News

Task Management in a Circle

by Micah, with Susan Grove It’s funny the amount of inherent power there can be even in the small things. How ingrained hierarchy is within our systems. Who gets to determine the tasks to be done? Who then has to get them done? And how do these two roles function in relation to each other … Continued

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Leading Through Shared Leadership

The Role of the Steward at GWI By Terri Hall with Caitlin Dourmashkin At GWI, we have done away with roles that place each person on a hierarchical scale of power. There is no one at the top who gets to make all the decisions and no one at the bottom who gets us coffee. … Continued

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What’s in a Title?

by Caitlin Dourmashkin That which we call a Director by any other name would still have meaning. Early on in our transition to a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit, it became clear that our business cards would have to change. We had an Executive Director, a Greenhouse Director, a Network & Communications Manager, a Director of Operations, … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Micah Personally, I think I’m good at playing the support role. I have played this role many times as a board member, volunteer, and also as staff. I think I’m good at working for myself. I like the autonomy – no one to answer to except me. But working in circle with others is … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Susan Grove In the conversations that swirl around being worker self-directed, here’s one of the most frequent questions that comes up, explicitly or implied: “Is your work slower?”  We’ve started looking at our time allocations. On average, we estimate that we collectively invest at least 20 hours per week in governance work. This is … Continued

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Wait, Who’s Driving this Bus?

Roles in a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit by Caitlin Doumashkin with Terri Hall Over the next few weeks, we will be posting specifically about roles in a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit. This is a tricky area and we have learned a lot over the past few months. Sometimes roles are specific: we define organizational stewards and place … Continued

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GWI Newsletter: December 2019

We woke to a snowy landscape again today! The beauty of winter is here, and we are grateful for the warmth of our extended families and our vibrant network of friends and colleagues doing Good Work near and far. The Opening of GWI’s Greenhouse on November 8th was a wonderful celebration and housewarming! Over 200 of … Continued

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Coming Soon…

Thank you to everyone who has been following GWI’s blog series on our journey of transitioning to a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit. The response has been incredibly positive and thought-provoking.  We will be taking a brief hiatus from posting as we wrap up 2019 and prepare to put our 2020 plans in action. We’ve been having … Continued

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Notes from the Field

By Terri Hall A few springs ago, one of my friend’s daughters spent the night alone in the woods as part of a Wild Earth youth program aimed at building character, confidence, and self-reliance. Heather had been well-prepared by Wild Earth over the months prior to this wilderness-based rite of passage, learning practical skills like … Continued

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It Takes Time

by Micah, with Caitlin Dourmashkin Where to begin? This journey didn’t start with policies. Before we even knew what a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit was, we had started. I think GWI was already less hierarchical than most. There was already a lot of autonomy in our work. And we began asking ourselves, “How can we deeply … Continued

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