Good News for Facilitators

Is this you? You already know how to prepare and facilitate short, productive and focused meetings. What you're keen to do now is expand your current skills to facilitate meetings of longer duration, with diverse participants to achieve more involved and complex outcomes.

Good news! You don't have to start every meeting agenda from scratch.  For most broad meeting purposes (issue resolution, problem solving, action planning, process improvement), it is very helpful to follow a step by step, systematic framework to design your facilitation process and select the right facilitation methods for the work. Just like architects need blueprints to successfully build a house, facilitators need well-thought out designs for their meetings.

And even better!  With a carefully designed meeting, almost 98% of all problems and interpersonal dynamics can be pro-actively handled before your participants even show up in the room. At the end of this course, you will be able to custom-design meetings for problem-solving, issue resolution, and action planning meetings to build common ground and group consensus. And you will have a deeper understanding of how to prevent dysfunction and dynamics before the meeting begins.  

Register now for The Agile Facilitator: Building Consensus Around Issues and Problems.

Check out Our 2012 Course Roster 

Still Time to Register

Greetings!  

Bring life to your in-person meetings with graphics, and to your virtual meetings with interactivity. Discover why our approach consistently earns rave participant reviews!

We Deliver Empowering - Engaging - Energizing Programs!

The use of graphics and visuals is at the leading edge of methods to enhance participant engagement, focus, understanding and retention. Enhance your facilitation competencies with simple yet powerful ways to incorporate visuals in your next facilitation.

You have to hurry though! There are only 4 spaces left. 

Register below now.

The Artful Visual Facilitator

Bringing Meeting Results to Life with Graphics!

THE ARTFUL FACILITATOR is a fun, easy, hands-on introductory program on using basic visuals, graphics and images in your facilitation. In this highly interactive two-day course led by graphic recorder Avril Orloff, you will learn the basics of graphic language and its potential to enhance your facilitation effectiveness. Designed to build confidence in incorporating graphics and visuals into the meetings you facilitate, the session is chockful of opportunities to put your knowledge into practice.

Register Securely Online

When: November 3-4, 2011

Program Leader: Contact Avril Orloff: (604) 876-8418 or a.orloff@shaw.ca.

Where: The Granville Island Hotel, Vancouver, BC

"Loved Avril's style - the course was fun, informative and skill-building, and very realistic!"

The Virtual Facilitator

Leading Interactive TeleCalls and Webinars

Do you also lead Virtual Meetings, Classes or Webinars?  Join our next online/tele-class series and gain tremendous value and insights into effective virtual meetings.

THE VIRTUAL FACILITATOR is an eLearning / TeleClass program on how to get great results from virtual meetings, whether TeleCalls or Webinars, through effective design, facilitation of engaging process, and right use of technology. This series of three 1.5 hour interactive teleclasses on consecutive weeks offers a practical foundation in the secrets to facilitating Great Virtual Meetings.

Register Securely Online

When: November 10, 17, & December 2nd (Note: Change in date to avoid US Thanksgiving on Nov. 24th)

Webinars from 8:00 am to 9:30 am, Pacific Time

Where: Virtual Teleconference and Webinar Learning Program (access coordinates provided upon paid registration)

Program Leaders: Brenda Chaddock and Myriam Laberge

Call Brenda Chaddock, (604.929.4290) for information or email Myriam Laberge M.A., IAF Certified Professional Facilitator.

"Outstanding experience - well organized, well executed, and great value! Modelled excellent facilitation and the teamwork that makes virtual interactions engaging." -- MH

Research indicates that as much as 50% of time spent in meetings is often unproductive, lacking focused outcomes or respectful interactions. Whether you or your staff facilitates meetings at work, in the community, or in multi-stakeholder settings, solid facilitation skills are the antidote to wasted meetings.

Hope to see you at one of our upcoming programs!

Great Virtual Meetings

It Takes More Than Technology!

Spending more time in virtual meetings? Hosting more webinars and web conferences? Striving to transform your in-person instruction to virtual classes? Technology alone won't guarantee great meetings or classes. The secret to Great Virtual Meetings/Classes depends on Right Technology + Solid Preparation + Interactive Process.

Tip for designing any interactive virtual meeting, think SIT:

Short - Virtual participants/audiences can't stay attentive and energized for more than 1 to 1.5 hours.

Interactive - Send out appropriate information before and after the meeting. During the live portion of the virtual meeting, keep participants actively engaged through interactive exercises rather than just lecturing or pushing information. (e.g., input, brainstorming, feedback, discussion, interactive panel, creative problem-solving, etc.)

Tight Focus - Chunk your agenda down into smaller segments. As needed, schedule a series of shorter virtual meetings to ensure participants stay focused and engaged.

Take our upcoming class, The Virtual Facilitator to build your virtual meeting facilitation and virtual class instruction competencies. At the end of your time with us, you will be able to design and facilitate engaging, productive and focused web meetings and virtual classes.

How to Facilitate Virtually

A New Competency for the New Economy

More and more organizations are turning to TeleCalls, Virtual Classes, Web Conferencing, live Virtual Meetings and Video Conferencing to achieve their goals. The compelling reasons behind this push are:

• Easy Attendance: Wherever you are, if there is a telephone/computer, you can attend a TeleClass or Webinar.
• Save Time & Money. The cost of airfare, hotels, restaurant meals, travel time and incidentals are eliminated.
• Hassle-Free: No commuting hassles...no rush hour traffic to deal with...no parking problems. A one-hour meeting is just 1 hour. No commuting or parking time (or costs!).
• Better Quality of Life. You can work from home (or somewhere more exotic!), and conduct your business meetings in cyberspace.
• Broad and Diverse Participation. Aligned with the new global economy, geography is not a barrier to meeting attendance of partners, suppliers, consumers and employees from anywhere in the world.

What's not to like?

Quite a lot, actually. Virtual meetings are not suitable for all meeting purposes or groups, and there are many downsides to working in the virtual medium. Learn more about pros/cons....

Take our upcoming class, The Virtual Facilitator to build your virtual meeting facilitation and virtual class instruction competencies. At the end of your time with us, you will be able to strategically determine when a virtual meeting is right for the work, how to ensure each is productive, plus gain proven strategies, helpful tips and many techniques to lead focused, interactive meetings and effective virtual classes.

Bringing Life! to Meetings with Visuals

Did you know that 50-60% of meeting participants are 'visual' learners? 

Enhance focus, understanding and retention - just by adding a few simple drawings, symbols and colour to flipcharts as you facilitate. 

Using Graphics to Bring Life to Meetings

Most of us already think in pictures. It's no accident that many of the expressions we use to denote understanding are visual: "Do you see what I'm saying?", and "I see your point!"

The fact is most ideas can be made clearer with a picture. Plus, let's face it: meetings with visuals are just way more fun!

So add some visual techniques to your facilitation palette, and watch your meetings go from good to great!

If you are a meeting facilitator interested in enhancing your overall skill and effectiveness, register for our next two-day class, The Artful Visual Facilitator.  You will leave with a repertoire of useful images, lettering conventions, visual metaphors, concepts for graphic templates and much more! Anyone wishing to learn the essentials of graphic recording is also welcome to attend; but hurry - there are just a few spots left!

Planning A Meeting? What Bugs You?

Meetings: Who needs them? We all do!

Whether you are an executive, a manager, supervisor or project team leader, chances are that meetings are a significant part of your day. However, poor meetings may be the norm you are settling for rather than "Great Meetings".

According to a recent survey of 300 senior Canadian managers, their number one pet peeve with meetings is either that they either start late or finish past the indicated time. Managers also begrudge being brought together when their presence and participation is not key to the meeting outcomes.  The use of PDAs and laptops for non-meeting related activities, along with people interupting one another follow closely in the list of of meeting issues. Accountemps identifies five signs that your meeting could be a time waster, and offers suggestions for how to correct it.  (see Accountemps Survey - Identifies Managers' Biggest Meeting Pet Peeves).

Despite highly developed technical, professional and specialized skills, most managers do not have the necessary meeting facilitation competencies to design and lead focused and effective meetings. If this is true for you or your staff, have a look at our 2011 Masterful Facilitation Institute fall course schedule. Our public and in-house facilitation skill building programs are guaranteed to enhance the productivity of your virtual and face-to-face meetings.

Mastering Great Meetings

Follow the Masterful Facilitation Institute’s Great Meetings Formula to confidently ensure your meeting success ...

    = Great Outcomes (time-effective, focused, productive, broad buy-in) are the result of

   + Great Process (engaged, focused, creative, good pace/energizing) + that fosters

   + Great Interactions (safe, respectful, positive, builds common ground and learning)

... and attend to these six keys to masterful facilitation: 

• Masterful Agenda
• Answer Questions on Their Mind
• Strategies for Functional Behaviour
• Transform Conflict into Creativity
• End with Clarity/on Time
• Report for Follow-Up

Read more about keys to masterful facilitation....

Special Offer: Grow your virtual and in-person facilitation competencies. Participate for 50% off in The Virtual Facilitator with your registration in any one of our other upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 programs. Find out more.....

Making a Quantum Leap

I love this image! Right now, this little fish jumping to a much bigger 'pond' feels like me, as I prepare to make a quantum leap. Here are some really neat tips reproduced from Stephen Mills Sept. 2009 blog,  "Is It Time for a Quantum Leap?"

Stop trying harder and look for something simple. A simple and elegant solution is a perfect way to make a quantum leap.

You aren’t building on previous steps. You are making a fundamental change. You are making a breakthrough leap. Back off the struggle and let something fresh come into view. 

Enhance Meeting Productivity

Of the 60+ meetings per month attended by professionals, research indicates that over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted.  That translates to 4 days of lost productivity per professional every month if each meeting is one hour long!  Can you afford not to invest in more effective meetings?  Do the math for yourself. How much could you save with even a 25% improvement in the productivity of your virtual and in-person meetings?

Nearly all organizational leaders, professionals, and managers can greatly benefit from developing competence in facilitating effective meetings, and understanding when to seek facilitation assistance. Click here to learn more about proven meeting competencies to improve your organization’s overall productivity now.

Interested in learning how? Attend The Confident Facilitator: Essential Skills for Guiding Groups, or The Virtual Facilitator: Leading Interactive TeleCalls and Webinars, or ask us about how we can customize our programs for your unique organizational needs.

Prevent Conflict Before the Meeting

Here’s some really good news! "Almost all meeting conflict can be prevented by good preparation, clarity about roles, responsibilities, ground rules, expected outcomes, and decision-making methods." -- Facilitator’s Fieldbook

Everyone hates wasting time in meetings. Whether you are facilitating the meeting, attending as a participant, or making arrangements for a client, ensure you are clear about, and agree to, the OARRS. Doing so will go a long way toward creating Great Meetings!

• Outcomes: Why are we meeting?
• Agenda: What topics will we address, when, & how?
• Roles: What will be expected of me?
• Rules: How will we work together?
• Scope: What are empowered to do?
  

Resolve to enhance your/your staff’s facilitation skills in 2011 and lead focused, positive and productive meetings: Read more about OARRS. Save @ Early Bird - register now, The Confident Facilitator

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

During the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, I was part of a flash mob on Robson Street, and totally loved the experience of some 2,000+ folks converging to dance - just for the fun of it! Turn up your speakers and enjoy this joyful celebration of the spirit of Christmas.

Making Room for Strategic Reflection & Dialogue

Thanks to Ken Homer for flagging this article: Making Room for Reflection is a Strategic Imperative.

The key message: "...21st century advantage is about doing meaningful stuff that matters the most,...so doing more of the same won't get you there.... We'll have to invest not just in action, but in deep, sustained, prolonged reflection."

The implication for facilitators is that we can add significant value to senior management groups, Executive teams, Boards, and project teams by introducing and helping instill a practice of ongoing reflective dialogue. Download slide presentation on Dialogue: Power of Conversation

Strategies for Lively Discussion

Going Beyond "Whole Group" Conversation. Interaction is essential for understanding, alignment and meeting engagement. Many meeting discussions can benefit from a variety of strategies that go beyond whole room conversation to keep participants energized and fully engaged. TIP: To facilitate more lively conversations and productive meetings, you might adopt one of these four facilitation strategies:

SUBGROUPS: Count off subgroups, and assign them the task of fleshing out initial thinking on different aspects of a focus question for presentation back to the whole, e.g., customer, employees, suppliers.

PARTNERS: Invite pairs/trios to discuss the focus question together for 3-5 minutes. Get highlights and record the top notes during report out, using the 'me too!" principle to avoid unnecessary repetition.

GO-AROUNDS: Once key information has been shared, ensure the conversation is not dominated by the boss or subject matter expert. Invite a timed go-round so that everyone has an equal chance to input, e.g., "let's take no more than 2 minutes each to...."

POLLING: After the discussion has gone on for a while, invite a straw poll through a show of hands, e.g., " on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with _____?", then discuss the reasons that folks voted as they did. 

Read more about facilitating lively discussion....

Register for The Confident Facilitator (attend Virtual at 50% off if register for both at the same time.)

Collaboration Beats Smarts

Thanks to Tree Breesen for flagging this important story:

As facilitators, our job is often to assist teams of people to work together to address complex issues and to solve problems. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that collaborative groups with equal participation among all of the group members (rather than having a few subject matter experts dominating), resulted in a higher collective level of group intelligence. To produce better results, they concluded, a group needed to consider multiple perspectives; the individual intelligence of group members was unrelated to the outcome.

Implications for Facilitation: When designing meetings/work sessions, ensure that targeted session norms stress equal participation. Adopt facilitation methods and processes that enable every participant to contribute their unique perspective.

Another surprising finding was that the more females, the higher the group intelligence! They attributed this not so much to gender, as to a quality of social sensitivity that women on average have more of than men.

Implication for Facilitation: As possible, help clients to bring together diverse teams representative of multiple perspectives, including gender. If that is not possible, design processes that will ensure the issue / problem is considered from a diversity of perspectives (e.g., assign different 'hats' to different people or tables; then look for a balanced and integrated solution).

Read/listen to the full story....

Staying on Topic: It's Easy to Stray!

Do you distinguish between different meeting purposes?

If not, you may find that your "quick', regular information/status meetings are getting hijacked into problem-solving meetings. How can you stay true to the meeting purpose as emergent issues arise and not get detoured from your purpose?

Whether your team holds regular progress meetings through 15-minute standing check-ins, online/web meetings, or regular in-person huddles, you likely have struggled with the meeting digressing from status reporting to issue resolution. Resist dealing with an issue as it surfaces! Otherwise, you will waste the time of those for whom the issue is not relevant, and erode the time available for others to give their progress reports.

TIP: Here's how to stay on topic. Park any issues as they are flagged. At the end of the scheduled status meeting, quickly establish who needs to discuss each issue on the Parking Lot. Either task who will schedule the appropriate next meeting(s), or, after you've adjourned the original progress report meeting, continue with relevant participants.

Download strategies for staying on topic

Four F-Strategies for Setting Group Norms

"How do we want to work together as a group for greatest success?"

Groups that agree on their meeting code of conduct, or session norms, are more productive and achieve better results.

TIP: To facilitate the task of gaining agreement on meeting agreements, you might try one of these four facilitation strategies:

1. FAST: Offer a starting list of possible ground rules, and refine as needed.

2. FULLY OWNED:Help a group develop their own norms by asking, "Think of the characteristics of effective meetings. What can we do to support each other in achieving this?"

3. FULL PARTICIPATION: Create a level playing field between participants of different ranks by targeting norms that encourage everyone to leave their ranks at the door.

4. FUN: A team that will work together over time to playfully list the behaviours they don't want to see ☺!

Read more about session norms.....  And to learn more tips: register for The Confident Facilitator, October 25-27, 2010 (Vancouver)

Listen Actively - A Skill for Work and Life

Good facilitators are good listeners. Cultivating your capacity to listen actively will serve you well at work, and in every other aspect of your life.  

TIP: Here's are 9 ways to enhance your listening skills when facilitating:

1. Listen like you mean it - show genuine interest and curiosity.
2. Suspend your assumptions, listening to understand what is really being spoken.
3. Listen with all your senses - eyes, body language, tone of voice.
4. Listen for what is not being said as well as the words being spoken.
5. Move towards the speaker to be more closely connected.
6. Scan the whole room to sense how others are reacting and responding to what is being said.
7. Write it down, and check out what you've written to ensure the speaker does feel heard.
8. As culturally appropriate, use eye contact to acknowledge people, and to encourage quiet folks to take part.
9. Assist those with differing ability to articulate; paraphrase what you believe they are trying to say.

Download PDF of article...

Learn more secrets: register for The Confident Facilitator....

Life Is Like A Musical Composition

Along the line of my last blog on motivation - "the dangling carrot", here is another good reminder - Sing and Dance While the Music Is Being Played - brought to my attention by Dane Brown, from my friend/associate Ben Kadel's community site at Emotus Operandi.

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Just caught this fascinating talk by Dan Pink on the hidden truths behind personal motivation, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Except for straightforward tasks, it's not the age-old motivators of money and power that drive us, but rather, our desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In fact, research has shown time and again that using money as an incentive for activities dependent on our cognitive skills is a sure-fire way to reduce performance! The implications are powerful for all organizations, teams and groups seeking insights into how to boost innovation and performance.

Bonus: The graphic recording of Daniel Pink's speech is truly dazzling and worth taking the time to watch!  (Thanks to Rosemary Cairns who first posted this to the IAF Group listserve so that I can now share it here.)

Great Facilitation. Staying Neutral Is Tough and Essential!

Can you be effective as a facilitator if you are not neutral? I.e., if you have expertise in the content and/or have a stake in the outcomes generated by the group, can you still facilitate effectively? Your job as Facilitator is to focus on group and meeting process. As tempting as it may be, great facilitation requires that you avoid controlling content or influencing the outcomes.  Can you wear more than one hat and stay neutral? Variety of roles:

Pure Presenter: You are a content/subject matter expert (process and outcome neutral).

Instructional Facilitator: You deliver learning content in a facilitative manner (outcome neutral).

Pure Facilitator: You are a group process expert who does not contribute to meeting content (content and outcome neutral).

Facilitator/Expert – You give advice from your subject matter expertise (content); but have no stake in group’s work (process neutral) and decisions (outcome neutral).

Group Leader/Member As Facilitator – You want to contribute to discussions (content), control the group discussions and how they arrive at their decisions (process), and you have a stake in the decisions themselves (outcome). Tough role!

Read more on staying neutral…..

Understanding Participation: A Literature Review

This new resource just brought to my attention by Sandy Heierbacher on NCDD's listserve is worth sharing … a 50-page Understanding Participation: A Literature Review  covers a wide range of participatory activities that are often viewed in isolation. Download it here.

"The review brings together different bodies of literature on participation, including literature on community development, volunteering, public participation, social movements, everyday politics and ethical consumption."

(From a major national research project called “Pathways through Participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship?” led by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) in partnership with the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) and Involve.)

Power of Collaboration & Facilitation

Rosemary Cairns on the IAF listserve brought this fascinating TED video to my attention: Build a tower/Build a team

Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

It is well worth watching, especially for its findings about the value of facilitation in solving the problem when a collaborative task is required. For the actual exercise, see: The Marshmallow Challenge website.

Bring LIFE to Meetings

Life is too short to waste time in meetings. We all need to learn how to cut through the confusion, reduce the stress, and transform bad meeting habits into productive, focused and positive results. Meetings with LIFE are characterized by:

LIVELY MEETING PROCESS

Somehow when most of us went through our schooling, whatever system we were in just assumed that either: 1) we already knew how to design and facilitate great meetings, or 2) we would pick it up by osmosis through the keen observation of our bosses and peers. Not!

Great meetings depend upon designing a variety of activities to time-efficiently and productively achieve the meeting goals, and facilitating each exercise in such a way that participants feel alive, enthused, and energized. A good meeting design is actually a plan of what will happen, when, and in what way to ensure everyone contributes for maximum results.

Better Quality Brainstorming Results

Here’s an interesting finding just brought to my attention by fellow IAF-CPF Cameron Fraser through the IAF list- serve: electronic brainstorming on wicked and difficult problems yields higher quality results than verbal brainstorming (either in-person or on an synchronous virtual meeting).

A synopsis of the research findings extracted from the publication: Improving Human Effectiveness for Extreme-Scale Problem Solving was a single year effort by Sandia National Laboratories to investigate tools and methods for bringing very large groups of people together to solve difficult problems. In particular, this research explored how computer mediated collaborations might attack “wickedly difficult” problems, which are characterized by a lack of agreement about the very nature of the problem itself. The experiment compared the effectiveness of individual versus group electronic brainstorming on a number of quality ratings including originality, feasibility and effectiveness. Two interesting findings emerged:

Building Community in Meetings: Icebreakers/WarmUps and Connections

A good participative start to meetings and learning programs gets people present, connected and focused as quickly as possible into the session content in a relevant way.

Building 'community' starts with attending to people’s need for social connection, whether or not they know each other. At the start of meetings, new people begin weaving the social bonds that create human networks capable of collaboration; intact teams re-establish the links that enable norming and high performing.

When is an IceBreaker most appropriate?

Strategies for Great Meetings

Be SWIFT - Eliminate Time Wasters!

Meeting time is valuable time. As facilitators, there are many ways in which we can ensure that meeting time is productively focused on the purpose and outcomes. Below are common time wasters and a link to alternative strategies to enhance how the session is managed:

• Starting late and waiting until everyone has gathered.


• Writing points on a flipchart while participants passively wait for instructions or listing of group output.


• Inviting people to volunteer for an activity, and then waiting for somebody to step forward 'in the moment'.


• Forging ahead when the group is tired or sluggish.


• Taking time to hear the reports back from all subgroups.

Download Alternative Strategies.

Learn Other Secrets to Facilitating Great Meetings!

If you have an interest in enhancing or building your ability to facilitate Great Meetings, visit our Masterful Facilitation Institute site for our newly posted Spring 2010 schedule, and lots of Early Bird registration savings.

Group Facilitation Research

Not quite sure how to share this, as it came through two contacts: Sandy Heierbacher's Notes on Facebook (Executive Director of NCDD)and the IAF - Stephen Thorpe, board member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), shared a link to his doctoral thesis on online facilitation on the IAF Forum on Friday, as well as a link to an older post listing (mostly) downloadable masters and PhD theses on facilitation. Regardless, here are some good links to group facilitation research:

Best Practices for Delivering Content

"What information do participants in a meeting need to make wise and informed contributions?"

This is a key design question that facilitators must constantly ask themselves as they work with their clients to find the right balance of information delivery and discovery. The bias of Subject Matter Experts (SME) is often to overload meeting participants with all the facts, details, and exceptions on a topic. Underlying this tendency is likely the belief that nobody else can possibly provide good input without having the same level of expertise as the specialists (e.g., engineers, scientists, and lawyers). And the response to this should be, "not necessarily" and perhaps even, "not at all".

When looking for participant contributions in a meeting, the larger intent is to tap collective experience and knowledge, and to bring many perspectives to bear on a topic. This input does not replace SME knowledge, but rather serves to enhance and expand it, with a view of balancing other considerations that may not have been given equal weighting from a specialist's analysis. So what are some best practices for offering content within a meeting design, keeping it relevant and compelling, while protecting time for participant input?

Focus on Strengths

Whether facilitating a group or developing a learning program, where should we focus the bulk of our attention - areas of strength or areas that fall short of the ideal? Most of us are well conditioned to believe that if we focus on problems and areas requiring improvement, this will actually help us perform better.

The sad truth is that only 32% of workers have the opportunity to do their best. (Gallup, US Survey, circa 2007). Research by Professor Emeritus Ron Lippitt (Univ. of Michigan) showed that when work groups focus on problems, two things occur. First they become more depressed, and secondly, they focus their energy on how to avoid pain rather than how to creatively move towards what they desire. As facilitators and instructors, we would do well to heed these learnings and adopt strategies that build on strengths and what's working.

Spoken Word Group Poem

Thanks to a wonderful process developed by Lisa Heft of Opening Space, my colleague at Masterful Facilitation Institute Brenda Chaddock, Sandy Heierbacher from NCDD, and I co-designed a Spoken Word Group Poem with 18 participants at the IAP2 San Diego conference. Together, their response to three key questions resulted in an extraordinary co-created group poem which was delivered it in a collaborative performance at the start of the Wednesday morning Plenary. Read more... DARE to Dream!

Shift Happens - Did You Know?

This wonderfully informative video on the transformative power of technology and how it is changing every aspect of our lives is not only worth watching - the speed of change is mind-blowing!

Best Practices for Facilitative Instructors

Quiz: What Are Your Learners Doing? Estimate the rough % of time spent:

__ Reading the text, handouts, slides, manual
__ Listening to you
__ Watching visuals on slides, TV, or computer screens
__ Discussing concepts or practicing skills
__ Teaching, and learning, from each other
100% of total

As interesting as most people think their lectures and presentations are, most folks remember very little of what they hear, especially if there is no immediate need to apply the information. Even with stories, metaphors, analogies and humour, listening isn't learning. Learning dramatically increases with discussion of concepts and practice, and the single most powerful way for adults to learn is to teach others/learn socially. Research has shown that adult learners already know almost 70% of the information they will learn in a program; yet almost 67% of the time, they are being told rather than engaged to discover/remember existing knowledge.

So, the next time you or somebody in your facilitated session is considering the option to lecture or present, remember to WAIT (stands for Why Am "I" Talking?), and challenge yourself to design a more engaging and interactive piece.

Engagement and Democracy

Great post by Matt Leighninger, director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, on the question, “How should we improve democracy?”, with myriad resources and links such as:

• “Democracy, Growing Up,” Where Is Democracy Headed?, Funding and Fostering Local Democracy, and Democracy as Problem Solving? The core principles underpinning these projects are described here.


• “Promising Practices in Online Engagement” categorizes different online projects, and “Sidewalks for Democracy Online.”


• Empowered Participation


• The Promise and Challenge of Neighborhood Democracy.


• Involve


• “Deliberative Democracy and the Problem of Power”


• “Strengthening Our Nation’s Democracy”


• Youth engagement and the role of higher ed.

Community: The Structure of Belonging

"Most of our communities are fragmented and at odds within themselves. Businesses, social services, education, and health care each live within their own worlds. The same is true of individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. What keeps this from changing is that we are trapped in an old and tired conversation about who we are. If this narrative does not shift, we will never truly create a common future and work toward it together."

In his book, Community - The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block explores how community can emerge from fragmentation, how community is built, how transformation occurs, and what individuals and formal leaders can do to create a place they want to inhabit. The kind of transformation that can occur in community starting from powerful questions, other than just talk, include:

-Invitation replaces mandate, policy and alignment
-Possibility replaces problem solving
-Ownership and Cause replace explanation and denial
-Dissent and Refusal replace resignation and lip service
-Commitment replaces hedge and barter
-Gifts replace deficiencies

"You Are Brilliant and the Earth Is Hiring" - Class of 2009 Commencement Address

A message of urgency and hope for young people and all of the rest of us.

Extracts from: Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, founder of Wiser Earth and author of many books -- most recently Blessed Unrest. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University of Portland, when he delivered this superb commencement address (read the full transcript).....

"Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. ..... Basically, civilization needs a new operating system; you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. .....

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. ....

Standing in the Fire: Facilitating Complex Group Dynamics

(Here is an excerpt from a recent article I wrote.)

You’ve been hired to facilitate a meeting involving a diverse group of people whose ideas, specialized knowledge, expertise, alignment and/or support are needed for an important outcome. Yet the diversity inherent in that cross-functional group, inter-disciplinary project team, organization-wide planning session, or multi-stakeholder meeting is a potential source of complex group dynamics.

What can you do to minimize the possibility of group dynamics disrupting productive work? And what helpful interventions can you rely on with confidence “in the moment”, if you’ve done your level best, and SHIFT still happens?

• Rule #1: The main thing is not to panic!
• Rule #2: Don’t assume you know what is going on.
• Rule #3: Don’t take it personally.
• Rule #4: Remember and use the O-I-R Framework, for “Observation –Implication – Resolution”.

Read full article.....

Office of Public Engagement at the White House!

From the NCDD listserve, just received this incredibly positive breaking news for the field…!

The White House announced today that the White House Office of Public Liaison is being tasked with an expanded mission, and a new name: the Office of Public Engagement! In his video announcement about OPE, President Obama said:

“This office will seek to engage as many Americans as possible in the difficult work of changing this country, through meetings and conversations with groups and individuals held in Washington and across the country.”

Core Principles for Public Engagement

Reproducing here, a truly important synthesis piece initiated by the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, the Co-Intelligence Institute, the International Association of Public Practitioners, and endorsed by many others....

PREAMBLE

The Seven Principles for Public Engagement were developed collaboratively in Spring 2009 by dozens of leaders in public engagement, with the expectation of ongoing dialogue and periodic revision. (See National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation for full details.)

In a strong democracy, citizens and government work together to build a society that protects individual freedom while simultaneously ensuring liberty and justice for all. Engaging people around the issues that affect their lives and their country is a key component of a strong democratic society.

Public engagement involves convening diverse, representative groups of people to wrestle with information from a variety of viewpoints all to the end of making better, often more creative decisions. Public engagement aims to provide people with direction for their own community activities, or with public judgments that will be seriously considered by policy-makers and other power-holders.

The more any given public engagement effort takes into consideration the following seven Core Principles, the more it can expect to effectively build mutual understanding, meaningfully affect policy development, and/or inspire collaborative action among citizens and institutions. These seven interdependent principles serve both as ideals to pursue and as criteria for judging quality. Rather than promoting partisan agendas, the application of the Core Principles creates the conditions for authentic engagement around public issues.

The Seven Core Principles

Stand By Me - Music for Change

Wow, this is a truly uplifting rendition of the classic, "Stand by Me" (originally released in 1955 by The Staple Singers and released again in 1961 by the Drifters) from the Music for Change website. Music for Change is committed to developing cultural understanding and respect for cultural diversity through music and the arts in educational, community settings and through events and projects. Click on the link for the composite audio/video of different singers and musicians from different places around the world singing this great tune. Enjoy!

Canada's World Dialogues

Last year, I had the priviledge of being part of a fabulous national team of professional facilitators who co-facilitated a series of regional dialogues held across Canada as part of Canada's World 3-year consultation process into the role that Canadians want our country to play in the world in the 21st Century. Through dialogue, Canada's World engaged Canadians in a great conversation about our role in the world. The dialogue process brought Canadians together to discuss their visions for Canadian foreign policy and for Canada as an important actor on the world stage. Using the perspectives and ideas heard in the dialogue sessions, Canada's World is putting Canada Back on the Map and sharing a new story about a bolder, more responsible Canada in the world. The reports on the session results, including the wealth of dialogue resources used, are available at Canada's World Results.

Empowering Change

This appreciative and possibility-focused video entitled Empowering Change by David Gershon provides an excellent overview of how to achieve large scale transformation of the magnitude of climate change.

Leadership in a Complex World

Love this quote:

“In this day and age, when problems are increasingly complex and there are no simple answers, and no simple cause and effect - how stressful for leaders to pretend that they have the answer. A life-affirming leader is one who knows how to rely on and use the intelligence that exists everywhere in the community, the company, school, or organization. Such leaders act as stewards of other people's creativity and intelligence. Today’s leader needs to be one who convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in processes where our intelligence can come forth. These kinds of leaders do not give us the answers; rather they help gather us so that we can discover the answers together."

– Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science

Continuum of Engagement - Ask Who Does It Primarily Serve?

This Sunday January 18th at beautiful Rivendell Retreat on Bowen Island, BC, my colleague Brenda Chaddock and I are co-presenting Facilitating Wise Action: Engaging Groups in Meaningful Conversations Around Complex Issues. The program is focused on conversational methods that foster mutual understanding, learning, partnership, and co-creation.

In past offerings (this is our third), participants have found the questions from our Engagement Process and Continuum to be enlightening, especially those related to purpose, convener, participants, and methods. We suggest that the continuum of engagement can be distinguished according to two broad types: unilateral/bilateral, and multilateral. The purpose for unilateral and bilateral forms of engagement primarily serves the convener. In multilateral engagement, all participants are equally served by the purpose, including the convener. Viewing the purpose of engagement through this lens sheds some helpful light on the role of the convener, on who should be invited, and on what are the best methods for the engagement. For those interested in learning more, please download a PDF extract of the Engagement Process: Continuum of Engagement which is part of our Facilitating Wise Action curriculum. A summary follows of the above categories:

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE? CONTINUUM OF ENGAGEMENT

Engaging Groups Around Solving Tough Organizational Problems

Yesterday in conversation with a client who leads Six Sigma projects to enhance operational excellence in his organization, a moment of clarity emerged around a distinction that is not always apparent on what is needed for successful implementation. (The Six Sigma methodology is a proven and rigorous approach for systematically identifying problems, examining root causes, generating possible solutions, and eventually selecting the best according to objective criteria.) Essentially, the insight boils down to this:

Starting With Engagement Purpose

I have been a long-standing member of the International Association of Facilitators, and enjoy the benefits of the Group Facilitation Forum. This morning, I contributed to a thread related to my previous blog post on Stakeholder Engagement and Purpose. One of the contributors, Penny Walker from England, had offered this distinction which was very helpful to the IAF thread on Deliberative Events:

• Broadly, the market research gang are interested in understanding the group so that they (the consultant / client) can better design the product / service / policy and better communicate it to people once it's been designed.
• The participation & involvement gang are interested in helping the group to develop its understanding, share perspectives, air differences and find ways forward, so that they (consultant / client AND stakeholders/public) can jointly design the product / service / policy and better implement it.

(Here is my posted response)

Stakeholder Engagement Methods & Purpose

Stakeholder engagement is a new competency area that many organizations are realizing they need to acquire in today's connected, aware, and sophisticated world of networks and relationships.

• Yesterday I had a long conversation with a program manager in an oil and gas company who is trained as an engineer, yet is routined called upon to mediate and facilitate multi-stakeholder meetings who have a multiplicity of interests and needs. He was exploring whether our upcoming program, Facilitating Wise Action: Engaging Groups in Meaningful Conversations Around Complex Issues, might provide him with useful tools.

Learning Community

Just finished co-leading an intense, transformative, and profoundly satisfying 3-day program for advanced practitioners (The Inspired Facilitator: Achieving Mastery Engaging Organizations and Communities) at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver. We came together initially a group of strangers willing to be vulnerable and learn together in public, and quickly gelled into a powerful learning community. This poem by StarHawk describes some of the energy of that circle.

“Somewhere, there are people
to whom we can speak with passion
without having the words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us
whenever we come into our power.
Community means strength that joins our strength
to do the work that needs to be done.
Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing. A circle of friends.
Someplace where
we can be free.”

--StarHawk, Dreaming in the Dark

There Is No Road - We Make Our Path By Walking It

“It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.” -- Anonymous

"We make our path by walking it." -- African proverb

"Caminante, no hay camino / se hace camino al andar" – wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking along." -- Antonio Machado y Ruiz

Whosoever Wishes to Know the World, Heraklietos

“Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its
particular details.
Knowledge is not intelligence.
In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected.
Change alone is unchanging.
The same road goes both up and down.
The beginning of a circle is also its end.
Not I, but the world says it: all is one.
And yet everything comes in season.”

--Heraklietos of Ephesos, 500 B.C

The Road Ahead, Rainer Maria Rilke

“My eyes already touch the sunny hill,
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has its inner light, even from a distance.
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are;
a gesture waves us on, answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.”

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

On the Other Side of the Door

A hopeful poem in a time of chaos and upheaval...

On the other side of the door
I can be a different me,
As smart and as brave and as funny or strong
As a person could want to be.
There's nothing too hard for me to do,
There's no place I can't explore
Because everything can happen
On the other side of the door.

On the other side of the door
I don't have to go alone.
If you come, too, we can sail tall ships
And fly where the wind has flown.
And wherever we go, it is almost sure
We'll find what we're looking for
Because everything can happen
On the other side of the door.

by Jeff Moss, found in Teaching With Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach

Key Questions in Large System Change Solutions

I love technology! I had been taking Otto Scharmer's online Presencing course with some 125+ folks from all over the world (a most worthwhile course by the way that I highly recommend!), and had not been able to complete the last couple of classes. So I just signed in yesterday, and there was Otto, as vital and interesting as the morning he originally taped the lectures live.

The fourth class topic is about the right-hand side of the U-curve, and prototyping, or how to put vision and intention on its feet with experiments that would allow an exploration of the future by doing. Otto shared seven great questions to ask in order to sort out which of the many possible ideas/solutions to prototype. I share them here, because I believe they have applicability not only in this type of situation, but also for just about any type of implementation planning. Here they are, with the source fully acknowledged as: Otto Scharmer, Presencing Global Classroom, Session No. 4, Prototyping, Weekly Thursday Sessions, March 20-April 17, 2008.

1. Relevant: Does it matter to the key stakeholders involved?
2. Revolutionary: can it change the system – the structure that created the problem in the first place?
3. Rapid: can you do it quickly?
4. Rough: can you do it small scale? Is it doable and doesn’t cost millions? Can you pull off in a couple of weeks or months?
5. Right: have you got the right dimensions? Does the microcosm mirror the whole? Do you see in the experiment the core issue that really underlies the fundamental situation you are wishing to address?
6. Relationally effective: are you leveraging the existing networks and competencies? When you deal with a number of other organizations and players, you want to come up with something where you can leverage the existing competencies in the network, and doing so will give you a jumpstart in addressing the challenge.
7. Replicable: can you scale it up? Could this go viral?

Collective Learning & Co-Creative Engagement

“None of us is as smart as all of us. …the problems we face are too complex to be solved by any one person or any one discipline. Our only chance is to bring people together from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines who can refract a problem through the prism of complementary minds allied in common purpose.”

Whether our quest is to solve complex social issues and wicked environmental problems, or our need is to create sustainable value in partnership with the entire value chain of suppliers, employees and customers, Collective Learning is an essential process for integrating and aligning diverse perspectives and knowledge. Over the past 25-30 years, our collective grasp of the interconnectedness of economic, environmental and social systems has risen greatly. We increasingly recognize that more synergistic, innovative and sustainable solutions can ultimately be developed when the collective intelligence and multiple perspective of many minds is focused together.

Collective Learning occurs though group conversations around questions that matter. Such conversations can take place either through one-time, multiple or ongoing activities involving in-person meetings or workshops, online- or tele- conferencing, or multiple engagement processes involving a combination of all of these. The goal of Collective Learning in an organizational or community group is to increase the collective knowledge, understanding, and capacity of members around the issue, such that independent individual action and decisions, as well as any collective action, can be aligned with the system’s interests.

Collective learning involves thinking and reflecting together about complex issues in order to generate new insights and possibilities. Such thinking must rise above the lowest common denominator of understanding often associated with debate to tap the full potential of collective intelligence and wisdom in the group.

Read the full paper I wrote in 2006 about Collective Learning and Co-Creative Engagement including such topics as:

• Collective Learning Antecedants
• The Art and Practice of Collective Learning
• Collective Learning Questions & Practices
• Co-Creative Engagement Methods
  

More on Hosting and Facilitating (cont'd)

I received an email from my friend Chris Corrigan in response to my previous blog as he was having trouble posting a comment. Hopefully I've fixed that problem and Chris can weigh back in directly as I truly value his contributions and how he stimulates my thinking. One of the questions Chris asked me is ".. what are the conversations that are alive and edgy in the communities of practice you are in? What is the living edge for C2D2 and IAF at the moment? I wonder how those of us around the world in these conversations can reach across our bounded communities and into, what, I wonder?"

There is a sense of discovery and newness in the AoH community - Chris refers to it as ‘wow…shiny!”, as for the first time people experience the power of co-creative engagement space. They contrast this to what they have known before and want to make distinctions, and ‘better than’, or ‘different than’, or ‘more than’, or ‘not that’ is often the result. Beyond my own personal experience, when I ‘listen in' to the AoH Flickr photos and other retreat AoH Harvests, and tap into the energy of the videos, I get a sense of how profound it is for people to connect in their humanity with others in natural, conversational space around deep questions. This is all new to them, potent, juicy, ‘real’, and I do understand it and am glad for it. Simultaneously

More on Hosting and Facilitating

Yesterday I spent over half an hour viewing the "The Art of Hosting" video with interest as I have both attended and helped to host local AoH events. For me, the contribution of AoH to the field of facilitation and the nexus for change is about the integration, design, and flow of wholistic group methods that enable and support meaningful conversations and outcomes. I admit, however, to being dismayed to see rise up again the theme of wanting to create a dichotomy that sets "hosting" apart from "facilitation".

Dialogue and Deliberation: Principle and Design Do’s & Don’ts

What are the keys to enhancing the effectiveness, outcomes and impact of our Dialogue and Deliberation practice, no matter what the methodology, scale and approach adopted?

This question was the focus of the Saturday morning plenary session at the first Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation in October 2005 in Ottawa Canada. The session was facilitated and designed by myself and Miriam Wyman, with input from Diane Abbey-Livingstone and Ray Gordezky, and Graphic Facilitation provided by Christine Valenza and Sara Waldston (whose image is shown here). The previous blog on the importance of purpose reminded me of this valuable work, and I want to ensure that the results are known and shared broadly. (What follows is extracted from the pdf report I co-authored and can be downloaded by following the link below.)

Clarity of Purpose - Streams of Engagement Framework

In a recent Art of Hosting post, as well as in his blog, my friend and colleague Tenneson Woolf is inquiring into questions that invite real energy and focus into the purpose of a project, especially at the start of community or organizational engagement, and also to guide such initiatives once they are underway to ensure the original intent is not lost. He remarks that often there is a rush to 'jump in', overlooking this vital first step, and this may lead to stuckness later on.

When it comes to stressing the importance of being clear on purpose, I love Toke Paludan Moeller's wonderful quote: "Clarity of purpose is a sweet weapon against confusion”. This reflects my own experience that if you don't know where you're going, any road will lead you there, and don't be surprised if you find yourself lost, confused, frustrated, and de-energized in the process. The single most important task in the initial phase of engagement contracting is to clarify the 'why' of coming together, along with the 'what' of desired outcomes and deliverables.

Masterful Facilitation Institute: Becoming An Inspired Facilitator

With my friend and colleague Brenda Chaddock, for the past couple of months, we have been busy developing our exciting 3-tier "Masterful Facilitation Institute: Becoming an Inspired Facilitator" (download overview PDF flyer).

Women's Leadership Revival Tour with Meg Wheatley - April 29th in Vancouver

Another project that has been taking up a lot of my discretionary pro bono time is taking a coordinating role on the Core Host team organizing the upcoming April 29th Vancouver evening event with Meg Wheatley. We expect to be sold out this week, and are looking forward to a incredible evening of stimulating and inspiring inquiry into how women can step forward more fully with the gift of leadership in service of community. One hundred percent of the funds raised by this event will support the work of The Berkana Institute; click on the link to see the work with women and men in Latin America, Africa, Asia and North America. Along with an amazing local organizing group, we are also in the process of setting up a social network site for pre- and post- event connection and follow-on project work. We also intend to host whoever is interested in further conversation following an Art of Hosting format (World Cafe, Open Space, AI, Dialogue) - stay tuned!

Twitter - A New Tech Tool Goodie

Andy Fluke at the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation has put me on to this 'mini-blogging' tech goodie, and I am testing it out. I have also added the application to synchronize Twitter and Facebook updates, though of course that would mean I actually would have to provide one :-)! Plus I have the updates linked into this blog - all so cool and instantaneous!

If you are already on Twitter, then you can follow me at http://twitter.com/myriamlaberge

Creativity of A Different Kind

I have been remiss adding to my blog since January with my focus taken up with many new ventures, including learning how to paint. Here is a picture of me beside an acrylic painting I submitted as part of the Poets and Painters art show at the South Delta Arts Gallery - it is called Old Light (on the right) and is of an old growth stand backlit through a sunny clearing.

Engaging People Around Climate Change

My friend Darcy Riddell at the Hollyhock Leadership Institute has sent me some very illuminating articles by Chris Rose and Pat Dade from the UK (Marketing and Cultural Dynamics Strategy) about engaging people in climate change and other environmental causes/behaviour change:

• Research Into Motivating Prospectors, Settlers and Pioneers To Change Behaviours That Affect Climate Emissions


• Using Values Modes
  

They use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to frame overarching and subset values. One of their essential points is that people engage in similar behaviours for extremely different value and motivational reasons. Knowing this provides insight on the importance of employing nuance in public engagement efforts to encourage sustainability effort, and how to use different language to speak to the different values of people at various developmental levels.

Darcy also provided a link to a very interesting new report, Mindsets in Action. It provides an Integral perspective on Corporate Sustainability and makes good links between mindsets, behaviour change, and the necessary relationship between expanding consciousness/personal development, and the ability to effectively lead change in complex environments. I especially like the application of Ken Wilber's comprehensive all quadrant approach rather than just a narrow set of success factors to understand what it will take to achieve sustainability.

Sometimes Facilitation Can Be Like Herding Cats

If you are a facilitator, then it is likely that you've heard, or worse yet, experienced the reality of the phrase that 'sometimes facilitation is like herding cats' (courtesy of youtube, and Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute who brought it to my attention).

Collaboration As A Living Emergent Co-Creative Process

Two quotes came across my field of vision today, both speaking to the art of working in groups in a living, present, emergent way, mirroring some of my own thinking over the past few years.

"One primary qualification for guiding others in a living process is less on what we know and more upon our capacity for holding presence with the unknown; that is, to be curious and open to whatever is emerging in our awareness that appears to be fuzzy, ambiguous or unclear. This capacity for sense making is amplified when we are together and diminished when we are apart. There is a power that comes to us when we meet as an ‘ensemble’ where, for a moment, we forget ourselves and work for the benefit of the larger whole. Creating spaces for exploring what we do not yet know, spaces where we can be present to what is unformed and incomplete, sets in motion a process of unfolding order, a practice which has always been familiar for the artist but unfamiliar to others whose have been educated into a more parts-based mentality that is common in the industrial world. Once this living process is initiated, it will follow along the trajectory of its own unfolding potential—one that is natural, organic and unrepeatable—and which reflects the expression of wholeness as it appears to us in that particular moment." -- Michael Jones, Roots of Aliveness, Fieldnotes

"Humans in relationship with each other are, after all, living systems, and as such even a group of two people can be an incredibly complex system, bouncing between high degrees of chaos and order. So there is nothing whatsoever mechanical about human beings, and therefore any approach to working with humans – and life in general, is by definition a living systems approach....And so I am led instead to think about the attributes of living systems so that I might better understand effective ways of working with people." Chris Corrigan, Parking Lot

Chris and Michael's words echo the thinking I have done with my colleague Ann Svendsen as we've developed our Co-Creative Multi-Stakeholder Engagement model, which is grounded in a living systems view, and suggests that new ways of thinking, leading and engaging are required for innovative outcomes. Some of the characteristics from living systems that are important include:

New Ways of Thinking

• Systemic. A shift in thinking from a mechanistic consideration of separate parts to the relationships and dynamics of the functioning whole.
• Network-Based. Recognition of networks as the fundamental pattern of all living systems, and of human networks as complex adaptive systems. A ‘community’ is created over time around shared purpose, language and meaning , and the development of shared values, reciprocity and mutual trust in the longer term from being and doing together.
• Holistic. An integrative mindset where the aim is to evolve the whole system while allowing each “part” to retain its unique core identity and purpose.
• Sustainable. A focus on the social, environmental and economic considerations and impacts in both the short and long term.
• Inclusive. Engagement of all relevant and affected members of the system, rather than just those stakeholders who meet the test of credibility, influence and urgency. The organizing assumption is that there is strength and innovative potential in diversity.

New Ways of Leading

• Voluntary. Stakeholders are free to set their own priorities, and to contribute when and how much they wish. They engaged because they are motivated to do so, rather than ‘compliant’ and forced to participate.
• Relationship-Focused. Building connections, trust-based relationships, and mutual understanding is essential for effective system-wide action. Relationships between members of a network are dynamic – they grow, change and die out over time.
• Egalitarian. A co-creative approach is egalitarian where members of a system come together as equals to address shared issues and opportunities. Shared contributions, shared benefits, and respect for the contributions of all are important features of this approach.
• Common Good Focus - The focus is on seeking a common good and on finding common ground where stakeholders are willing to take action together in ways that integrate perspectives and benefit the whole.

New Ways of Engaging

• Learning-Focused. Creating opportunities for learning together about the history and points of view of other members, developing shared language, vocabulary, interpretations and mental models are all important aspects of building the will, intent and capacity of diverse networks to act together. Collective learning starts from the assumption that no one organization or individual has all the answers, and that addressing complex issues depends on integrated, innovative solutions co-created from all parts of a system.
• Authentic and Meaningful Dialogue. Transformative and learning conversations between stakeholders that support genuine interactions and communication are emphasized, rather than debate-based and polarizing appproaches.
• Self-Organizing. Ultimately, though there is usually a convenor, responsibility and leadership for outcomes is shared; leaders emerge rather than being assigned. This reflects the property of emergent systems to self organize and evolve to higher levels of orders that are both more complex and more capable.
  

For more information, read: Convening Stakeholder Networks