Retreats and Videos

I worked recently with a university division, helping them through a day-long planning retreat. We did some things I hadn't tried before, most notably having the group design its own focus question at the start of the day as opposed to working with the design team in advance. Attached is a short - and small - video of how a day like that looks, with some post-event mindmaps thrown in for complete capture.

IFVP 2007

This was a really good and especially welcoming event. To be sure and honor the gifts I received, I'm placing here several things I promised people:

• Un-retouched snapshots of Leslie and Rachel at Bandelier are in Flickr;
• Steve can find info on quick-draw artist and all-around entertaining guy Jon Pearson on his site;
• The book Dialogue by William Isaacs that I described to David can be read about here;
• For Rob and Laurie, my experiences with ORID - Objective, Reflective, Interpretive and Decisional - modes of thought are based on material and training from the Institute for Cultural Affairs and the Focused Conversation. There is also a post below this one about my most recent experience with the Focused Conversation;
• Also on the ICA site, Lynn can find a book on the Workshop Method;
• I promised Brandy I would see if SoL could recommend someone for a program on listening for next year's conference. Just in case a fall-back position is needed, I found in one of the museums a well-credentialed speaker with ready-to-go material.

Did anyone besides us manage a few spare minutes in Albuquerque to see any of the work of our predecessors?

Focused Conversations

The Institute for Cultural Affairs includes in its workshops the practice of Focused Conversation, a process for shared reflection that sets the stage for subsequent action. The idea is that each of us prefers one of four modes of thought: objective, reflective, interpretive or decisional. When you find yourself in a meeting that seems to be going all over the place, the odds are that all four of these voices are trying to play out simultaneously. The Focused Conversation offers a way of working through these different thought styles in sequence so that each can make its contribution for the benefit of the greater whole. I have used the process with results that range from the spectacular to the regretful. As the method as presented is verbally oriented, the potential for images is an ongoing question in my own mind.

Recently I served as a graphic recorder for a planning workshop. As I had also been asked to facilitate a closing discussion, I chose the Focused Conversation method. With this particular group of university faculty and practicing professionals it was very difficult to hold them to the sequence, as their minds were clearly in an interpretive mode. They were polite and respectful, but I was not successful with the process as planned. Just before I turned the meeting back to the organizers I was asked to walk them through the graphic record. In just a minute or two, the ambience changed drastically, attaining the engagement through the graphic that I had sought through conversation. Afterwards, I realized I had not taken advantage of other lessons.

During the spring I worked with a graduate program on a strategic plan, and at one point I was asked to present the committee’s work to their faculty of about forty. This transition from the committee to the stakeholders is always a dicey proposition, and I decided to take a blended approach to the Focused Conversation. I briefly presented the planning to date, using a very large graphic around which our planning process had been built. At the end of my remarks, I put this big group through a brief mind-clearing exercise, and then presented the objective question that begins the process; however, rather than asking each of them to speak their response, I asked them all to come up and write it on the graphic itself. We then completed the conversation with them standing around the image and their notations. The resulting atmosphere created some insightful discussion, including a couple of ah-ha’s and – most importantly – the group’s decision that the committee should continue along its current path.

Image Encounter

He traveled far to attend a meeting, a meeting of people who were highly skilled in areas of which he was becoming both aware and extremely passionate. Two days in relatively intimate collaboration with people he did not know – this was new, and a break from well-entrenched past patterns.

The group used various processes for establishing inner connections as part of the creation of a “safe space for dialogue” where one could “open the heart.” In one instance, the group was asked to go into deep concentration and, with the eyes closed, draw an image of how they saw their highest dreams. This was followed by a second image, again made with the eyes closed, that would describe what it would be like to overcome the obstructions to those dreams.

In the first image the man immediately saw himself as the Gandalf or Obi-Wan Kenobi of this group’s skills, mastering the vast energy and potential of the human condition and using it to do good things in the world. In the second image, the man sought to describe what it would be like to throw off the constraints, self-imposed and otherwise, that held him back. There was an immediate nagging doubt that this image was already jaded.

Just a short time later, the man wondered “Did I draw what I thought I was drawing?” Was he really visualizing throwing off bonds so that he could extend himself? Was it possible that the image was telling him that breaking through containment to extend oneself was not the issue, but that the path lay might lie in removing his own barriers to accepting and embracing the world, its people and its conditions? In other words, is his task not one of breaking out, but of letting in? A task of opening his heart?

An Experience with the Center for Creative Leadership

Opportunity does knock from time to time. This blog, set up in December 2006, was found in February by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in Greensboro, NC. They were planning a day and a half event wherein leaders who had experienced Hurricane Katrina would share their experiences in the interest of uncovering lessons for leading in times of crisis. Among the ways that CCL wanted to capture the event was through the use of a graphic recorder, and we subsequently agreed to work together.

Funding was provided by a private donor who asked that CCL consider something “edgy,” so the event design was a lesson unto itself. Ten leaders who had dealt with the storm and its aftermath were joined by a “discussant” team of about twenty made up of CCL faculty and representatives of various agencies. The work day began with David Horth leading a Fish Bowl, wherein participants took turns observing and participating in dialogue. That was followed by a Visual Explorer exercise, wherein participants selected an image that conveyed meaning about their experience in the storm, and then conveyed those feelings comprehensibly to others. This first day ended with an abbreviated form of Open Space Conversation, and then the next day began with a Mind Map created by the entire leadership group.

The event concluded with a summary of the lessons learned, using a method of dialogue in which everyone could “talk and listen” at the same time. When the event began, the discussants were on networked laptops connected to each other by groupware. They could do things like keep personal journals and text message others in the room about what they were seeing and hearing. Eventually the leaders were able to join in, and this final morning concluded with everyone live and online. Specific questions were framed by a second facilitator, Jerry Abrams, and as individuals typed their thoughts into the system at the bottom of the screen, they could see what everyone else was saying at the top. Literally, about thirty people were all talking and listening at the same time.

At back of the room, things were a little simpler: markers, chalk and wide roll of paper. Usually I have to either lead the facilitation or at least co-facilitate while also producing the images; it is rare that I get a day and a half to just draw, so I made the most of it, filling about 70 square feet of paper, including the sketch pad used during the Open Conversation. In the presence of all the sophistication and technology “just drawing” felt pretty crude – at first. I was absolutely unprepared for the reactions that were to come.

As the day wore on, there was constantly someone watching what I was doing, and there were small crowds at breaks. There would be comments like “That’s how it was!” Near the end of the day, David Horth asked if I wanted to talk about the work. I suggested instead that he invite the participants to take a “gallery walk” by it all, and that he might even invite them to sign it. That’s what they did, over the course of several heart-felt minutes. One of them observed “The technology certainly captured the facts, but the drawings captured the emotions.”

What Can Planning Learn From Design?

If you ask for volunteers to participate in the design of a new building you’re likely to have plenty of takers, especially if your audience has a stake in it. Now, imagine asking that same group to help with a strategic plan – odds are the response will be much less enthusiastic. Why is that?

In my still-limited experience, it’s because architecture is generally approached with high expectations of creative endeavors, whereas when planning involves the non-physical the images that come to our minds include boring meetings, wasted time and nice books that end up on the shelf. For purposes of this discussion let’s narrow our field of reference: the setting is a university campus, the design involves a prominent new building and the planning involves the institution’s strategic plan.

What could the planning learn from the best of design?

• There’s an evident commitment up front: someone believes in what’s about to take place, money has been put on the table and there WILL be results. Can we say that about most strategic plans?
• Processes are in place to facilitate creative activity. The selection of designers is based on talent, for example. And what’s the favored mode of communication? Visual images! What do the best teams do? They “draw” our thoughts and dreams out of us right before our very eyes. How was your last strategic planning conducted?
• The act of construction requires a thorough assessment of context, as it is recognized that the building interacts with and depends upon its immediate environment. Think of what’s considered: soils, materials availability, weather patterns, local trades, traffic and sight lines. What was in the last environmental scan that your campus did? You did do one, right?
• In recent years the entire idea of context has taken an additional form that merits a bullet on its own, and that’s Sustainability, where higher levels of thought are given to the life of a structure and the demands that it – as well as its uses – will make on systems, resources and future generations. How would most university planning look different if we believed – especially in the public sector – that we had to sustain ourselves rather than assume someone else would carry the freight?

Let’s not be totally one-sided, however; what could design learn from the best planning practices?

• When planning is committed to discovery, generative processes are often used that forestall “problem-solving” in the interest of problem design. The result is a level of authenticity that creates shared visions and a belief in the possible outcomes.
• The resulting shared visions are maintained as a frame of reference throughout the work. Many design teams begin this way, but few can keep it alive for the duration. Architects become overwhelmed by tradespeople, the campus leadership that began the work gives way to bureaucrats, and contracts become inflexible barriers rather than the enabling tools intended. Before you know it, participation and collaboration are equated to herding cats, and the most important goals are to be “On Time and On Budget!”
• Planning can be an iterative process, continuously involving large groups. Agreed: the expense of design and construction dictate that iteration is eventually ended well before completion, but there is room for improvement. In an article entitled “ChangeIsNow,” AIArchitect describes how a disproportionate number of decisions are made late in design, when possibilities are constrained and mostly the “experts” are involved. The author suggests it is time to “shift the curve to the left.”
  
• Planning can actually use prototypes that can facilitate the early wins suggested by John Kotter. There is an opportunity to try something out, see if it works and either make adjustments or proceed with confidence. In most design projects, the building IS the prototype. What design practices are out there that will let us take an idea out for a spin?

Change and the Past

End times are tricky things to deal with, Bear said. – Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons

If end times are tricky, the past is even more so. When we are working with change, it can take varying roles but one constraint applies to all: our pasts must be respected.

Sometimes the past has to be confronted so that we can be released to move forward. Poignant examples can be found in Adam Kahane’s Solving Tough Problems, where leaders and change advocates had to face painful memories and their individual responsibilities in them before all could focus together on new futures. Situations far less resolved can be found quickly if you live in the South, where some of us have yet to get over the Civil War. “Southerners are funny about that war” said the late Shelby Foote.

Sometimes the past is restated by those who profess to lead change but are fearful that they need an edge in the process. Past leaders are denigrated and their efforts are condemned, the good with the bad. Decisions from a very few years before are proclaimed as poorly thought through and inconsiderate of stakeholders. Whatever the initiative now at hand, it’s might be called “Our first ever…..” Maybe the accusations are true, or maybe they are designed to eliminate any risk that the achievements of the past might cast current projects in an unfavorable light.

In this latter case, harm is done in several ways. In the mystery Mister White’s Confession, by Robert Clark, Mister White has a lifelong defect in which he cannot accumulate memories of any duration. Clark observes that we cannot possess the future as it is not here yet, and the present is even more resistant. The only thing we truly own is our past.

If we succumb to the temptation to tarnish the memories of others to brighten our versions of the future, several kinds of harm can occur. Past relationships and accomplishments are suddenly a dangerous topic of conversation. Stories that hold people together with their “tribes” can no longer be told.

You don't have anything / if you don't have the stories. / Their evil is mighty / but it can't stand up to our stories / so they try to destroy the stories - from Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko

Far from honoring while also departing from the past as described by William Bridges in Managing Transitions, the foundations of our present are good for nothing but the dustbin. Grieving, a natural part of change, cannot take place, and healing and renewal are impeded. Changing ourselves in the interest of a different future is hard enough without also having to make needless changes in our memories.

Not only might we do harm to others, we can also shoot our own selves in the foot. Kahane quotes Bill Torbert: “If you’re not part of the problem, you can’t be part of the solution.” That theme is expanded upon in Presence by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers, where the point is made that by disassociating ourselves from ownership of the present by blaming it on those who came before us, we externalize the situation and resultantly those who are truly a part of it. By taking this low road we do not empower ourselves as change agents, but become powerless instead. In addition, those who have had success with methods of Appreciative Inquiry know that the past typically holds successes that can fuel momentum toward the future.

As stated at the beginning of this piece, sometimes the past and our relationships to it have to be confronted, but it has to be done with respect. For those of us who hope to lead change:

1. Don’t castigate the meaning that individuals attach to the past only as an effort to lure or prod them to your vision of the future;
2. Don’t diminish your ability to lead change by separating yourself from those who need your help by failing to respect the past and its place in our present and future;
3. Where a group’s view of the past merits hard and painful reconsideration, they have to do that for themselves. As leaders of change we can help them, but we can neither force it nor do it for them.

Concepts from Graphics

I think I just had a first-time experience with a graphic producing a totally new concept. I was asked to record a meeting about a possible new research center. 70 people had been invited, but there was no way of knowing if even 5 would show up. The meeting's leader didn't want to commit to any form of process, so it was agreed we would play it by ear.

That's a tough approach for me. Frequently accused of being anal, I prefer to go in with at least one plan that will work, and then alter as needed based on circumstances. On this occassion I had recently been reading some of the Grove material about the improvisational aspects of this business, so I decided to give it a whirl. I also decided to try harder to "build an image" as opposed to just large scale note-taking.

47 people showed up - really great for the issue at hand. The leader gave an overview, and then invited the attendees, almost all of whom were research active-faculty, to introduce themselves and describe what they were doing. As you might expect, this consumed the entire meeting. What I did not expect was that the energy level never went down. No one left during these endless monologues, and the last to speak was as enthusiastic as the first. As all of this was going on I was recording at the front of the room on a 4' X 16' sheet of paper. Several people came up afterwards and commented on how much they liked it, and in reply I asked a few questions to ascertain how helpful it might have been.

Near the end of the session there were key comments made about the overall goal and about the use of "other people's money." I began to regret that the goal item was so far away from the start-up notes, as it seemed really central. Then it occurred to me that the money item was extra-significant as well. All this bubbled up in my brain about 15 minutes before a follow-up meeting two days later with the meeting leader. I can't work that fast in Photoshop, so I used a scissors and some scotch tape and away I went.

I showed my paste-up, and asked if this was all about improving health care in eastern North Carolina and using other people's money to do it. "That's a mission statement!" she exclaimed. The Photoshop version of what she was shown is here to the right.

How they do it at the Stanford School of Medicine

I've been talking to various medical colleges about how they manage their planning processes. Recently I spoke with David O'Brien at Stanford, who shared a very generous amount of his time describing their background and processes, and answering my questions. Below is a diagram made to help with future recall of the conversation.