As 2018 comes to a close, we at IG are enjoying reflecting on a full, successful, and transformative year. As you may remember, we proclaimed 2018 the Year of Mindfulness. We found mindfulness to be a helpful tool as we grew as a staff, restructured our project teams, and relied on each other through challenges and busy times. With that in mind, here are our top 10 mindful moments from this year …
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December 19, 2018 - 1:28pm
ST. PAUL, Minnesota – The Twin Cities Metropolitan Council’s Equity Advisory Committee has invited Leah Goldstein Moses, Founder and CEO of The Improve Group, a locally based research and evaluation consulting firm, to join the committee and contribute to its work.
November 20, 2018 - 1:11pm
Earlier this fall at the American Evaluation Association conference in Cleveland, The Improve Group hosted a Mindfulness Space. In partnership with AEA, we created a calm space near some natural light (and a surprise urban farm in the area outside!) with meditation resources, an activities table, fruit-infused water, and other resources for mindfulness. We see mindfulness as closely tied with our value of thoughtfulness and wanted to create a space for conference attendees to take a mindful moment amid the conference.
October 30, 2018 - 11:53am
My name is Alyssa Scott, and I’m an Associate Writer here at The Improve Group. Being a writer, my relationship to evaluation is different than our consultants because I write about the results of an evaluation rather than conduct or facilitate the evaluation process. But the influence of evaluation is present everywhere, and I want to share a recent experience I had testing out my idea for a photo storytelling project for two different international NGOs, one in Kenya and one in Tanzania.
October 30, 2018 - 11:08am
Hi! I’m Christen Pentek, an associate consultant here at IG. Following the theme of our article of the month on using photos in evaluation, I want to tell you about PhotoVoice, a data collection method that engages participants in taking photos and describing them in their own words.
September 25, 2018 - 11:02am
The Improve Group is preparing for a flurry of presentations and trainings. Here is where you will find us this conference season:
September 25, 2018 - 10:48am
For many of us, the upcoming months are full of conferences. It’s an exciting time—this flurry of activity can easily make one want to learn everything! Meet everyone! Network everywhere! But all too often, conferences can leave us feeling overwhelmed with information.
September 25, 2018 - 10:31am
In reference to a hectic conference season, IG Associate Consultant Nick Stilp shares that "leveraging mindfulness properly during a conference can revitalize mental clarity and open up the cognitive resources needed for learning and critical thinking."
For this month’s IG-Ology, Nick Stilp details his mindfulness journey and provides some simple practices you can use to stay mindful and present this conference season. With these tips, ideally, by the end of the day, you won’t experience that conference drain and fatigue that we are all too familiar with.