Methods for Strategic Collaboration

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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?

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

Ulrich, I've gotten a taste of Robert Keegan's developmental perspecitve. Have you seen conversations that matter "focus on ways to let the conflictual relationship transform the parties rather than on the parties resolving the conflict”?

Comment by Christine Whitney Sanchez on August 13, 2009 at 10:57pm

Ulrich and Eugene,

Thanks for jumping into the conversation so quickly.

I'm intrigued by the interplay between Ulrich's call for a shared lexicon and his sense that blending the different approaches is a difficult task and Eugene's experience that in the Art of Hosting, the blend generates a tremendous amount of energy.

I'm reading about quantum entanglement in Lynne McTaggart's "The Intention Experiment. Perhaps groups of people who find themselves in a generative field where they can truly connect to each other tend to behave the same way subatomic particles do. Once the "electrons and photons are in contact, they remain cognizant of and influenced by each other instantaneously and over any distance forever..."

Like you, Ulrich, I have been enriched by Wilber and the Integral Institute. I had a transpersonal psychotherapy practice for 25 years and especially appreciate the integration of models of individual developmental along with the cosmologies from many wisdom traditions. What has been missing for me is, as you say, the social/relational developmental focus.

My experience with blending the methods is that it actually becomes easier for people to get beyond the "model" and get into the experience they are having. They become entrained to the resonant field that they are co-generating. Perhaps that is what you are referring to Eugene, when you say that this blending of methodologies generates a tremendous amount of energy in the individual and the group.

I love Juanita's idea to consider the different models/schools/methods as tables. Do you have any ideas about how to set that up here?

Warm wishes from a cooler night in Phoenix,

Christine

Comment by Eugene Boeldak on August 13, 2009 at 1:07am

In the Art of Hosting Community we blend AI, World Cafe, Circle, Open Space Technology, Theory U and this blending of methodologies generates a tremendous amount of energy in the individual and the group. I do want to participate in this exploration of the 'practice of blending''.

Comment by Ulrich Soeder on August 13, 2009 at 1:02am

Dear Christine,

I am looking forward to the conversations happening in this group. thank you for taking the initiative. That is the theoretical level of what we want to make happen in the European Salon.

I am interested very much in integral theory. To engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue, we need a shared language. An integral theory could prepare the ground for blending the different approaches not only eclectically but an the basis of an overarching theory.

The work of Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute is very valuable in this respect. He was one of the first to take the courage and go for a theory of everything. One weakness I see in his work and his Integral Life Practice is the lack of the social aspect, which is closely linked to the work World Café is caring for. That might be very intersting to inquire further.

Another author who is contributing to integral reasoning is the German philosopher Johannes Heinrichs. Most of his work is published only in German, and for any english speaking person being interested in integral theory, Heinrich's work would be a good reason to learn German ...

I have posted some of his work in the European Salon group, to get a first impression.

You have already mentioned Spiral Dynamics as one approach to include. I'd like to add the work of Robert Kegan and Bill Torbert as well. Both are working with models of personal and interpersonal development and how to apply them in the context of learning, and personal and organisational development.

My impression is that blending the different appoaches is a difficult task, for the reasons I just have indicated.
You need a shared framework to talk about diverse contents, but to blend reseach methods or methods of inquiry (not all the approaches to gain wisdom are scientific), and to establish a shared language. You need a shared framework to stay oriented. You need this kind of framework to discover the strenghts and limitations of the single approaches, and to make the foundational assumptions visible.

In a recent call, Juanita shared a metaphor for the intent of the European Salon, which might fit in this discussion as well:

Concieve the different schools / approaches / models / paradigms / groups as tables, and start to cross-pollinate and exchange between the tables and listen for new insights ...

Best regards, Ulrich

Comment by Christine Whitney Sanchez on August 12, 2009 at 8:20pm

Welcome to the Methods for Strategic Collaboration group! One of the many things I appreciate about The World Cafe Community is the open and generative way that wisdom from other communities of practice has been integrated into TWC. For instance, appreciative questions often seed the cafe rounds. When David Isaacs and I offered a preconference "World As Cafe" session at the first Nexus for Change conference, we began the session in one big circle for a check-in process before we moved to cafe tables.

In the photos above you will see three Provocative Propositions (AI) that participants crafted at a 2007 Methods for Strategic Collaboration (MSC) workshop in Dolores, Colorado, USA where we focused on blending the principles and practices of Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Open Space and Polarity Management.

What have your experiences been in blending methods and models?

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