Alameda County Conference Center Proposal to Provide Training and Organizational Development Services

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Building the Capacity for Effective Collaboration
By Laura Peck, Claros Group June 24, 2008
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Welcome Orientation

• Whos here our useful diversity
• What you told me you wanted to know
• Depth/Breadth
• Self-care/ Misery is optional
• Can follow up over lunch/email
• Look for practical applications

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Workshop Overview

• An overarching framework Plan, Act, Reflect
• Get Clear context, outcomes intention
• Get Moving Organizing for Success
• Get Results Building Effective Collaborations
• Reflection

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What you Told me...

• Questions, we have questions...
• dealing with difficult personalities
• creating shared accountability for budget and
  reporting requirements.
• When organizations have different cultures
• Making progress with phone meetings
• How do we unify around a common goal
• Sustaining commitment over time and transitions
  in leadership and membership
• Does partnership mean equal contribution?

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The work of an organization is always iterative.
Planning sets the context for Action which is
then the source of data for Reflection to guide
further Planning.
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Working Assumptions

• One has more leverage for successful engagement
  prior to the first convening.
• Temporary groups need to invest in the hard work
  of formation getting clear on goals and roles,
  resources and authority.
• Harnessing collective intelligence requires
  gathering and honoring and drawing on diverse
  perspectives.
• The perception of fair (and transparent) process
  is more important than a compromise that avoids
  conflict.

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Get Clear Before You Get Moving

• Map the context
• Start with the end in mind! A useful model
• Clarify your own role

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Map the Context

• Begin by developing your story
• why this, why now
• what has led to this opportunity, what is at
  stake?
• what is possible if we are successful?
• Identify stakeholders
• what concerns are central to them?
• what resources can they bring? (political,
  financial, human)
• Map their relationships
• to the focal work of the collaboration
• to each other
• Where do you and your organization fit?
• What are your concerns?
• What resources can you bring?
• Who are your allies?

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Start with the end in mind
Goals Roles Processes Interpersonal Dynamics
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Get clear who owns what decisions how will
you make them

• Tell/Sell Leader decides and offers information
  about how decision was made and the need to
  implement it.
• Consult Leader may propose a decision and
  invite feedback or solicit solutions and make
  the final call.
• Majority Vote
• Delegate Leader may delegate authority to make
  decision to the group or an individual.
• Consensus Leader set constraints all develop
  solutions and decide by consensus.

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Considering Ones Role Domains of Being and Doing

The Domain of Being The Domain of Doing
Requires a conversation with Yourself What is my intention (e.g. to look good, to contribute, to stay below the radar) How do I show up? (for me, for my organization, for the whole? What specific behaviors will I bring forward and what will I hold back to support these intentions? Requires a conversation with others What are the needed outcomes? What are the resources constraints? What organizing methods will serve the desired outcomes? What other roles are required? How will we communicate and coordinate our efforts?
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Get Moving

• Assess readiness and resistance
• Determine who needs to be at the table
• Extend the right invitation

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Assessing Readiness D X V X F gt R
Dissatisfaction (D) with things as they are - the
reasons we need a change A Vision (V) of what is
possible - a positive picture of the
future First Steps (F) toward reaching the
vision-worthwhile actions to begin the
change Resistance (R) is natural and must be
overcome to move toward the new Each of the
elements must be present. If any of the elements
zero, the resistance will not be overcome.
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Inclusion Checklist
Participants Invited Participating Other forms of input
Who needs to make the final decision?
Who needs to implement it?
Whom will the decision affect?
Who may have useful information or ideas?
Who else might we ask for helpful perspectives?
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Get Results

• Design an architecture for Effective
  Collaboration
• Healthy Start(s) context, clarity connection
• Messy Middles Navigating the Groan Zone
  feedback loops
• The work of endings

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Opening a Meeting

• Create hospitable space
• Visual orientation
• Welcome people
• Set context and orient to the flow of the session
• Surface useful diversity
• Use check-in question if appropriate
• Offer useful practices
• Provide clear instructions
• What if you thought of yourself as a host?

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Useful Practicesfor Productive Deliberations

• Listen for understanding
• Share your line of reasoning inquire into
  that of others
• Defer judgment cultivate curiosity. When you
  disagree, get curious
• Be willing to shift perspectives
• When you speak, be concise and avoid repeating.
• Misery is optional

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THE DYNAMICS OF GROUP DECISION MAKING Adapted
from Sam Kaner
CLOSURE ZONE
DIVERGENT ZONE
vDecision Point
NEW TOPIC
Groan Zone
CONVERGENT ZONE
TIME
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Discussions that result in sustainable agreements
require time spent in each of the 3 zones
Divergent thinking requires the group to suspend judgment, supporting multiple perspectives. In the Groan Zone members of the group experience a period of confusion and frustration - a natural part of group decision-making. Struggling to understand a wide range of foreign or opposing ideas is not a pleasant experience. Using the Groan Zone to create shared context (exploring others perspectives, backing up from solutions to needs) and strengthen relationships (getting to know one another, giving and receiving feedback) allows a group to move to convergent thinking. In the Convergent Zone a facilitator works with the group to build inclusive alternatives and synthesize them into a solution which offers the opportunity for closure a decision to which the group is committed.
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Feedback loops

• Learning from experience
• Meeting evaluations
• Progress updates
• Process check ins
• Staying connected to others
• Between meetings
• To sponsors
• To critical stakeholders

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The Work of Endings

• Celebration
• Acknowledgments
• Reflection
• Clean up

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Claros Group

• Laura Peck
• 969 Kains Ave.
• Albany, CA 94706
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Lpeck_at_clarosconsulting.com
• www.clarosgroup.com

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Learning from Success

• Describe a time when you were part of a powerful
  and productive collaboration, a situation that
  brought out the best in all involved and made a
  difference in the world.
• What was going on?
• What made it so powerful?
• Who else was involved? Were there some
  significant others? Why were they significant?
• What was your unique contribution?
• What conditions supported your and others doing
  great work?

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Design Principles

• Set the context
• Create hospitable space
• Explore questions that matter
• Encourage everyones contribution
• Cross-pollinate connect diverse perspectives
• Listen together for patterns, insights, and
  deeper questions
• Harvest and share collective discoveries

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After Action Review
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AAR Questions to Ask
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Dimensions of Conversational Leadership

• Individual Practice Being Doing
• Curious, listening, inquiring
• Disciplined cultivation of inner stability
  spaciousness
• Relational Field Convening Hosting
• Framing strategic questions
• Engaging diverse perspectives
• Creating and holding hospitable space

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Dimensions of Conversational Leadership

• Organizational Context connecting sustaining
  inquiry learning
• Social architecture how we meet, share
  information, make decisions
• Methods, tools, technology
• Space/place the built environment
• World as Café the living web of connections,
  conversations relationships

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• Discussions that open new possibilities, build on
  new information, and result in sustainable
  agreements require time spent in each of the 3
  zones Divergent, Groan Zone and Convergent.
  Sometimes a group will go through all three zones
  in one meeting, and sometimes it takes several
  meetings to converge on a decision