Heartland’s Art of Convening Trainings: In-Residence Certification and Virtual TeleTraining

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Convening is a leadership capacity that has the power to integrate and magnify the individual and collective, or group, team, whole organization, to enhance business and organizational performance, or individual relationships. How we gather, communicate and deliver the desired outcomes through our meetings is critical to the long-term vitality and success of our organizations and communities and the people within.

Using The Convening Wheel, Heartland‘s The Art of Convening Training is a practical map that anyone can navigate and activate as a core leadership competency. We travel the inner and outer path of the reflective leader, from getting to “The Heart of the Matter” to a “Commitment to Action” and all the territory in between.

Core TeleTraining Format – 30% off for NCDD members

Each Core TeleTraining Series of 7 two-hour sessions combines guided teaching of session themes with collaborative learning. The format, based on Heartland Inc.’s work with the Transformational Leaders Circles and various convening designs, utilizes ancient forms as well as modern systems for group effectiveness. All sessions are a blend of virtual group interaction and engagement. Between sessions participants continue learning via experiential exercises, individual reading and reflection, developing a Case Study and are supported by a custom online learning platform. Participants will receive ICF CCEUs – 15.75 hours.

Certification Training Format – 30% off for NCDD members

The Certification Training combines a 3-1/2 day in-residency Retreat with a series of 5 guided cohort calls based on Heartland Inc.’s work with the Transformational Leaders Circles and various convening designs. The Training utilizes ancient forms as well as modern systems for group effectiveness. All calls are a blend of virtual group interaction and engagement. Between sessions participants continue learning via experiential exercises, individual reading and reflection, developing a Case Study presentation and are supported by a custom online learning platform. Once training is complete, participants will be certified in The Art of Convening and receive ICF CCEUs – 36.0 hours.

You will learn new practices and processes including:

Utilizing the Convening Wheel
Coaching Council Process
Stringing the Beads
Design Elements Checklist
Working with Transitions
Working with the Principles of Convening

Learn more at http://heartlandcircle.com/aoc-main.htm. Heartland offers a permanent 30% off discount for any Art of Convening Training to all NCDD Members. To receive this discount, use this code when registering: DSC-NCDD-30%

The Art of Convening: Authentic Engagement in Meetings

Posted on September 25, 2013 by NCDD Community

Art Of Convening cover In their book, The Art of Convening, authors Craig and Patricia Neal explore their “Art of Convening” engagement model and how it goes “beyond facilitating”. According to their book, convening creates an environment in which all voices are heard, profound exchanges take place, and transformative action results. The heart of this book is the Convening Wheel — a series of nine steps, or Aspects, that bring the practices and principles needed for authentic engagement together as a whole. The book provides exercises, stories, and questions to help you master both the inner and outer dimensions of this work — because, in convening, the state of the Convener is equally as important as the physical preparations. The book…

Details a powerful set of principles and practices for making any gathering productive, meaningful, and transformative
Draws on the authors’ decades of experience convening meetings in all kinds of settings
Offers practical wisdom on both the inner and outer aspects of convening

Convening works in any setting and can be adapted to virtually any group process. With this book you have all the tools you need to develop this essential life and leadership skill, one that will lead to improved outcomes in your organization, community, family, and relationships.

Some “back of the book” quotes…

“In this wise and thoughtful book, Craig and Patricia Neal help readers understand what’s needed to create the kind of authentic ‘meeting’ where true collective wisdom can emerge in group settings. They remind us that convening is an ancient art, one that can be critical to our capacity to survive and thrive in today’s challenged world.”
- Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, Co-Originators, The World Café

“Few people have refined the process of bringing people together as gracefully and elegantly as Craig and Patricia Neal. How we convene is much more than simple technique or facilitation; it is an expression of who we are and what kind of world we want to create. If their thinking and methodology were to become common practice, there would be more peace and connectedness and good will all around.”
- Peter Block, Author & Troublemaker

“These days we spend so much time working together in groups, doesn’t it make sense to learn how to do it better, smarter, deeper, and more authentically? If your answer, like mine, is “yes,” then like me you’ll love this book! It is both wise and worthwhile, profound and practical.”
- Alan M. Webber, co-founder, Fast Company magazine

As co-founders of Heartland Inc., Craig and Patricia Neal have led over 170 “Thought Leader Gatherings” with leaders from over 800 diverse organizations. Their new book shares their Art of Convening model — developed in these gatherings and refined over six years of intensive trainings.

Resource Link: www.heartlandcircle.com/aocbook.htm

This resource was submitted by Patricia Neal, co-founder of Heartland Inc., via the Add-a-Resource form.

Take advantage of your 25% NCDD discount with the Future Search Network!

Posted on September 17, 2013 by NCDD Community

This post was submitted by Jennifer Neumer of the Future Search Network via our Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have field news you want to share with the rest of us? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Please join us this December 9 – 11, 2013 for the Future Search Training Workshop with Sandra Janoff. Save 25% off with your NCDD discount! We offer non-profit discounts as well!

Managing a Future Search – A Learning Workshop (MFS) is for facilitators, leaders, students and managers who want to learn how applying Future Search principles enables a community, company or organization to transform its capability for action. Participants will acquire the tools needed to organize and manage Future Search conferences with integrity in any sector or culture.

Future Search Workshop participants will learn:

How to manage a meeting in which the target of change is a whole system’s capability for action now and in the future.
Key issues in matching conference task and stakeholders.
A theory and practice of facilitating large, diverse groups.
How to keep critical choices in the hands of participants.
How freeing yourself from diagnosing and fixing enables diverse groups to come together faster.
Basic principles and techniques that can be used to design many other meetings.

Date: December 9 – 11, 2013

Fee: $1690. (SAVE 25% when you mention this special NCDD offer! Ask about all nonprofit, student and group discounts as well!)

Location: At the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

For more info, you can contact Jennifer at 215-951-0328, 800-951-6333, or email her at fsn@futuresearch.net.

Want to get a better sense of what a Future Search looks like? Click here too see just one example of Future Search being used around the world at a Youth Future Search in Ireland.

Future Search Network co-sponsored, and Sandra Janoff facilitated, a G8 Youth Summit in Northern Ireland in May, 2013. It was held in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in the same location and one month prior to the G8 Summit where President Obama and the other 7 world leaders met. 110 young people from across the country created a shared agenda. The youth voice, with their dreams for the future, was brought into the G8 Summit the following month. Their report was translated into each of the 7 languages.

Registration: www.futuresearch.net/frms/workshop/signup1.cfm

More info: www.futuresearch.net/method/workshops/descriptions-50748.cfm

Invitation to October 2013 International Dialogue Education Institute in Baltimore

Posted on September 8, 2013 by NCDD Community

This post was submitted by NCDD supporting member Michael Culliton of Global Learning Partners via the Add-to-Blog form.

NCDD folks, please Join us in Baltimore, MD, October 24-27, 2013, for the 2013 International Dialogue Education Institute!

The Institute is an intensive and engaging conference for educators, facilitators, coaches, consultants, trainers, and others from around the world who are interested in Learning & Change, and in Dialogue Education.

Highlights of the conference will include:

Plenary keynote session on the biology of learning with Dr. Jane Vella
Variety of 90-minute and 3-hour active sessions (you won’t be sitting and listening much!) on topics related to learning and change
Interactive poster gallery where you can showcase your own ideas, tips and tools related to learning and change

See our list of 19 reasons to consider attending.

The Institute is hosted by Global Learning Partners, Inc., an organization dedicated to using an approach called Dialogue Education to create effective learning and change in the world.

Registration for the Institute is $479 and covers all Institute materials; a Thursday evening reception with hearty hors d’ouevres; breakfast, lunch, and snacks all day on Friday and Saturday; and breakfast on Sunday morning. Dinner Friday and Saturday are on your own. Lodging is at the Marriott Waterfront, where you’ll get our discounted room rate of $185/night (a $300/night value).

The Human Impact of Climate Change: Opportunities & Challenges

Posted on September 4, 2013 by NCDD Community

The Interactivity Foundation (IF) has recently published a guidebook for public discussion on “The Human Impact on Climate Change,” edited by IF Fellows Dennis Boyer, Jeff Prudhomme, and Adolf Gundersen. The guidebook was developed from the group discussions of 16 panelists in two groups from south central and southwestern Wisconsin.

Human-Impact-on-Climate-cover Test discussions facilitated by former Wisconsinites in Tucson, Ariz., and in Sonora and Mazatlan, Mexico, further developed the text of the discussion guide.

Six contrasting policy possibilities emerged from these group discussions and are described in this discussion guide along with possible implementations, examples, and consequences:

Promote climate awareness: Improve public understanding of climate impacts, their consequences, and options for action.
Change consumer habits: Focus on human consumption as a source of atmospheric carbon and greenhouse gases.
Go for results: Identify efficient and low-cost solutions that are currently available for short-term action.
Heal the planet: Plan and implement long-range recovery and rehabilitation of ecosystems.
Deal with a different world: Adapt to changed conditions and plan for climate emergencies.
Focus on the developing world: Assist developing nations in reducing climate impact activities and help them “leap over” traditional industrial development to clean technologies.

In developing these possibilities, the project panelists felt that much of the existing political “debate” about climate impacts has been unhelpful to citizens and policymakers. Eventually, their discussions designated certain issues, such as “Is the planet getting warmer? How is the climate changing? What role does human action play in global climate change?” as questions that rely more on empirical scientific research for their answers. Conversely, they designated other key questions, such as “What public policy choices might we make about climate change? What, if anything, might society do about global climate change?” as public policy questions that need exploration by all citizens.

This distinction helped the panelists to side-step much of the highly partisan and interest-group-driven “debate” and engage in a public conversation that was more anticipatory and imaginative. Their explorations seem to be shaped by three realizations:

Universal agreement on the precise nature and extent of climate impacts is difficult to achieve and waiting for it could forestall consideration of workable impact policies.
There is sufficient current evidence of dramatic environmental consequences connected to climate impacts to merit development of policy responses.
Significant institutions and interests are assuming that human climate impacts are real and must be accounted for.

This last point accounted for a dramatic shift in the project discussions. Among the more conservative panelists, the realization that major financial institutions, large investors, risk managers, insurers, and military and national security leaders take climate impacts into account in their planning was a turning point. It was seen as evidence that the politicians often lag behind in both consciousness and practical problem-solving.

The sense that emerged from the climate project was that these starting points for public conversation represent a possibly useful foundation for discussion of the opportunities for innovation, economic development, and prudent planning related to climate impacts. Now it’s your turn.

Resource Link: www.interactivityfoundation.org/discussions/human-impacts-on-climate/

This resource was submitted by Peter Shively of the Interactivity Foundation via the Add-a-Resource form.

Write-up on mental health dialogues in Sacramento and Albuquerque

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Roshan Bliss

We hope you will take a moment to check out the following update on the Creating Community Solutions dialogue series from Carol Lukensmeyer of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, an NCDD organizational member. This article was cross-posted with permission from Joe Goldman of the Democracy Fund. You can read the post in full below or find the original here: www.democracyfund.org/blog/entry/guest-post-creating-community-solutions.

NCDD is one of the main partners in this national dialogue effort, and we encourage you to get involved by hosting local dialogues or joining in our online dialogues at www.theciviccommons.com/mentalhealth.

Creating Community Solutions, part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health

BY CAROLYN LUKENSMEYER / AUGUST 13TH

On June 3rd, 2013, President Barack Obama hosted a National Conference on Mental Health at the White House as part of the Administration’s efforts to launch a national conversation to increase understanding and awareness about mental health. At the event, President Obama directed Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Arne Duncan of the U.S. Department of Education to launch a National Dialogue on Mental Health.

An important component of the national dialogue is Creating Community Solutions, which is a series of events around the country that will allow people to engage in dialogue and action on mental health issues. The effort is being led by the National Institute for Civil Discourse and several other deliberative democracy groups [including NCDD]. The National Institute for Civil Discourse has joined in this initiative because we believe mental health is one of the most pressing issues facing our country, yet is one of the most difficult issues for Americans to talk about. We hope to engage thousands of Americans in a range of setting: small-group discussions, large forums, online conversations and large-scale events. The dialogues are supported by an array of local officials, nonprofit organizations, professional associations, foundations, and health care providers.

In over 50 communities, planning has begun for the community conversations on mental health. The community conversations page at www.mentalhealth.gov describes the basic parameters of these events and the online map at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org shows the full range of places and organizations involved. Two large-scale events of several hundred people each have already been convened this summer in Sacramento, CA and Albuquerque, NM.

In Sacramento, local and state officials and community leaders were extremely supportive, including Mayor Kevin Johnson who attended the event along with members of his staff. Congresswoman Doris Matsui attended and talked about the State of Mental Health Matters. Sacramento aggressively used social media to recruit young people and it paid off. Thirty percent of the 350 people in the room were between the ages of 19-24. Local television and print media provided good coverage, including a segment on the local NBC affiliate KCRA.

A diverse group of three hundred people attended the forum in Albuquerque. Former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici addressed the crowd, along with Mayor Richard Barry who joined people in the discussions and committed to act on some of the suggestions that emerged from the day. Albuquerque also received local television and print media coverage of the event, including a segment on KRQE.

Now that the events are completed, each city will have a Community Action page under the Outcomes section on our website, www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org. Information about next steps, the outcomes of the event, relevant documents and media articles will be housed there.

Both cities have robust action planning committees composed of local organizations and leaders committed to incorporating the strategies expressed by the participants into Community Action Plans that will guide their cities’ responses to mental health going forward. Some of those strategies included: strengthening existing resources, improving preventive services and continuity of care, teaching mental health services in schools, and communicating information about mental health services to young people using more extensive social media.

World Cafe Learning Program offered via Fielding Graduate University

Posted on September 3, 2013 by NCDD Community

This announcement was submitted by NCDD supporting member Amy Lenzo of The World Cafe & weDialogue via the Add-to-Blog form.

A World Cafe Signature Learning Program, “Hosting World Cafe: The Fundamentals” is offered in association with Fielding Graduate University.

Providing a fundamental understanding of The World Café theory and method, this course applies the World Café design principles to bring forth the creative power of conversation and engage questions that matter. Participants will develop the capacity to use the World Café in their own lives and work, and gain a basic understanding of World Café hosting practices.

DETAILS:

8 weeks; 6 CEUs; 19 CCEUs
Cost: $750 US Early Bird Registration (before Sept 15); $800 after that (costs include all required reading materials in e-format)
Presented by Bo Gyllenpalm and Amy Lenzo

Learn more at www.theworldcafe.com/learning-fundamentals.html. Register at https://secure.fielding.edu/forms/WC-reg.htm (registration closes September 22nd).

The course will be delivered online in asynchronous learning forums, designed as World Cafe tables, with required opening and closing “real time” sessions on September 29th and November 17th.

Juanita Brown will be hosting a World Café for the class on November 10th, and video-enhanced study groups with David Isaacs and other senior World Cafe hosts will be held on October 5, 19th, 26th, and November 5th, from 9 – 10:30am Pacific Time.

Questions? Contact us via email: learning@theworldcafe.com.

New issue of the International Journal of Collaborative Practices

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

The current issue (Issue 4) of the International Journal of Collaborative Practices is out! The Journal provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and stories from practitioners, researchers and scholars who utilize collaborative principles in their daily work and disciplines.

The journal is published once a year, with new issues coming out in the Spring. Sponsored by the Houston Galveston Institute, the Taos Institute, and the Psychology Department at Our Lady of the Lake University, it is an open-access on-line publication that is offered in the spirit of promoting community and collaboration. You can subscribe by emailing journal@talkhgi.com.

Your participation is encouraged through the submission of articles and your responses through the Journal blog.

Here is a list of the articles featured in the new issue:

‘Good Enough’, ‘Imperfect’, or Situated Leadership: Developing and Sustaining Poised Resourcefulness within an Organization of Practitioner-Consultants (Jacob Storch and John Shotter)
Of Crabs and Starfish: Ancestral Knowledge and Collaborative Practice (Rocio Chaveste and Papusa (Maria Luisa) Molina)
Invitation to Therapeutic Writing: Ideas to Generate Welfare (Elena Fernandez)
A Lawyer’s Provocative and Reflective Journey into Social Constructionism and Not-Knowing (Bill Ash)
The Practice of Collaborative Dialogue in Education – The Case of Kai-Ping (Hui-Wen Hsia, with reflections by Shi-Jiuan Wu)

Also featured in the issue:

An Essay in Six Voices: A Story of Overseas Online Dialogue (Jitka Balasova, Jakub Cerny, Pavel Nepustil, Katerina Novotná Rocío Chaveste & M.L. Papusa Molina)
FAQ: Is Collaborative Practice Politically and Socially Sensitive? (Saliha Bava, Rocio Chaveste, Marsha McDonough & Papusa Molina)
Two poems and a painting
And several essays on “books of interest”

This issue was edited by Harlene Anderson, Ph.D. & Saliha Bava, Ph.D.

More on the Journal

The International Journal of Collaborative Practices brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices.

This community responds to important questions in social and human sciences such as:

How can we make our theories and practices have every day relevance and how can our ordinary experiences have relevance for our theories and practices, for as many people as possible in our fast changing world?
What will this relevance accomplish?
And who determines it?

Globalization and technology are spawning social, cultural, political, and economic transformations in our shrinking and interdependent world. People everywhere are constantly exposed to real time events in the world and enlightened through television and the Internet. They are fast losing faith in the rigid institutions that treat them as numbers and ignore their humanity. People expect to be directly involved in whatever affects their lives and they demand flexible systems and services that honor their rights and respect their needs.

Faced with such local, societal and global shifts, with the unavoidable complexities they engender, and with their effect on our lives and our world, practitioners are wondering how best to respond. The Journal is designed to serve as one part of a timely and valuable response by spotlighting important interconnected issues such as:

The juxtaposition of democracy, social justice, and human rights;
The importance of people’s voices locally and globally; and
The fundamental need for professional collaboration.

The Journal is an open access on-line bilingual (English and Spanish) interactive publication.

Leading Engagement: Involving People in the Decisions that Affect Them

Posted on August 28, 2013 by NCDD Community

This post was submitted by NCDD supporting member Tuesday Ryan Heart of Confluence Unlimited via the Add-to-Blog form.

Join us in Chicago, Sept 30-Oct 2 for an Art of Hosting on developing strategy and methods for designing and hosting meaningful engagement. The tools and know how for meaningful and productive engagement are now available in the fields of dialogue, social media and design. The combination of these disciplines and tools enable us to genuinely integrate those who are most affected in the design and delivery of services, systems, strategies, products, plans, infrastructure and more.

Learn how other communities ignite civic engagement and create meaningful stakeholder and public dialogue on tough issues. Find more effective ways to engage people in shaping the future that affects them.

Come if you want to …..

Practice using and hosting a set of simple, yet powerful conversational process for thinking together, such as Circle, Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Open Space and Pro-action Cafe.
Explore how to build relationships of trust and reconsider the meaning and uses of power
Enhance your design and facilitation skills
Move beyond ‘planning a meeting’ to developing multi-step engagement processes, including diverse methods to effectively capture and use community input.
Hear and share success stories and put learning to work on real life concerns.

For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/k573u78. For inquiries, contact Lina Cramer, Wisdom Exchange, at 847-530-6779 or lina.c.cramer@gmail.com.

You can learn more about the Art of Hosting at www.artofhosting.org.

International Journal of Collaborative Practices

Posted on August 7, 2013 by NCDD Community