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Collaboration Thanks.

I can live for two months on a good compliment - Mark Twain.

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving and a tinge of gratitude is felt in the Fall-time air and a notion of holding appreciation is infused in family meals and friendly gatherings. This spirit of thanks has us wondering what would happen if it was also infused within people’s collaboration and working together environments.  

In the book Heart at Work by Jack Canfield and Jacqueline Miller, entrepreneurial visionary Ronald E. Guzik writes of the benefits of praising your way to team success. He relates three ways to increase team confidence and sustainability:

1. Recognize yourself and your own accomplishments.  (Doing this makes it easier for you to appreciate others)
2. Cultivate the habit of looking for what people do right.  (Extend this to what groups/teams do right)
3. Speak up when you see something good.  (Don’t just notice how others are contributing – tell them)

It seems quite simple really, to motivate and empower people to work together, make sure they feel appreciated!  So today, in honour of Thanksgiving, take a moment to reflect on team morale boosters. Stop and acknowledge what you bring to collaboration, what you notice others doing “right” in their collaboration and think of creative ways you can authentically praise one another.

As the above Mark Twain quote implies... there is something nourishing about being noticed by another. The appreciation payback is guaranteed to last longer than any turkey leftovers. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Village Raising Question:

 What part of collaboration are you thankful for? When will you tell others?

Collaboration Compass: Finding Direction with Strengths

Want a quick, yet impact filled way, to start your next team meeting or community gathering? Try this activity that what we facilitated in a recent strategic planning session.

The Strength Compass Activity:

Draw compass points on a flip-chart. Ask people to pick the ONE compass point that most describes or reflects their personal preference (with the understanding that people likely have some aspects of all of these strengths).

Read out the following descriptions:
North: You are a let’s get it done person. All about the action
South: You are a let’s look at the big picture person
East: You are about inclusion of everyone’s feelings and voice
West: You pay attention to the details.

Have people stand and cluster in groups, based on their chosen compass points, and encourage them to talk about the strengths they each bring in their chosen area. Although people cluster together under one heading, it becomes clear that each person approaches their strength in a unique way. After small group discussion - capture the collective strengths on a flip-chart (like in the photo). Use this as a visual reference throughout any meeting to keep the various strengths in mind that can help influence things like strategic planning, goal setting or initiative task appointing. These strengths can help any plan come to fruition! Each time we have facilitated this activity there is a resulting buzz of conversation and a claiming of personal strengths that fills meeting rooms!

Here are two more resources filled with strength based approaches and community building tools:

1. We LOVE this Sierra Health Foundation resource that is chock full of asset minded activities. In particular take a look at their capacity inventory checklist and asset mapping activity. They ask things like... What do we have that will help us get there? What are our assets, resources, strengths or capacities? What are the gifts people can bring?
http://www.sierrahealth.org/assets/files/other_pubs/WDIO-We-Did-It-Ourselves.pdf

2. A Guide to Capacity Inventories: Mobilizing the Community Skills of Local Residents by John P. Kretzmann John McKnight and Co-directors Geralyn Sheehan. This document focuses on individual capacities and collective assets. One of the main questions they suggest communities should ask is: How will the skills and capacities of local people be translated into meeting community-building goals?
This resource takes community planning from thinking about needs (issues/problems) to thinking about capacities (tools to promote growth and enhance quality). Check out the capacity inventory checklist: http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/CapacityInventories%281%29.pdf

All of the above activities and resources speak to the power of finding collaborative direction with the STRENGTHS of the individuals and whole. Try it!

Discover the strengths that fill your collaboration compass!


Village Raising Question:

What is a strength filled activity you have used?

* Note: Does this activity interest you? If so, the collaboration compass can be found in our new book Village Raising: Learn, Think, Innovate and Act Together. This book is chock full of 60 engaging activities for group leaders.

* See related blog:
Who is the ultimate team member? Using collective strengths.  http://raisingthevillage.blogspot.ca/2012/09/who-is-ultimate-team-member.html 

3 Questions that Lead to Collaborative Focus

Last week’s blog set the reflective stage for your organization to think about collaborative focus.

One approach that can help organizations find and follow through with a strong collaborative focus is based on Jim Collins hedgehog concept. The concept is based on a parable, whereby a hedgehog outsmarts a fox by doing one big thing, sticking to it and doing it really well. According to Collins this concept is what takes companies from Good to Great (also the title of his book).  While this book is largely written with big business in mind, the concepts can easily be adapted for any organization. In fact Collins wrote a follow up monograph to accompany Good To Great specifically for the social sector which is also an interesting read.

So what is the Hedgehog concept?  It’s where leaders can discover their capacity, competence and the consistent activities that will boost your organizations work.

 It’s all about reaching an understanding based on three core questions...

1. What is your organization deeply passionate about?
2. What drives your economic engine?  (For non profit organizations consider this two ways; what drives your resource engine? and what drives your socio- economic results?)
3. What can you be the best in the world at? (This refers to your organization’s unique contribution and what it CAN be best at – not what it WANTS to be best at).

While the concept is somewhat simple, reaching collective understanding and focus takes time. Go over and over the three questions above (and do pick up Jim Collins book for more guidance of how to work through the Hedgehog Concept and to move your organization from Good to Great). Enjoy the dialogue and focused collaboration!  It’s through exploration of questions like these that you will unearth your core activities and strategic decisions.

Village Raising Question:

What is ONE thing that could bring the greatest single impact to your initiative?

(add more later).