Improv again last night here on Bowen Island. It is such a rich learning space for me in many ways. Last night, one of our group kept bringing scenes back to the Olympics, and especially the luge. At times it was funny but it became tiresome in other cases, and in an extended game of freeze tag, when he stepped in, everyone knew where the scene was going. My learning from that is what it looks like when we come to a situation prepared, with a pre-conceived idea of what will work, being attached to an offering, but insensitive to what is going on or worse, unable to co-create something new. In aikido the art of entering is known as irimi, and it is a powerful thing to learn. It is about entering from a place of essence rather than a place of having a desired effect.
Over the years I have really moved away from doing the standard kinds of strategic planning meetings that most every organization seems to do. I recognize the need for management, but I see many organizations either get locked into a control mindset that limits their options, or create huge lists of things to do that can’t possibily be accomplished. I am rather inclined to work with organizations that are trying to find ways of becoming strategically adaptable, but most organizations I work with are already there.
Today though I received a call from an organization that I like, that does good work, but are locked into a really traditional set of dynamics about control, managements, roles and responsibilities and planning. We are planning a two day strategic planning retreat to, as I put it, “make a list and check it twice.” That is to say that the result of this gathering should be a prioritized work plan.
I don’t want to cast aspirations on the organization, but I sense that bringing a new participatory and strategic adapatation persepctive to planning will be a difficult thing to do all at once. And so I’m up for some ideas.
This is a small organization that is part community organization and part infrastructure development. They are governed by an excellent and experience Board of Directors who operate out of fairly traditional governance worldviews. Their senior staff are longstanding, but they are growing and needing to make some transition plans.
Everyone likes each other well enough and they do good work, so I think the opportunity to spend two days in creative work would be welcome. I don’t want to sit around a Board table and make a list, but I do want to them to get what they need from the retreat. I thought I’d ask here, sort of as a public service, because many of us in the world of consulting and facilitation get these kinds of requests, and the same old same old doesn’t always work.
So, hivemind, what are some ideas you all have for helping a small and important organization do some strategic work planning in a new and interesting way?
The view from my home island, Bowen Island, looking across the Queen Charlotte Channel to Cypress Bowl, where the freestyle skiing events will be held during the Olympics. It’s 10 degrees and raining, and that cloud deck shows no sign of lifting.
Yes there is very little snow. It’s February in Vancouver. It’s always like this. In fact I should have had my snow tires off the car two weeks ago. Daffodils are coming up and spring is just around the corner.
Jack Ricchiuto publishes a new little paper on The Practice & Power of Authentic Community Engagement :
When a community is authentically engaged in conversations that matter, the conversation engages their assets in the realization of their dreams. In authentic engagement, the community becomes author of its own future.
The opposite of authentic engagement is lip service to engagement. It is an invitation to conversation that simply engages the community’s voices of victimhood and entitlement. Lip service engagement loudly proclaims commitments to change, but has no power to bring it about and is ironically the shortest distance to sustaining the status quo.