The Gilbert Center: Rapid Project Prototyping: Raising Money and Reducing Risk in the Age of Agility

Rapid Project Prototyping: Raising Money and Reducing Risk in the Age of Agility

Detailed Content Description | Faculty | Delivery Options

Detailed Description

We think too small and we start too big. The age of networks and agility is upon us and we still lumber along with projects that do too little, take too long, and cost too much. At the same time, funders are getting more rigorous: More and more they are asking for proof of concepts, meaningful assessments, and pilot projects, before they are willing to put serious money into new projects (and sometimes even current ones). Fortunately, these two apparent problems - the speed of change in a networked society and the caution of funders - together present a new vision of project development and management. In this hands-on, two-part workshop, we'll teach you and help you:

audit your current program processes for agility
reshape a current project priority of yours into smaller provable stages
use five management strategies that will nurture more agile planning in the future
identify and address the barriers to more agile project development
select specific tools for reducing risk and proving concepts to funders
develop careful, fundable stages for all sorts of projects

If you think that funders are asking for the impossible, but you know you need to deliver, or if your projects could benefit from fewer risks but more experimentation, then you'll want to take this two part workshop. We encourage you to participate as a group and we've priced the workshop accordingly. The two-part format is designed to give you and your team time and support for hands-on development of these practices in your current work.

Faculty:

Michael C. Gilbert

This seminar will be taught by Michael C. Gilbert, the author of "Communication Centered Technology Planning", "A Practical Approach to Collaboration", and "The Permeable Organization". He is the Editor of the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change, the research coordinator of the Nonprofit Email Studies and other research, the Editor of Nonprofit Online News, and the Founding President of the Nonprofit Technology Network. For more information about Mr. Gilbert, please see his bio.

Delivery Options

Our pre-packaged online seminar here consists of two 90 minute sessions, presented one week apart.

Live Online Seminars: These are presented at a scheduled date & time, broadcast live, and include live Q&A time with the instructor. Live online seminars presented by The Gilbert Center are open registration seminars, which means that anyone can attend. Please see our calendar for upcoming events. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. (Please note that our calendar of live seminars only goes out a couple of months and not all topics will show up there.)

On-Demand Online Seminars: On-demand means you can attend at a time that is most convenient for your schedule. It consists of the recordings of the most recent live presentation, and comes packaged with a 30 minute phone consultation with the instructor so you can ask questions about the seminar materials and how they can best be put to use in your particular situation. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. The catalog of seminars available on-demand is listed down the right-hand side of that same page, and also the calendar page. (Please note that not all topics are available yet for on-demand viewing. See the On-Demand Info page for a complete list of current options.)

Private In-House Sessions: If you have a group of people to whom you would like to offer training, please consider our private, in-house seminars. Which means you can hire us to present this and any of the seminars listed on this site, as well as custom sessions, for your group privately; online or in person at your location. Please contact us for more information if you're interested.