This short video gives me that spinal shiver we humans get when ‘awe’ is present. When’s the last time you’ve felt it? What moves you? What draws on your desire to be in life? Who are you not to stand up to what is your own momentum into amazing, incredible, awesome!
We have a ‘responsibility to AWE’.
Creating more grounded transformative work is done by formulating a collective research process that builds shared capacity. If done well, an emerging social system moves itself (self adaptive) into momentous collaborative action.
CREATING SOCIAL INNOVATION – RESEARCH STAGES
Asking powerful questions within dynamic interactive feedback loops is key to establishing a foundation for the collective to stand on. Some general advice about how to do social research is as follows:
Inquiry: Starting everyone of my questions with ‘open ended’ question words including the 6 ‘W’s: WHY is it this way, WHAT is it exactly, (w)HOW does it work, WHO is involved, WHEN is it enacted, WHERE does it reside or show up. In this way, your research will expand from isolated assumptions into broader understandings and improve data outcomes.These are my 3 stages for developing new insight and interpretation for social innovation. They are based in the understanding of collaborative learning and design.
Next you will need to put your research to the test; not just proving whether it is true or not, but also (and even more important), using your synthesized research to enable social action – a community of practice.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING – TURNING INFORMATION INTO SOCIAL ACTION
A more challenging but (in my view) more fun part of development, is enabling your research into a ‘social performance’ process for creating social capital and social innovation. This is done through 3 phases as follows (note ‘phases’ are different than ‘stages’):
Here is the related article that describes these phases, called Social Innovation: a 3-Phase Transformation Process.
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ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING ARTICLES:
Rather than government being the provider of fixes, it instead becomes a convener of stakeholders, thereby allowing ‘we the people’ to generate our own solutions, which is how a real democracy should be. This shifts our system from a STATIC governMENT institution into a DYNAMIC ‘governANCE’ system. We go from rigid structure to flowing process. The governing body becomes a manager (or governor) of the ecology of interactions that happen by the people. Collaboration then, becomes the vehicle that acts as the governor, as it enables the flow of action and change. In this way, collaboration and governance become synonymous.
We no longer have to wait for government to get on board to see a change we want. Instead the governing body builds an infrastructure that allows connection and decision-making to happen. Decisions are no longer made by government. Instead they are made by us (we the people) and government merely create the tools and processes (many now will be via the internet) that allow everyone to have more access to both the learning and decision-making process. This becomes a healthier form of control.
Rather than government directing and making the decisions, it instead becomes an enabler or ‘governor’, as it was meant to be, by acting as policy makers, but with a different understanding of the meaning of ‘policy’. Government monitors rather than polices collaboration outcomes that publicly occur through induced design. Government evolves along with the society by being inter-twined within the overall feedback system. They become watchers of the difference between consciously derived guiding principles and the actually applied experiences and practices that occur within a community of practice.
The diagram shows a model of how the interaction between PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES, and POLICIES can help to build a healthy collaboration system. It suggests that an over-focus on any one of these three can not sustain the system, as it must have flow and movement in balance or the system gets clogged or breaks down. Each of the 3 P’s must act interdependently with the other two.
The policy box represents a more evolved government, or in other words, the convener of a dialog between principle, which is generated out of desire, need, vision, and design possibility. Policy is the way to keep healthy FEEDBACK going between the Principle and Practice boxes, in the same way a governing valve acts on a physical pipe – too much or too little puts the system into instability. There has to be balanced flow of energy, materials, ideas, etc. Note that the people inside government (policy) do not make decisions, which is incorrectly being done today. Rather they merely adjust the flow of information and choices that are being made. They do not alter the information or choice-making themselves. Rather, they create and maintain the channels to be ‘flow’ happens in a balanced way. This is a truer term for the term ‘policing’, which comes from policy, and allows for collaboration processes to INFORM the system as a collective. This is a self-generating behavior and occurs via the interactions between the engagement of the people involved within each of the principle, practice, and policy domains.
See THIS LINK for more on Principle Practice Policy configuration.
So, YES … Collaboration “IS” the New Government.
My considerations here are meant to be a starting point for an expanded dialog for considering how to evolve our present republic system into a truer form of democracy, or something beyond that can hold life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness FOR ALL, not just for a few.
In our attempt to be ‘professional’, it seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity?
I was reading my LinkedIn Groups this morning and came across Mike Smith’s ‘Life Back West’ thoughts on people, teams, organizations, effectiveness and success (thanks Mike!). Now, it may seem that I jump around here a bit, so buckle your seat belt and see if you can stay with me on this …
So, after reading his short blurb on leadership that caught my eye, I went to Mike’s blog planning to oppose what I anticipated would be a description of an old belief system that suggests, if we are professional, our feelings are to be suppressed in the workplace.
Instead, Mike described how his young son has inspired his professional nature to include expression, compassion, and emotion. Having a young boy myself, I can totally relate to how he and I allow each other space for emotional expression. But then, why is it that we are not allowed too much expression at work without being sited as a problem?
It seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity? For me, today’s sorely needed emerging leaders can not be likened anymore to the stoic guy on a horse riding off into the sunset after he single-handedly saves the town from Godzilla. Why? Because this guy (usually someone we all aspire to be) rarely shows the kind of emotion that allows for each of us to change ourselves – a collective transformation. Rather, the so-called hero tends to be about eliminating a problem by taking out the people that go with it. This doesn’t work anymore.
What if instead, we began to choose our leaders (at least in part) based on how well they have learned to express their emotions, and how well they exemplify ways to share the messiness of their own humanity, while also being able to hold space for others to do the same?
I propose that we dare ourselves to allow more messiness in the workplace by helping to teach and “lead” groups through spells of negative emotion, rather than try to find ways to avoid or expel it. No more heroes of elimination. The key here is teaching groups or teams to hold space for their peers during their time of need, rather than expect the so-called leader to do it alone. This is known as collective leadership, or an ecology of leadership. And I believe that, using this approach, gold can be found within the mines (minds?) of our organizations, which will generate amazing new forms of innovation. Why? Because the form and function of all innovation is the result of the expression of the group (or company) who created it. Seems we may have forgotten the fact that companies are made of people, from which products and services are an outcome; and not the other way around?
Daniel Goleman’s talk on TED points to this evolved form of leadership that I speak of here.
It starts with what he calls a ‘human moment’, which are the times when we are paying full attention to the person(s) we are with. He suggests that there is zero correlation between intelligence and the awareness of another (this is known as compassion). Yet we hire our leaders and managers almost completely based on their level of intelligence and rarely rate them based on their ability to express themselves, to show compassion, or their ability hold a group through troubling periods. Why is that?
Also interesting is that he correlates the rapid growth of information to compassion, and it makes sense! Creating this new synergy of perspectives begins to define what I like to call an ‘ecology of leadership’ – a new process of thought and relationship-building. It is an evolved form of collaboration where, as we become more present to the relationships in our lives, it actually helps to form a unified ‘whole’ world that works better, while also increasing personal identity and individual value at the same time. How cool is that?!
Now, this is a bit of a paradox because our increasing access to information often pulls us away from being present with each other. But we have to remember that both are happening at the same time. What I am trying to suggest is that an ecology of leadership, along with increased awareness of our relationships, is changing the meaning of ‘professionalism’. It is morphing into something completely different than we know it today. In ecological terms, this means that even the concept of “the leader” has lived out it’s time, and we now need to consider what a collective leadership can look like. This evolutionary process will empower each of us, rather than just a mere few of us, and can then be carried into any group dynamics to help generate a deeper form of authenticity, purpose, and meaning within ourselves and our companies.
If your mind is spinning a bit, it suggests that the well goes deep here. I plan to write more about this in my blogging. But for now, let us all reconsider what it means to be a “professional”, and discuss together what kind of “leadership” we want and need in this new, interconnected world of ours.
[ See related content on Authentic Leadership]
Learn more about the author, Vic Desotelle
Discovery Colabs can be either physical or virtual and have nearly the same top level process configuration. However, the online tools used for a physical onsite session are quite different than those used in a virtual online session, which are described in a different presentation. Contact me for more information.
A Colab is a facilitated group experience specifically designed to create the necessary conditions for intensively creative and productive activity. It can be either physical, virtual, or both.
As implied in the name, Collab-oration refers to a group working together as a unified whole, rich in diversity, celebrating the variation in points of view, experiences, personality types, expertise and work styles.
The Lab-oratory component of Colab refers to an environment where participants can make discoveries and be highly creative. Underlying the entire design of the experience is the intention of creating a community of individuals who will work together as a coordinated whole for achieving a mutually created vision/goal.
The mechanics of a Colab involve a series of facilitated work sessions – all carefully crafted to build one upon the other and to foster intensely productive and creative insights, solutions, plans, etc. The outcome of each work session and, ultimately the outcome of the entire multi-day event, are a direct result of desired outcomes pre-specified by principals and stakeholders.
Below is a general definition of the future ‘scope of work’ that will be included within the actual proposal, to be presented at a later date.
What Happens Before The Colab?Critical information that needs to come from the core team:
A typical Colab is structured into three parts – Pre, During, and Post. The ‘Pre’ period is a time for gathering information. The ‘During’ period is the actual Colab event itself. The ‘Post’ period is the time when outcomes turn into delivered activities and is crucial for a Colab’s success. It is often where focus fades and breakdown occurs. The facilitator’s job is just as important during this time. As a rule of thumb, each actual Colab event day requires about two to four man-hour days of development time.
The word “Colab” represents two vital aspects of a facilitated group experience:
Knowledge capture: We document key information during the Colab event using various content mapping methods to capture the essence of insights and activities that emerge during your CoLab event. These materials will be made available online as an essential resource for post Colab developments (otherwise known as the “Continuum”).Outcomes: Core values and vision shared by the organization and stakeholder community
Outcomes: Develop the organization’s highest level goals and how it will be organized
Outcomes: Timeline of milestones, critical steps, resources needed, and responsible people
Document key information during the Colab event using various content mapping methods to capture the essence of insights and activities that emerge during your Colab event. Make these materials available online as an essential resource for post Colab developments and continuation.
Ensure that the agreements, ideas, discussions, wisdom, knowledge, learning, skills and memories, etc, are preserved in a format that allows for continued development and evolution. The outcomes of the event need to be a web-based synthesis, put into a storybook form, that shows the generation of the Colab including: graphic imagery, all white board notes, group creations, vision and strategic outcomes, and videos and audios of key Colab sessions. Graphic recordings of meeting minutes with real-time graphic representations of discussions, ideas, agreements.
How To Design The Colab ProcessIt is suggested that you get commitment from your group for its ongoing success by setting up customized quarterly reviews, secondary sessions, online collaboration tools, extended organizational and business modeling, coaching, and/or outside council. We will help you design a program that works.
To ensure that the agreements, ideas, discussions, wisdom, knowledge, learnings, skills and memories, etc, are preserved in a format that allows for continued development and evolution. Make your event outcomes web-based with the primary objective of synthesizing your work. Going through a synthesis process is where you gain huge results.
Put your outcomes into a storybook form that shows the generation of the CoLab™ including: graphic imagery, all white boards notes, group creations, vision and strategic outcomes; videos and audios of key CoLab™ sessions. Graphic recordings of meeting “minutes” with real-time graphic representations of discussions, ideas, agreements.
Be committed to your ongoing success by providing regular reviews, secondary sessions, online collaboration tools, extended organizational and business modeling, coaching, and council as needed for your team members.
Contact Vic by email for more information.
