Updates from October, 2013 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Eugene Eric Kim 7:00 pm on October 31, 2013 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    I’d love all of your help in a little experiment in online deliberation. My friend, Travis Kriplean, has created a tool called ConsiderIt that I’ve been playing with, and I’d love all of your help in trying to evaluate it.

    The topic I’d like to discuss is Post-Its. As you all know, Post-Its are a pretty core tool for this kind of work. ForestEthics has recently charged 3M with making Post-Its from old growth forests. 3M has challenged that claim. I’m trying to decide what to do.

    To participate in this discussion, go to: https://fasterthan20.consider.it/6b2c096443

    As an interesting aside, @renee’s husband is in the green office supplies business, which I mentioned in one of my Pro cards.

    Would love it if you all took a few minutes to participate! Feel free to share your experiences of the tool in the comments below. Thanks!

     
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      Renee 1:01 am on November 8, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      thanks for thegreenoffice.com shout-out, Eugene! the tool looks kind of interesting, but i didn’t want to have to log-in to participate. log-ins are a barrier to entry for me… i don’t want to log in unless its something i know i’m going to use.

      • Eugene Eric Kim 3:19 pm on November 8, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Totally understand, @renee. Others have had similar pushback. Thanks for the feedback! I’ll write up the results of the experiment and share.

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    Brooking 12:13 am on October 31, 2013 Permalink |  

    Hey team – quick post-meeting check in…. really just a re-cap of what I shared at the end: left really appreciating what awesome self-reflection and learning opportunities that difficult (work) conversations can be… thinking about Divide or Conquer (Diane Smith’s work, here’s a fun little video that summarizes the book: http://www.actiondesign.com/resources/readings/divide-or-conquer/video/) and the role of childhood patterning in our work relationships… loving how work dynamics offer such a keen opportunity to explore our own patterning, conditioning, underlying assumptions, and vulnerability.

    Also SO appreciated the unique value each person brought to Marie’s process and how rich that kind of role play and group feedback can be! Totally cheering for Marie to have an awesome empowered positive outcome meeting 🙂

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 12:48 am on October 31, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Diana Smith’s book is another great reference to add to the Resources page. I’m going to add Getting to Yes as well.

      It’s also a reminder of the rich role that big companies have played in this space. Smith, for example, did a lot of work for Monitor. So did David Kantor.

      I’ve been influenced by both of those people’s largely because of Kristin Cobble (my Groupaya co-founder who also worked at Monitor and who was mentored by Smith), but also because of Katherine Fulton (the president of Monitor Institute and @jessausinheiler’s boss’s boss), who gave me Smith’s book!

    • dana 6:11 am on October 31, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Thanks Brooking, I just watched the video and realized I’ve seen Kristin map out the act/ react cycle with clients without knowing where it came from!

  • Dana 8:21 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink |  

    Hey everyone,

    Yesterday’s bootcamp was really great. Kudos/ kangaroo points to Marie for being so courageous and open to the process. Reflecting back on the difficult conversations exercise I really appreciated that we started off the day by thinking of a time where we felt powerful. It’s easy to go into a difficult conversation and feel powerless or like Marie said already defeated. Thinking of ways to get in your power mode really resonated with me. I liked Jess’ idea of putting on an outfit that makes you feel powerful.

    I really appreciated everyone’s comments yesterday, I learned bits and pieces from everyone in the room.

     

  • marie 2:58 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink |  

    Wow, that was intense 

    I just wanted to thank everyone  for all of your support and incredible feedback during my role play yesterday.  Though it was really intense for me in that moment, I realized as I was riding the BART home, I was already feeling much more buoyant.  I’m hopeful that by releasing my frustration through practicing the conversation, and with a good meeting design going into it, I will better be able to position myself and walk away feeling a sense of accomplishment rather than frustration or defeat.  Will be updating you in real time at the next meeting 🙂

    Love the resources that people are posting – looking forward to being in a room with all of your collective brilliance again next week.

     

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 9:11 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Thank you for modeling and setting such a wonderful example, @marie! You are a badass, and you showed that clearly yesterday. Hope it goes well, looking forward to hearing how it goes next week. Don’t forget your power pose! 🙂

  • Jessica 4:31 am on October 30, 2013 Permalink |  

    productiveinteractions

    advocacyvsinquiry

    Team, I was reflecting on Brooking’s comment on the fact that companies seldom train their employees in having difficult conversations, and remembered that I actually attended a Monitor Training two years ago on “productive interactions.” I included two marked-up handouts (above). The first presents a framework for thinking about the interaction (framing–>acting–>results) and differentiate between “unilateral” and “mutual learning” approach… The second highlights the importance between advocacy and inquiry in the conversation. I’ve heard lots of my colleagues reference this training during the merger as a powerful tool that helped them get through painful phone conversations… Anyways, hope it’s helpful!

    I really enjoyed our time together today, Jess

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 9:09 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I don’t remember @brooking say that. I remember her commenting on the fact that we were doing these sorts of workouts in a place like Monitor, but I don’t think she was implying that companies seldom train employees in this stuff. In fact, I thought it was you who made the point that people are rarely given the opportunity to practice this stuff!

      All that said, I very much appreciate you sharing this, Jess. I would go further and say that you are more likely to get training like this at a large company than at a small one.

      And, this helps highlight why I think things like bootcamp are necessary. Frameworks are great, but they need to be reinforced by constant practice. The paradigm for this type of training is the one-off, where the focus is on teaching a framework, not reinforcing a culture of practice. People are left to their own devices to get the practice afterward. Whether or not a bootcamp is the right model to support ongoing practice, my hope is that all of you (and beyond) are inspired to make practice a more integral part of your… well, practice!

  • Eugene Chan 2:00 am on October 30, 2013 Permalink |  

    Job Descriptions as Pie Charts 

    This comes from Steve Blank: http://steveblank.com/2011/08/22/hiring-easy-as-pie/

    He uses it for reviewing candidates, but I thought that it would be useful for job reviews and for visualization of current and ideal job roles.

    eugene

     

    • Jessica 4:32 am on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Eugene, this is such an elegant way of thinking about our own and others’ skills; simple yet takes into account a portfolio of expertise, strengths & weaknesses. Thanks for sharing!

  • marie 10:43 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink |  

    Long delayed meeting update! 

    I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for my meeting update, so apologies I kept you waiting so long.  The design I had set up for the meeting was solely focused on a conversation around Workbench, but the other players in the meeting each had their own agendas as I had partially expected.  Thus, I didn’t meet my epic goal to get us all on the same page about the future of Workbench, as WB was only talked about for about 25% of the total meeting time.

    Having said that, we did spend a good amount of time getting on the same page from a historical and current perspective, which checked off 2 of my 3 agenda items.  We also all agreed to set up a follow up meeting in which we included more stakeholders (board members, contract people who are working on programming in the space) to have a brainstorm about the education space in general and think about potential partnerships for our education platforms.  I felt like that was a win – although, the meeting hasn’t been set yet.

    In terms of “after the meeting” work – I’m going to be focusing on some research to get an overview of the education space and see what partners might be a natural fit for us.  Thanks for all of your help last week thinking this through with me!  It was the first time I’ve ever thought so deeply about meeting design, and I’m excited to continue implementing these techniques moving forward as it helped me measure my success afterwards even when the meeting didn’t go as planned – as I have a feeling it rarely will.

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 11:38 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      @marie, congratulations on your water cooler debut and also on a solid meeting! 🙂 Thank you for posting your update. I think hitting two of your three goals and agreeing to a followup with a clear goal is definitely a win. Remember, this is all practice. It will get easier over time, and I’m looking forward to hearing how your experiences evolve with practice.

      And, don’t sell your expectations short on future meetings going as planned! As your participants start making it a habit to get clear about their own intentions before and during meetings, I think you’ll start to find meetings happening exactly as planned!

    • Jessica 12:01 am on October 29, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Marie, first, I’d really like to explore working with you on this meeting as a way to complete my challenge!

      Second, check out this infographic about the future of learning that may be of relevance: http://knowledgeworks.org/sites/default/files/A-Glimpse-into-the-Future-of-Learning-Infographic_0.pdf

      See you tomorrow!

      Jess

      • marie 3:00 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Jess – Yes! And YES! I’d love to learn more about what that would look like – maybe we could set up a time to meet outside of bootcamp?

  • Dana 6:28 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink |  

    Hey guys!

    I had an all day meeting with the Delta Dialogues on Friday. It went really well. Eugene gave me a mini assignment to pay attention to power dynamics as much as I could. It was really interesting using the David Cantor technique from Kristin’s blog, I tried to think about who made initiating moves, following moves, and opposing moves. The facilitator did a great job of giving each person an equal amount of attention as well.

    At the last bootcamp I asked if anyone knew of any facilitation courses, workshops, or any resources they could point me towards, I would really appreciate it!

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 11:21 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Glad to hear the homework went well and that you had a chance to play with the Kantor framework. And, I hope you’ll take the time in the future to simply experiment with your own muscles as well. The Kantor framework is powerful, but it doesn’t take into account things like space and context, all of which are important to consider when understanding power.

      I don’t have a specific course or workshop to recommend on facilitation. I’m sure the International Association of Facilitators has some good resources. Can anyone else recommend anything?

      My biggest recommendation would be to find as many opportunities as possible to practice! For example, what suggestions might you have for @jessausinheiler on integrating the 100 Questions workout into her workshop?

  • Eugene Eric Kim 3:32 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink |
    Tags: failforward   

    @jessausinheiler’s most recent update coyly made reference to #failforward being “back in play.” She was referring to tweeting stories and using #failforward as a hash tag. Her most recent Tweet is at:

    You can follow a real-time #failforward Twitter feed.

    Some of my blog posts on #failforward can be found at: http://eekim.com/blog/tag/failure/

    My most relevant posts are:

    I believe the challenge posed at the last bootcamp session was for all of you to share stories of failing forward. Feel free to do so in the comments below or in your own post (tagged “failforward”)!

     

  • Eugene Eric Kim 3:20 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    Folks have posted enough great links here for me to start collecting them in one place. I’ve created a new Resources Google Doc:

    https://docs.google.com/a/fasterthan20.com/document/d/1cQCRH6GW0VS4Pz5yZLzlqwtyr0yoSxGSBp3V1fPd9bM/edit#

    I put links in from @jessausinheiler and @brooking as well as a few of my own. All you have write access (if you don’t, email me), so feel free to edit away!

     

    • Eugene Eric Kim 3:23 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I also made it a link in the main menu above for easy access.

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