Leadership Learning Community

 

Health Circle Retreat

 

March 1^st, 12 noon – March 2^nd, 1:00 PM

 

Doubletree Rohnert Park

 

 

 

 

ParticipantList_March2007.xls

 

DAY ONE

 

 

1:00  Opening and Connecting

 

 

Community Counts:  Collective Leadership Exercise: (10 minutes)

 

Based on the number of people in the group, a number is chosen that becomes the group's counting goal.  In our case the number was 32. The group tries to count from  1-32 sequentially but in random order around the room.  If two people say a number at the same time, the group begins again with the facilitator beginning with 1.  After several attempts the group is asked to close its eyes.  Each person is asked to pay attention to their own breath, pay attention to their heart beat and then to pay attention to the breating and the heart beat of others in the room.  After several minutes, with eyes closed, the group tries the counting exercise again.

 

Storytelling Introductions:   (35-40 minutes)

 

 

Arvind Singhal ArvindSinghal_Bio.pdf facilitated a storytelling exercise as a means for group participants to introduce themselves.  He began by modeling and relating a personal story about Mother Theresa that he still carries with him to this day and that holds special meaning for him.  As he begins his story, it is the 1970's and Mother Theresa arrives in Washington, DC and is greeted at the airport by welcomers who include among them about 100 antiwar demonstrators.  These demonstrators assume that Mother Theresa will be joining them at the antiwar march that will take place the following day.  Mother Theresa informs the group that while she refuses to join a march against the war, she would join a march "for peace."  Avind shared this encounter as an example of the significance of framing.   Arvind then asked the group to rise, find someone they didn't know and who stood a distance from them in proximity.  The group was then instructed that they had ten minutes in their dyad for each member to tell a story - to share a story with their partner about a person, group of people, organization or community that is creating help in a way that they personally admire. The dyad was then asked to pair up with another dyad where each individual was asked to tell the story they just heard from their partner.  The quartet was then asked to take two minutes together to look at what patterns may have emerged from the four stories that were shared.

 

 

Arvind then opened it up to the larger group and each quartet was then asked to share at least one theme that might have emerged through their stories:

• Empowerment - something that broke the mold - breaking the mold/breaking the assumptions
• Wholistic - creating opportunities for that to emerge
• Inspiration from those who had the courage to tell their own story - inspiration, power of stories, individuals, organizations, community
• Framing - how each in story told, they framed the topic or work in way that made a difference in the outcome

 

• We are part of the power, part of the inspiration

• Power of the individual to create change (if invest time and resources into individual or community)
• Asset approach rather than deficit approach
• Importance of connection - boundary spanning
• Necessity for trust (I am because you are)

 

 

 

Visioning Exercise:  (30 minutes)

Visioning gives us the opportunity to let our imaginations take us to a place that is not confined by what we currently know or do -- a place where possibilities become realities that we can see, hear and feel.  Claire asked participants to close their eyes and take some settling breaths before beginning the guided reflection.

 

Guided Reflection

 

Imagine a world five years from now where the stories you shared with each other have become commonplace

Everywhere you look you see the manifestations of these stories having become what we know and accept

What do you see?

What do you hear?

What images of health do you see in the people around you?

What images of health do you see in communities?

What has fundamentally changed?

 

After taking five minutes to write about the feelings, images, and thoughts that emerged as though they were sharing them with a good friend,  participants shared what came up for them:

• Green space
• Laughter
• Merging of legal and regulartory boundaries
• Bridging worlds
• First grade class - perfect - no separation - conflict resolution
• Everyone flowing - sunny with clouds moving
• Joy
• Epidemic of wellness
• Healthy children - healthy food in markets
• Brightness - possibility
• Absence of fear and isolation
• Silence
• Individuals actively taking up charge
• Everyone is a leader
• Power to make change
• Families together - laughing
• Communities connected
• Humanity and humility

 

Claire invited the group to hold that collective vision as the work proceeded over the course of the next day.

 

 

 

2:15    Cultivating Shared Purpose: (20 minutes)

 

           

 

• Purpose Statement Exercise: To enhance our shared work of creating health by connecting the learning , resources, and  practice of those committed to

       developing health leadership.

       Deborah shared the above with the group of participants and invited them to add or make any changes to the Purpose Statement. 

       The following was offered as an addition to the purpose statement:  " . . . work of creating health and community wellness. . .

         The document was posted on the wall and would remain there for the duration of the retreat, and participants were invited to add or make any changes to the document at

       any time.

 

•  Review our aspirations for the retreat and rationale for the design

   

 

• Group Introductions - Deborah invited the  participants to introduce themselves and fill in the following:  "I have . . .  . " and "I'm looking for . . . "

 

I have	I'm looking for
Openness to learn new strategies and a desire to have fun	New experiences and new stories
Interest in learning from and hsaring with others	Information about fellowship alumni networks
Experiences in evaluation and management of public health programs.	Ideas and lessons learned for starting programs on leadership development for emerging leaders
Energy and eagerness to connect with and learn from others - patience and creativity	Opportunities for growth, new perspectives, innovative ideas and solutions and approaches.
Curiosity, knowledge and experience	Specific ideas and skills that I can implement.
A desire to grow and expand my leadership and to help others do the same.	Evaluation approaches; INSPIRATION - new ideas; opportunities to collaborate.
Experience working with youth - open mind	Fresh new ideas
13 years of experience in the area	Existing leadership development programs that integrate inner work, interpersonal work and social work (work for a better world), with a longer-term perspective.
A passion for exploring the inner dimension of partnering and collaborative leadership; some experience in designing and facilitating collective leadership development workshops across sectors and cultures.	Ideas to carry to international settings; small ideas that can make a big difference.
Multicultural perspecitives on leadership development; experiences from the  field of international development.	Ways to understand the nexus between health and leadership.
Ideas, passion, energy and knowledge to share.	Diversity of perspectives on leadership and growth; wisdom; courage to challenge with intelligence and diplomacy; new ideas
Multiple language skills; cultural competency; international experience; passion for social justice; leftist, feminis, revolutionary bent; curiosity.	Ideas for developing engaging training and new community-based leadership programs.
Desire to learn; clinical, research, training, community experience.	Ideas, tools to bridge community wisom/assets with organized expertise.
Connections to community leaders.	Wisdom and "best practice" about leadership evaluation and ongoing support for leadership alumnae.
Lots of thoughts and questions about leadership evaluation practice.	Inspiration and ideas; new connections.
Passion for justice; vision.	Irreverence
Openness	Co-conspirators
Heart	Hear about other peoples experiences with leaders who have brought about changes in their worlds.
A lot of fun and satisfaction working with all types of people, communities and countries around health issues.	Inspiration, new ideas, tools, etc. and networks

 

 

And still more "I have . . . " and "I'm looking for . . . "

I have	I'm looking for
Love for learning	More questions
Curiousity . . . and passion for food	Widsom by connecting my knowledge with others
Passion for learning	Answers
Curiosity	To learn
Great curiosity	Strength, wisom, creativity, boldness, help
Networks of health leaders and practioners; communities delivering health in new ways; passion for learning and connecting with others.	Wisdom
Youthful idealism	Fulfill my dreams
Dreams	Information - new ideas
Willing spirit for participations	Partners
A healthy vision	New ideas, non-profit capacity building ideas; creative emerging leader ideas
Curiosity; excited to learn from everyone; non-profit perspecitive; community clinic perspective	Linkages with other leadership learning efforts, and for ideas for maintaining a creative learning culture for "alumni."
An enthusiastic interest in helping to create a "learning community" through leadership "learning teams."	Better healthcare and education for the planet.
Vision of wellness from cradle to grave.	Tools and stories
A vision; enthusiasm

 

 

3:00    Break:  (15 minutes)

 

        Upon returning from the break, Joel Kreisberg of Teleois led the group in a brief and fun series of yoga movements.

 

 

 

3:15   Stories as Springboards of Change:  Arvind Singhal (30 minutes)

 

For PDFs of the resources on story telling and change, please visit the resources page for this retreat.

 

      We tend to live, breathe, and enact the “scripts” and “stories” that are told and retold around us.  These stories provide a highly useful framework for us to make sense of

    our  world, guiding the way we think, feel, and act.  However, when stories get too entrenched, and when actors get firmly established in their pre-defined roles, possibilities

    of change are overlooked if not thwarted.  For change to occur, new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting are required.  New stories need to be spun, creating new

    possibilities.

 

     Using a storytelling format and inviting audience reflection, this interactive session explored the possibilities that stories represent as springboards of change.

 

    Arvind opened up this session by bringing up the notion of "trained incapacity " using the metaphor of a hammer who thought the whole world was a nail. Sometimes

    also referred to as "occupational psychosis" Arvind challenged the group that if they wish to change the hammer story  - they need to question and have their own stories

    told. Arvind then shared a series of stories with the group: one a story of a professor who went to see a Zen Master - a take on the cup runneth over tale. Arvind asked

    group how they thought the story went and asked them to share some of their interpretations:   

• importance of listening and awareness
  • human brain has capacity like teapot and too much info can be hurtful and wasteful
  • readiness to learn - how this translates in a leadership learning environment - reflection
  • empty oneself of preconceptions to open up to new learning....have space to learn more
  • beginners mind full of possibility, experts mind has no possibility
  • what does this mean for leadership -maybe part of the idea of leadership is to relinquish - whatever - be willing

 

Yet another story that Arvind shared was about one Mr. Mokus who eventually became the Mayor of Bogota, Columbia - mainly through irreverent means and a deep belief

in the power, strength and potential for communities to effect change - successfully brought about change in the citizen's attitude about self governance, building

community strength and bringing people together. Participants shared what their reactions/impressions about these stories:

 

• people need to make a bigger jump as thinkers, change agents
• experience was liberating, get us out of entrenched thinking
• stories as models of behavior; how we choose to act; we have our own scripts
• experts - doing what they tell can be limiting; question what kinds of scripts are we being fed.

 

3:45   From the Inside-Out: Positive Deviance as an Alternative Script for Change:  Arvind Singhal (about 75 minutes)

 

     Can a community find solutions to its problems without requiring a lot of outside resources?  Positive deviance (PD) is an inside-out approach to social change tha

    alternative script (or counter narrative) to the way social and organizational change programs are conceived and implemented.

 

 

    This session explores PD case studies from Vietnam, Indonesia, and the United States, creating a space for participants to reflect on how existing programs that are

    “stuck” may be opened or “re-scripting.”

 

    SAVE THE CHILDREN - 1991 - Hanoi, Vietnam - Jerry Stern one of the founders of Save The Children was called by Vietnam's Ministry of Defense - was told that he had

    6 months to show results. He was given the task to reduce malnutrition in rural households in 2 provinces in Vietnam.

 

    Looking at the problem thru a deficit based lens they (Stern and his partner, Monique) remembered a study done by this researcher from Harvard University (Name???

    Ask Arvind) who observed that among a malnourished communities, there is a tiny a teeny percentage of this population who are actually well nourished. So she set

    about to find out  why - how could it be that  within the same population some parents found a way to keep their children fed. The wisdom lies in the community which is

    how positive deviance works. Stern and Monique then decided to experiment with this concept in Vietnam.

 

    They went about and engaged in a process of community self-discovery - what is working, why and how. They learned that there was an abundance of shrimp and crabs

    in the rice fields and where most other folks assumed that if its plentiful something must therefore be amiss; this particular community cooked rice with these shrimp

    and crabs along with green shoots and sweet potatoes growing in abundance and which they harvested. All this abundance right in their midst and this is how these

    mothers fed their childrent and so within a community suffering from malnutrition there is this small subset whose kids were well nourished.  Also,these mothers

    became astute with regards to food proportions; rather than two meals a day; they fed their children three meals a day . By reapportioning the food intake of their kids

    they were able to achieve a more balanced diet.  The moral of the story as it goes: wisdom to solve the problem lies within the community.

 

    It is critical that we share the wisdom rather than have a strong reliance on so-called best practices approach which usually assumes an expert giving the answer

    - solving the problems - holders of wisdom - this is scripted approach. It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way

    of acting.

 

    The story went on to tell of how these mothers invited other mother to come and cook with them; everyone brought something to contribute to the meal. The children

    were intially weighed and 6 weeks later the kids were weighed again and the results showed that the children have gained the much needed weight.

 

    SMALL GROUP WORK:

• What is the role of expertise in the framework just described in this story?

 

    RESPONSES:

• recognizing where expertise is

   

• expertise can be in facilitation of process not directing a process - self discovery vs. let me tell you
• being open where new knowledge can come from - finding wisdom in unexpected places
• listening - in order to become experts or knowledgeable - important to listen well
• not leading group but giving group opportunity to contribute - discover
• grassroots leadership coming from community
• participatory approach - listening - allowing wisdom to come from community

•  

5:30    Break

 

 

6:00    Dinner

 

 

8:00    Until…….. Self-organizing hearthside chats, hot tub salons and nightcaps

 

 

 

DAY TWO

 

 

 

Breakfast 7:30 AM – 8:15AM          Breakfast Served

 

 

8:15   Reconnecting: (30 minutes)

 

•   Morning stretching with guidance from Jennie Trotter

   

 

•  Reflections:  Any insights, deeper questions, fun connections?

           Rachel led the group an in imaging exercise using photographs that were distributed throughout the room - the participants were asked to select an image that reflected one of the themes

        that emerged for them in the previous days work and then join in small groups for about ten minutes to exchange their insights.

 

         Group members shared some general insights that the images evoked:

• When looking for some lasting change, act our way into new way of thinking
• Attraction to deviance
• Love, oneness, closeness, coming together
• When sharing stories that can be springboards for change - the photo selected made participant want to know more
• Trees looking up - reframing; people growing together looking for life; possibilites and convergencies
• Camel kicking up in desert with shell of auto - need to leave assumptions behind; what is working and needs to be left behind
• Blurred boundaries - value to leadership programs
• Image of tree with ambiguous image at center - questioning; not necessarily looking to conventional wisdom for answers.

 

 

 

 Creating a New Narrative:  LLC Values and Beliefs: Deborah (10 min)

 

 

    A context for LLC’s work and the Health Circle: Deborah provided any introduction to LLC's work and its philosophy.  She talked about the kind of assumptions that might inhibit collaboration,

    information sharing and learning from one another.  There is a deeper hunger for that collective environment.  What is the change that occurs as of a result  of the work

   done here and the connections that are made. Create environment of generosity as opposed to scarcity.  

 

 

9:00  Connecting our leadership development learning and resources

 

This is the portion of the meeting where you will be facilitated in making connections with one another around the most important issues you are grappling with to explore immediate opportunities to share lessons and resources that will benefit you in your leadership development work.  In order to prime the pump for open space, key findings were shared from the virtual inquiry process that was conducted prior to the meeting.  For a synthesis of responses to the following questions click here:

• What are the 2-3 most important leadership competencies you are trying to nurture/cultivate in participants?

• What are the results of your leadership work that you are evaluating and trying to learn about?

• When you talk with your partner or a trusted friend about those things in your work that frustrate, disappoint or cause you to have doubts, do you notice any recurring themes?

 

Duffy Newman then introduced the group to the concept of Open Space (see Open Space document-attached). 

    The topics suggested included:

 

• How to integrate inner/spiritual development in leadership development (Alain)

• Evaluation of leadership development programs (Tracy)

• Wellness/self-care for leadership development alternative medicine (Jennie)

• Underlying assumptions on values and leadership development (Pape)

• Boundary Crossing - health and how we can transform (Duffy)

• Box lunch special on sustainable networks

 

   The group reconvened following their Open Space sessions:

 

How to Integrate Inner/Spiritual Development in Leadership Development (notes provided by Alain Gauthier)

    Proposed theme: transformation work can be undertaken at different levels (concentric circles): personal, interpersonal (team, family), organizational, community,

    societal/systemic.

       How do we ground leadership development in inner/psycho-spiritual work and reflect that grounding at all the other levels?

       Here are the questions and comments that were offered during the one-hour dialogue between 14 of of us on the morning of March 2nd:

 

• How do we embody leadership transformation to enable systems transformation?
• It is presumptuous to feel responsible for someone else's development.  The best one can do is to:
  • Create a space where personal development can happen and personal feedback can be received such as 360 degrees feedback
  • Provide the opportunity for self-reflection like in a spiritual/reflective community (where one can reflect on the actual or potential consequence of one's actions)

• A possible stance for facilitators/coaches: You know what is best for you.  What I can do is to be in tune with my own soul and agree to walk the path with you, be a witness

            to your process and be myself receptive to the feedback of those who walk with me.

• We are at a point where we are increasingly taking our distance from the "the law of the father" (vertical relationship - I know/you don't know) and explore the "way of the

            brothers/sisters" (horizontal relationship - we are all on our  way) in psycho-spiritual development.  The key is to create an opportunity for being in the work with people.

• How do we help participants develop their own blueprint (Carolyn Myss): What is your intent? What comes to you? Do you view yourself as work in progress?
• How do we cultivate balance?  Do we trust in the inner guidance that we receive?
• How do we keep our level of  consciousness rising vs. getting stuck in a stagnant balance?
• How do I leave behind the baggage in my mind about myself and others?  There is some shedding to do to experience personal healing.
• It is key to understand one's values as leader and follower.
• What is the risk of manipulation when creating "balanced teams"?
• How do we deal with working environments that don't facilitate/encourage inner work?  By creating a safe space where leaders feel both supported and challenged?
• How do we open the space even more, e.g. by welcoming different ways for participants to express their relatedness to the sacred - through native rituals, prayers, etc.?
• Language is key and has already changed over the last 5-10 years: there is more willingness now to explore publicly the personal inner dimension of leadership.
• It is important to recognize the importance of the structures and the  culture that facilitators and leaders set up or influence, while acknowledging the responsibility each participant for their own learning and development (moving from the we to the I and from the exterior/objective to the interior/subjective on Wilber's four-quadrant model).

 

Evaluating Health Leadership Development (Notes by Tracy Patterson and Claire Reinelt)

Questions People are Interested in Addressing

 

• How do you motivate participants to share results with you and realize the value of doing that?  How do make it fun?  What strategies have been successful in instilling this value in participants and motivating them to respond after initaitives end?
• What are the leadership competencies that are most essential for effective health leadership? 
• How do you track improvements in leadership behaviors and characteristics?
• How do we use our findings for continuous improvement?
• How do we measure the results of our networks over time?  How do we support sustainable networks?
• How do we collect both qualitative and quantitative data in order to understand the long-term impact of our work?
• What are creative ways to collect and use qualitative information (e.g., storytelling)?
• How do you translate qualitative data to quantitative data?
• What are the community impacts of our work and how do we measure those?
• How do we measure personal transformation?
• How do individual leaders affect their organizations and health policy?
• How do we measure organizational impact and systemic change over time?
• What is the ripple effect of individual and team transformation on long-term impacts such as reducing poverty and improving health outcomes?
• How can we more effecctively learn from one another and share instruments/strategies?
• How do we best measure cross-boundary leadership?

 

Looking for community impact

We began by discussing leadership efforts that seek to have an impact on communities.  Steve Coen described how the Kansas Health Foundation leadership programs operates in 41 communities with the goal of improving those communities to be better places for children to grow up. They are doing some evaluation of their work, but are looking for other ideas. 

 

Engaging participants in the evaluation process

 

• Participants define what success looks like for them and then their goals are used to measure the success of the program.  Participants are involved in setting expectations.
• A website was created where participants from a previous cohort could share stories with participants in the current cohort
• Fellows are involved in developing instruments, making sure that the evaluation asks the right questions
• Calling evaluation “learning” may encourage more people to participate
• Having fellows interview each other is one way to involve them in the evaluation
• Do team interviews and then ask questions about self versus going straight to individuals to get data on self-development (This is particularly valuable in cultures where people do not want to stand out as individual leaders)
• Insure that people get back something from participating in the evaluation (e.g., the report or findings)
• Give people alternative ways to respond to surveys, e.g., on-line, paper, by phone.

 

Incentives

People discussed the incentives they have used and how well they worked. Some people have paid informants for completing surveys or giving interviews; others have contributed to a charity in that persons name; still others have given opportunities for people to enter their names in a drawing for a prize. One person suggested having participation in an alumni event contingent on completing the survey.

 

Evaluation strategies

Integrate evaluation into the leadership curriculum; evaluation is a leadership skill

Having participants develop learning plans

 

Next steps

We discussed setting up a regular conference calls using WebEx or some other on-line meeting software that would enable us to pose questions, cases, or challenges to our peers and engage in a 1 hour conversation.  We thought this would be highly useful to each other if there were topics of shared interest.  We also thought this might be an appropriate opportunity to propose in between meetings that was likely to generate interest. 

 

 

Evaluation Resources

Add to our list of evaluation resources!!

Health Leadership Development Evaluation Resources

 

Underlying Assumptions on Values and Leadership Development 

This group reported that they engaged in very deep conversations looking at issues around the assumptions one brings with them.  They looked at the role of values at the individual level and talked about the necessity for living the values we have.  The group also looked at the assumptions we bring about what leadership development is and what we mean by leadership development.  In discussing expectations, the group reported that so much of the work performed is results directed/oriented.  Leadership development for what is the bias we begin with; the what reflects that bias.  The participants also explored leadership and followership and looking at things in pairs.  Finally, the group also talked about the entire issue of resources vs. capacity and the impact of the introduction of money.

 

Wellness/Self-Care for Leadership Development Alternative Medicine

Jennie Trotter reported on a conversation she had with Bella and Pauline about the significance of energy and the awareness of our own level of energy and its impact on others.

 

Boundary Crossing Video

Duffy Newman reported that the conversation in response to the video occurred on two levels: on boundary crossing and on how we leverage ourselves.  How do we begin to leverage our own leadership in terms of boundary-crossing?  Duffy stated she looked forward to continuing that conversation on the wiki.

 

11: 30 What next? (45 minutes)

 

           

 

• What can this group achieve by remaining connected?

 

• What would we most like to learn and share? 

 

• How can we share resources?

 

• How can we be best supported to succeed and what resources are available for the work of this group through the RWJ grant?

 

• What tools are available to support our continued connection/learning?

      Connie - as we begin to close - group held hands beginning in one direction sent pulse - send energy from one to the other.

 

      WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN if this circle can continue moving forward - what is that possibility; can it happen?

      WHATS NEXT:

- what added value can we produce

- how might we leverage our collective assets

- what do we want/need to continue our connections - is there a container - supports - beyond immediate llc team

            - have conference calls re: issues such as evaluation - topic specific, consultative in nature, commitment to engage X times per year - example: web-ex etc.

            on line discussion

            - CCL uses this successfully

- case study - consultative work via conference all, on-line mtg, listserv or web

                - finding way to share all this that happenned over the last day and a half - bring back to work and share with our own constituencies, sharing the spirit - incorporate

into organizational meeting

- add group into existing listserv and on-line

- actively engage with wiki - reading it, contributing to it etc. - commitment to this

- llc to send participants by email - link to wiki, also have available email address of participants in wiki and participants encouraged to do their organizational profile.

     WHAT MIGHT WE NEED:

-  is there value - open space, face-to-face meeting for group to come together again. Its all about relationship building - face2face critical.

-  identify a few areas of interest for folks to focus on - build work upon - in the interim work on this in preparation for the next face2face meeting...specific learning in addition to broader work

-  this group - can have space and time at CS VIII

                -  llc has some support to gather group again

 

 

 

 

12:15 Closing reflections: (15 minutes)

 

 

From the Participants:

My favorite valuable moment - I wish we might have:

- positive deviance and stories around this

- give me something than your anger to work with

- open sapce time - hearing other peoples stories and projects - real life examples

- time to be in a personal retreat - to step back - connect with old friends and make new ones

- open space and at the same time a more focused area besides open space

- theme of story telling - enjoyed Arvind's process - engaging

- being in a learning environment - being with each other - pausing and reflecting

- heard everyone's voice

- physical energy -

- wish more time following storytelling - to do sharing and folks connection with stories

- theme of creativity and innovation - opportunity to think out of the box

- ambiguous story can now call it a zen story

- Arvind's style of storytelling

- open space following Arvind's storytelling

- concept of who/what is the space between and having and honoring this space

- acknowledgement of peoples work - amazing and showing up in this container with a lot of humility and energy and openness to learn

- learning from one another

- bell sounding is a good tool to get folks to gather

                - gratitude for word - irreverence - embodied reversal - turning/switching

 

12:30  Lunch…until. . . .

 

 

 

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