CONTEMPLATION, COLLABORATION,

AND CHANGE

Webinar #1 Preparing to Partner

..

Preparing to Partner and Co-Initiating Introduction to the Webinar (5) What is Collaboration? (10) Types of Alliances Why Collaborate? Guest: Margaret O’Bryon (20) Q&A Preparing your Organization to Partner (15) Guest: Manish Srivastava (20) Listening and Sensing Journeys Q&A (20)

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What is Collaboration? Real collaboration is authentic working together across organizational boundaries toward common goals. --Robert Harrington, La Piana Associates, Inc.

Collaboration is cooperation between two or more organizations where, without subsuming their identities, involved parties share the benefits and liabilities of the activities they undertake as well as the risks and rewards. --Plexus Consulting Group

Collaboration is a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve results they are more likely to achieve together than alone. --Amherst H. Wilder Foundation

Types of Alliances

Cooperation:

Shorter-term

informal

relationships

that exist

without any

clearly defined

mission,

structure or

planning effort

Coordination:

Longer-term,

more formal

relationships

that rely on

understanding

of missions

and focus on a

specific effort

or program

Collaboration:

More durable

relationships

where

separate

organizations

create a new

structure with

commitment

to a common

mission

Merger:

Partnerships

in which two

or more

organizations

become one

From Forming Alliances, 2005

Why Collaborate?

• Can help organizations advance their missions and achieve greater impact

• Has the potential to reduce duplication, decrease competition, and enhance problem solving.

• Takes time, can be difficult to achieve, and cannot be created by funders alone--should be voluntary.

Why Collaborate?

• Share resources

• Reach broader market segments

• Advance broader mission

• Develop new ways of working

• Contribute to large-scale systems change

• Gain access to additional resources

Why Collaboration?

In the past we have asked individual sectors to work independently on issues. but now we must come together to collaborate in profound innovative initiatives that create tranformative social change. In order to bring about this profound change we first have to go through a profound inner opening not only as individuals, but collectively.

--Dr. Otto Scharmer

Five Stages of Theory U

1. Co-initiating:

uncover common intent stop and listen to others and to

what life calls you to do

2. Co-sensing:

observe, observe, observe

connect with people and places

to sense the system from the whole

5. Co-evolving:

embody the new in ecosystems facilitate acting

from the whole

4. Co-creating:

prototype the new use living examples to explore

the future by doing

3. Presencing:

connect to the source of inspiration and will go to the place of silence and allow the inner knowing to emerge

Building

Blocks of

Theory U

Margaret O’Bryon

• Margaret K. O’Bryon spent 20 years as a philanthropic leader. Most recently, she served as founding President and CEO of the Consumer Health Foundation located in Washington, DC. A hallmark of the foundation was its successful ability to build and/or support innovative collaborations and partnerships to support its work.

• Margaret is the founder of Accelerating Change Group and currently serves as the Waldemar A. Nielsen chair in Philanthropy at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.

Why Collaborating Matters

• Multiplier effects: talent, ideas, diversity of thought • To build and nurture trusting relationships • To build and nurture collective leadership • To create a broader field for change and

transformation • Collaboratives can become holding spaces for the

talent, expertise, and resources of its members and other supporters

• Collaboratives can become places for developing and holding a shared vision and values that keep members connected during tough times

Guiding Principles of Collaboration

• Clarity of vision, purpose, expectations, roles, norms

• Clear set of values

• Commitment to – deep listening

– learning and adaptation

– reflection

• Freedom to “fail”

• Recognition that change takes time. Take the long view

• Transparency

Transforming the world is possible because the very complex forces of interconnection that make systems resistant to change are the same ones that can be harnessed to propel change.

Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, and Michael Patton, Getting to Maybe: How the World Has Changed

Theory U and Collaboration Skills

1. Prepare to partner

a. Clarifying purpose of alliance

b. Assessing personal and

organizational capacity for

collaboration

c. Establishing guiding principles

for the collaboration

d. Listening and sensing

journeys

2. Identify and recruit partners

a. Analyzing and engaging

stakeholders

b. Evaluating partners

and readiness

a. Dialogue

3. Frame the alliance

a. Creating a shared vision and clarifying

outcomes

b. Developing shared measurements

c. Clarifying roles

d. Retreat and reflect

4. Formalize structure and plan

a. Establishing sound decision

making processes

b. Negotiating agreements

c. Managing conflict

5. Implement and

manage the alliance

a. Conducting mid-

point negotiations

b. Evaluating results

c. Managing

relationships

Start with Strategy

Start with your organization’s:

• Vision, Mission, Values

• Strengths and Opportunities

Look for partners with:

• Complementary missions and visions

• Compatible goals and interests

• Agreement on principles

• Unique contributions

• Clear understanding of risks and liabilities

Qualities of Good Collaborations

1. Stakeholders benefit in new ways

2. Each partner benefits in some strategic way

3. Each partner understands and respects the other’s needs

4. Each partner shares in the risks and rewards

Checklist for Successful Partnerships

• Prepare your own organization for collaboration

• Explore and assess potential partners

• Clarify the mission and vision of the partnership

• Go on learning journeys together

• Develop a collaboration agreement

• Finalize the partnership and its operating structure

• Designate communication contacts and process

• Continue to improve the health of the relationships

• Have an exit strategy in place

Initial Reflection Questions

1. Who does my organization serve?

2. What is our long-term vision of success?

3.What are our strengths and weaknesses?

4. Could a partnership help us serve our stakeholders in new ways and accomplish our vision more fully?

5.What can we bring to a partnership?

6.How could we benefit from a partnership?

Manish Srivastava

• Manish Srivastava is an leadership coach & change consultant with more than 12 years of experience facilitating personal & organizational transformation with Corporations (like Unilever, Marriott Hotels etc), NGOs, Community and Government. He is a global practitioner with Presencing Institute with experience in facilitating cross-sector partnerships & leadership transformation projects in India, US and Africa.

• He is presently running an independent coaching & consulting practice (Transforming Journeys) in Mumbai, India. His key clients include leading family businesses in India, social enterprises, international government agencies, civil society networks etc.

Case-study: Bhavishya Alliance

Oct 18, 2009 Manish Srivastava OD Network Conference, Seattle 20

To address Complex , Multi-layered, Systemic and Societal Problems

Government

Corporates

Civil Society

(NGOs, Community)

Bhavishya Alliance Story “A container of collective consciousness”

Oct 18, 2009 Manish Srivastava OD Network Conference, Seattle

Quick Facts: -Started as a global Partnership for Child Nutrition– Unilever, UNICEF, Synergos -First lab designed in 2006 in Mumbai, India -Goal: Halve the rate of child malnutrition by 2015; 90% reduction in select areas by 2008

-Partners: ~15 organizations from 3 sectors -Geography: 5 districts

3 initial partnership challenges: 1. How do we enroll the right partners

aligned to the common vision? 2. How do we develop mutual

appreciation and trustful relationships among them?

3. How do we deepen our understanding of the complex reality to generate innovative solutions?

Five Stages of Theory U

1. Co-initiating:

uncover common intent stop and listen to others and to

what life calls you to do

2. Co-sensing:

observe, observe, observe

connect with people and places

to sense the system from the whole

5. Co-evolving:

embody the new in ecosystems facilitate acting

from the whole

4. Co-creating:

prototype the new use living examples to explore

the future by doing

3. Presencing:

connect to the source of inspiration and will go to the place of silence and allow the inner knowing to emerge

Tools for Getting Started

• Dialogue Interviews

• Shadowing

• Sensing Journeys

3 initial partnership challenges: 1. How do we enroll the right partners

aligned to the common vision? 2. How do we develop mutual

appreciation and trustful relationships among them?

3. How do we deepen our understanding of the complex reality to generate innovative solutions?

At a Glance

Dialogue interviews are intended to engage

the interviewee in a reflective and generative conversation. This tool can be used to prepare for projects, workshops, or capacity building programs.

Allows you to step into their shoes to see the

challenges that the interviewees face; may help you to find partners for a project, prepare participants for to an upcoming

event; begin to build a generative field for the

initiative you want to co-create.

Dialogue Interviews

At a Glance

Shadowing means to accompany a person for a period of time for example 1/2 day to observe him/her during work, and learn from this observation.

Shadowing allows the person who shadows

someone to: •observe and learn from an experienced

practitioner/leader •step into someone else’s daily work

experience •connect to someone who is facing similar

challenges

Shadowing

Sensing Journeys are a way of experiencing the system through the lens of different stakeholders. Together with other users of the system, participants will undertake small journeys to different places in that system.

At a Glance

Sensing Journeys*

*Sometimes also referred as Learning Journeys or Community Learning Journeys

To engage stakeholders of a system in a series of

immersion, listening, inquiry, and dialogue activities

that create:

• A network of relationships among key

stakeholders in that system

• A shared understanding of the systemic forces

at play, their inter-relationships

• input for prototype ideas that could catalyze

profound change

• Enhanced awareness of the different

perspectives of the stakeholders and participants

in the system.

Purpose &

Outcome

Sensing Journeys:

1. Purpose & Outcomes

The group splits up into sub-teams of 5 or so participants. The

group composition matters because the impact of the sensing

journeys is enhanced by a mix of perspectives.

Define places of high potential for the sensing journeys: the whole

group of participants should go to several places that can provide

insights into:

• The different perspectives of the system’s key stakeholders

• The different aspects of that system

• The ’voiceless’: people in the system, those who usually are not

heard or seen.

• A good way to get a sense of the system is to look at its “extreme

users”: those with special requirements, such as a person living in

a remote area needing access to a health system.

People & Place

Sensing Journeys:

2. Logistics

The length of a sensing journey depends on the size of the

geographic area being covered. It is recommended to allocate

at least 1 day (or so) to sensing journeys in a workshop

context and several days or weeks (sometimes spread over a

period of months) in a larger project setting.

Time

Preparation:

Establish common ground by discussing with your group

members:

- What is the context you are going into?

- Who are the key players that you need to talk with?

- What are the questions are you most interested in exploring?

- Share your most eye-opening sensing experience to date

Start by developing a short questionnaire (7-10 questions)

that guides your inquiry process. Keep updating your

questionnaire as your inquiry process unfolds.

Communicate the intention of the exercise with the hosts.

Request that they give the group some insight into their

“normal” daily operations, rather than a staged presentation.

Try to avoid “show and tell” situations.

Prepare for culturally sensitive aspects

Suspending Voices of Judgement, Cynicism & Fear

Step 1

Sensing Journeys:

3. Process

While at the site:

Small groups travel to the host’s location.

Trust your intuition and ask authentic questions.

(Follow the spirit of humble inquiry)

Pay attention to and trust your intuition in asking

questions raised by the conversation. Asking simple and

authentic questions is an important leverage point in

shifting or refocusing the attention on some of the deeper

and systemic forces at play.

Use deep listening as a tool to hold the space of

conversation. (Connecting with their stories).

One of the most powerful intervention by a listener is

deeply attentive silence. When your interviewee has

finished responding to one of your questions, don’t jump

in automatically with the next question. Attend to what is

emerging from the now.

Step 2

Sensing Journeys:

3. Process (cont.)

Example of questions to ask the visit:

1. What personal experience or journey brought you here?

2. What issues or challenges are you confronted with?

3. Why do these challenges exist?

4. What challenges exist in the larger system?

5. What are the blockages?

6. What are your most important sources of success and

change?

7. What would a better system look like for you?

8. What initiative, if implemented would have the greatest

impact for you? And for the system as a whole?

9. If you could change just a couple of elements what would

you change?

10. Who else do we need to talk to?

Step 2 (cont.)

Sensing Journeys:

3. Process (cont.)

After the visit: Reflect and debrief

To capture and leverage the findings of your inquiry process, conduct a

disciplined debriefing process after each visit right after each visit or

every evening if it’s a multi-day visit. (reflecting then & there)

Step 3

Sensing Journeys:

3. Process (cont.)

Here are a few sample questions for the debriefing:

1. What was most surprising or unexpected?

2. What struck me most? What stood out?

3. What touched me? What connected with me personally?

4. If the social field (or the living system) of the visited organization or

community were a living being, what would it look and feel like?

5. If that being could talk: what would it say (to us)?

6. If that being could develop—what would it want to morph into next?

7. What is the generative source that allows this social field to develop

and thrive?

8. What limiting factors prevent this field/system from developing further?

9. Moving in and out of this field, what did you notice about yourself?

10. What ideas does this experience spark for possible prototyping

initiatives that you may want to take on?

Close the feedback loop with your hosts:

Send an email (or other follow-up note) expressing a key

insight you took away from the meeting (one or two sentences), and your appreciation.

Step 4

Sensing Journeys:

3. Process (cont.)

Debrief as a whole group

After a one-day learning journey this debriefing would take

place in next meeting with the whole group.

In the case of a multi-days learning journey you plan to meet

between the individual days if logistics allow.

Structure of the whole group debrief meeting

(From insights to collective learning & wisdom)

1. Get everyone on the same page by sharing concrete

information about the Journeys: Where did you go, who

did you talk to, what did you do?

2. Talk about your findings and generate new ideas.

Step 5

A deep-dive sensing journey requires engaging in three types of listening:

• Listening to others: to what the people you meet are offering to you

• Listening to yourself: to what you feel emerging from within

• Listening to the emerging whole: to what emerges from the collective and

community setting that you have connected with

Go to the places of most potential.

Meet your interviewees in their context: in their workplace or where they live, not

in a hotel or conference room. When you meet people in their own context you learn

a lot by simply observing what is going on. Take whatever you observe as a starting

point to improvise questions that allow you to learn more about the real-life context of

your interviewee.

Sensing Journeys:

4. Principles

Observe, observe, observe: Suspend your voices of judgment (VOJ) and cynicism (VOC) and connect with your sense of appreciation. Without the capacity to suspend judgment and cynicism, all efforts to conduct

an effective inquiry process will be in vain. Suspending your VOJ means

shutting down the habit of judging and opening up a new space of exploration,

inquiry, and wonder.

In Closing

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