Once again I was privileged to take a group through an AI process and watch it work. What a wonderful opportunity to see heliotropism in action in today’s world! Last weekend, I worked with a small non-profit group called Cascadia Wild! (http://www.cascadiawild.org) to do planning for an immediate leadership transition and for the next couple of years of their future. The organization focuses on nature awareness, nature education (primiarly for children) and building a community of nature educators. The planners took board, staff and a few volunteers away to a cabin on the slopes of Mt. Hood for a whole weekend devoted to reflection on their work. It was marvelous. During the weekend there were between 12 and 18 people working on various stages of the process. A staff member and I had done some preliminary initial interviews and worked with another staff member to distill topic areas ahead of time. The topics were titled: Connection to Place, Reinvestment in Tribe, The Path of Confidence and Competence, The Invisible School, and A Community Ecology. We borrowed and adapted freely from “The Encyclopedia of Positive Questions” to help with our question construction. (Thank you Diana, David, Amanda and Brian) I asked my colleague and friend, Sharon Buckmaster, to review the protocol and give feedback for revisions. (Thank you Sharon.) BTW, if anyone would like to review a copy of the protocol, please contact me off-list at dlarsen@futureworksconsulting.com and I will send it to you. The interview protocol was longer than I usually like, but my client team assured me that all these parts needed to be included. As preparation for the weekend, we chose good quotes from the initial interviews, wrote one each on copy paper, and hung them around the cabin walls for starting inspiration. Each day of the planning retreat – Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday – started with a “thanksgiving address” modeled on an Iroquois ritual of gathering minds on common ground and expressing gratitude. (If you’ve never experienced this small ceremony, it is extraordinarily moving and focuses participants on what’s really important in this world – the web of interdependence, interconnection and interrelationships.) We began the weekend with a communal meal on Friday night, and afterwards played an introductions game, discussed the overall agenda of the weekend and cabin logistics, and I presented a brief overview of the AI theories and perspectives as well as a brief interviewing training. I had intended to start the interviews that evening; however, upon arrival we discovered that several key people would not be arriving until the next morning. Instead, we discused how those present would help to bring new people into the group and up to speed, and ended the evening with music provided by members of the group. (Everyone was invited to bring along musical instruments if they had them, and that suggestion proved to be a great addition to the whole weekend.) After beginning Saturday morning with an outdoor game (from an oldie but goodie, the New Games book series) and a gathering of the minds, we began the paired interviews. Due to the length of the protocol, it took all morning! I was watching my careful schedule slipping away, but I knew this was the important critical piece and needed all the time it took. After lunch, another brief outdoor game, and plunge into groups of three pairs to debrief/share interviews, develop a vision and propose provocative possibility statements (PPS). They also were asked to capture more good quotes on the copy paper and add them to our “wallpaper.” This took most of the afternoon. Finally, the groups reported on their work. We stopped at 5:00 for a group Temperature Check and a long break for dinner. After dinner, we gathered again for what turned out to be a marathon session to choose the ultimate PPS. My intention was to work these for a couple of hours, then have social time. The group worked until 11 pm! And, in the end, had three PPS with titles and another that needed a bit more work. Three group members agreed to do some wordsmithing the next morning over breakfast to reflect the discussion of the whole and we would take another run at a title for the fourth PPS then. I was concerned about time. I felt about 3 or 4 hours behind where I hoped to be by the end of Saturday. I had assured these folks they would walk away with a clear understanding of where the energy in the group would lead them and some clear commitments to action steps. Now I had less than the last day in which to accomplish this. I fell into bed while some of the hardier (and younger) among the group once again picked up their instruments and played the rest of us to bed. What a lovely way to fall asleep. Due to the late night on Saturday, people were slow to get going Sunday morning. A couple of group members felt the need to go down the mountain on a doughnut run, and brought back a few dozen assorted for the cabin. It was a popular move. 😉 However, now we had even less time to work. After starting again with a gathering of the minds, we decided to forego the morning outdoor game to save time (it was drizzling now anyway), and let the wordmsithing group do their work for a bit while the rest did initial packing up – rolling sleeping bags, etc. In less than 20 minutes the wordsmithing group was ready and in another ten, the whole group had agreed on their last PPS title. The four they agreed on: Living Earth Culture, A Song of the UnSeen Sings Us, Bounded Space = Sense of Place, and The People Tend the Acorn. I believe every person in that room could describe to you just what each of those mean to them. And all agreed that these are just the four they needed to move forward, and understood that all would have to be ratified by the whole board, since a quorum of board members was present. Following this agreement, we broke into groups representing with individuals gravitating toward the different functional areas of their shared leadership model for which they had the most energy. The groups worked on using the PPS to determine Critial Success Factors (CSF) for their area. Those were reported out to the whole group and I consulted with the group to make sure these were based on outcomes necessary for organization survival. They ended this part of the proces with 2 or 3 CSFs for each area. We spent most of the rest of the day in groups (including a working lunch) using the guidance of the PPS to work on Success Measures and action plans that included what each person would do this coming week. And all was done by the end of the day with everyone in wonderful spirits, happily reporting out, clarifying and making commitments with each other for needed information, follow through or resources. We ended with a brief discussion of what to do with the paper (PPS, quotes, etc.) we had hung around the room and another Temperature Check, as well as cabin clean up, of course. It was still daylight as we drove down the mountain at 5:00 pm. I was amazed once again at how quickly the detail bits come together once the appreciative foundation is laid. That’s my story and I am gratefully sticking to it. In gratitude for the support of this list and other AI-focused practitioners, Diana ===== Diana Larsen FutureWorks Consulting, LLC www.futureworksconsulting.com dlarsen@futureworksconsulting.com 503-288-3550 office phone 503-705-5156 cell phone