Creating Space 2014Survey Findings

JUNE| 2014

Overview

• The theme for this year’s event was “Tools for Transformation: Supporting Inclusive, Networked, and Collective Leadership”

• The event took place May 5 to 7, 2014 in Oakland, CA• The intended event outcomes included:

– Create the opportunity to seed and sustain ongoing learning and collaborative opportunities

– Engage participants in a fun, interactive learning experience– Develop new knowledge, potential tools, and approaches to support leadership practice

• We had 65 participants in this year’s Creating Space. Data based on registration form:– 30 from California– 11 from WK Kellogg Foudation priority places– 53% of participants found out about CS from the newsletter, 18% from referrals, 13%

from Deborah Meehan, 8% from Miriam Persley– 48% of participants are between 41 and 60+ years old– 51% of participants are Caucasian, 18% African American, 18% Latino

• 16 participants completed the evaluation survey (25% response)

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KEY INSIGHTS

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Key insights

The majority of participants believe that we accomplished the event outcomes very/somewhat well:

– The most helpful outcomes included the opportunity to reflect, learn about network leadership, and meet people

– Participants mostly valued the opportunity for connections, the quality of the content, and the diversity of participant perspectives

– 64% of participants believe that the focus on practical tools and applications was very effective

– Participants identified several tools that they can use in their work, including network mapping, design thinking, and open space

– Participants believe that both the interactive format and mix of participants contributed to transformational learning

– Participants believe that the focus on application was the greater contributor to the development of learning circles during the event

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Key insights

• The most helpful design elements included the space/location, pacing, and mix of participants:– The majority of participants (87%) believe that the strategy to limit participation to 60

participants was very effective– The majority of participants (87%) believe that Odin’s facilitation was very helpful– Participants appreciated the planning and coordination around the logistics for the event

• Some recommendations for improvement include: – Increasing the diversity of participants– More small groups focused on application– Having more time and being more explicit about the “inclusive” aspect– More opportunities to learn about LLC– Develop tracks for different kinds of work

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Key insights

About the participants:– Participants are highly likely to register for the LLC newsletter and recommend LLC– 67% of participants were new to Creating Space this year– The majority of participants have been involved in leadership between 6 and 15+ years– Participants’ work is mostly situated in the nonprofit sector– Participants’ leadership work is mostly around nonprofit, grassroots, network,

movement-building and community

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Key Quotes: Plus ( )

• This year's format was more hands-on than last [year’s] and allowed for more practical sharing, with a nice balance of the heavy questions.

• (Most valued) The sense of spaciousness combined with relevant content. Tough balance, done expertly.

• I found the most helpful and informative part of Creating Space to be Heather’s and Michael's presentations. Although we often think a didactic delivery is not ideal, I actually learned and valued the most in hearing about their work.

• The level of depth offered by some participants - i.e. leadership can be painful / struggle - and when what we're really talking about when we say things like "diversity" and "inclusive."

• Group was large enough to introduce diversity and variety, but small enough that I felt like I had a chance to at least meet a good percentage of the people in the room.

• It certainly felt more focused than previous gatherings. Both the design thinking and network mapping tools were very useful and practical. I've had several situations where I've been able to reference and use the thinking behind them.

• Odin was AWESOME. He kept the pace moving along without rushing anyone. He also kept us on track and directed the discussions where they needed to be. Beginning the morning with meditation and a poem was extremely meaningful and allowed you to clear all the head-chatter to begin the day as a focused engaged learner.

• Logistics were flawless. The team behind the scenes really deserves a lot of praise.

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Key Quotes: Delta ( )

• The "for what" question stayed wanting in my mind. We're great at improving networking between one another, but how does that translate into improved conditions within our communities?

• Not sure I would use any of them (tools). I do a lot of movement-based community work for very specific equity outcomes, and none of the tools I explored in-depth are a good fit for the folks I work with. But I was inspired by the approaches.

• Design thinking presentation was a little too fast and the translation to OUR work (not just fast prototyping of an object) was not fully made for me and many others I was with.

• (Odin) He's very good at this. However, it would be good to have more people of color facilitating.

• I think you've got a good mix of folks in the room. Just not sure everyone is sharing their expertise -- because to sign up to share expertise in the open space portion means that you miss learning from someone else.

• More explicit threads around racial/class equity throughout. It was implied through the term "inclusive" but was never fully explored

• Didn't get the chance to learn more about what Leadership Learning Community is and how to take advantage of the resources. The presentations in the beginning didn't seem to be given enough time or the chance to engage participants

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EVENT OUTCOMES

9

10

Develop new knowledge, potential tools and approaches to support leadership practice

Engage participants in a fun, interactive learning experience

Create the opportunity to seed and sustain ongoing learning and collaborative opportunities

33%

47%

27%

53%

53%

67%

How well did we accomplish the event outcomes?

Very Well Somewhat Well

n=15

The majority of participants believe that we accomplished the event outcomes very/somewhat well

• Definitely an opportunity to be exposed to and sample new tools and thinking. • This year's format was more hands-on than last and allowed for more practical sharing, with

a nice balance of the heavy questions. • Excellent, spacious design to reach these outcomes • Everything was outstanding. I've already been in touch with several folks I met at the event.

• I felt that the event did a fantastic job at connecting individuals and building relationships.

However, I felt I did not learn or get exposed to as many tangible tools or approaches. • The "for what" question stayed wanting in my mind. We're great at improving networking

between one another, but how does that translate into improved conditions within our communities?

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The majority of participants believe that we accomplished the event outcomes very/somewhat well

• Connections– Getting outside of my organization and connecting with other fascinating people doing

like-minded work. – The diverse participants and a design that allowed me to build relationships and work

with them! – I left excited about continuing relationships and conversations beyond the conference.

• Content– The sense of spaciousness combined with relevant content. Tough balance, done

expertly. – The tool sharing and small group work. – The design and design thinking frame, the speaker's presentations! – I found the most helpful and informative part of Creating Space to be Heather and

Michael's presentations. Although we often think a didactic delivery is not ideal, I actually learned and valued the most in hearing about their work.

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Participants mostly valued the opportunity for connections, the quality of the content, and the diversity of participant perspectives

• Participant perspectives– The participants. The exercises were great, particularly the Open Space Design Studio,

but it's always about the people. – The mixture of the participants was really useful for my learning and broadening of

leadership development – The level of depth offered by some participants - i.e. leadership can be painful / struggle -

and when what we're really talking about when we say things like "diversity" and "inclusive."

• Other– It all built in a good way, one activity led to the next nicely and nudged us deeper into our

questions. And to come away w/the learning groups (if they actually happen) will be wonderful.

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Participants mostly valued the opportunity for connections, the quality of the content, and the diversity of participant perspectives

• Network mapping• Design thinking

– I was familiar w/design thinking, but now I feel comfortable sharing the concept w/others– Perhaps aspects of design thinking - although I didn't connect to this approach immediately, it

will be useful in specific areas of my work • Open space • Hugh Vazquez’s boat metaphor • Eugene Kim’s cultural assessment tool• Results accountability framework that Michael McAfee referred• Documenting evidence of program effectiveness that emerged from the evaluation session • Incorporating poetry into meetings• Inclusive leadership and racial equity • Meditation exercise• An intentional network approach, where solutions arise in response to challenges, rather than fixed

solutions being imposed from the top-down

• Not sure I would use any of them. I do a lot of movement-based community work for very specific equity outcomes, and none of the tools I explored in-depth are a good fit for the folks I work with. But I was inspired by the approaches.

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Participants identified several tools that they can use in their work, including network mapping, design thinking and open space

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Get exposure to new ways of learning

Learn about new tools, ideas or practices that could be helpful to your work

Learn about the resources of the Leadership Learning Community

Meet people who can be valuable resources for your work

Learn about resources and tools that incorporate a network lens to leadership development work

Reflect and recharge

53%

53%

60%

73%

73%

80%

Most successful outcomes of Creating Space:

n=15

The most helpful outcomes of CS included the opportunity to reflect, learn about network leadership, and meet people

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Recommend Creating Space to other leadership development colleagues

Visit the Leadership Learning Community website

Attend a Leadership Learning Community webinar

Register for the Leadership Learning Community newsletter

87%

87%

87%

93%

Follow up activities that participants are most likely to do:

n=15

Participants are highly likely to register for the LLC newsletter, participate in a webinar and recommend LLC

• I couldn't believe it but I think the last Creating Space I attended was in 2009 at the same location. It felt equally fabulous to me and more refined in the design. They were both tremendous.

• It felt surprisingly shorter. The focus on design thinking came through strongly and while overwhelming at the time, reflection would say I've been able to use that lens in a number of settings back at work.

• I liked the more homogeneous group. While there was wonderful diversity, everyone seemed to be quite experienced in leading leadership development programs.

• One of the best!

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Participants who had participated in other CS events before found this year’s event to be really successful

DESIGN

18

19

Mix of participants

Overall design of the event

Attention to different learning styles

The pacing of the event as a whole

Physical space and location

67%

67%

67%

67%

80%

Most helpful design elements

n=15

The most helpful design elements included the space/location, pacing, and mix of participants

20

Somewhat effective

Very effective

7%

87%

How effective was the strategy to cap the group at 60 participants?

n=15

The majority of participants (87%) believe that the strategy to limit participation to 60 participants was very effective

• Quite effective as able to meet and truly connect with more people. If larger, would have been more challenging.

• The smaller size makes it easier to cross paths again with people and do that follow-on that goes deeper.

• I believe 60 allowed most of us to have some interaction with everyone in attendance. It felt right and intimate. It also allowed the opportunity to not be too overwhelmed.

• There were still folks that I didn't get to have meaningful conversations with, but nevertheless, did get to make many good contacts.

• Group was large enough to introduce diversity and variety, but small enough that I felt like I had a chance to at least meet a good percentage of the people in the room.

• I felt like I left connected to almost everyone there. • I liked the smaller format. It felt possible to interact with most folks and to also forge some

deeper relationships.

• 60 was 'intimate' for the full group, but for the number of breakout sessions there were it mean that some had light attendance

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The majority of participants (87%) believe that the strategy to limit participation to 60 participants was very effective

22

Somewhat useful

Very useful

29%

64%

How effective was the focus on practical tools and applica-tions?

n=14

64% of participants believe that the focus on practical tools and applications was very effective

• It certainly felt more focused than previous gatherings. Both the design thinking and network mapping tools were very useful and practical. I've had several situations where I've been able to reference and use the thinking behind them.

• There's enough big thinkers in the room that the balance was there. I like the practical stuff. • I found this useful because it actually allowed you to develop more than a cursory knowledge about

the subject matter. I actually took away things I can put into practice. • I think because I'm new to the leadership development field, I'm still learning what inclusive,

networked, and collective means. Also, systems thinking, design thinking, network vs. program, etc. I'm still trying to figure out what these all mean and how to put them into practice. I'm excited though to learn more about this and find ways to apply them in my work.

• The Wednesday morning real-world example discussion was invaluable. Great opportunity to discuss this stuff in practice.

• I've always found CS to be quite practical.

• I found the interactions engaging, but I didn't walk away feeling like there were any tools or applications I would put into practice in my future work.

• I felt that there could still be more emphasis on practical tools and applications. • Design thinking presentation was a little too fast and the translation to OUR work (not just fast

prototyping of an object) was not fully made for me and many others I was with.

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64% of participants believe that the focus on practical tools and applications was very effective

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Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

13%

87%

How helpful was Odin's facilitation?

n=15

The majority of participants (87%) believe that Odin’s facilitation was very helpful

• Helpful in focusing and moving agenda along. However, the greatest learning happened within the space that others sharing were managing.

• He kept the schedule moving and on track with humor and sensitivity to participants questions and needs. Masterful.

• Odin was AWESOME. He kept the pace moving along without rushing anyone. He also kept us on track and directed the discussions where they needed to be. Beginning the morning with meditation and a poem was extremely meaningful and allowed you to clear all the head-chatter to begin the day as a focused engaged learner. He was great.

• Always tough to maneuver tough topics but I especially appreciated participants who spoke up about deeper issues of race & inequity - and seemed like more space/good energy could have been dedicated to those topics.

• Odin brings warmth, energy, and humor to any situation, but he is particularly skilled at listening thoughtfully to people in the room and acknowledging and adapting accordingly.

• Odin modeled very strong facilitation skills. He kept things moving along while allowing just the right amount of flexibility.

• He's very good at this. However, it would be good to have more people of color facilitating.

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The majority of participants (87%) believe that Odin’s facilitation was very helpful

• Format– The good combo of interesting topics and challenging us to take that next step. A room full of people

willing to do that.– Learning about new concepts/tools, then practicing them in an activity, then reflecting in our small

group.– The small group is useful because it encourages networking. I also think the Open Space design allowed

you to have a more in depth conversation. – Combination of case studies and applied learning to problem-solve. Felt like a learning community vs.

presenters and an audience.– Frequently modeling and speaking from the new paradigm.– The design thinking approach, but I do think this structure was lost some and not really applied in the

studio.

• Participants– The diversity of perspective.– I think you've got a good mix of folks in the room. Just not sure everyone is sharing their expertise --

because to sign up to share expertise in the open space portion means that you miss learning from someone else. So, I can see why folks would hesitate.

• The whole experience was transformative because all of the concepts were new to me.

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Participants believe that both the interactive format and mix of participants contributed to transformational learning

• This is the second gathering I attend at this venue. I appreciated the thoughtfulness in the planning.

• It was a perfect location and the hotel was quite affordable. I had never been to Oakland so that was great as well.

• Logistics were flawless. The team behind the scenes really deserves a lot of praise.

• The structure was odd: half a day at the beginning and end.• I would have preferred more natural materials/art materials to work with.

27

Participants appreciated the planning and coordination around the event

28

Other

Time for Network Building

Smaller Groups

Focus on Application

25%

33%

58%

75%

What supported the development of learning circles during the event?

n=12

Participants believe that the focus on application was the greater contributor to the development of learning circles during the event

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

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• Increase diversity of participants– Incorporate more grassroots leadership development work.– Reach out to the arts community! We're doing so much work in social justice. And we

need this framework to improve the great work we're doing. Also, we need to start thinking about creating leadership development programs/networks for the field as a whole.

– As an east coaster, I felt that it was heavily attended by those on the west coast and wondered if there was a cap to ensure diversity of region? I was looking for some more local people to connect with on issues of race and feel that is best done in person.

• Focus on application on last day– More small groups on third day which focuses on application moving forward with time

for individual written reflection and commitment to actions, coupled with small groups. Didn't get much out of group report back skits but other activities were good.

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Some recommendations for improvement include: increasing the diversity of participants, and more small groups focused on application

• More time– I especially appreciated the work session on Wednesday morning - but would have liked

to know more about how the two approaches have played out and how they're measuring / evaluating their impact.

– Maybe add another half day so that some of the programming can slow down a bit– Maybe start the tool share earlier. We all did the design thinking piece. Maybe it would

be interesting to start by posing questions that folks want answered and working groups on those. I loved the moment when people identified their level of expertise/experience w/certain issues. Maybe there's a way to do something like that early on and have a couple "resource"/experienced people meet w/those asking the question. Maybe they'll come up w/new.

– More studio space.

• More explicit about inclusiveness– More explicit threads around racial/class equity throughout. It was implied through the

term "inclusive" but was never fully explored.

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Other recommendations for improvement are: having more time and being more explicit about the “inclusive” aspect

• More opportunities to learn more about LLC– Didn't get the chance to learn more about what Leadership Learning Community is and

how to take advantage of the resources. The presentations in the beginning didn't seem to be given enough time or the chance to engage participants.

• Other recommendations– One of the comments I shared in the network mapping small group session was the

potential for that mapping tool to connect more of the CS participants were there a way to share info about participant interests back to facilitate one's planning about who to connect with during the gathering. There is too much happening at CS to accommodate all this potential networking in such a short time.

– Think about different tracks for folks who are doing different kinds of work? Organization, Community, Individual or something?

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Other recommendations for improvement are: more opportunities to learn about LLC, develop tracks for different kinds of work

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

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34

67%

33%

Have you participated in other Creating Space events before?

No Yes

n=15

67% of participants were new to Creating Space this year

35

2 years or less

2-5 years

10-15 years

More than 15 years

6-10 years

7%

13%

13%

27%

40%

How long have you been involved in leadership devel-opment?

n=15

The majority of participants have been involved in leadership between 6 and 15+ years

36

Participants’ work is mostly situated in the nonprofit sector

Corporate

Foundation

Academia/ Education

Consulting Firm (or Independent Consultant)

Nonprofit Sector

1

2

3

4

8

Your leadership work is part of:

n=14

37

Participants’ leadership work is mostly around nonprofit, grassroots, network, movement-building and community

Nonprofit or social sector

Grassroots

Network

Movement-building

Community