[Ep. 77] Co-Creating Solutions: The Next Level of Community Listening (Narrative Strategy with Josh Gryniewicz and Dana Pearlman)
Community listening sessions are essential for effective nonprofit work, yet too often they become a box-checking exercise rather than a chance to uncover blind spots and foster true collaboration. In today's episode, Josh Gryniewicz interviews Dana Perlman to explore practical strategies for meaningful, co-creative listening. Tune in for a fresh perspective on systems change, community listening, and narrative strategy.
Episode highlights include:
How shifting from box-checking to true collaboration transforms community listening.
What it means to co-create solutions with communities, not just listen to them.
How Dana designs programs that harness collective wisdom for systems change.
Why systems need reflection and participation to uncover blind spots and drive real progress.
What concrete results look like when stakeholders co-create and sustain change together.
How stakeholder interviews and deep dives reveal the real issues — and solutions — within a system.
What signs indicate when a nonprofit needs systems change facilitation.
How narrative strategy and community listening work together to change the story.
What fundraisers gain from investing in narrative frameworks and authentic listening.
Listen here:
Guests
Josh Gryniewicz is the founder and Chief Narrative Strategist at Odd Duck, a storytelling-for-social-change creative consultancy focused on impact-driven organizations. Josh is the co-author of the award-winning national bestseller, Interrupting Violence. For over a decade, he has worked in nonprofit communication. In 2018, he founded Odd Duck to combine his passions for storytelling and social change. The agency’s Navigating Misinformation for Community Health framework has been shared with over a thousand community health organizations. Odd Duck has worked with nearly a hundred change-making organizations and advised hundreds more, including the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the White House.
Dana Pearlman is the founder of ChangeLeaders Network. As a systems change designer, facilitator, and catalyst, she helps individuals, teams, and organizations innovate and thrive. Her work spans one-on-one mentoring, multi-stakeholder workshops, and large-scale transformation efforts. She equips groups with practical skills in dialogue, systems thinking, complexity navigation, and creative problem solving while fostering inclusive environments that honor diverse perspectives. Drawing on a versatile toolkit of frameworks and methodologies, Dana collaborates across sectors to co-create pathways toward shared goals. She also speaks on co-creation and leadership development and designs education programs and change labs, bringing a holistic and experiential approach grounded in her multidisciplinary academic background.
Hosts
Russ Phaneuf, a co-founder of IPM Advancement, has a background in higher education development, with positions at the University of Hartford, Northern Arizona University, and Thunderbird School of Global Management. As IPM's managing director & chief strategist, Russ serves as lead fundraising strategist, award-winning content creator, and program analyst specializing in applied system dynamics.
Rich Frazier has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 35 years. In his roles as senior consultant with IPM Advancement and founder of VisionConnect LLC, Rich offers extensive understanding and knowledge in capital campaigns, fund development, strategic planning, and board of directors development.
Additional Resources
From Micro-Stories to Meta-Narratives: How to Influence Perception and Drive Change
Authentic, Ethical, and Effective Messaging — From Theory to Practice
Flipping the Script: Using Narrative Strategy to Improve Messaging and Prevent Donor Attrition
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