with respected local leaders, like the Báalés (local community leaders), and using local dialects to ensure messages resonated deeply with the community. The impact was evident, parents became more involved in their children’s education, student performance improved, and the bond between schools and communities strengthened. The success wasn’t without challenges, resource constraints and cultural resistance required creative problem-solving. But overall, this experience reinforced the importance of community ownership in achieving sustainable educational change. I’m proud of the work my Fellows did and the lasting relationships they built, and I look forward to seeing even greater impacts as we continue this journey together. #Education #CommunityImpact #Leadership #TeachForNigeria #CommunityAsPower #TACL

We ran 25 community events in a year at Apollo - which included open AMAs (ask me anything) to one to many workshops, to outbound teardowns to co-hosted thought leadership panels. Some were packed (2000+ registered). Some were... ehhh alright. 🦗 Here’s what actually worked (and what totally flopped): ✅ What worked: — Low-lift formats, high engagement: “Product AMAs” and “Outbound Teardowns” where members could show up and get live coaching or facetime with our product team. — Relevant > polished: Our highest-attended events weren’t the flashiest—they were the most useful. (Like our feature deep dives and playbook breakdowns.) — Co-hosting with customers: When we gave the mic to real users and customers, it felt more authentic and drove way more attendance and conversation. — Post-event follow-up: Sharing recordings and decks, tagging attendees, and turning insights into micro-content kept the momentum going far beyond the event. ❌ What flopped: — Over-produced panels with too many speakers or too much 'talking' in general: Felt like a webinar. Not a community moment. People don't want to be spoken at. — Events with no audience interaction: We always start each event with an icebreaker and we treat the zoom like a subdivision of our slack community. If your audience cannot participate along, they will lose attention. — Generic topics: If your audience can google it, they won’t show up. Fortunately for us, our members crave the "how to use Apollo for XYZ" content. — No clear takeaway or CTA: People don’t just want to just listen in, they want to apply their learnings right away. Giving a template or take home is so, so valuable. The biggest learning? Value > vanity. We always close our events with a quick NPS score to see how it goes, and we iterate each event based on the feedback from the last. TL;DR, it’s not about the number of total RSVPs (or attendees, really!) A great community event is human, interactive, and makes your members feel more connected (and that they walked away actually learning something). 💃 #community #b2bmarketing #b2bcommunity #events

Community sessions can easily become talking heads or info dumps. At the cross-gov delivery community we tried a new experiment today - a problem surgery. We wanted something where everyone is involved and engagement, building relationships, sharing experiences, developing mutual support. I'll share it here, so you can try it at your community, knowing it works. Inspired by Karina Lewis' brilliant session at DeliverCon in York (where a single thorny problem sparked incredible ideas and challenged assumptions), we decided to experiment. Matthew Syed would be proud at the diversity of thought (a la Rebel Ideas). Here's what we did: * Explained the concept to everyone, painting a picture of what worked * Collected problems in advance and on the day * Ran a quick poll to pick the top three * Used MS Teams' new feature to let people choose their own breakout rooms - unconference style Breakout rooms can cause drop-off, but 70 people stayed engaged to discuss challenging problems. After 30 minutes, we regrouped to share insights and evaluate. Almost everyone scored it as a valuable session and wanted more of the same. It provided an opportunity to solve a problem, for people to share their experience, for everyone to learn from that shared wisdom and to demonstrate the benefits of crowd sourcing solutions. A fourfold win! James Arthur Cattell said, "you helped change my mind" about the people in his session. Next time, smaller groups for even richer discussion. If you're a delivery person in gov, join the community by emailing digital.deliverypractice@dwp.gov.uk [c/o DWP Digital]. Have you tried something similar in your community? What worked for you?

How can you turn the saying "𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮" into something practical and actionable? You head to a Peer Conference! Over the years, I've been to and organised a bunch of them. They're great places to meet with colleagues to share experiences, get help, question each other, explore ideas, glean new insights into current or past problems, or seek advice about an upcoming opportunity/situation. But what even is a Peer Conference? Adrian Segar describes them as: "...𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘦-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯, 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦, 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺-𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.". The key word in that definition is 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚. It was easily the biggest differentiator between peer conferences and more traditional conferences. Based on events I've attended, here are some characteristics that make them so effective: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀: These are personal stories based on real-world experiences that demonstrate how theoretical concepts were applied in real-world scenarios. 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻: This is when the other participants get to challenge the content of the story (while someone is sharing their experience report, you're only allowed to ask clarifying questions). This might be done by asking questions or making observations about what was the same, what was different, what was surprising, what was predictable, offer suggestions, push back on conclusions, and whole myriad of other things! 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The best facilitators maintain a safe space for the participants, monitor the energy in the room, and protect the structure of the sessions and overall conference. Hopefully you're starting to see the benefits of attending something like this! But just in case, let's get specific: 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: Exploring the experiences and challenges of peers in your line of work generates new ideas and solutions. Especially when you're facing similar situations. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Events of this kind encourage you to step out of your comfort zone (but not in an uncomfortable way!). By engaging in face-to-face interactions and discussions you improve your communication skills and build your self-confidence. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Spending time with highly-motivated and like-minded professionals can jump start the passion and enthusiasm for your work. Getting away from your work environment gives you a chance to reflect on your practices, goals, gain a new perspectives on your careers, and prevents burnout. If you get the chance to attend one, please take it! Then let us know how you got on :)

Breakout sessions are stale. Open forums can get choatic. Panels are one-directional and rigid. Try the World Café Method instead. In the World Café participants rotate between small, café-style tables, building on ideas from others and uncovering collective insights. Why you should use the World Café? ↳ It fosters inclusive dialogue where every voice matters. ↳ It breaks silos, creating connections across diverse groups. ↳ It generates actionable insights through shared discovery. The World Café is a good alternative when you want to shift from static, one-way methods to a participatory, creative process that builds shared understanding and engagement. It is perfect for brainstorming, strategic planning, or complex problem-solving. #Facilitation #FacilitationSkills