The Barefoot Guide to Learning Practices in Organizations and Social Change

Organizations that are strong and wish to contribute to positive and sustainable social change have to be able to learn. The same is true of individuals who want to have a positive impact on their surroundings. They need to learn – from their communities, from their colleagues, from their mentors.

But how can we go about becoming learning organizations and people? The Barefoot Guide 2 starts by asking the questions: How are we already learning? How can we start to become a healthier learning organization? What is at the heart of our work? It then leads us through topics such as linking individual and organizational learning, creating a learning culture, community mobilizing and development, adult learning, funding, evaluation, facilitation, and creative writing.

The Barefoot Guide 2 is a practical resource for leaders, facilitators and practitioners involved in social change who want to improve and enrich their learning processes. But this is not just another book on organizational learning and social change. It is different in that it was not written by one person, neither is it a collection of essays written by different people. This book is the joint effort of a group of development practitioners from across the globe, all passionate about learning and bringing their different experience and expertise to the book.

The Barefoot Guides are created by writers’ collectives drawn from the Barefoot Guide Connection -- a global and local community of social change leaders and practitioners, from many countries, sharing diverse practices to deepen and develop approaches and initiatives to contribute to a changing world.