Conducting Successful Retreats

{Excerpt} People look forward to retreats (or workshops) with excitement or dread. At best, it is a time for renewal, team building, and focusing work. At worst, it is a dull two days of lectures or extended meetings. A good retreat works in three dimensions—the practical, the ideal, and the political—ignore anyone and you are headed for trouble. There are as many reasons for conducting a retreat as there are issues and challenges facing an organization. Among the most common uses of retreats are • Helping set or change strategic direction. • Fostering a collective vision. • Creating a common framework and point of reference. • Developing annual goals, objectives, and budgets. • Discussing specific issues or challenges facing the organization. • Dealing with sources of conflict and confusion. • Generating creative solutions for entrenched problems. • Improving working relationships and increasing trust. • Encouraging honest and enlightened conversations. • Letting people be heard on issues that are important to them. • Orienting new staff

Conducting Effective Presentations

{Excerpt} From interviews and our own observations, the following scenario is common: the speaker at a seminar shares about 30 slides, skipping over many. Time goes on…and on. Some participants lose interest; others become distracted; some even slip out. Finally, the sponsor says, “Time has run out, but maybe we can have one or two questions.” Yet it looked as though the speaker had just reached the heart of the matter and it was over. What happened? In most organizations, staff are busy and they vote withtheir feet. If they are bored or not actively engaged, they will find excuses to leave. Some will never return to presentations conducted by the same speaker. The good news is that guidelines for conducting effective presentations are simple and do not depend on the speaking ability of the person sharing the message

Alcune considerazioni sul primo rinvio ex art. 74 Cost. del Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella

ll contributo analizza i principali caratteri del rinvio presidenziale ex art 74 Cost. effettuato il 27 ottobre 2017 dal Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella, analizzando i principali elementi innovativi dello stesso alla luce delle prassi e del dibattito e delle ricostruzioni dottrinarie sull'istituto in oggetto

Constructing Composite Dialogs from Qualitative Data: Towards Representing and Managing Diverse Perspectives

During empirical research on adult learning, I developed a technical method of constructing dialogs from many interviews as an approach to qualitative data. Composite Dialogs present diverse perspectives while preserving elements of context and affect often lost through other methods. The approach should be of particular interest to adult educators who desire to link research to social action for democratic change

Whose Questions Count? Fostering Pedagogies of Action Research in Adult Education

Prevailing modes of instruction and inquiry privilege knowledge generated by academic elites. How might curriculum based on critical pedagogy and participatory research transform conventional educational institutions? Ongoing research challenges the relationship of educational institutions to social action

Negotiating Curriculum in a Critical Pedagogy

Through critical reflection and dialog on experiences in participatory planning, curricula that values participatory democracy can be fostered. An empirical study, using participatory research, demonstrates that students and faculty can move toward a more critical and inclusive pedagogy by reflecting on cultural diversity

Le commissioni parlamentari di inchiesta: recenti sviluppi e osservazioni alla luce della prassi

ABSTRACT: Parliamentary inquiry committees have been and are still today a fundamental institution of the 1948 Italian Republican Constitution. But then, what about parliamentary minorities role and their capacity to influence the inquiry committees activities, in particular regarding «conflict» with the government and the parliamentary majority? Parliamentary minorities have rarely played a significant role in parliamentary inquisition since they have not had a real capacity in this context, for the reason that the article 82 of the 1948 Italian Constitution decrees that parliamentary inquiry committees composition must reflect the same political groups numerical ratio represented in the two Chambers and the same kind of situation occurs considering both single-chamber committees and two-chamber ones. The paper focuses on the relationship between parliamentary minorities and inquiry committees along the Parliamentary history of the Italian Republic. It will highlight the limits and effectiveness of minorities in inquiry committees introducing a statistical analysis of majorities and minorities presence in the parliamentary inquiry committees and their matters of inquisition. In the final paragraph it examines the different possible scenarios where the Constitutional reform proposal would have been approved through the 2016 Constitutional referendu