Questions for a team start-up

What are your strengths?
How would you like to use your strengths in this experience?
What do you need to do your best?
How can we support you in bringing your best?
What do you want from this experience?
What do you know about yourself in work groups?
How do you best show up?
What concerns do you have about this experience?
What would you like to explore or try?
What are you passionate about?

Recharge with these continuing education opportunities

Several colleagues and clients have asked about places to recharge, regroup and rejuvenate. Here's a list of continuing education opportunities for change agents, leaders, creatives and everyone coping with the complexities of life.

Systems Thinking Conference, Nov 17-19, 2008, Boston
Sponsored by Pegasus -- helping individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in an increasingly complex world.

NTL Institute provides management training programs that enhance listening skills, communication skills, diversity, organization development and group dynamics. In Alexandria, VA and Bethel, ME.

Shambhala Institute is a vibrant meeting-place of people, practices, and ideas engaged at the frontier of organizational and societal change. Upcoming workshop is Organizational Trust: Cultivating authenticity, commitment and collaboration, April 22–23, 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario. Next summer institute is Authentic Leadership in Action, June 22–28, 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Robert Fritz, composer, filmmaker and organizational consultant, helps people and organizations create the results that matter to them. Public workshops in Newfane, VT include Your life as art, Creating for creators, Fundamentals of Structural Thinking.

Cape Cod Institute is a summer-long series of timely/lively week-long courses for mental health and management professionals, offered by master teachers in Greenwich, CT.

Omega Institute is a pioneer in exploring, teaching, and embracing new ideas, focusing on health and wellness, personal spiritual growth, and self-awareness. Summer programs in Rhinebeck, NY. Winter programs in Costa Rica, Northern California and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sol — Society for Organizational Learning. Founded by Peter Senge, SoL discovers (research), integrates (capacity development) and implements (practice) theories and practices of organizational learning for the interdependent development of people and their institutions and communities. In Boston.

Appreciative Inquiry is a revolutionary approach to strategic change and sustainable growth for organizations. The Commons, an online resource, lists public workshops, conferences and certification programs available world-wide.

Executive Education at Case Western in Cleveland, OH offers programs in Appreciative Inquiry and emotional intelligence.

Action Design helps individuals and groups in organizations develop their capability for inquiry, choice, and action on their most difficult issues. Public workshops in Boston.

Taos Institute is a community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value.

Interaction Associates offers workshops in facilitation, leadership, meeting management, change management, coaching, and trainer excellence. Public workshops are in San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Washington DC.

OD Network is a professional association of external consultants and professionals working within their organizations to promote healthy change. Next conference is Oct 19-22, 2008 in Austin, TX.

All of our continuing education bookmarks are at http://del.icio.us/unison/continuing-education.

Add to the list. Click on "Comments" below and add your favorite workshop, conference, "chill-out" retreat.

Evelyn Glennie: How to listen to music with your whole body

Deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie leads the audience through an exploration of music not as notes on a page, but as an expression of the human experience. Playing with sensitivity and nuance informed by a soul-deep understanding of and connection to music, she talks about a music that is more than sound waves perceived by the human ear. She illustrates a richer picture that begins with listening to yourself, and includes emotion and intent as well as the complex role of physical spaces -- instrument, concert hall and even the bones and body cavities of musician and listener alike.

From TED.

Stretch your performance with Plus-Delta

In The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge describes learning organizations "where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to learn together.”

“Once we start to become conscious of how we think and interact, and begin developing capacities to think and interact differently, we will already have begun to change our organizations for the better. Those changes will ripple out around us, and reinforce a growing sense of capability and confidence.” — The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, p. 48

Here is a simple evaluation tool developed at Boeing that stretches teams to even higher levels of performance.

Plus identifies what is going well, what the individual or team wants to maintain and build upon the next time.
Delta (∆ — the Greek symbol for change or gap) signifies those things that might be changed to improve the process or activity. Deltas are written with a positive outcome in mind, instead of “what went wrong.”

Once this exercise is incorporated into ongoing meetings, it can usually be done in 5 minutes. You’ll find the level of participation in meetings improves dramatically after only a few sessions.

Here’s how to use it.

On chart paper or a writeboard, draw a large “T”. Label “What worked?” and “What could we do differently?” above each column.

Identify the things that are working first (Plus); then list the Deltas — the items to do differently. Begin the Deltas with a verb to make them action-oriented.

Clarify assumptions and generalized descriptions. “This was great,” will need more information to be meaningful — “What specifically was appealing to you?” “What made it great?”

Act on the Deltas as soon as possible and bring the chart to the next meeting as a reminder of actions for focus.

Keep a cumulative log to periodically check as the Pluses and Deltas become habit with the group.

Uses and variations

Plus-Delta can be used for feedback in any setting with individuals or groups of any size.
> meetings
> project conclusion or mid-point
> personal reflection
> end of day
> end of week

I’ve used this with my niece and nephew on their visits to Los Angeles in an effort to improve each day and a goal of making this trip the “best ever.”

Variations include having individuals write on post-its, adding + or ∆ on each, and post on the chart. Or you can increase anonymity by using a paper evaluation form. The key to building organizational learning is to share the results.

Adding “Appreciations of Others” before the Plus-Delta exercise can improve safety within the group and the quality of the Plus-Delta feedback.

For your customers, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have developed a Customer Plus-Delta as part of their Creating Customer Evangelists process. For more information, see:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/2/huba2.asp
http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com

Please share your Plus-Delta variations by clicking on “Comments” below.

Applied leadership at JetBlue

From Lucy Garrick:

Here's an interesting example of applied leadership.
http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/promise/

This kind of response is rare from a corporation in the face of failure, and an admirable example of action learning in leadership under stressful conditions.

I would be interested in hearing any comments as to how this example enlightens that ever-recurring question:
"What does it mean to lead?"

Are you surprised at this company's response?
How does it compare to other experiences of organizaitonal failure you have had?
What does it teach you about your own leadership?
How might this example be applied your work?

Great expectations

No one believes their life will turn out "kind of OK." We all think we are going to be great.

And from the day we decide to be surgeons, we are filled with expectation.

Expectations of the trails we will blaze, the people we will help, the difference we will make. Great expectations of who we will be and where we will go.

And then we get there.

You've got to wonder, "Why do we cling to our expectations?"

Because the expected is just what keeps us steady, standing, still. The expected is just the beginning.

The unexpected is what changes our lives.

— Grey's Anatomy, Thu, Jan 25, 2007, Eric Buchman screenwriter

The Beatles principles

No time for reflection, beeping BlackBerrys, and a grind-it-out mechanistic process. Where's the time for fun to build creative, motivated teams?

Client loyalty expert Andrew Sobel writes about a team that learned to deliver the highest-level of performance while having fun at a legendary scale — the Beatles. Four ordinary guys found a way to achieve extraordinary artistic and financial success and have a great time together while they were doing it.

Sobel has distilled 10 principles for improving creativity and innovation based on the Beatles' creativity and team work:

1. Eight Days a Week — Face Time: Invest in and build face time between team members well before they are asked to pitch to a client.

2. Getting Better — Evolving Your Songs: Evolve your “songs” and bring the same level of ideas, new perspectives, excitement, and enthusiasm to your hundredth meeting with a client that you brought to the first.

3. Nowhere Man — Practicing Humility: Cultivate humility and self-effacement in your dealings with others, especially when you’re on the heels of great success.

4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da — Using Humor to Connect: Use humor, especially self-deprecating humor, to ease tensions, show you are human, and create an emotional connection with colleagues and clients.

5. With a Little Help from My Friends — A Role for Everyone: Help team members become brands-within-a-brand by giving them a song — an idea or proposal — that will help them to shine.

6. Here Comes the Sun — Honing Your Opening Measures: Carefully craft the first 60 seconds of all your communications — the opening measures of your songs — to command your audience to listen.

7. P.S. I Love You — Liking Your Public: Show your public — your clients, in every interaction, that you truly like them.

8. Two of Us — Sharing the Credit: Create a one-for-all, all-for-one culture by fostering a “Lennon/McCartney” equal-credit environment for teams.

9: Revolution — Having Conviction: Make sure your communications resonate with passion, belief, and sincerity — with conviction — if you want to be noticed by busy executives.

10: I Need You — Greatness from Differences: Put exceedingly diverse professionals on the same team, mix specialists with generalists, and foster friendly competition to produce the best ideas.

Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on building client relationships and is the author of business bestsellers Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty and Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop Breakthrough Relationships. His Beatles Principles article first appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Strategy+Business.

A pdf of the article can be downloaded at Sobel's Web site — andrewsobel.com.

What are your forbidden questions?

Over at The Authentic Organization blog, Michael Gilbert is compiling a list of forbidden questions — the questions no one asks. I often call it, the elephant sitting in the middle of the table.

Whether it’s to avoid conflict, preserve cultural bulwarks, protect power relations, or prevent disappointment, organizations often end up with a set of forbidden questions.

Some generic examples include:
Why are things done this way?
Who really makes these decisions?
How much is enough?
Who gets rewarded for what?
How is status conferred?
Who controls what information?

I'll add:
What is preventing me from speaking truth to power?
Why do we bother working together?
In what ways am I doing to others the very things I claim they should not do?

Post your forbidden questions at The Authentic Organization.

Changing the world of non-profits

Tom Suddes tackles the increasing dissonance between the archaic goals of typical not-for-profits and the realities of business. Suddes challenges us to think differently about these organizations.

Suddes sights Tim Kight’s “Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results they are getting,” and Einstein's definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” as inspiration for change.

Stop defining in the negative (not- non-); focus on impact.

Let impact drive the income. Change the goal of the organization from fundraising to increasing size and scope of impact.

Ask for whatever it is that you want to accomplish. Just ask for help. Just ask for involvement. Just ask for feedback. Just ask questions.

Suddes' 9 guiding principles are outlined in a ChangeThis manifesto.

Tough love

Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman B-school, looks at the tension between business-as-usual and business-by-design.

By focusing on the intuitive and experiential, organizations explore new sources of competitive advantage. By looking to the provable and replicable, organizations better exploit the innovations they've brought to market.

To prosper over the long run, a company needs to succeed at both. It must mesh the classical workings of a traditional organization with the prototypical features of a design shop, especially in three key areas: reckoning the future, organizing work, and establishing status and rewards.

Read the FastCompany article.