Developing Shared Aspirations for our Collective Work 

 

Session Opening

 

Introduction of Hosts and Faciliators:

The meeting was hosted by the Indiana Leadership Association at the Tipton County Community Foundation.  The Leadership Learning Community was invited to faciltate the meeting.  Deborah Meehan (bio) and Claire Reinelt (bio) facilitated.  A list of partcipants with contact information is attached.  (Please note that the @ and . signs in email addresses have been converted to text in order to prevent addresses from being used for spam.)

 

Community Counts Exercise:

The "Community Counts" exercise is a collective counting exercise. The group stands or sits in a circle and each individual is asked in random order to spontaneously call out a number in consecutive order (based on the number of folks in the room, i.e. counting from 1-2-3-4 etc. until the group reaches 32 with 32 representing the number of participants). If two people call out the same number simultaneously, the group begins the counting again with 1. Within the first minute two participants will speak at the same time causing the group to start over many times and often without being able to count hire than 5 or 6.  After several rounds, participants are asked to close their eyes and focus on their own breathing first, listening to their breath and heart beat if they can hear it.  After a minute participants are then asked to shift their breath to the group and asked to see if they can then begin to sense the breathing and rhythm of the group. Participants are now given the instruction to keep their eyes closed, take up the assignment again as the work of the group. and pay attention to the rhythm of the group as they count randomly and sequentially from 1 to 32.

 

 

Result: With their eyes open, participants tripped over one another in calling out their number. However, when asked to close their eyes, focus on their breath, and the group, as they begin the count once again - success! The act of connecting with the breathing and energy of others in the room enhanced the ability to become more grounded and connected with the group - more senstive to one another. Another observation made was that the counting slowed down.

 

 

Poem and silence

 

A poem by Meg Wheatley, Turning to One Another

 

Introduction of the Session Objectives and Session Hosts

 

Objectives:

•    Provide participants with a first hand experience of the value of communities of learning

•    Introduce participants to collective learning methodologies

•    Explore the collective nature of leadership

•    Connect participants to new ideas, tools and resources that can strengthen the leadership work of session participants

•    Help participants to connect more authentically with one another

•    Introduce participants to the resources of the Leadership Learning Community

Framing Communities of Learning

 

Personal Reflection: 

Each participant was asked to journal for five minutes about a time when they were in a relationship with others where they felt fully engaged and open to learning.  The question was posed:  What in that situation enabled you to share and learn?

 

Introducing Ourselves: 

Participants formed two concentric circles facing one another.  The following questions were posed as participants rotated the circle introducing themselves and sharing with a different person each time.

• What is one thing that makes it easier for you to candidly share what you are learning with others?
• What makes it difficult for you to have frank conversations with people about what you are learning from your work?
• What is one thing you have learned about how to find balance in your life?
• What is one thing you do to create space for reflection about your work?
• What is one book that has been helpful to you in your work?

 

Developing a Purpose Statement    

Developing agreement about the purpose of communities of learning:  A purpose statement will be posted on the wall and participants will have opportunities to add to or question some of the notions expressed.  Comments will be mapped until the group feels that the map holds the spirit of what is most important to participants engaging in this process together.

 

Our Collective Purpose Statement:

To connect our diverse experiences, perspectives, resources, ideas, and learning to generate knowledge and collective wisdom (about tools, skills, how to nurture openness) that strengthens community leadership, makes our work relevant, energizes us, and leads to action. 

 

Introduction of Learning Community Framework 

Presentation of the Learning Lab Synthesis

 

Ground Rules Developed by the Group:

• Manage cell phones
• Participate
• Respect all ideas
• Listen without interrupting
• Be open-minded
• Be curious about differences
• Ask good questions

 

Particpants were asked to think about context (e.g., an organization, a leadership program, a community group, a faith community) that they are a part of and to imagine that the group was functioning as an exceptional community of learning and practice.  Participants were given a description of what an exceptional learning community would be like (a 10) and what a dysfunctional learning community experience might feel like (a 1).  Participants were then asked to rate how well their group currently serves as aa community of learning for participants on a scale of 1-10, and line up on a continuum with others in the room.  Small groups of 5-6 were formed and participants were given 20 minutes to accomplish the following:

• Name the group
• Identfy something from their stories and experiences that supports peer learning
• Come up with one piece of advice

 

The group shared the following names, reflections and advice.

"Hairballs"

• Difficulty getting things done when there is not a common purpose.
• Advice:  Don't start with how and what we are going to do, but a vision of what draws us together.

"Trustees"

• Allowing people to transfer trust one way to build trust
• Advice:  Allow ourselves the time to build trust without jumping into the end game

"Aspiring Fours"

• Challenge of silos;  need for communication to break down silos -- need trust
• Advice:  Don't write anybody off

"Half Way to 10"

• The value of listening and being quiet long enough to hear others
• Advice:  Find a way of honoring and evaluating past and creating ways for people to let go

"The Fire Stokers"

• How do you keep purpose in the forefront
• Advice:  Ask the right questions on an on-going basis

"The Passionate Purpose"

• Need to produce, pull energy towards us like a magnet and use it to strengthen leadership
• Advice:  Celebrate small successes and don't fear failure

 

Imagery Exercise:

Images were laid out on the floor and each person was asked to select an image that evoked for them the potential of communities of learning and practice to support community leadership.  (Here are some images that you may want to use for this exercise.)  Every person in the circle shared their image with others and described its significance. Following are some of the words, feelings, and thoughts that people shared.

 

•    Help other people

•    Seek to understand

•    Focus on mission and vision, on what we could be

•    Youth = potential; community around water - reflection and comfort

•    Laughter; stewards of the future environment and the world

•    Transformation, diversity creatse community

•    Uphill climb-encouragers

•    Movement and quietness, integration, life

•    Learning and change are great adventures – keep changing your perspective

•    Hope-call to action teeming with life

•    We can always find resources for dealing with barriers

•    Take time to reflect on purpose

•    Vessel – we take with us something to offer

•    Sunrise-new opportunities; today is a new day

•    Natural pattern

•    Energy building in community will ignite what we are doing

•    Sky is the limit, pass the torch

•    Interdependnce, people touch one another

•    Connected roots

•    Some are tall and are supported

•    Rely on the past to deal with challenge and change

•    Clouds bring possibility of rainbow

•    People are interdependent

•    Organized chaos – balance

•    Diversity; limitless possibility

•    Team utilizing resources – we should be able to do more

•    Diversty, kindness

•    Water motion, sound - what’s under wwater

•    Time to unscramble

•    Creativity, answer is not linear

•    Stop, listen, look

•    Joy in learning together, hold joy deep in your heart

•    The whole world is on the horizon “trust, faith”

 

 

Applying Learning Community Methodologies to an Exploration of Collective Leadership

 

World Cafe:

The World Café fosters authentic conversation and knowledge sharing among people of varied backgrounds.  The World Café offers the opportunity to move between tables, meet new people, actively contribute your thinking, and link the essence of your discoveries to ever-widening circles of thought.  If you would like to try a World Cafe the cafetogo.pdf excerpt from the World Cafe website is a helpful resource.

 

Cafe Etiquette:

 

• Focus on what matters
• Contribute your thinking
• Speak your mind and heart
• Listen to understand
• Link and connect ideas
• Listen together for insights and deeper questions
• Pay, doodle, draw – writing on the tablecloths is encouraged
• Have fun!!!

 

Questions:

We did three rounds of table conversations on the following questions. 

 

1.  What impact would integrating a learning community approach into your work have on leadership in your community? (Two rounds)

2.  What is an emerging idea or practice that could strengthen and support leadership in your community? (One round)

 

 

Extracting Lessons about Potential Applications of Learning Communities

 

What themes and patterns emerged about the potential value of a learning community approach?

•    Trust

•    Ownership is increased

•    Ability to transfer what is learned

•    Commonality – goal, understanding

•    Communication – open, honest, safe environment

•    Sustainability – Learning community is sustainable because leadership is more distributed

•    Meaningful and purposeful exchange

 

What are you taking with you that will strengthen your efforts to support community leadership?

•    New people to network with

•    Building a learning community is an intentional process

•    Collective wisdom – everyone brings some understanding

•    Be willing to go beyond our county-based boundaries

•    We stratify audiences too much (e.g., we segregate youth off)

•    Need to put youth and adults together

•    Assess and evaluate the formats through which we deliver leadership programs

•    Continue to think about what in a learning community creates a supportive container

•    Practical tools – It’s okay to slow down and arrive

 

What methodologies were useful to you?

•    Imagery exercise was really helpful in creating connections around feelings (e.g., what about using neighborhood photos)

•    Liked the discussion following café; maybe start with this and say to us that we have just experienced a learning community experience

•    Community Counts exercise was profound

•    Storytelling builds trust

•    Liked smaller circles

•    Continuum exercise challenged us to give a number to the process we were involved with

 

 

 

Introducing LLC as an ILA Resource

 

In addition to the About LLC piece that was distributed at the meeting, participants may also want to check out the LLC website and our LLC Wikis.  You are invited to contribute resources to our site. 

 

Closing Reflections

 

Visioning Exercise:

Participants were taken through an abbreviated visioning exercise that was developed by Donella Meadows, a well-known environmentalist, author, and speaker.  You can use her visioning template Visioningtemplate.doc.  Visioning is considered an important tool for realizing our dreams by remaining clear on our goals and creative about how to acheive them.  Participants were asked to close their eyes and take 3 centering breaths. 

• Now think about the context you identified for our continuum exercise. 
• Imagine that you were wildly successful in nurturing a community of learning and you are now experiencing the success of this work 5 years from now. 
• What do you see? 
• Use all of your sense to experience the realization of what you want without any limiting thoughts about what is possible. 
• What do you feel?
• What do you see?
• What do you smell? 
• Now tell your best friend about what has occurred and describe it in detail. 

Participants were asked to take 3 centering breaths and come back to the room to write for 3 minutes in detail about what your world was like when you realized a ‘10’.  Look over your notes and select one word that jumps out at you about what is possible through learning communities and share one word as we go around the circle.