Methods for Strategic Collaboration

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Comment by Siobhan Champ-Blackwell on August 17, 2009 at 6:47am

I have been combining WC with Open Space, with Christine's help. My goal is to bring community groups and libraries together to work on common projects increasing access to reliable health information. we start with the WC conversations as a way to get to know each other, learn what each brings to the table, learn about the community we are all a part of. We then move into Open Space as a way to further network with the people we have just met on topics identified during the "harvest round. " I have used this process in several communities, and have had numerous and varied outcomes, none of which i would have predicted when i started!

That, for me, is the thing that I find most important about this blending process. Taking the WC further into the Open Space process moves the group into a place where they begin to do more than network and learn, but instead start to act. And they act in ways that have come out of the interaction of the WC. No one comes to the workshop with an agenda of what they are going to leave with, so its all open to the moment. A very scary and powerful process...

Comment by Donald Proffit on August 17, 2009 at 6:12am

Thanks for the invite!

Comment by Christine Whitney Sanchez on August 16, 2009 at 5:58pm

Thanks, Ulrich, Eugene, Edna, Doug, Kelvy, Pat, Tenneson, and Ria for showing up and sharing your wisdom about the "fusion of the nutritious food and drinks" we offer to the world.

I’ve been thinking about a potential way for us to organize an experiment that could riff off of Kelvy's idea to have the “essence of each method/framework in one place - a phrase and a key image - kind of a touchstone.. ?”

It sounds like all of you are familiar with Open Space Technology. Imagine that we are sitting in a big circle that reaches around the world. In the center of the open space are virtual sheets of paper and markers inviting each of us to take responsibility for our passion by hosting a breakout discussion as a conversation thread, as Ulrich has already done in the "Conversation" section above.

At the end of this message, we will open the space for your conversation threads that respond to the question, “What are the underlying principles and practices that bring your favorite method(s) alive and how can we use them to manifest strategic collaboration across a full range of developmental stages to serve the highest good for each and all?”

For those who are interested in participating in this experiment as the convenor of a “breakout conversation thread” - your commitment is to host the conversation on your topic (naturally referring to the World Café principles) and then report back to the whole Methods for Strategic Collaboration Group on September 1 by posting the highlights/harvest on this “Conversation Wall.”

Just a reminder that whoever comes are the right people, whatever happens is the only thing that could have, whenever it starts is the right time and when it’s over, it’s over.

Have fun as bumble bees, cross-pollinating the conversation threads and as butterflies, in personal reflection.

The space is open. Enjoy!

Comment by Ulrich Soeder on August 15, 2009 at 5:20am

Hi all, dear Christine,

This is a meta-communication comment.

I'd like to suggest to continue the very interesting conversations that are emerging here in the conversations section. That would make it easier to navigate through the contributions. We then can add tags to the different threads so the contributions become visible in the whole internet.

The different topics I have heard so far are around

• personal experiences with blending different approaches / good practice / best practice
• benefits of blending different approaches
• the essence of different approaches / knowing about different approaches
• principles for blending different approaches / underlying premises for blending different approaches
• theoretical aspects of blending different approaches

Comment by Tenneson Woolf on August 14, 2009 at 6:07pm

Hi Everyone. Peeking in for a bit here before several days on the road. Have always found it helpful to blend methods -- all the regular reasons of purpose, group size, sometimes a shift in form of interaction. Much of my experience in such is from an Art of Hosting perspective. Hosting learning events. Hosting client gatherings.

Earlier today I was in email exchange with a client who wanted a few tips on how to use the AoH for an upcoming meeting over 2.5 days. I offered the following framework, which speaks a bit for me of practice (what to do at levels of scale) and underlying framework (emergence and selforganization). For your stirrings...

Here's a set of principles...

1. Be present (help people arrive to more that just a meeting. Arrive with intent to work on the specific purpose. Arrive with invitation to work multiple realms of learning together -- mind, heart, spirit.... And over the course of 2.5 days, reinvite presence in each of the sections.)

2. Have a good question (have always found it helpful to have some level of big question about context and need so that it is felt among the group. Some people feel shy about getting to specifics -- "this issue of project xyz." Don't be. Invite the intelligence in the room to the big and to the specifics.)

3. Choose a listening tool (with the assumption that the wisdom you need is in the room, the work is finding ways to access it. Not just to pry it out of people, but to let the wisdom of each co-mingle into a whole. What is available to the group is always more and different than what is available to us as individuals. Café, Open Space, Circle -- these are forms of listening.)

4. Harvest (make visible what you create together. I tend to give attention to content -- yes, be creative about how it is captured and shared, process -- yes, process is the work and helps us all work with more communal capacity, relationship -- convene conversation, harvest relations, and energy field -- yup, that sense of energy, spirit. The latter three take more to name but are really helpful).

Comment by Pat Taviss on August 14, 2009 at 12:02pm

As I reinvent my practice, I am moving into post merger integration with a friend of mine who is a high-level strategist. My role is on the culture side of successful integrations. My intention is to combine aspects of World Cafe with appreciative inquiry, and of course some open space techniques.

I will keep you posted as we move forward with our new venture, Maestro and Associates.

Comment by Kelvy Bird on August 14, 2009 at 7:01am

Somehow would be useful to have the essence of each method/framework in one place - a phrase and a key image - kind of a touchstone.. ?

Comment by Doug Oloughlin on August 14, 2009 at 6:57am

Greetings from bangkok, and Christine, thanks for setting up this group.
I also do a lot of mixing and matching of a few methodologies, whatever serves the group and the process. It's wonderful that we now have so many engagement tools available.
AI Cafes, OS into a Future Search or a WC are some. I have also done WC leading to a OS, as Edna mentioned.
Certainly one advantage of mixing that was mentioned by Christine, is that it gets the group into the expeiences and less on labeling the process. no sense arguing about the menu when the food and drinks are all very nutritious.
I am curious to see how developmental stages works into this thread...I am quite familiar with SD, Torbert, Kegan, Wilber, etc and this is a stimulating thought. Can we design interventions in a way that allows for a full range of developmental stages?
cheers, Doug

Comment by Edna Pasher on August 14, 2009 at 3:50am

What have my experiences been in blending methods and models?
I love this question!
We have blended WC with OS.
We start with a WC and then after the harvesting we invite people to offer to lead a group conversation on an issue that they like to further explore. Looking fwd for more blending ideas. Even restaurants nowadays offer a "fusion"... :)

Comment by Christine Whitney Sanchez on August 13, 2009 at 11:48pm

Welcome Doug! Are you in S'pore at the moment?

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