An author of three books, Paul Born is a motivational, inspirational, informative and often humorous speaker who loves the power of stories. He is considered among Canada’s top leaders in helping organizations and communities develop new and sustainable ideas that motivate people to collaborative action. Paul is a skilled communicator/teacher and an exceptional facilitator, having delivered hundreds of keynotes and workshops for audiences of all sizes.
On this page you'll find:
All of Paul’s presentations are rooted in many years of research and experience. The keynotes and workshops listed below have been designed using proven techniques and are delivered with much joy and theatrical confidence.
Using a unique development process, Paul customizes workshops, presentations and learning events to integrate concepts and ideas specific to your group. He works in partnership with you to try to deeply understand the issues your organization or community is facing and the goals you hope to achieve.
Additionally, Paul has been known to co-develop workshops and learning events with his clients, ranging from one day to one week, using his and/or Tamarack's knowledge areas.
Costs are based on location and degree of customization.
 Special book offer for conference participants! Email Paul to inquire.
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To inquire about a workshop or presentation please contact Paul directly by email paul@tamarackcommunity.ca or call him on his direct line at 519-954-5325.
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"Paul Born draws from decades of experience to illuminate the strong and effective ideas that emerge when diverse participants meet together over well-mediated conversations. His talk is replete with inspirational stories and how-to tips, delivered with clarity, gentle humor, and reflective commentary that provide powerful insights into community-based dialogue." ~ Mark L. Winston, Academic Director and Fellow, Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University
"Paul Born is a change maker. If you want to understand how to make change happen, explore the techniques he uses to enable communities to take charge of their own future." ~ Judith Maxwell, Founder and Senior Fellow, Canadian Policy Research Networks
"I work from the firm belief that ‘Whatever the problem, community is the answer.’ Community Conversations teaches us how to make that statement true. The stories, examples and processes gathered together in one lovely book hopefully will inspire you to become active in creating the conversations that will weave our communities into health and new capacity." ~ Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, Leadership and the New Science and other books.
"Paul Born has done a masterful job of demonstrating the power of community conversations. The combination of first hand stories, concepts that make sense and practical advice will make this a favourite book for community leaders, facilitators and activists." ~ Brenda Zimmerman, Co-author of Getting to Maybe, How the World is Changed and Associate Professor of Strategy/Policy Schulich School of Business
 Read more reviews here!
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Keynote Descriptions
Seeking the Possibilities of Community for Chaotic Times
For more than 20 years Paul has been working with others to inspire and support people in creating vibrant communities. In ‘Seeking the Possibilities of Community,’ he shares his research and the practical wisdom he has gained about the importance of community and how we can build community in our lives, our organizations and in the places we live. In this inspiring, interactive talk, Paul tells powerful and often humorous stories about community and the positive effects it has on our lives and the people around us. His stories provide concrete examples that inspire individuals to reach out to others and work together.
We live in chaotic times, and it is in times like these that we naturally reach out to each other for security, sense making and belonging. And yet, many years of not really needing each other and over-relying on professional intervention to meet our individual and community needs have left us with diminished skills and resources for community. Many people are finding a new and meaningful path forward by seeking community - in an age of globalization we are going local. People are rediscovering themselves and each other, and over time as they seek deeper connection they are relearning the skills of community and the power of collective action.
In this talk Paul helps us to explore our need for community and take stock of our interconnections. What is community and why is it important? What is the connection between the well-being of children, families and communities? How might we foster a sense of community where we live and work? What is the emerging role of government? Why is individualism and unchecked consumerism a threat to our communities? How do we re-learn to play together, to care for and rely on each other? What is the power of people working together? These are just a few of the questions we will explore together.
This is Paul’s most popular keynote. He is currently writing a book on this topic.
Conversation, Collaboration and Community Change
This highly interactive and inspiring keynote is based on Paul’s widely acclaimed book Community Conversations: Mobilizing the Ideas, Skills, and Passion of Community Organizations, Governments, Businesses, and People.
Communities around the world are entering a new era of community building. Whether improving economic conditions and reducing poverty, reenergizing citizens and social programs for families, reducing crime, or revitalizing a troubled neighbourhood, they are engaging people from all sectors as never before to work together as equals to improve their quality of life. At the heart of this engagement are community conversations, in which common goals are embraced by a diverse array of people with different backgrounds and needs, and influencers are drawn from multiple sectors, including community organizations, the various levels of government, and business leaders big and small.
This is an interactive keynote full of informative and inspiring examples of collaboration. In addition, Paul will provide exciting tips to help you engage your community in creating and implementing a vision for positive change. Paul will lead you through the reasons and the process of engaging citizens, in exploring partnerships, and in developing, maintaining, and enhancing partnerships for the benefit of your organization and community. He will also lead you in conversations about the new forms of collaborative leadership required for community change today.
Learn more about Community Conversations here!
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All workshops can be delivered in a two-hour, half-day or full-day format. Several previous clients have combined the workshops into multi-day or full-week events.
Conversation, Collaboration and Community Change
This highly interactive and inspiring workshop is based on Paul’s highly acclaimed book Community Conversations: Mobilizing the Ideas, Skills, and Passion of Community Organizations, Governments, Businesses, and People.
Communities around the world are entering a new era of community building. Whether improving economic conditions and reducing poverty, reenergizing citizens and social programs for families, reducing crime, or revitalizing a troubled neighbourhood, they are engaging people from all sectors as never before to work together as equals to improve their quality of life. At the heart of this engagement are community conversations, in which common goals are embraced by a diverse array of people with different backgrounds and needs, and influencers are drawn from multiple sectors, including community organizations, the various levels of government, and business leaders big and small.
This is an interactive workshop full of informative and inspiring examples of collaboration. In addition, Paul will provide exciting tips to help you engage your community in creating and implementing a vision for positive change. Paul will lead you through the reasons and the process of engaging citizens, in exploring partnerships, and in developing, maintaining, and enhancing partnerships for the benefit of your organization and community. He will also lead you in conversations about the new forms of collaborative leadership required for community change today.
Learn more about Community Conversations here!
Seeking the Possibilities of Community for Chaotic Times
For more than 20 years Paul has been working with others to inspire and support people in creating vibrant communities. In the workshop ‘Seeking the Possibilities of Community,’ he shares his research and the practical wisdom he has gained about the importance of community and how we can build community in our lives, our organizations and in the places we live. In this inspiring, interactive talk, Paul tells powerful and often humorous stories about community and the positive effects it has on our lives and the people around us. His stories provide concrete examples that inspire individuals and communities toward collective action and giving.
In times like these it is natural to reach out to each other for security, sense making and belonging. Many years of not really needing each other, relying on government intervention and embracing individualism and consumerism have left us without the skills or resources for community. Our neighbourhoods are not designed for connection – television and other individual pursuits have stripped us of the skills to play together, and professionalization of learning and caring have blunted our ability to learn together, to embrace and need each other.
Many people are seeking to remedy this problem. In an age of globalization they are going local – people are rediscovering themselves and each other. Over time as they seek deeper connection they will relearn the skills of community.
In this highly interactive and participatory workshop Paul engages with us around these questions using proven conversation techniques: What is community and why is it important? What is the connection between the well-being of children, families and communities? What is the power of people working together? How might we grow a sense of community in where we live and work.
Collaborating for Impact (Getting Past Groundhog Day)
Margaret Mead, anthropologist, well-respected educator, and community activist is often quoted as saying, “Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.” What Margaret Mead does not talk about in this quote is how this small group of people succeeds in working together. The work of collaboration between organizations to achieve common goals is dynamic, complex and filled with both opportunities and challenges. The challenge is agreeing on how and what to work on together, the opportunity is creating a community movement for change.
In this dynamic workshop, Paul inspires with stories and research from some of the most successful collaborations in Canada. He will also share some of the latest thinking and highlight key questions about collaboration. In a highly interactive format we will explore together: Why are more and more organizations from many sectors joining together to make a difference? Why are some collaborations successful and why do others fail? Why is collaboration filled with challenges and how do we overcome these challenges? How do collaborations achieve impact? Why do funders love the collaborative triple bottom line?
Preview workshop slides here!
Community Engagement
“Tamarack exists to help people work collaboratively, through inspired action and learning, to create and realize bold visions for their common future.”
In this workshop, we review the basic principles of community engagement and explore leading engagement models. We discuss, based on your experience, current trends that undermine community engagement and the cost of disengagement. Working together and learning from each other, we explore ideas and approaches for increasing the chances of implementing a successful, five-step community engagement process. Participants leave this workshop with the latest reference and resource material, plus the best ideas from your colleagues on how to provide effective leadership to achieve successful outcomes in community engagement strategies.
Preview workshop slides here!
The Collaborative Leader
In this dynamic, fast paced and fun workshop Paul engages with us in a discussion about community leadership. Several years ago Paul completed a master’s degree in leadership. This provided him not only the opportunity to better understand theories and approaches to leadership today but also to explore leadership in the context of his passion – community collaboration. His published thesis is entitled Leaderful Communities and provides a profound overview of the values and process for collaborative change.
In this workshop Paul presents an overview of the study of both leadership and collective leadership. He engages participants in examining their own ‘leadership lenses’ and shares a number of new images or metaphors for collaborative leadership. Finally, he leads participants through a discussion of the different competencies/images for collaborative leadership and how they can build on their own leadership strengths. In the full and multi-day formats, Paul leads participants through a leadership reflection (“The Reflective Best Self”) using a collaborative leader lens.
Preview workshop slides here!
Community and Relationship Building
Relationships are at the heart of any collaborative initiative. The question this workshop addresses is, “How do we harness relationships to help us achieve our desired outcomes?” The first part of the workshop provides an opportunity for participants to map the relationships in their community relating to the issues they want to affect. The second part of the workshop provides a framework and a set of principles for building relationships and will address issues of credibility building, upwelling (flow of information) and individual and organizational engagement that lead to active participation. The third part of this workshop explores tools for prospecting partners, tracking engagement, managing relationships, understanding conflict, communication, and building momentum. Participants share experiences and engage together in the spirit of “it depends,” helping us all to embrace the idea that there is no perfect way to harness the potential of our communities.
See handout used in workshop here!
Raising Funds, Finding Friends to Realize Bold Community Visions
This workshop focuses on the art and science of fundraising and emphasizes the correlation between raising funds and finding friends that Paul has learnt from raising more than $50 million for community change. Most importantly, it provides practical and proven ideas for raising the key leadership and funding support necessary for collaborative community change. What makes this workshop different is that it is not only about fundraising. At Tamarack we believe that fundraising is an important stage in a community engagement process. Raising funds brings us into conversation with leaders who, over time, come to believe deeply in our work. When people give money to a cause they make a concrete commitment to the work being proposed. This workshop is therefore equally applicable in building the leadership commitment, as well as the funding, required to realize bold community visions. When we raise funds we are engaging key leadership for our work. These leaders can help us to engage key influencers in a community who, in turn, assist in bringing our idea to reality.
The topics we cover are:
- 5 Good Ideas about Vision, Money and Strategy
- Raising Funds for Collaborative Change Efforts
- Creating the Pre-Conditions for Success
- The Art of Donor Cultivation and Friendraising
- Prospecting and Leadership Development
- Solicitation and Leadership Engagement
- The Case for Support
- Stewardship and the Gift of Friendship
Access the workbook used in this workshop here!
Coming soon!
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View Paul's partial client list here!
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| Conversation, Collaboration & Community with Paul Born workshop flyer - Public Health Services, Capital Health (October 14, 2009, Dartmouth, NS) |
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| Reducing Poverty, Public Forum with Paul Born event flyer (October 13, 2009, Dartmouth, NS) |
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