SSIR Article
Read this article yesterday and thought I’d share it in case some of you may not have seen it. It really validates a lot of what Changemaker Bootcamp is all about. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Updates from marie Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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marie
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marie
Replies and future workouts
First of all – HELLO EVERYONE! Love that bootcampers new and old are hopping on here and keeping active.
I keep trying to reply to threads below and it won’t let me, so I’m starting a new post. In response to @eekim, @eugenechan, @rapetzel, and @brooking –
BATNA = Best Alternative to Negotiation (Agreement?) – basically your own personal line in the sand. I’ve had that in my head for a while but don’t think I’ll need to follow through as there’s definitely movement from management now as we get close to the end of 2013. I’ll let you all know if/when all is official!
I love the idea of doing a narrowing workout – maybe this will be my topic when I facilitate one of our follow up sessions! Would love to explore the idea with all of you. [And I’ll probably hit you up for some help with design @eekim :)]
Finally (for now 🙂 )I am definitely committed to trialing a 5 week follow up bootcamp where we all get together and take turns planning workouts with support from each other as needed. I love the idea of jam sessions too, but am unsure what that would look like – and maybe that’s the point? No matter what, I look forward to working with you all on a more continuous basis to practice and learn from each other.
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Eugene Eric Kim
Thanks for the update, Marie! You’re rapidly becoming our most active poster. 😉
Sorry about the issue with commenting. I think I fixed it, but you should test it to make sure it works.
Always available to help designing workouts and supporting all of you in your changemaker goals.
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marie
Difficult Conversation Follow Up
Well, I had the conversation with Chad this morning. I picked my power outfit (I’ll spare you the fashion details, but it’s one of my favorite dresses), and I felt like even more of a badass in it after biking to work – never thought I’d be biking anywhere in anything other than some sort of spandex gym clothes or jeans I don’t care about.
The conversation started to go down a similar path as in the past, which is to say, avoidance of the giant elephant in the room that I’m doing a completely different job than I was hired for with no acknowledgement in any way. So, I called it out.
2 things that stood out for me that were different than before:
*First, I was better able to express my frustration in a positive way – that I want to be able to add the highest amount of value to this company by prioritizing the right tasks and having the time to do them well.
*This seemed to allow him to open up to me and be more transparent than he had been before by acknowledging that he was (and has been) struggling to convince the upper management of the value of building community internally versus the value of staffing a more robust marketing/business development team.
I remembered your comment from yesterday @Jess about being able to see the situation from the other person’s viewpoint and I really clearly saw/felt that today.
I didn’t reach my epic goal (new title, new salary stated/signed off on in the meeting), but I pushed for a concrete follow up plan. He is meeting with the Finance Director tomorrow and promised to follow up with me directly afterwards. At a minimum, he assured me we are posting to hire for the part-time person by Friday of this week. Once hired, I will be directly managing this person, which is exciting for me!
My new challenge/assignment: narrowing down the top 3 priorities/projects I’d like to focus on moving forward so that we can better redefine my role. Caveat – my priorities/projects should take into consideration revenue earning potential as a way to sell it to the management team – game on!
Overall, I walked away from the conversation feeling a lot better than I have in the past, and regardless of what happens moving forward I’ve got my BATNA – thanks for the acronym Eugene Chan 🙂 So grateful for all of the feedback/support Bootcamp team – more to come! Looking forward to hopefully seeing you all and working with you all again in the near future.
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Eugene Eric Kim
Thanks for sharing, @marie! So glad to hear your meeting went well. In particular, I loved that you:
- Put on your superhero costume. We want pictures.
- Rode to work in your supervehicle.
- Made the move to break past patterns.
- Reframed your frustration in a positive way.
- Got good outcomes as a result. The specifics around the part-time person is a big win, as well as concrete agreement to followup. You’re usually not going to hit your epic goals — that’s why they’re epic — but all of these seem like great results.
What does “BATNA” stand for?!
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Eugene Chan
@marie: thank you for the report. you went into the difficult conversation on your own terms. this is inspirational!
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Eugene Chan
BTW, narrowing the projects/priorities seems like a perfect candidate for a bootcamper exercies – either solo or in conjunction with others. (I am happy to offer feedback or be an active listener.)
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Rebecca
Agreed! Narrowing would be a great bootcamper exercise! And something I’d love to practice. Count me in! & Marie, if I can be of service at all from a long term member in helping you play with that narrowing, don’t hesitate to reach out!!
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Brooking
Awesome! Thanks so much for the update and glad it went well with clear follow up in place. This part:
“my priorities/projects should take into consideration revenue earning potential as a way to sell it to the management team – game on!” seems like great learning – in smaller organizations where justifying entirely internal roles can be difficult, it seems smart to link the work you love with work that aligns with profit/biz dev goals. Look forward to hearing more please do keep us posted! -
Jessica
Marie, thanks for the report! I was totally empathetic throughout the whole description, having had my own set of tough conversations recently… (and apologies for the delayed reply… I was paying attention to exit interviews and must have missed this email)
Re: narrowing, and this may be a bit tangential, but two things come to mind… and maybe I can solicit your and @eekim ‘s help in turning this into our next bootcamp exercise (yes team … I’m “it”):
1. There’s a neat exercise that involve narrowing down a deck of “Purpose” cards (e.g., thinking critically, connecting to others, writing) to identify what your core interests are. Would it be interesting to go through an exercise of narrowing down a set of skills to think about what you might be passionate and/or good at? (I have a sense that @brooking might have done this before)
2. As part of a community of practice of which I was a part, we had Holly Minch present a “persuation framework” (see this link: http://networksguide.wikispaces.com/4-6+Creating+shared+language+and+talking+about+networks+and+network+impact) that helps you think about crafting highly targeted/relevant messages.
Does anyone have a particularly negative reaction to either of these two?
@impact hub? @eekim and @marie, you interested in helping a changemaker create a workout around either one of these?-
Eugene Eric Kim
I think both are interesting, and I’d be happy to help.
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marie
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.
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Eugene Eric Kim
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! 🙂
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marie
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.
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Eugene Eric Kim
@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!
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Jessica
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
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marie
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?
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Eugene Eric Kim, 
marie, and 
Jessica are discussing. 
Rebecca, and 2 others are discussing. 
Jessica 11:07 pm on February 26, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Marie, too funny. I was just drafting up an email to changemakers about the same book, which was written by a colleague of mine. I will bring it to our next bootcamp. The best part of the book? The helpful toolkit at the end of it!
Also, @eekim –>Ertel and Solomon landed on a venn diagram of STRATEGY + DESIGN + CONVERSATION… Just reminded me of the some of the concepts you’ve been thinking about related to collaborative learning. They also speak our language re: the importance of PRACTICE for creating successful strategic conversations.
Jess
Eugene Eric Kim 6:40 am on February 28, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
+1 for sharing, @marie! Love seeing you active here! 🙂
@jessausinheiler, were you at the book launch last night? I RSVPed, but ended up having to work, so couldn’t make it.
I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s obviously very relevant to the notion of generative questions. If it’s good, it’s something we should add to our resources page. Jess, what do you think of the book? Chris and Lisa interviewed my former business partner as a source for their work.
Jessica 7:10 pm on March 9, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Eugene, I think the book is phenomenal. It highlights convenings as something that exists at the intersection of design, strategy, and conversations. It offers a fluid 5-step process for convening design (define your purpose, engage multiple perspectives, frame the issues, set the scene, make it an experience). It offers tips for each step, AND really useful practical advise for each. And it includes a toolkit at the end of the book. I will definitely use it in my work moving forward.
As an FYI, I’m organizing a book club discussion on Moments of Impact at work in which several volunteers read a portion of the book and then present the framework, what they found to be useful, and questions they had (and of course in which the whole group discusses how the concepts and messages present in the book compare to current practice, and might be relevant to their work.)
Given the purpose of our bootcamp, I think it would be a great idea to discuss this book as a group at our next bootcamp. I can volunteer to organize… But let’s discuss tomorrow!
marie 5:46 am on March 12, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I love the idea of discussing this at one of our Bootcamps, @jessausinheiler! Maybe for May?
Eugene Eric Kim 12:45 am on March 13, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
You just need to claim it! 🙂
And let me echo previous sentiments: So fun to see you engage more here, @marie!