Collective Impact

This seems like something we could talk about someday.

Collective Impact

Links to Documents

Public Participators:
Here are "clickable" links to the documents posted by Deb.

Cognitive Edge, Ritual Dissent-assent: http://www.scribd.com/full/43759835?access_key=key-1opiyfw1ucc14ssgf0es

Consensus Building Tools: http://www.scribd.com/full/43760613?access_key=key-buarvmj66w84parbr08

Blake and Moulton's Conflict Grid: http://www.scribd.com/full/43760618?access_key=key-l7c9f58dpfvzabe9upl

Thanks!

Cognitive Edge

Consensus Building Tools

Blake and Moulton's Conflict Grid

Invitations. 11.15.10

Peter Block's book, Community: The Structure of Belonging was the inspiration for today's conversation.
After check in, Sue and Sheila started us off with the following question:  What excites you about being here? The responses were quite inspiring:

Reenergizing
Learning something new
Always a strong sense of support
Connection with the group
Some validation of what I do know and practice for what I don't
Courage to go out and try it
The space and safety to experiment--connect to possibility
Stimulating and energizing

From here we focused on the idea of Invitation as Block imagines it.  At this point, Harry described his experience and the effect music had on his thinking as he sat in a coffee shop while Bach was playing.  Harry felt that music could be part of the invitation.  Mark described a grad school experience where food played an important part of the invitation, creating an environment for conversation.

Block describes possibility as what we have come together to create.  It is future oriented.  Declaring something as possibility is the first step in making it happen.

Jay prefers the term engage rather than participate as it involves thought and talking about possibility, not getting lectured at or listening to the expert tell us what we should be thinking; instead, getting to generative dialogue.

Creating a cradle for dialogue:  the irony is that more structure on the front end allows for creativity and generative dialogue; important to recognize and hold on to the tension found in these two opposites.

When facilitating a group, remember the following:  Plan well and play loose.

How do we balance opportunities for things like the PPLC and all of the other things people need to do? Is it sustainable?

Block's view on sustainability:  what can I do; what do I commit to regarding the possibility we can together talk about.  The group consensus:  we live and reaffirm the list at the beginning of this post every time we come together.  We are being the future we would like to see.

Mark quoted a poem with a line that was meaningful to him:  Peace is this moment without judgment, that is all.

Cassandra thought the group was sustainable as we use it to invite others who have similar interests.  She thought it was like a pyramid scheme; others thought it was more organic, like an algae bloom, viral.

This group is an antidote for the dysfunctional politics that exist today.  See The Politics of Meaning by Michael Lerner.

Melissa stated that she felt there is an abundant quality to this group.

The question was posed:  Why do people come?  Is it dependent on the schedule or topic-driven?  Some come when they can, given their schedules.  One comment (sorry, I don't know who said this:  I come because I have a tremendous confidence that I will get something from this group).  We need to remember that the list generated at the beginning of the meeting includes the core of why people are coming to these meetings.

We are going to use the blog to create an artifact that validates the value of this group.

We need to determine a process for generating paper handouts. Should presenter assume to bring them?  Or should participants take responsibility for bringing their own copies?

For a future agenda:  complete StrengthsFinder, a tool that can be used to help us uncover our talents.

o Engaged Participators

From Sheila Spear and Sue Robbins 

At the PPLC meeting on November 15th we plan to use Peter Block’s advice to see if we can develop an invitation to join the Public Participation Learning Community that is so compelling that people will engage and participate actively.  (See attachment; also below).

We hope you will come to share your sense of interest in this group and engage in developing its possibility.

The attachment has definitions we plan to use in this session.  Please review it and bring a copy with you. 

If you are interested but cannot attend this session, do let us know by responding to sspear@wisc.edu to share any thoughts you have on the topic.  

Public Participation Learning Community

1 pm, November 15^th 2010, Memorial Union (TITU)

Handout for our discussion on Structuring the Invitation

Source: Peter Block:  Community – the structure of belonging

A.  THE INVITATION (p. 113 and elsewhere)

The first critical question is who do we need in the room.  But we (Sue, Sheila) are setting aside for now the issue of whom we want to be in the room.

• The invitation is the first step in creating an accountable and hospitable community.  It is the means through which hospitality is created.  (The need for invitation arises because we don’t just ‘run into each other’).
• Invitation counters the conventional belief that change requires mandate or persuasion. 
• Invitation honors the importance of choice, the necessary condition for accountability.
• An invitation is more than just a request to attend; it is a call to create an alternative future, to join in the possibility* we have declared. 
• The question is: “What is the invitation we can make for people to participate in creating a future distinct from the past?”
• P 118:  There are certain properties of invitation that can make it more than simply a request.   
• (the hurdle) – to make even the act of invitation an example of the interdependence we want to experience.  So the invitation is a request not only to show up but to engage. “We want you to come, but if you do we want you to do something.”

The elements of the invitation are: (p 119)

1. Name the possibility about which we are convening.
2. Frame the choice
3. Name the hurdle: specify what is required of each person should they choose to attend.
4. Reinforce the invitation but be clear that not attending does not carry a cost
5. Decide on the most personal form.

POSSIBILITY

The power of possibility as used here is distinguished from words like vision, goals, purpose.

A possibility is a declaration of a condition or value that we want to occur in the world.

A possibility is created in the act of declaring it, what we create when we show up.   

Possibility is a statement of a future condition that is beyond reach.  It works on us (we don’t have to work at it) and evolves from a discussion of a personal crossroads (I don’t quite get that bit).  It is an act of imagination of what we can create together and it takes the form of a declaration, best made publicly.

The possibility is one way of speaking of the future.  Declaring the possibility can itself be the transformation.  Postpone problem-solving and stay focused on possibility.  Once we have fully declared in it works on us.

You might also want to read “The Possibility conversation” pp125-7

Innovation Café Focuses on "Technology & Community" on November 11th

Innovation and Collaboration Café: Technology & Community

Thursday, November 11, 8:30am-1:00pm, Pyle Center, $15


Join us at our next MANIAC Innovation Café!

This is an opportunity to explore a variety of technology tools and how they may be used to enhance innovation and collaboration in the workplace. The workshop will help participants recognize opportunities for technology tools in their workplace and projects; demonstrate the basics of web site design, social media (facebook/ twitter), blogs, surveys, and video conferencing; showcase good examples of technology use; and provide helpdesk support for real world technology questions. Register here! Or go to www.ohrd.wisc.edu, look for upcoming events.


You have MANIAC potential! Hope you can join us!