An Open Invitation — How to start a conversation?

Thomas Rickard
Aug 8, 2017 · 10 min read

For two years I lived and breathed Schumacher College, an international centre for sustainability in Devon, UK. As an onsite volunteer and then employee, I got to soak up so many exciting ideas and examples — from the philosophies of Systems Thinking and Deep Ecology, through to the practices of facilitation and community decision making. When I moved to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in October 2015, the only real way to meet people with similar interests was through Portuguese and confidence. I had neither.

Leaping ahead two years, to June 2017, my portuguese was good enough, and my interest in complexity and narrative in human organisations had not waned — in fact it had turned into a well developed research proposal with the Cynefin centre of Bangor University. On reflection, I had no excuses left.

A German friend and partner of the Belo Horizonte Impact Hub, and fellow medium writer, Stephan Dohrn, met me for a tasty San Ro lunch and gave nothing but positive words for the proposal — a co-learning group with integrated action learning, experiential learning focus, and rotating facilitation roles. It meshed with his desire to bring lesser known and translated ideas to a Brazilian audience, such as Theory U, a presence centred collaborative methodology. And so I had a space, the Impact Hub, and with a few whatsapps, a time as well. All that was left was an invitation.

I have seen so many ideas and concepts delivered with little regard for their application in terms of their communication. Talks about co-learning given by old white men to seated audiences, conversations about a carbon free economy held by someone flown in for the weekend. How can I invite a group of people in such a way as to leave the content and work of our conversations open to negotiation? How can the conversation remain part of, or in fact be, application?

New Leadership Institute

trickard1000@gmail.com

A new paradigm is emerging. Today, effective leadership is not about fixed structures, hierarchy, reductionism, control, and the capture of just money. New situations need new values, like attentiveness and deep listening, collaboration, personal practices, compassion, openness and curiosity. And these values fit into a range of methodologies, concepts and practices.

Suggested focuses

  • Design and Design Thinking
  • Systems Thinking
  • Facilitation, and models of facilitation
  • The Pedagogy of Groups
  • Complexity in Human Organisations
  • Leadership, and models of leadership
  • Meditation and emotional intelligence
  • Action Learning
  • Non-violent communication

In group, we can explore this topics in an experiential way, and in a way that uses our experiences. The invitation is to reflect and apply learning in our lives, and return with the results.

Objectives

  • Engage with new methodologies, concepts and practices, useful for our personal and professional lives
  • Use the space to develop our own capacities and understandings, and those of the group, to study, reflect, and act.
  • Create content accessible in Portuguese
  • Become capable of offering our learning to the world

With a consistent schedule and a committed group, we will have the opportunity to develop and confidence and deep relationships. Roles can change with the aim of each having the chance lead, take part, and criticise.

Structure

  • Every 2 weeks
  • 2 hours
  • Rotating facilitation and roles
  • Preparation at home for enhanced conversation and practice
  • Report of each meeting
  • Collected materials available online

Thomas Rickard”

Learning as not the delivery of packets of information, the simple copy-pasting of a slideshow. It is something alive.

The subject of the first meeting was fairly clear, Group Formation. In the initial drafts, I considered delivering a variety of concepts, such as Tucker’s 5 stages of team performance, and Belbin’s 9 team roles, and then having rounds of reflection. That was until I researched further my friends Denise and Lu’s excitement about the Pedagogy of Cooperation from Brazilian Fábio Brotto.

The pedagogy of cooperation is a beautiful map of the potential for groups to reach their maximum potential, not just in terms of productivity, but for the range of human needs for connections, imagination, inclusion and power. More than this, with its four principles, it is a philosophy of what it is to be human. It includes lots of cooperative, rather than competitive games and practices such as Dragon Dreaming and Dialogue. I don’t go into details here, you can read them for yourself in this summary blog (n.b. it’s in Portuguese) — POC — here I offer a little of how the pedagogy supported the meeting.

The first stage of the pedagogy is Contact. Although I was breaking the POC rule of always starting together, as two guests had not arrived, we were 20 minutes into our two hours! So to begin, I chose a silent practice that could bring the 5 of us present into our bodies, present to the space, and present to each other — walking around each other quickly with eyes down, and migrating to slow eyes and handshake contact. As it is with all practices in the POC, we stopped and reflected for a moment on how it was. Some people commented on the the ways in which we can be busy and among others and yet not choose to connect. Slowing down feels much more comfortable.

Returning to our circle of seats with central focus, a table in this case, we were practicing another principle of POC — the circle shows us we are not in hierarchy. I offered orientation, who I was, the why and what of the invitation. And I added an image, that of the trellis — a fixed structure holding flowers and plants, organic, non-determined, responsive life that leverages the trellis.

We then continued the contact stage by offering some questions from a set called Fast Friends for asking in pairs, such as ‘what does friendship mean to you?’. As ever, we reflected, and some comments included surprise not only at the responses, but also the way in which the set questions created a different listening experience.

As we finished our reflections, our final two guests arrived and I asked the group to offer a quick story of what had happened so far so as to bring them into the group. I also returned to the invitation. Context in hand, I offered some brief description of Belbin’s 9 team roles and Tucker’s group stages, but commented that neither of these models offers space for a group to dream their project, and they are both challenged by the constantly evolving group, roles and task that make up the invitation. POC, on the other hand, is a flexible and coherent approach that be returned to in every meeting, and adapted to suit different moments and needs.

Having made Contact, I wanted to rapidly move through Concerns, or vision, for the group. Offering post-its out, and without repeating the list of topics in the invitation, I suggested people choose a few things that really caught their interest about the group. What made their eyes light up?

(the name of the group, leadership, new leadership, new experiences, social experiences, new forms of communication, real examples, network forming, interaction, connections, meeting people, effective partnerships, co-learning, share experiences, out of the box, effective learning techniques, to learn, innovate processes, elaborate materials, debate and theory, exchange ideas, design thinking, systems thinking, donut economics, impact)

Then we stood together to see if there were things missing, or things that sat together. Fabio pointed out the textual character of the sheet — a nice point for future exercises, that images and symbols are welcome as well. A lively and excited conversation moved on through a variety of references, authors, groups, related experiences. Feeling the pressure of time, I tried to move us onto the next POC stage, Contract — our basic needs, to receive calls, turn up late, time of day, etc. Being the creator and facilitator of the session, there was some mild discomfort for me as the conversation continued to be around what the group could do together, rather than these specific needs I had indicated. Thankfully, the morning meditation paid off, as I recognised that this was in fact the goal of the meeting, and really not the moment to interrupt the flow.

As I recall it, different structures were being suggested, the number of roles, the types of roles, and whether focus on definitions, or real problem-solutions. Yet, as far as it went, without reasonable need to fix structure into the group, almost all factors could vary. It felt like an exploration of the possibilities through the form of proposals. Apart from regular meetings, two real necessities were that we hold it in Portuguese and hold it after office hours. Otherwise the common call to the invitation seemed to offer enough in common.

After Contact, Concerns and Contract, comes reinforcement of the bonds of trust in the group, Alliances. For this we paired, one closed their eyes, and another guided them with light touch on the hand and shoulder around the space and to touch different textures, like plants, woods, walls, etc. This is a fast and enjoyable trust practice. As we reflected, some noticed the degree of trust required to close our eyes and walk forward, and others observed how their senses changed focus, with wind and sound becoming heightened.

Now came the moment I was most anxious about: the moment when we could make a first move as a group toward what had appeared as our shared, if somewhat still fuzzy, dream. This stage approximated the Project stage of POC. At three minutes to 1pm, the conversation, and my insides, seemed to be wiggling around a bit — an offer of space, a debate about formats. I had offered to be a coordinator of place, person and time. Yet was there hesitation to step forward as the next facilitator? Would that really be surprising? We had in fact rushed through stages that can take hours and days. I finally made my key concern more explicit — ‘so, I want to know, who will lead the next meeting?’. And Carlos stepped forward.

Whether a huge party, or a word of gratitude, POC says we finish in celebration. And so we stood, held out our right hands, grabbed the thumb of the person to our right, and offered three words as our check-out, before counting to three, throwing our hands to the air, and shouting ho! They were good words.

There wasn’t time in this meeting, but I hope we can include action learning sets for practice between session. It is also a regret that I had another meeting so soon after, and could not spend more time both getting to know these people better in that all important ‘after the session’ space, and getting formal and informal feedback for how it had been. The comments I received were good. The smiles were lovely. The feeling was of a job well-done and common satisfaction. Yet there is a part of me that needs and wants a critical eye! I hope to get that before too much time has passed.

The next meeting is set, the invite is out. And, no doubt, I will get some more whatsapp messages just as before asking me, what exactly is this? I hope they will come along and find out.

My thanks to Henrique, Carlos, Tereza, Rapha, Stephan and Fabio for taking a small step into the unknown and bringing your enthusiasm. And to Lu and Denise for your attention and advice in design.

TIME GUIDE — Around two hours

5–10min arriving meet and hello

5–10 min become present

Walking around each other in the space quickly, eyes down

Walking slowly, eyes down

Walking slowly eyes up, missing each other

Walking slowly, making contact, um aceno de cabeça

Walking slowly, apertar as mãos, and contato visual

10 Orientation re-explain group and today’s focus, general rules of respect, debate, non-hierarchy. My motivation and background. Clearly communicate suggested topics and structure. Trellis, latada, and plant image, structure and freedom.

Learning and doing group formation at the same time

(5 + 5) + 5 Ice break + reflect, how was that (contact stage)

Allow your partner to choose a question, accept or ask for another. One at a time. Suggestions.

Fast Friends — • Would you like to be famous? In what way? • Do you have a secret um palpite about how you will die? • What is your most treasured memory? • What does friendship mean to you?

5–10min Frame todays session

There are so many methods and platforms for organising tasks, but we want to form a group

Tuckers 5 stages — yet they don’t leave room for dreaming the project and are linear

Belbins 9 roles — yet different people take different roles at different moments as the tasks change

Various personality tests and types — yet the makeup of the group will change

I recommend classifications for exploring self knowledge, see what feels right.

This group will change in number, leaving, coming, topics and tasks — How do we answer this?

Shared dreams and narrative coordinate us

10min Big idea -

Explain A Pedagogia da Cooperação, Brotto. Principle, processes, procedures and practices.

We have had Contact, now for

30min? Concerns — Aim for 3 key questions What brought you here today, what made your eyes light up? — rounds of post-its with top 3–5 and group them, stand together and discuss.

10min Contract — What do you have to offer Concerns, needs, to be part of this group. Confidentiality, punctuality, trust, patience, time, location, available contact, coordination, use phones, take pictures, phones in certain circumstances. Air-conditioning. Needs to be reset each time. On a flip chart

5+5 Alliances — short game in pairs, closed eyes, guide the other left, right, up and down, touch interesting things.

10 Solutions; Projects — ideas to meet concerns. How will we enact this? Volunteers for next sessions. My offer is to host meeting times and places, and be next facilitator if needs be, tell me if you want to facilitate the next session, if you can write up this session. If you are coming, tell me if your friend is coming. I will send the links to referenced materials by email, sign up after the session if you like.

5–10 celebration and closing circle to say final 3 words. (celebrate). Thumb grip and Ho!

Confirm emails and whatsapp

REFERENCES

Action Learning — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning

Belbin’s team roles — http://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/

Fast Friends — http://www.isegoria.net/2013/02/fast-friends-protocol/

Pedagogy of Groups blog article (Portuguese) — https://medium.com/educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o-fora-da-caixa/pedagogia-da-coopera%C3%A7%C3%A3o-kit-fora-da-caixa-af7412216513

Pedagogy of Groups official site (Portuguese) — http://www.projetocooperacao.com.br/pos-graduacao/pedagogia-da-cooperacao/

Tucker’s group stages — https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm

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