Discovery Cafe: Focus Group Methodology for Organization Development and Organization Change...

JSchenck NH DHHS Discovery Cafe1

Discovery Cafe: Focus Group Methodology for

Organization Development and Organization Change

Presented by: Jillian R SchenckNew Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Human Resources, Organization Development and Training Services

NSDTA 2015

NSDTA 2015 Session Presentation


Session Description

Discovery Cafe: Focus Group Sessions for Organization Development and Organization Change

NSDTA 2015

Opportunities for meaningful discussions about our organizations are invaluable for vibrant, relevant work to be accomplished. Meaningful discussions are also difficult to accomplish in our complicated, busy work cultures. We'll explore how focus group discussions work, some research behind the use of them, examine steps to organize and facilitate, capturing useful data and ideas to utilize the data. The work is based on 'Discovery Cafe', a focus group process used within the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to help management see and explore how employees really feel and what they are really seeing in the organization and develop steps to address concerns revealed.

JSchenck NH DHHS Discovery Cafe3 NSDTA 2015

What if a conversation begun today could ripple out and create new possibilities?

What if Conversation is how things get done?


NH DHHS Discovery Cafe

•Exploring how employees see their work world

•Developing strategies to create desirable change in the workplace

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NH DHHS Culture – SWOT Analysis

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Strength Leadership wants to hear employee voice 2700 employees

Weakness Trust issues at all levels 2700 employees

Opportunity ‘Permission’ to conduct listening sessions

Threat Suspicion of usefulness of listening

sessions


NH DHHS Culture – Discovery Cafe Events

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Discovery Cafe events Groups of less than 20

Held at community college sites (neutral sites that provided regional event locations)

2 hour sessions

Groups selected randomly from employee listings sorted geographically & by supervisor / non-supervisor

Information gathered, recorded


Discovery Cafe 2010 & 2012

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2010: “Exploring Opportunities and Challenges in the Work Environment” Provided perspective on the current workforce climate

2012: “Putting Our Conversations to Work” Encouraged participation in Department-wide initiatives

Both events focused largely on exposing and discussing issues; initiatives primarily focused on systems and work environment changes

Themes that emerged: Operations, Workforce Development, Leadership Development, and Community


Outcomes

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Operations HR Employee Entrance and Exit Mandatory supervisor training Redesign of DHHS New Employee Orientation Department-wide staff recognition program DHHS electronic timesheet

Workforce Development Office Safety Protocol Compassion Fatigue: Front Line Support & Training Internship Process Improvement Employee wellness education sessions


Outcomes (continued)

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Leadership Development Performance Management & Appraisal Training Increase supervisor training and development

opportunities

Community Increased development and attention to

Public Education of HHS mission and functions Pro-active sharing with media and public

relations regarding DHHS


NH DHHS Discovery Cafe -Reporting the Results

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Reporting back from Discovery Cafe events Information gathered, recorded by event

Emergent themes noted

Information combined under themes where possible

Report with overview of insights, ideas and initiatives provided back to employees

Initiatives targeted, action plans developed & implemented


DHHS Discovery Cafe Sample Document










Discovery Cafe 2015

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“A Stronger Future Together” Building on strengths present in the

workforce to develop actionable ideas to further strengthen the organizational culture and climate of DHHS

Intended to engage the workforce across the department in day-to-day actions & behavior changes to influence culture change


Cafe Conversations:Philosophy & Design

• Based on “The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter”

• Not your typical Focus Group methodology

• Opens up a large topic for exploration

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The World Café is a simple yet powerful method for large and small groups of people to:

• foster collaborative dialogue • share and create new knowledge• build community• inspire collective action

What is the World Cafe?

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World Café

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

(powerful when used together!)

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The World Café model is especially useful when you have:

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A limited amount of time

A lot of people

Questions that matter to the people gathered

The intention to build community, strengthen relationships and engage everyone's unique contribution

Desire to access collective intelligence that come from the intentional rapid cross-pollination of diverse perspectives and ideas


Purpose

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Generate input, share knowledge, stimulate innovative thinking, explore action possibilities

Create a dense web of connections in a short period of time as threads of conversation reveal new patterns


1. Communication Across Silos

2. Broad Engagement on Strategic Initiatives

3. Create Shared Direction, Momentum for Action

4. Cross Pollinate Learning, Generate New Insight

5. Build Community and Trust

6. Uncovering Deeper Issues

Cafe Outcomes

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The knowledge and wisdom we need is already

present and accessible

Intelligence emerges as the

system connects to

itself in creative ways

Listening into the center

Connecting ideas

Noticing new

possibilities

Honoring unique

contributions

Collective insight evolves

from…

CAFÉ ASSUMPTIONS

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• Diversity of Perspectives

• Cross Pollination of Ideas

• Attention to Meta Level Themes & Patterns

• Questions that Matter to People

And when we acknowledge:• We have the capacity, creativity and

wisdom to address our most challenging issues!

Outcomes Are Better When Informed By. . .

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Key Principles: Shaping our futures through conversations that matter

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1. Context

2. Welcoming Environment

3. Genuine questions that matter

4. Encourage full participation

5. Cross-pollinate conversations

6. Collaboration and innovation from listening

7. Insights and patterns from reflection

8. Gather and share to identify action priorities

JSchenck NH DHHS Discovery Cafe

Utilizing Appreciative Inquiry

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Values what is

Envisions what might be

Engages in dialogue about what should be

Develops strategies to bring about what will be


Appreciative Assumptions

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• Systems move toward what we focus on

• The language we use helps to create our reality

• Confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) comes from carrying forward the best parts of the past (the known).


Problem Solving vs. Appreciative Inquiry

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o Define the Problem

o Fix what’s broken

o Focus on the decay

o What problems are you having?

Search for Solutions that may already exist

Amplify & replicate what is working

Focus on life giving forces

What is working well?


Outcomes of Appreciative Inquiry

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Recognition and affirmation of the organization’s strengths, values and core competencies

Deep understanding of the factors that contribute to individual and organization success

Strategies to build on individual and organizational success


How does a Cafe Conversation Work?

Rounds of conversation at different tables Different question for each roundEach Conversation builds on the previousLook for themes & connections

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Paper on tables to create a visual memoryRelax & enjoy! Harvest Collective Insight & Learning Connect to Next Steps


Sample Event Agenda Overview(2 Hour Event)

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1) Arrival & welcome (5 min)

2) Cafe context, process, etiquette (10 min)

3) Conversation, Round 1 (30 min)



6) Personal Reflection & break (10 min)

7) Insights & Sharing (Harvest) (10 min)

8) Next Steps (5 min)

9) Request for Feedback (5 min)

10) Adjourn





• Say hello • Begin the conversation with

Question 1

Café Round 1

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What if listening together reveals a deeper

intelligence?

Café Round 2• Table Host shares major ideas from

Round 1• Conversations continue, using

Question 2 to develop deeper ideas & themes


Café Travelling Instructions…

• One person stays as host

• Others move to different tables

• Host welcomes new people

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Hosting is an attitude as much as an activity

What if intelligence emerges as the system connects to itself in diverse and creative ways?


Café Round 3:• Host shares one nugget or theme from

Round 2

• Explore the conversation: what themes, connections and insights are you seeing from your first two rounds?

Consider:What happened?What made the conversation possible? What happened after?What made it meaningful for you?

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Discovery Cafe 2010Questions

Based on the request from the DHHS Commissioner to ‘find out how people are feeling about working for DHHS’

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Discovery Cafe 2012Questions

Based on the request from the DHHS Commissioner to find out

1) Are employees aware /impacted by the initiatives since 2010, and

2) How are they doing now?

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Harvesting our Collective Wisdom

Identify patterns, collective knowledge and new possibilities; themes, connections, insights, new questions or ideas…

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What if the harvest provides nourishment for further exploration and action?


Innovation & Discovery in Collaborative Conversations

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Understand complexity Explore the views of all stake-

holders Test ideas and assumptions

together Build new knowledge collectively Generate innovative solutions


Discovery Cafe Harvest:Individual Reflection & Group Sharing

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What 3 wishes do you have for changing the organization?

What about this organization makes you glad you work here?

Describe one or two situations in which you felt most valued by this organization.

What would you do with this information if you could?


Considerations & Strengths of this Process

This process creates a movement from the traditional view that talk and action are separate to an understanding of conversation as a core process for re-creating our world

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When Designing a Café, Consider…

1. What is my Purpose and Intention?

2. How can I invite people so that the purpose and intention come through?

3. Who needs to be in the room?

4. Who will you partner with?- to design the Café questions- to “make it happen”

5. What are the questions that matter? NSDTA 2015



A Change of Pace & Style

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Informal, relaxed Frame- breaking Highly interactive All-inclusive Collaborative talking Connects Knowledge is in the room Innovative thinking Connect different

perspectives


Questions are intrinsically related to action, they spark and direct attention, perception, energy and effort…

Creativity requires asking genuine questions, those to which an answer is not already known.

Questions function as open-handed invitations to creativity, calling forth that which doesn’t yet exist.

-Marilee Goldberg Adams The Art of the Question

The Importance of Questions

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Focus on

what matters

Opportunity to meet new people

Collaborative

dialogueLink and

connect ideas.

Connect diverse perspectives


References

Brown, J., The World Café, San Francisco, CA, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2005

Cooperrider, D.L. & Whitney, D., Appreciative Inquiry, A Positive Revolution in Change, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2005

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Appendix

• Additional Quotes • Appreciative Inquiry information• DHHS Discovery Cafe sample

documents

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“Conversation is at the heart of the new inquiry. It is perhaps the core human capacity for dealing with the tremendous challenges we face. To engage in great civilization we need to ask questions that matter. We cannot afford to spend our time on issues that can’t hold our attention, that don’t touch our hearts. The culture of conversation is a different culture, one that could make a difference in the future of our world.”

-Institute for the Future

In Good Company: Innovation at the Intersection

of Technology and Sustainability


The capacity to see the world of the “other” sounds simple, but it is not. Yet it is the core of creating a new human history together.

Lic. Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, -Mexico’s Former Minister of Social DevelopmentNSDTA 2015


“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The idea of contribution is especially instructive because it lies in the area that unites the ‘I’ and the ‘we.’ We contribute because we are part of something larger than our own lives and efforts, but the form of our contribution is based on our uniqueness and our individuality.”

-Carol Ochs, Women and Spirituality


“There’s another aspect to fostering mutual intelligence. . .what I call creating the ‘collective mindscreen.’ How can we help people sense the whole, together? Harvesting and sharing key ideas and insights is like putting up tent poles. It’s what’s in the circle revealed by putting up those poles, not any of the individual poles, where the meaning of the conversation as a whole lies.”

-Finn Voldtofte, BDO ScanFutura


“Because questions are intrinsically related to action, they spark and direct attention, perception, energy, and effort, and so are at the heart of the evolving forms that our lives assume. . .. Creativity requires asking genuine questions, those to which an answer is not already known. Questions function as open-ended invitations to creativity, calling forth that which doesn’t yet exist.

-Marilee Goldberg, The Art of the Question


Appreciative Inquiry: What Is It?

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A framework for creating an imagined future that builds on the most positive and vital elements of the organization

What works well? Why does it works well? How we can extend that success across the

organization?


Positive Psychology

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Strength based

Participatory

Discover the best in people

Assumes every living system has something that works well already

People have positive experiences, successes, satisfaction, that can be shared


Appreciative Inquiry Model

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A.I. Phases

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Discovery: Inquiry into the life-giving properties of the team

Dream: Developing common images for the future’ visioning the ideal

Design: Aligning values, structures and mission with the ideal. Developing achievable plans and steps to make the vision a reality

Deliver: Co-create a sustainable, preferred future.


Discovery-Leads to the Positive Core

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Affirmative Topic Choice

Appreciative (positive) Questions

The Best of “what is”

Face-to-face interviews

Telling and listening to meaningful, personal stories of success

Sharing the Story

Drawing / Illustrating the Story


Dream – Leads to a positive change

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Builds upon what was “discovered” during first phase of AI

Articulate dreams and their purpose. Recall the strengths and values behind

each dream Tangible vision that describes the future

can actually give shape and direction to the future

Vision only helpful when it’s in a positive vein


Provocative Propositions

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A statement that bridges that best of “what is” (DISCOVER) with your own speculation or intuition of “what might be” (DREAM).

It is provocative to the extent to which it:◦ Stretches the realm of the of the status quo◦ Is stated affirmatively◦ Is grounded in the organizations reality◦ Challenges common assumptions or routines◦ Helps suggest real possibilities that represent

desired possibilities for the organization and its people.

David Cooperrider, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western University, Cleveland Heights, OH, 2002 February


Why Provocative Propositions?

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Help to clarify visions

Create a set of unique statements that paint a picture of the desired future

Do not need to be consolidated

Will provide direction as needed moving to the next stage of DESIGN

Provocative propositions are the group’s best attempt to put the dream picture into inspiring challenging action.

Should describe how the organization/group/community would feel and look when all chosen themes are “at their best”


Design – Leads to Action

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Concrete proposals for a new organization

Design Phase: Working from visions (dreams) to design actions, and needed systems and processes, that will help to lead to the desired future.


Destiny/Deliver Phase

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True translation of intent to action through implementation

Celebrate and build upon work accomplished in earlier phases

Align the actual practices with the Provocative Proposition created in the Design phase

Publicly declare your intentions

How do you make it so? (Deliver-implementation) How will you know when you have reached your

objective? How do you make sure it remains effective? (it’s

working)













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