CISV needs to work on it's Organizational Learning.
One of the common misconceptions of IPP is that it is a service programme: Something you attend to help others. It is not. It is a service learning programme. The slogan "Go out, find out, help out" says it all: Helping out, is just one of its goals. The focus of an IPP is a sustainable, long-lasting educational effect on the IPP participant. Among the IPP (staff) trainers it has become somewhat unnerving, that anytime you explain IPP to somebody new, you have to clarify this misunderstanding.
Former IJR Gian/BRA invented a concept that was later called "Gian's curves": Every time a JB board changes, people start from scratch again to reinstate the quality established by the previous board. Only through JB training an actual development can be achieved over the years.
Every year there are 60% new trustees at AIM. At IJBC, I believe the amount of new juniors is more like 75%. Some committees have quite high turnover rates as well, so do chapter boards. Any CISV meeting you will go to, national or international, you'll find that less thatn 10% haven been around for more than 10 years. How can we make sure, that things learned in the past are still available today, even if the people are not?
We're not talking about individuals being trained, but about the organization as a whole moving forward. The concept is called "Organizational Learning", and I strongly believe CISV needs to embrace it more. This article - of which I have quoted before is a bit of a tough read but a good start. Looking at CISV, RTFs with all their training workshops are also a great addition to the way we work. Employing people at IO that not only administer, but develop the organization in a professional way also adds to Organizational Learning. I do think there are more ways to achieve this: Organizing our document archives in an accesible way would help. Using electronic media to give newcomers a quick entry into our somewhat complicated structures and procedures is another option. I'm sure there's a lot more ideas out there.
Back to IPP: During AIM in Indonesia I attended a session on IPP training and was quite surprised to hear two Italians, when asked to describe what an IPP is, that many people think an IPP is about working, when it is actually about learning. They knew so well, because both had been trained by Fred, an Italian who had been a member of the IPP committee from 2001 to 2005. Fred has long reduced his commitment in CISV, but the effect of his training lasts on. In some areas, our Organizational Learning curves are doing quite fine.
One of the common misconceptions of IPP is that it is a service programme: Something you attend to help others. It is not. It is a service learning programme. The slogan "Go out, find out, help out" says it all: Helping out, is just one of its goals. The focus of an IPP is a sustainable, long-lasting educational effect on the IPP participant. Among the IPP (staff) trainers it has become somewhat unnerving, that anytime you explain IPP to somebody new, you have to clarify this misunderstanding.
Former IJR Gian/BRA invented a concept that was later called "Gian's curves": Every time a JB board changes, people start from scratch again to reinstate the quality established by the previous board. Only through JB training an actual development can be achieved over the years.
Every year there are 60% new trustees at AIM. At IJBC, I believe the amount of new juniors is more like 75%. Some committees have quite high turnover rates as well, so do chapter boards. Any CISV meeting you will go to, national or international, you'll find that less thatn 10% haven been around for more than 10 years. How can we make sure, that things learned in the past are still available today, even if the people are not?
We're not talking about individuals being trained, but about the organization as a whole moving forward. The concept is called "Organizational Learning", and I strongly believe CISV needs to embrace it more. This article - of which I have quoted before is a bit of a tough read but a good start. Looking at CISV, RTFs with all their training workshops are also a great addition to the way we work. Employing people at IO that not only administer, but develop the organization in a professional way also adds to Organizational Learning. I do think there are more ways to achieve this: Organizing our document archives in an accesible way would help. Using electronic media to give newcomers a quick entry into our somewhat complicated structures and procedures is another option. I'm sure there's a lot more ideas out there.
Back to IPP: During AIM in Indonesia I attended a session on IPP training and was quite surprised to hear two Italians, when asked to describe what an IPP is, that many people think an IPP is about working, when it is actually about learning. They knew so well, because both had been trained by Fred, an Italian who had been a member of the IPP committee from 2001 to 2005. Fred has long reduced his commitment in CISV, but the effect of his training lasts on. In some areas, our Organizational Learning curves are doing quite fine.
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