Tipping Points

On our IFVP conference planning site, Nancy Margulies noted “Also, we in the Bay Area are exploring what the Tipping Point for our profession might be—how it might grow rapidly, how it might contribute to substantial large scale change, etc.”

Just maybe I’ve inadvertently pushed on that edge a little by using maps to aid in story-telling. In the Retreats and Videos post below I described a session with ECU’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies. To begin planning the event, I asked the Associate Vice-Chancellor, Paul Gemperline, to tell me what was going on. As he talked I just drew on the wall with a big fat piece of lead. We eventually decided to start the event with him telling “Paul’s Story” about the Division and its current situation. He used a much cleaned up version of the map in his presentation, and to begin the Focused Conversation about it we had each participant come up and add to that map.

In the Visual Process Meets Mortality post immediately below, I interviewed the 15 participants ahead of time with a protocol that borrowed from Appreciative Inquiry. I put all of their responses on the 11-foot long graphic, and then added illustrations of things that struck me. In the back of my mind was an instance described in the book Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation
in which the interviewers wrote parables. In the session here, we set aside time for everyone to stand and study the graphic. Next, I talked about the images very briefly and we then repeated the Focused Conversation process described above.

So what does this have to do with Nancy’s note? Both of these graphic records turned into stories that were returned to the groups for an afternoon’s work. As stories they took on another form, and then each dealt with them in their own way. I’m thinking there are emotional aspects as described below in SoL in Tucson: we react when we see what we’ve said written down by someone else; we react to color; some react to visuals, others to words and stories. Some might suggest that the space between emotion and reason is where presence exists. Can we develop these practices to aid large scale change? Paul Gemperline seems to think so.

Visual Process Meets Mortality?

Monday morning, halfway through my quarter-mile walk to work, my left leg began to ache. Cramp-like, on the side of the calf. No explanation, no indication of a running injury. I hobbled across the street, and then on and off the pain was worse, the kind that periodically takes your breath away. Blood clot? Stroke? I got an appointment with my MD, and as I walked in I noticed the pain leave. No doubt about it. An x-ray showed a slight misalignment of two vertebrae in an area where sciatic symptoms originate. It was explained that I apparently got something just a little out of place, and then it went back into place on its own.

How did that happen? My 20-hour weekend graphic-on-the-fly? I had spent the previous week conducting 15 one-hour interviews with participants in a coming planning workshop. I had only the weekend to process the info for presentation and discussion, so early Saturday morning I sat down and began grinding it out on the tablet PC. Under normal circumstances I’m a noodler, reflecting and second-guessing, but there was no time for that here. I noticed each idea and acted on it. Far fewer breaks than normal, even during the 12 straight hours on Sunday. The graphic was successful – all 11 feet of it - but at too high a price?

The Man In the Maze

The diagram below was found painted on the wall in the museum of the San Xavier Mission in Tucson. The explanation that follows was provided by a local silversmith, Joe Begay.

To the Tohono O'odham, the man at the top of the maze symbolizes the birth of the individual, the family, the tribe and Iitoi (our Creator). As the figure goes through the maze (a person's life), it may encounter many turns and changes. Progressing deeper and deeper into the pattern one acquires more knowledge, strength, and understanding. As the figure nears the end of the maze it sees death approaching (the dark center of the pattern). Interestingly, it is able to bypass death and retreat to a small corner of the pattern. It is here that it repents, cleanses itself, and reflects back on all the wisdom it has gained in life. Finally pure and in harmony with the world, it accepts death. As a person journeys through their life (the maze), they can feel comfort in the fact that Iitoi is always there to help and comfort them.

SoL in Tucson

Some of us SoL Consultant members met on a ranch in Tucson this past weekend, and the experiences peeled back the covers from some things I had inadvertently put to bed. Activity-wise, we spent a day with horses in a way in which they reflected back to us the energy that we project universally. During that session I had a stunning encounter with a handsome specimen named Kai Master that was especially unambiguous in the way that he “chose” me.

We spent the next day in sessions using exercises designed for theatre ensembles, wherein we experienced contact with each other in ways I had never seen before. At a very deep level, the transparency and awareness produced something much like what I experienced in a workshop with Roger Schwarz & Associates and his Skilled Facilitator practices. The vocabulary and the actions were completely different, but the levels of contact were eerily similar.

Add that to a book I just happened to be reading at the same time, “For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend,” and I have come home with a few thoughts and special observations:

• I’ve been underestimating the power of emotions in communications. The theatre person working with us talked about how little information we get verbally in comparison to seeing and sensing people. As Roger Schwarz would say, “When emotions run high there is lots of good data”;
• With the horses it was suggested that those emotions are actually observable energy, as explored by Dora Kunz;
• Yes, we use our images as improvements over the spoken word, but what do we know about the emotional power? I’m thinking now that just adding color to text could trigger hormones and emotions;
• Separate parts of our brain are responsible for emotions and reasoning. Studies of brain injuries have shown that when these two parts cannot communicate, an individual is incapable of making decisions;
• I haven’t even begun to understand just how far images can carry us.

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.