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.
One of the cool cultural Olympiad things happening around here for the 2010 Winter Games is an interactive light exhibit which makes patterns in the sky with 20 spotlights along False Creek. We can see these from our house on Bowen Island. They are part of an interactive art installation called Vectoral Elevations. Very cool, and you can play too! Make your own pattern online and submit it. There’s a good chance we’ll see it as we have been completely entranced by these lights the last few nights.
Sunday afternoon a small group of my neighbours here on Bowen Island gathered to inaugurate an improv group. All I had was a bunch of exercises culled from the web, some eager players and a space. And that was all we needed.
After a few warm ups, we got into some evxercises and then played a few scenes. At least half of the group of eight were experienced actors, several of whom were comfortable with the openness of the structure and others who struggled a little. It was cool to see us hit some real high points (especially during on exercise called ABC where you play a scene with the dialogue rotating through each actor, and each line starting with a subsequent letter of the alphabet. What I noticed was how comfortable we were in general with a little bit of order and then space inside that to play.
For me, in addition to playing, this is really an exercise in discovering chaordic structure in practice. What is the happy balance between a little form and a little space? What constraints give us freedom and how does too much openness oppress? It’s interesting to be in this space, listening carefully, struggling to find a way to advance the line, make an offer, build on what has gone before. This is fun, but HARD, and that is the delightful challenge of it.
We’re going to keep going Monday nights at Collins Hall on Bowen Island. If you are on island, some and play! Bring a game to offer, and come prepared to learn.