October 3, 2014 Colorado Municipal League Positive Governing: An Introduction to Appreciative inquiry for Cities and Towns Barbara Lewis, Principal Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change Barbara@positivechange.org
Agenda Friday, October 3 8:45 a.m. Registration 9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introductions 9:15 a.m. Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry 9:45 a.m. Appreciative Interview on High Performing Partnerships 10:45 a.m. Discovering the Positive Core of High Performing Partnerships Appreciative Skills: Strength Spotting and Narrative Analysis 11:45 a.m. Appreciative Skills: The Flip 12:00 p.m. Lunch Appreciative Inquiry in the City of Longmont Guest Speakers: Sandra Seader and Karen Roney 1:00 p.m. The Power of Visioning: Envisioning High Performing Partnerships 1:45 p.m. Designing the Future 2:45 p.m. Destiny Achieving Results 3:30 p.m. Putting Ideas into Action AI Projects for Cities and Towns 3:45 p.m. Wrap Up 1 Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
What to Expect from this Day Role of the Facilitator Introduce Appreciative Inquiry its theory and practice Manage the overall process Set the structure and time frames Explain the purpose and guidelines for the activities Create a constructive learning environment Your Role Tell Stories about meaningful, important experiences you have had in your interviews Contribute your knowledge, experiences, and ideas Bring out the best in the people around you by staying focused on the positive and the possible Self-manage your own group, time and activities Analyze information and imagine new possibilities Have fun Ground Rules Turn off anything that rings or buzzes Everyone participates All ideas are valid Be curious, ask and listen Observe timeframes Listen, ask and be curious Create relationship enhancing conversations If you think you can do a thing or think you can t do a thing, you re right. Henry Ford 2 Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
Activity #1: Appreciative Interviews on High Performing Partnerships Purpose: To experience an appreciative interview and use the experience to uncover stories that reflect what is happening when we are collaborating productively and to explore our images of best-in-class partnerships. Self-Manage: Pick a partner, someone you don t know well from another city and perhaps, with a different type of position than you have. 1. Interview your partner using the interview guide on the next page. Each person will have 25 minutes to interview his or her partner. 2. Complete one complete interview and then switch roles. 3. Take a 10-minute break when it suits you. Tips for Conducting Interviews Use the interview form as your script; complete one interview before starting the other. Ask the questions as they are written and listen well. Be a generous listener. Please don t give your opinion about their experiences or tell your own story. Take good notes and listen for great quotes and stories. Listen to be able to retell their story. Be genuinely curious about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Some people will take longer to think about their answers allow for silence. If they want more time, give them the option of returning to it at the end of their interview. Interview 1. About You. Tell me about yourself.! What is your work?! What aspect of your work do you find most rewarding and compelling? Why?! What attracted you to this introduction to appreciative inquiry? 3 Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
2. High Performing Partnerships Peak Experience: Describe for me a peak experience with a high performing partnership in your career or volunteer work: a time when you and others collaborated across real or perceived boundaries to achieve something extraordinary something greater than any of you could have achieved individually.! What was the situation? The outcomes? Be specific.! What were all the conditions that contributed to your performance? Consider the following: the team, the project, environment, leadership, outcomes, etc.! What strengths did you bring to this experience? How did you bring out the best in others? 3. Values:! Yourself: Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself?! Your Work: When you feel best about work what do you value about it? 4. Imagine: It is 2017 and your organization has been written up in a book entitled Cities Leading through Collaboration. It describes the exceptional partnership environment that has emerged in city government and beyond. What does it say about how you are creating and sustaining high performing partnerships? With whom? For what purpose? What challenges have you addressed and what opportunities have you created through these partnerships? 5. Three Wishes: If you could have a magic wand that would grant you 3 wishes to strengthen how well you partner with others in your city as well as other public and private entities, what would they be? 4 Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
Self-Management and Group Leadership Roles Each small group will manage its own discussion, data, time and reports. Here are useful roles for self-managing this work. At the beginning of each activity decide who will do what. Leadership roles can be rotated. Discussion Leader Assures that each person who wants to speak gets an opportunity and is heard. Keeps the group focused on the activity. Timekeeper Keeps the group aware of time. Monitors reports and signal time remaining to person talking. Assures that the group uses its time wisely and completes activities within allotted timeframes. Recorder Writes the group s output on flip charts. Records each person s own words. Asks people to restate ideas to ensure that they are recorded properly. Reporter Presents the small group s output to the whole. Activity #2: Strengths Spotting and Sharing Stories Purpose: To introduce our partners, practice strengths spotting and share the peak experience stories we heard in the interviews. Self-Manage: Discussion Leader, Timekeeper 1. Reflect on what you heard from your partner and identify one or more strengths that you discovered in the interview. 2. On a name tent: Write your partner s name and the strength(s) you spotted. 3. Introduce your partner at your table name, position, and the strength you noted. 4. Briefly describe the story they shared about their peak experience with high performing partnerships (Question 2) 1-2 minutes each. 5. Individually, listen for supportive qualities and conditions in the peak experience stories underlying success factors that were embedded in each person s story. Feel free to take notes on the following chart as you hear the stories. 5 Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
The Peak Experiences Stories You Heard 1. Supportive qualities and conditions Memorable Quotes 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
Activity #3: Discovering the Positive Core of High Performing Partnerships Purpose: To make meaning of the peak experiences to uncover the core strengths leading to high performing partnerships. Self-Manage: Discussion Leader, Recorder, Reporter, Timekeeper 1. Run back through the peak experience stories you heard to identify the root cause of success. Note: Think about the people involved and how they worked together, the project circumstances, the environment, leadership styles or behaviors, systems and structures in place that supported success, and the outcomes achieved. Be specific. For instance, Communication is almost always a root cause but the label tells us little about what worked; tell us what it was about communication in this story that made it work. 2. For each story, ask your group: From this story, what are the elements of the Positive Core of Strengths leading to a high performing partnership? List these root causes of success on a flipchart. Story Root Cause of Success 3. Once you have covered all the stories, identify the top 3 to 6 themes or root causes for successful high performing partnership. Write each of these on a ½ sheet of paper in big letters with a dark pen. You should have 3 to 6 sheets, each with one root cause. 4. Pass them forward as instructed. 5. For one of your themes or root causes, select a story to share that gives life to that one theme. Reporter be prepared to share this story and how it exemplifies the chosen theme or root cause. Our Positive Core: The things we most want to build on, or even make better as we move into the future. Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
Activity #4: Sharing Future Images of Success Purpose: To share your images of the future and reflect on common themes. Self-Manage: Discussion Leader, Time Keeper and Reporter for this activity. 1. Select a positive core element that speaks to you. 2. Gather with the others who picked the same element. 3. Select an image that captures your vision for the chosen element. 4. First Person:! Introduce the image you chose and very briefly describe how it illustrates your image of the future.! Pass your card to the left.! Have the next person share how the image connects with their vision.! Continue around the table until all have reflected on the image. 5. Repeat the steps above for all the images, until every person has shared the image they selected and commented on every other person s chosen image. 6. Discuss you most promising, compelling collective image. 7. Pick one image one that has already been used or a new one that captures your shared image of the future. 8. When called upon, share it with the group. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14
Activity #5: Crafting Design Statements Purpose: To articulate what needs to happen to make the vision a reality. Steps: 1. Partner with one other person from your Dreaming group. 2. Write a Design Statement for the element you have chosen that reflects what you know works best and that captures what your dreams suggest you want. 3. Write your statement on a flipchart sheet and post it on the wall. Activity #6: From Design to Destiny Purpose: To identify potential actions to create high performing partnerships. Steps: 1. Choose a design statement that you resonate with. 2. Return to your partner from this morning s interview. 3. Share your response to these questions: How might I apply this Design Statement to create high performing partnerships in my immediate sphere of influence? What ideas for action does this suggest to me? Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change 10-3 - 14