A Small Town Grocery Store Renewal Thanks to AoH Patterns and Practices

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Kathy Jourdain

It is always a pleasure to share Art of Hosting success stories. This comes from Angie Benz who attended an AoH training in Bismarck, North Dakota in November 2014. The AoH training was supported by the North Dakota League of Cities and the Bush Foundation, co-hosted by Jerry Nagel and me.

Angie Benz

She writes:

I wanted to share a success story. After taking your AoH class in Bismarck I was so moved and excited. I knew these were principles that I wanted to implement, I just didn’t know where or how.

Fast forward to last week. I am a director for our local grocery store board and we have been struggling to say the least! Our sales were 15% down from 2013. Our manager, understandably, was a bit disgruntled. The board members, myself included, had checked out. And the worst part…this was all being seen by the community.

Then I remembered the principles taught at AoH! We started out slowly……and grew into something bigger…….and I am hoping that we keep growing!

We started by sending out a survey asking two very important questions:

Is the store important to YOU to have in YOUR community?
Is it important enough to YOU that YOU are willing to pay a little higher price for groceries?

The responses were a resounding YES to both and we knew we had work to do. We restructured our management team, creating a co-manager position with two people that will do great things together.

Then we had a planning meeting. Everyone was dreading it! I sent out an email inviting the management team and the board directors. I gave them some ideas of what would happen that day. Then, I shocked them all by asking them to bring something that represents their journey with the grocery store….and I left it at that. (Enter the sound of silence from the group.) It was so loud that I could “hear” it through email.

The day of the meeting we started out with Check In using a circle setting. It was AMAZING! There was emotion, meaning, and most importantly….understanding. Understanding of all the frustrations we faced in 2014. We were letting go of the past and moving towards the future with understanding of each other and our journey.

We then moved into a variation of Open Space. There were only 6 of us, so we used it more as a brain storming session. At the end of it, one of the board directors made the comment that they thought we would have about 3 ideas…..we ended up with about 50!

Then it was time for us to get a little more specific. We came up with action plans and timelines for the top 5 ideas/topics. We will meet monthly to analyze and assess the top 5 and beyond.

To end the day, we did Check Out in a circle setting. Again, there was emotion, meaning, and understanding. There was also a sense of team….something that had been missing in the last year. I said it before and I will say it again….it was AMAZING!

When everyone came and saw the circle they were a little put off and thought I was nuts. I just asked them to hang in there with me. They did and the results were incredible! We left the meeting feeling more like a team than we have in a very long time.

I want to thank you for showing me that there is a way that a group of people with different worldviews can come together and be a cohesive unit! You very well may have given me the tools to keep our small town grocery store alive!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Purpose Statement for the Bismarck AoH training, November 2014

What is it to be Worldview Aware?

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

Individuals, organizations and communities all have worldviews. They operate at least 80% unconsciously and impact how individuals, organizations and communities see and interact with the world, events, situations and other people or organizations. Worldviews influence relationships, communication, tension or conflict, decision-making and workplace cultures.

To be Worldview Aware is to feel, experience or notice that worldview(s) exist, individually, organizationally, in community and across stakeholder groups. It is knowing and understanding more about what is happening in the world, locally, regionally and globally, by being or becoming aware of worldviews – first your own and then, with curiosity and compassion, someone else’s.

An individual, organization and/or community that is worldview aware offers greater leadership potential and creativity that arises from the interaction of multiple worldviews, leading more often to innovative ideas or solutions and more diverse, welcoming, inclusive (work) places, more creative problem solving, planning and strategy development.

With some of our most entrenched issues and challenges in today’s world and the growing visibility of some of these issues growing (racism, discrimination, sexism, police violence as a few examples), Worldview Intelligence™ and becoming Worldview Aware may help us discover together pathways that do not currently exist. Letting go of what we know to discover what wants and needs to happen.

You can follow the conversation at our Linked In group and or our Facebook group.

Authenticity and Alignment at Work – Talking It Up With Karen Kelloway

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

Authentic connection. We crave it. We miss it. We want to bring it. We don’t always know how and we don’t always understand our own role in bringing it, no matter where we are or what our areas of responsibility at work might be.

This is an inquiry that my good friend and colleague Karen Kelloway and I have been in for some months now. Our inquiry led to a lovely audio podcast conversation on Authenticity and Alignment at work.

Karen is a powerful executive coach. She has written a book called Nail-It which provides a fantastic framework for anyone looking at bringing more intentionality to their career (and life) choices. She and I are cooking up a few collaborative ventures. We can’t wait to see the various forms of it that will emerge in 2015.

Karen Kelloway

In the meantime, take a listen. In 20 minutes we cover

How to be ‘you’ at work
Why ‘compartmentalizing’ doesn’t work
How to gain a worldview awareness

A bit of information from Karen: “This is my very first (audio) podcast:) It’s in a secure area of my website so you have to sign in to listen (which means you are then on my list to receive monthly ‘career alignment’ updates). If you do listen in, you can of course Unsubscribe from my list at a later date.”

You can access the conversation here. It is worth signing up to Karen’s list as there is lots of value there. And, you can just listen in and then unsubscribe right away if you wish.

Worldview Intelligence

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

As our work with worldview continues, Jerry Nagel and I, and other friends and colleagues we are evolving this work with, have been reflecting on what it means to be worldview aware, wondering if awareness is enough. We imagine it is a step, albeit an important one. Awareness in and of itself can be expansive, turning judgment or assumption into generosity and curiosity. And then what? What does it take to create the transformative spaces we have been witnessing with this work? It takes practices, skills and a wee bit of courage too. In was in the spirit of this wondering that the term Worldview Intelligence arose along with the curiosity of what it means; generating the working definitions that follow.

Worldview Intelligence

The ability to learn or understand worldview(s), to be worldview aware
Development of skills that offer ways to address differing worldview situations, invite multiple worldviews
Creating opportunity and circumstances to use skills, knowledge and awareness to move from differences to progress, for yourself, your organization or community

Worldview Awareness

Feeling, experiencing or noticing that worldview(s) exist, individually, organizationally, in community and across stakeholder groups
Knowing and understanding more about what is happening in the world around you by being or becoming worldview aware

Having just wrapped up a two day workshop in Minnesota on Worldview Intelligence, a significant thread of conversation was application. How do we take what we are learning and experiencing and bring it to life in personal practice and in the way we approach our work, in the practices of our organizations? Transforming differences into progress.

We have built and are prototyping a number of frameworks that help us and workshop participants see intervention and application points. The exercises invite skill building – on the spot and afterwards in the work. The response has been thoughtful and transformative as people are seeing when and how to apply what they are learning and understanding that the quality of the messenger is as important as the message – maybe even more so when the messenger embodies the qualities and practices of worldview intelligence.

We have been working with worldview for a few years now, in the Art of Hosting trainings we have been delivering and other venues. What we learned there showed us the need for deeper dives into worldview and the identification and development of skills and intelligence that can impact even our most challenging situations. We will share what we are learning as we go and as we have time to digest the depth of experience created that invites people to show up in the fullness of their humanity – for some, the first time they have ever felt so fully invited.

Worldview Awareness as a Transformative Process

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

Worldview awareness is the most transformative experience Jerry Nagel, I and the colleagues we work with in Nova Scotia, Minnesota and elsewhere have witnessed so far for inviting diverse perspectives into a conversation or a process – around race, power and privilege (diversity/equity), political differences, silos in organizations or for community engagement. We have witnessed people finding their way into conversations previously inaccessible because no one had language that engages the conversations in this degree of thoughtfulness, reflection and curiosity, instead of with defensiveness, dismissiveness, rationalizations or judgments.

Conversations previously stuck open up because the language of worldview and worldview awareness offers alternative ways for people to ask about how welcoming, open or inclusive they may be, or their organizational culture might be. In one situation, with one of my colleagues in this work, a dialogue that was needing to happen for many years in her organization opened up because someone was now able to ask, “Do we have an issue with worldview here?” The response, which was a surprise to the person making the inquiry, was, “Yes.” My colleague had been ready to have the conversation for a long time without a entry way into it that would be expansive rather than debative. She understood the power of strategically waiting for the right timing to emerge.

The transformative impact we have been witnessing for years now, in our Art of Hosting trainings and other speaking opportunities, through the introduction of a worldview framework and then inquiry through a world cafe or reflective listening has inspired the development of the Worldview Awareness curriculum for personal, organizational and community engagement, identifying and exploring worldview awareness patterns, practices and strategies. The impact continues to be powerful as shared, for instance, in the reflections on our experience in Nova Scotia during the one day introduction to the Transformative Power of Worldview Awareness attended by seasoned diversity practitioners and change agents.

Individual worldview awareness invites each person into reflection about their own worldview, what has influenced the construction of their worldview, how it impacts their communication and relationships as well as how they see the world. This internal reflection, guided by curiosity, then generates curiosity about other people and the evolution of their worldview. In and of itself, this can create “safe enough” space for people to share more of who they are. In one AoH training in Grand Rapids,MN at the end of a World Cafe on Worldview, a young Native American man stood up and shared he felt able to speak more and more openly about his Worldview thanks to the collective exploration we were in and the Worldview teach or framework that invited the inquiry.

The idea that organizations also have worldviews is often a moment of insight and inspiration for participants in this exploration. To be thoughtful and intentional about organizational worldview practices and patterns invites the opportunity to think about policy development and employee recruitment and retention in different and more comprehensive ways. It provides a means to explore alignment of stated organization Worldview with its practices and offers strategies on how to invite and host a multiplicity of worldviews inside the organization which ultimately makes the organization more successful on most indicators.

Community engagement, when done well, invites a multiplicity of viewpoints and perspectives – or worldviews – into the conversation or public meeting. Most community engagement is still done in traditional town hall style – with a panel of experts making presentations and answering questions from the few community members who happen to make it to the scarce microphones placed on the floor of the meeting room. Engagement with constituents needs to be heartfelt and meaningful, not just the opportunity to check off a box that says we consulted.

Worldview Awareness curriculum, combined with strong engagement or dialogic processes, provides ideas and strategies on how to invite the multiplicity of voices into a process that strengthens the power of engagement and of outcomes, while creating more welcoming and inclusive environments. Worldview Awareness invites the full complexity of a situation and of issues, ensures that people with different viewpoints and sometimes contradictory interests exchange worldviews and often charts unknown territory. This leads to practical outcomes that might not have been achieved otherwise and that can more easily be implemented because all stakeholders involved experience a higher degree of commitment and ownership. The result is better decisions and more sustainable actions (solutions).

One of our dreams is to offer these workshops (tailored of course) to all the places grappling with how to create more inclusive, generative workplaces or communities by accessing new lenses for deciphering the increasing complexity impacting work environments and communities. Worldview awareness offers organizations committed to a diverse workforce the opportunity to engage those they serve, internally and externally, in more generative, compassionate ways in service of the outcomes we all want to achieve.

Challenge of Leadership in the 21st Century: What’s Needed Now?

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

In an exploration with Saint Mary’s University in Halifax (one of my alma maters) about an upcoming series of leadership workshops, the team there asked me some evocative questions, worthy of sharing on the Shape Shift blog. The previous blog post explored the question of what guidelines or, in their words, rules, would I share with leaders today. Another of their questions was: Why does the area of leadership fascinate you? Why indeed?

Leadership and leadership development has had my attention for as long as I can remember. It currently has my attention because the way I was trained, or more accurately indoctrinated, into leadership (as is the case with many of the leaders I meet and work with, even younger leaders) is much different than the leadership skills needed to navigate the complexity of today’s world.

I came into leadership positions at a young age; at a time when leaders were believed to have the answers, were expected to solve problems and fix situations that popped up. This was a time when letters were written on stationary and mailed, when fax machines (which are now almost obsolete) were just new and the idea that everyone would have a computer (much less mobile devices that process as much and more than computers) was a farfetched notion. A very different world, a very different worldview.

The world has grown far more complex, social media has a strong influence and our environments and situations are demanding greater collaboration and collaborative decision making because no one person has the solution. We need to unlearn and relearn our habitual leadership skills and strategies to be responsive and still make decisions and take actions that move initiatives forward. We can only unlearn what is habitual by becoming aware of what is right in front of us that we cannot see, because so much of our worldview – as much as 80% – is unconscious. This is why Jerry Nagel and I are in the exploration of the transformative power of worldview awareness.

This is a balancing act, working with dynamic tensions of collaboration and collaborative leadership – also something we are learning our way into. Many leaders are uncertain about how to navigate this 21st Century world with skill and ease, how to draw out the collective intelligence or wisdom needed to find our way forward. In partnership with amazing colleagues, I have been using patterns and practices that help leaders make sense of the world, invite our own ‘not knowing’ while engaging the wisdom and collective intelligence of people most impacted by or having the most influence over the particular issues or challenges at hand.

These are the solutions that have staying power. This is what this new series of programs at Saint Mary’s – but also offerings in other venues in other cities – offers: insights into navigating the 21st Century, particularly as leaders of any age feel a responsibility for the significant challenges of our times.

Princess Stories – A Key to Conflict Resolution

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Kathy Jourdain

When we are engaged in conflict with someone else, it is often difficult to step out of it to gain perspective. It is hard to pinpoint the exact problem, usually because we are absolutely convinced the problem is the other person, although we may begrudgingly admit that we might be contributing to the problem.

The answers to conflict resolution can be pretty easy. Opening up to them is the hard part. They are contained in the stories we tell. If we can allow ourselves to listen to our own stories with a more discerning ear, we may be able to penetrate to the heart of the conflict more easily.

Ken Cloke and Joan Goldsmith, in their book Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflict, present a framework I find useful and powerful in explaining the underlying dynamics of conflict and my clients find it engaging. It is a way to explore worldview and experience the transformative power of worldview awareness. It is based on the notion that we tell stories in a certain way when we are in conflict. The framework looks like this:

Princess Story Triangle

If you think of fairy tales of old ( since the very nature of our fairytale storytelling is now, thankfully, changing), there is usually a Princess or damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by the Prince from the Dragon, wicked step-mother or other perpetrator. The Princess is pure and beautiful and always the victim of circumstance or of the jealous or evil intentions of someone who has some kind of influence or power over her life. She never rescues herself. The dragon is evil and hateful and has it out for the Princess. The Prince is handsome and gallant and always arrives to rectify the situation. (It is important to remember these are archetypal roles that we all assume so even though the Princess is referred to as “she” it could just as easily and often be a “he” in the role.)

We often tell our conflict stories from the perspective of the Princess. In our stories about conflict we have with another person we are the victim. Somebody has done something to us. Whatever we perceive they have done, we use to justify our own actions or behaviour in the conflict especially when we find ourselves “acting out of character”. When we act out of reaction, anger, frustration, we don’t feel good about ourselves or how we treated someone else. If we can rationalize that we have been provoked into our reaction, that at least offers an explanation for our own behaviour that we can live with, that supports our worldview. We become identified with our position and are unwilling to acknowledge what we may have done to contribute to the situation. The less heard we feel, the more entrenched we become in our position. Our attempts to resolve the conflict feel like giving in.

We want other people to understand our reaction in light of the provocation so we paint the person we are in conflict with as the “dragon”. Then, it’s as if we had no choice because the dragon forced us into it. While we see ourselves as “acting out of character” we see the dragon in our story as very much acting within character for them, more so if the conflict has gone on for awhile or is particularly entrenched.

One of the reasons we tell our conflict stories to others is that we are looking for our knight in shining armour to come along and rescue us. Sometimes the rescue is simply in being validated or acknowledged for our own actions. “The dragon did such a terrible thing, no wonder you reacted the way you did.” Other times we are looking for someone to do something for us, to intervene or to make the dragon disappear.

In promoting our princess stories to whoever will listen, we are looking for sympathy. If we don’t get it, we go deeper into our story, give more detail, repeat ourselves. The repetition makes the story more and more real and we become more entwined with it. We drive ourselves deeper into the princess role because surely that will generate the sympathy we think we need. In exchange for the sympathy we seek, we trade in whatever power we may have to rectify our situation. In the victim role, we are helpless to defend ourselves, change our situation or learn from the conflict.

When we finally realize that the knight in shining armour is us, we stop looking for the prince. When we recognize that the dragon may not be purely evil but also “acting out of character”, we can begin to relinquish the princess role and truly learn from our plight. One key to doing this is to tell our story from the perspective of our dragon, to become curious about how they are seeing the world. The dragon in our story has their own version, their own worldview, of the conflict story. What are the odds that they actually paint themselves as the dragon? About the same as us painting ourselves as the dragon in our own story. Although sometimes that dragon is an internal dragon.

As we tell the story from their perspective, we put ourselves in their shoes. It enables us to see them in a new light. Maybe they were reacting to something we said or did. Perhaps they feel just as helpless in the escalation of this conflict as we feel. Maybe new awareness of their challenges and difficulties come to light that help us soften our own story, make us more curious and more generous, expanding the space for generative conversation to emerge.

Another benefit of telling the story from the perspective of the dragon is that it just might enable us to admit the pieces of our own princess story that we have omitted – the pieces that might have contributed to the dragon’s response, behaviour or actions. If we let down our guard only momentarily, instead of signaling to the dragon an opportunity to attack as we fear it will, it just might signal an opening to disarm the conflict.

In order to do this, we must give up our need to be right and open ourselves up to alternative explanations, stories, scenarios or worldviews. It is possible to have more than one right answer although when we feel absolutely that we are right it is a challenge to believe this.

Our princess story contains our truth. It is not always factual truth but it is emotional truth. It also contains omissions. The dragon’s story contains truth and omissions too. It is in bringing the truths and the omissions together that an alternative story emerges, one that often contains the framework or foundation for resolution in an expanded truth.

The stories we tell ourselves shape our experience. What conflict could you shift the shape of if you found a different way to tell the story, if you become curious about the situation, your reaction, the other person, if you became more gracious and generous in responding to them – even if it is a stretch as you begin. Some stretches end up being worth it.

ShapeShift

The shape of the world is shifting… embracing and being intentional about it

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