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 

Who is the Ultimate Team Member?

Who is the Ultimate Team Member?

...Hint:  It’s found in your collective strengths.

The fabric of our lives is constructed person by person. As our relationships increase, we benefit geometrically: Our lives become richer, and we expand our strengths through others.

-Donald O.Clifton & Paula Nelson from the book Soaring with Your Strengths (1992).

Are you on the lookout for ways to bring out the strengths of your team or collaborative group? Well, here’s a strength based team building idea that a friend and colleague recently shared (thanks Laura).  

Here’s how...

1. Divide your team into small groups of 4. Each person within the small group is to answer:

•        What are the individual strengths you bring to the group?
•          What are the positive attributes you hold that support the success of the group?

     Have each person (or one group recorder) jot down the list of strengths and attributes.

If people are limiting themselves with their responses, clarify what the definition of a strength is. One of our favorite definitions comes from strengths guru Marcus Buckingham, he defines strengths as, “those activities that make you feel strong – an activity that strengthens you".

It is not necessarily the things other people think you are good at, although you can ask your team mates to help unearth what strengthens you in your work. Ask your team mates...When do you notice me lighting up at work? What’s going on? What strengths reside there? And see if it resonates with you.  

2.    Pass out a large sheet of paper with markers to each small group. This will be the drawing ground for the “ultimate team member”.  Read the individual strengths and from that list draw an imaginary person that possesses each attribute. This person should also receive a name, have a picture drawn of them, and have their different strengths labeled along with a story which highlights all the things this person can do and the characteristics they hold.

3.  Debrief and report out: Have each small group describe their person and read their story. Ask questions as you look at the collective visual display of strengths:

 

What connections are you making?

Based on these “ultimate members”, what’s available within our team?

What does this mean for our team weaknesses?

What are we capable of?

How might this add to our working together? How will we use this information?

This is a collective look that reminds us of the benefit of not always working solo!

Village Raising Question:

What strengths are identified in your teams? How might you draw out more of them?

 

 

Your Turn:

Do this exercise with a team or group you are involved with and post a picture of your collective “ultimate team members” to the RTV facebook page and help share the strengths momentum. 

Collaboration Trap: Burn Out! Try the 4 D's.

How many times have you heard these kinds of statements? “It’s always the same people that show up at the table over and over” or “The project just seemed to fizzle out”.

Welcome to the place of burnout! This energy zapping place often occurs when people who are deeply committed and passionate about their work are potentially doing too many activities that drain them.

You can prevent (or reduce) burnout with the 4 D’s:

• Discuss succession planning from the get go of every community initiative. Have a plan.  What does the end of our working together look like? What will be in place when the work or position is ready to be turned over?
• Don a direction mindset and reconnect to your personal leadership mission and goals and where you are going as a group. When we stay connected to the greater picture or direction our actions are infused with greater purpose and burnout is less formidable.  
• Ditch or delegate by really, truly delegating and ditching the things that drain you. Break projects up into manageable chunks and open the opportunity for someone else to grow. Someone else may hold the very strength and passion to do the job that drains you.
• Drink in the successes and celebrate, celebrate, and celebrate! Acknowledging people cannot be under-rated on the engagement and burnout prevention scale.

Village Raising Question?

How do you combat leadership burnout? What keeps you (and your group) energized?

What engages YOU? The 3 C’s of Personal Engagement.

This week we answer the question: If we want to improve engagement in our communities we need to understand what personally engages us. How do we uncover that and what benefits does that bring to the engagement process?

 “Leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It is a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others.”  ~Kouzes and Posner~ 

As this quote suggests, there is great potential if we think of engagement as a process of bringing forth OUR best and fostering the leadership in all of US. It’s when we uncover what personally engages us, and align that with the work that needs to be done, collaborative action will flourish.

We can uncover what engages us by knowing what calls to us, what sustains us and what makes us feel strong.  The more we notice our strengths and become engaged in our own lives – the more engaging we are to others and the more open and accepting we become to seeing others for the uniqueness they bring. Be curious about why people come, why they stay, and what keeps their momentum going over time. When we do this we know what we need to tap into to keep things engaged.

Knowing what engages you personally helps with the 3 C’s:

• Concentration: When we engage from a strengths filled place the result is focused goals, intentions and visions
• Calling: A strengths approach increases meaning and purpose to the work. The stronger the connection or the calling a person sees between themselves and the work, the more enthusiasm and energy they will feel able to devote.
• Confidence: Strengths increase confidence and commitment in decision making abilities. It’s easier to decide what to do – and follow through - when you know what engages and BINDS you to it.

Village Raising Question:

What would happen if you took a strengths filled approach to your community work?

Which one of the three C’s do you want to put into practice this coming week? How? Tell us about it!

Looking for more strength filled resources and HOW TO's of personal engagement?

 See online at www.raisingthevillage.ca for the Vibrant Life – Vibrant Leaderships workbook, where we were inspired by Lance Secretan’s process of guiding leaders through a process of defining their destiny, calling and cause and by Stephen R. Covey’s work of finding your voice as well as Marcus Buckhingham’s and Jennifer Fox’s strengths work.  

Related blogs:

Strengths Compass

Your project is over...now what? Where will that next step lead? What direction to take?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~Lao Tzu~

You’ve just invested a boat load of energy into a meaningful project and you’ve evaluated the learning (see last week’s blog). Yes, the project is over. Now what? Where will that next step lead?

In the case of the North Island College ECCE “Community through the Eyes of Children” project the coordinators (Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk) immediately wanted to explore the potential in the next steps.

Here are some of the things we noticed from observing their process.

When exploring next steps consider...

1) The learning (in this case, learn from previous projects and participant/coordinator feedback)
2) The research (in this case inspired by Reggio Emilia and Emergent Curriculum)
3) The themes that emerged (how to nurture children’s CREATIVITY popped)
4) The potential next directions (they decided on - “Creativity through the Eyes of Children”)
5) The ways to re-ignite the vision and celebrate the previous project success! Give updates too!

This was done by gathering the participant centres’ to explore how the new direction might strengthen and align with their work and build off of the previous project. They listened to people’s thoughts and reactions and further developed the direction as they went. Picture a dialogue rich evening focused on “What does CREATIVITY mean to you?” complete with hands on interaction (goop and overhead projector painting – we are talking about creativity here). Total experiential learning.

It seems from our Raising the Village observation lens, that the next steps continued to reveal themselves in the act of doing. They came both in having a plan with directions and goals AND in the openness to see what would emerge.

Village Raising Questions:
What do you consider when taking next steps?
What does creativity mean to you? What does this add to your work and life?

(p.s. The “Creativity through the Eyes of Children” project continues. Interested in more details? Contact Alanna or Theresa via North Island College http://www.nic.bc.ca/ ).

RTV # 48 Find the bright spots.

A Year of Raising the Village. Week #48 - Find the Bright Spots

At Raising the Village - we are proponents of strength based thinking and strength based approaches. So when we first heard about the work of Jerry and Monique Sternin, we were intrigued by a new strength based change model - one that "flips the standard protocol on its head" - called positive deviance.

In their book entitled The Power of Positive Deviance: How unlikely innovators solve the world's toughest problems, authors Richard Pascale, Jerry and Monique Sternin outline a highly village-like approach to tackling complex issues. They write;

Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by all concerned.

Their discovery of this method was in Vietnam, 1990, working with very poor villages whose children suffered from malnutrition. The cause of the malnutrition was systemic - lack of clean water, immense poverty, no social support beyond the occasional food handout, a collapsed health care system, a US trade embargo against Vietnam, and the inevitable political hurdles.


This fascinating story is told in their book, and also in Switch by Dan and Chip Heath (another great read about change). The positive deviant practices were found by interviewing families who, despite the villages' dire situation, had children who were well nourished. They called these families bright spots. What made their practices different was identified by the villagers and local volunteers. The practices that could be replicated were then introduced to the village. The consultants played a background role in the process as the villages, themselves, found strategies and implemented them.

The result? A 65-80% reduction in childhood malnutrition in 22 Vietnamese provinces with a total population of 2.3 million. And the change (drum roll please) is a sustainable one!

Real, sustainable change, according to the Sternins, begins with new behaviors rather than new knowledge. And since these new behaviors come from real people – rather than from top down or fancy consultants – there’s real ownership of the solution rather then merely a buy-in. In this process, the very people whose behavior needs to change to solve the problem are the ones who discover the solution.

At first we thought - well good for them but that kind of thing wouldn't work in North America! The book goes on to tell a number of stories from other places around the world - including Pennsylvania.

So...this week's village raising strategy borrows from the thinking of positive deviance. As community builders, let us re-frame how we approach community change, and consider how we can support a process that finds and spreads the positive practices of the bright spots.

We would LOVE to learn from your experience! Please share (through comments or by email) your stories about finding positive deviants and enabling them to spark sustainable change.

RTV #43 Know it, gift it!

A Year of Raising the Village: Week #43 Know it, gift it.

Drum roll please...we have a WINNER for the 1st annual RTV Know it Design Scholarship. And the winner is...


Before we reveal the name (and to keep you reading for a tad) let us offer up a bit of backgrounder behind this whole notion of a RTV Design scholarship. How did it come to be?
If you’ve read our book, followed our blog or participated in one of our workshops, then you know we are huge “come from a place of strength” believers. So when it was time to co-create our latest Raising the Village work plan we decided to redesign and add pieces to our village raising efforts that were largely based on our strengths. Now it’s one thing to know your strengths and another to offer them up. Voila, we decided to gift a free of charge scholarship to ONE lucky applicant.

What is this Know It Design Experience you ask? It’s for people who are:

• Looking for inspired agenda or workshop planning


• Seeking new engagement strategies


• Needing a fresh perspective or some facilitation clarity


• Wanting more energized collaboration


• Planning an important community meeting or initiative – but want more ideas on how to proceed (or maybe don’t even know where to start).

It’s for those that want to
1. Know Yourself (your leadership, mindset, goals, strengths)
2. Know Your Group (the group’s goals, vision, development)
3. Pick a Process (a process that moves forward your goals)

Based on the thoughtful applications we received there are definitely people looking for this type of experience. We are incredibly grateful for all of the applicants in this year’s scholarship. We want to work with all of you and will be in touch with some additional ways to connect. Thank you for taking the time to reflect on your community/group goals and for sharing these with us. We hold your responses in great regard and feel inspired by the amazing scope of leadership out there! These applications were true testaments of what you do know about your groups and the gifts you bring to them.

Alas, there can only be one winner. Drum roll please... the winner is Sally Christie of New Zealand. Congratulations Sally, we’ll be in touch!

Tammy & Tracy

Village Raising Question: What are your strengths? How do you gift them?

RTV #33 - Turning Cantankerous into Cooperative!

The glass is half full AND half empty!

A Year of Village Raising, Week #33. Turning Cantankerous into Cooperative.

It's a dangerous thing to look at community building through glasses so "rose coloured" that the complexities of human nature is dulled down to an insipid, pleasant monotone. People are COMPLICATED and working with people is COMPLEX! In your village-raising activities, keep your eyes wide open for personalities, characteristics and quirks that make life more interesting, and may create a little more work!

"Difficult people" is a common label used in group facilitation resources. We cringe when we hear that. Similar to parenting, it is the behaviour that might be difficult, not the person! Taking the time to understand why the behaviour is coming across as difficult is one of the keys to turning cantankerous into cooperative!

Think of someone that comes across as confrontational, disagreeable and contrary (at least sometimes!).  Ask yourself these questions to uncover their cooperative sweet spot.

1. Start with yourself - how are you coming across? Are you being clear? Are you threatening the status quo in a way that makes change scary? Are you consistently approachable, equitable and transparent? What is it about you that could be a trigger for this behaviour?

2.  Is the person in over their head? Is the behaviour a defensive mask of a lack of confidence and/or ability? Is there a way to offer training opportunities or group learning that evens the playing field?

3. Consider the strengths of the person, are they being used? Are the being used at appropriate times?  (first question: do you even know their strengths?)

In our travels, we have found that people who have amazing critical thinking skills, or those who are deliberative about risks or those who are involved to work, not to make friends often come across as "difficult" to others who are more idea driven, action eager and glass half-full. Make sure that there is a shared understanding of the various stengths that people bring, and USE them...otherwise, you'll find people fighting the process to try to get some kind of contribution in at all cost.

4.  A group check-in might be in order! Is the group's direction on the same track as when people first got involved? Or has it evolved and left some people out?

5. Is the difficult behaviour actually not difficult at all - but adding a dose of healthy conflict, richness, depth and diversity of thinking? If so, yet people are feeling "bothered" by the behaviour, it might be a time to shake things up. Don't allow group-think to alienate those that have the courage to think differently!

So raise your half-empty and half-full glass up to healthy conflict that keeps community builders on their toes!

RTV Week #9- Abandon Inhibitions and Flash Mob It!

A Year of Raising the Village - Week #9



What is the point in a Flash Mob Dance?

It was one of those “what fun” kind of ideas that caught a spark and quickly spread...a Flash Mob Dance in our local community. Yes, we wanted to take part in a mob but couldn’t picture Tracy and Tammy choreographing this kind of village raising movement! What are two community builders to do? We looked beyond our personal set of strengths and passed the sparky idea onto someone else! Enter Ellie Badham... who picked up the dancing reins and became the fearless leader, choreographer, and coordinator for the Alberni Valley Footloose Flash Mob Dance. Ellie was an expression of confidence and passion for dance – quickly bringing people into the mix. There didn’t seem to be a bump into the road until one colleague asked... “Sounds fun but what’s the point”?

A great question! What was the point? Why organize a flash mob dance? How does this build community?

A flash mob, defined by Wikipedia as “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse”.

Think about the possibilities in that!

A Flash Mob Dance can:

• Encourage people to break out of the “box” together
• Promote health and wellness (a community moving together)
• Illustrate a ripple effect – how a small group can spread enthusiasm and energy that “catches” to others. A living picture of synergy
• Express strengths – in this case an individual (yeah -Ellie) stepped up to share her strengths, passion and leadership
• Generate a buzz – business, non profits and social causes are using this non-traditional way to promote awareness of products and issues
• Spread a message in a positive economical way – using available social media! For example: a Vancouver school organized an anti-bully flash mob dance where participants wore a shirt that said “Acceptance: Just the way you are”
• Get people talking! Not only those participating but those watching are likely to take photos or videos and share with their connections.

With this in mind we became backstage helpers by spreading the word and promoting the event as a way to infuse a burst of community energy and spirit in celebration of children, families, community and our local Arts District. Several schools came on board by teaching the dance in their schools and in one case an entire school gathered in a field on anti-bully day and performed the dance together! A local senior’s group didn’t hesitate to put on their dancing shoes and join the community beat. On the day of the dance it was interesting to watch a quiet corner of the community suddenly come alive with a footloose buzz. Multi-generations, a city councillor, teachers, families, early year’s table members... all gathered to dance together in the street!

We are sold on the idea of Flash Mob’s (not just dances – search the web for the many types of flash mob’s) as a creative and fun way to bring community together and to spread positive messaging!

Here is the link to our local dance (yes - we are in there).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtBIS-OhNS8



Village Raising Questions

What is a non-traditional approach your community could take to generate a buzz?

If you were organizing a flash mob ....what message would you send?

What creative ideas do you have for bringing people together?

RTV#3 - Share your strengths! Teach others in your community about something that fires you up!

A Year of Raising the Village: Week #3 – Share your Strengths!

When planning your next community workshop or event consider local community members as the honoured guest speakers and presenters!

Use your local assets! Consider this "skills auction" concept whereby people donate a day of "teaching a skill" e.g. How to compost or how to use Facebook. This could be extended to become a great family day event. Imagine families of all ages learning how to make honey or birdhouses from someone local in the community. In turn, encourage families to teach and share about one of their passions, talents or gifts. We have seen firsthand how sharing your strengths builds a sense of community – one where every person can see their contribution to the larger!

Village Raising Tip: Go local and use your internal resources!

For more on strengths see these other RTV blogs: Sparkling Dreamcatcher and Village Raising - Strength Style!

Village Raising – Strength style!

“What makes you feel strong?”

Imagine being asked this question at the start to every team, organizational or community meeting you attended. Then, what if you are given the space and time to speak what strengthens you! Nice, right? Take this one step further and imagine your strength declaration being directly applied to a plan that moves forward the work at hand. Tis’ this not the energized life and work we seek?

Although it may not be practical to partake in a full strengths discovery in every meeting – strengths can be incorporated in some way into every kind of meeting. Each person is full of strengths and carries them everywhere they go. Strengths are part of our DNA if you will. We do not hang our strengths up on a coat rack when we enter a meeting room or work zone and leave them behind (although we may not be using them to their fullest). For us at Raising the Village, we often hear that people struggle with how to take their personal strength knowledge and use it beyond a level of general or self awareness. People are looking for ways to bring their strengths to the bigger picture – to their teams, organizations and communities!

We offer 7 concrete examples that focus on how you can take your group’s strengths (both individual and collective strengths) and actually integrate them into action.

1. Use strengths directly in your action plan to put some momentum behind your projects. “This is going to get done by making full use of [insert strength here]”.

2. Examine strengths alongside local research data. See what your community is really good at and USE those things to address any challenges or to compliment what the research says.

3. Bring a community strength list out during times of conflict or territorial issues between partners. Ask the group how the strengths can be used to help solve tricky ‘working together” problems or to determine which “roles” to play in decision making processes.

4. Look at challenges/projects with different perspectives. For example, ask: What is the benefit of looking at this through a strength lens of [insert strength here]? What would an [insert strength word here] view say?

5. To encourage creative thinking – put the group’s strength words into a hat. With a clearly defined challenge or issue on the table, pull out a couple of strengths and force some associations between them. This will help to think about the challenge in a new way.

6. Use strengths in evaluating what works. Have a space on meeting evaluation forms that asks people; “How did you use your strengths in today’s meeting?” Be brave enough to also ask; “If you did not use your strengths today…why not?”

7. Build confidence in your community by focusing on what jazzes people up. Strengths can be recognized and celebrated in an ongoing way. Consider a visual display of strengths (individual and community) in your meeting room, place of work or gathering spot.

Good ole Law of Attraction states that we tend to create what we focus on the most. Besides, honouring people for who they are and what they bring, incorporating strengths into our organizational or community cultures make it easier and safer for people to offer up their best. Using our strengths creates a vibrant personal life which in turn feeds into vibrant villages (and vice versa). It’s this work that strengthens individuals and communities and keeps strengths off the coat rack.

Village Raising Questions:
What’s important about sharing our strengths?
What strengths are you ready to offer up more intentionally?
How might you do this in a collective way?

Sparkling Dream Catcher

Photo Copyright - Tammy Dewar

Think not of the things you do well but of the things you are proud of, the things that instinctively put a spring in your step or a song in your heart. (Raising the Village, 2009).

This statement takes me back to a time when I facilitated a young parent group. Picture a diverse group of young mothers gathered around a table in a school room, unsure of their connection to each other, or the parenting group. Intent on getting to the heart of working together, questions were posed such as, “What would you like to share with each other? How can we share things that matter to us?” Quiet was the response... until one girl spoke up.

“I can make dream catchers.”
“Awesome! What’s important about making dream catchers?” I asked.

This mother proceeded to tell the group how it was an important part of her culture and how she had made a special dream catcher to hang above her child’s crib to ward off bad dreams and bring restful sleep (and you know that statement has an impact on any new parent)!

This intimate disclosure of parental love was the spark to get the group ideas flowing. One by one, the participants expressed areas that fired them up- the sharing was phenomenal. Future meetings were planned based on identified strengths which brought personal meaning to each participant. The dream catcher session was a highlight! A group of young mothers gathered in a circle making dream catchers filled with colour and love for their children. As the young parent led the group that day, she not only instructed others how to weave and twine the materials around the rim, she sparkled with a deep inner confidence that was powerful to witness. The opportunity to teach her crafting skill (and something close to her heart) with the other parents seemed to take her to a place that was rich in belief – belief in herself and her talents. What resulted was a group connection woven through the dream catchers and the people... providing a feeling of voice, unity and strength.
Tammy

Village Raising Question

What makes you sparkle with confidence? How might you share your “dream catcher” sparkle with others in your community? Notice how this might build a collective strength.

Note: This story is edited and adapted based on a story in our book Raising the Village (2009).