Face to Face

Graphic facilitation of a team-building event

Last week I spent three deeply meaningful days graphically facilitating a meeting with a passionate team from The World Bank. When a group gathers specifically to talk about how they can support the poorest people on the planet, it translates into significant value---really significant value. I spent some time thinking about the simple fact that this team had gathered from all parts of the world to discuss a vast number of issues, ideas and strategies---again, all around supporting programs that help the poor. What would the cost be for this team NOT to meet face to face? It is hard to fathom. Of course, at face value, costs to gather are significant and sometimes hard to swallow---especially in tough times.

What was incredibly profound was the strength of the network that seemed to form in front of our eyes ... I could feel it and see it happening real time. In a recent HBR Survey, 95% of subscribers said they believe face-to-face meetings are a key to success in building long-term relationships. For a global team that spends much of its time regularly dealing with issues that would be categorized as crises, meeting and forming bonds on the spoken and unspoken levels result in opportunities we can't even begin to quantify. Doug Weeks of Booz Allen summed up his thoughts on going to conferences recently when he said, "I go because everybody is going to be there."

So ... we ask, can connections of gathered intelligence, forming relationships, conversation, and the building nature of collaboration happen via a flat screen and a headset?

The bottom line, which is the ROO---Return on Objective---carries WILD VALUE when meetings are well designed, the genius in the room is catalyzed, and every opportunity is made to support learning and transformation.

I saw this happen last week and the experience drives us to continue to explore ways to support meaning making for the hearts and minds that are doing good in the world ... the magic happens when people are face to face.

BAM!

Multi-Sector Collaboration - It's Time To Start The Conversation!

I've been doing some thinking around the importance of mass collaboration.

In the past we focused on developing people and teams, then the need became, how do we get people to work together across departments within an organization? Our challenge was to eliminate silos.

Now ... to meet the challenges we currently face, we have to expand our concept of collaboration to include not only those we currently work with, but how do we collaborate with people outside of our organization?

How do we bring together multiple sectors---business, non-profits, government, academia, social networks---to create new ways of innovating, building business and tackling the global challenges that face us today?

This type of cutting edge collaboration brings huge potential and raises difficult questions:

• How do we bring diverse groups together for true dialogue that leads to common vision and inspired action?


• How can we shift our focus from the things that separate us and instead keep our focus on the common elements of our individual visions that we can unite on?


• How do we ensure that all voices are heard and outcomes supported?

In closed system groups, to ensure accountability, the vision and action plans can be tied to compensation and advancement. It was possible to put "teeth" into the decisions. We have some "push" power to enact the change we want.

In multi-sector collaborations, how do we ensure accountability and follow-through? I believe we must move from a "push" form of motivation to a powerful "PULL."

How do we work together to create a common vision and pathway forward that is SO COMPELLING that people can't help but become excited and put their energy into following through? How do we work with people in a way that they feel like they "Can't NOT" take steps to initiate change? The motivation shifts from an external push to an internal pull.

Be looking for more posts and resources on this topic as our curiosity leads us to more questions and hopefully ... creative solutions!

Like the image of Lassoing Dreams? Check out more of the dream series at Eleatta

Press Releases Now Available for Download

FutureWave is embarking on a media campaign with the first in a series of press releases detailing our partnerships and events. Our first two press releases---"FutureWave Guides Sustainable Business To Higher Ground" and "PossibilityNOW! Cafés Tap 'the Genius in the Room' as a Fresh Alternative to the Keynote Speech"---are now available in the "Downloads" section of our sidebar. Look for future press releases to be posted there in the coming weeks.

Invisible Lines

I was returning from working in Victoria BC a week or so ago. The flight from Victoria to Vancouver is all of about 20 minutes. If you have lucked out and are sitting next to the window, the 20 minutes is an amazing journey of ocean to island. I always hope I see a whale ... I don't think the whales much like the inward passages, but I look for them all the same.

I got the aisle seat and so I defaulted to reading the airline's magazine. I ran across this article: "Social Responsibility Knows No Borders" ....

What struck me as curious: for the past nine days, I had been living within a clear set of boundaries---I was on an island. So, I continued to ponder what that meant in context of a "no boundary" thought. The author spoke of acting with responsibility to the planet and our neighbors and to consider the impact. And I get it---I have a lot to learn, but I get it.

Hang with me here ... I am still curious about the meaning of boundary ... I mean, here I was, on an island and I don't think that I had any food that was not fresh, organic and grass fed! I started to look for real estate property right away; I wanted more and I wanted this all of the time.

So ... what is it about boundaries? It was almost an expectation to ask what farm the salad came from, what was the name of the farmer who raised the cattle. Now I am back in Denver and I am craving those boundaries. I am craving the boundary that provides the opportunity get intimate with what is contained in it.

I got home and actively---well, almost obsessively---planned a trip to our local organic picking farm ... I needed to be near the people who knew that land intimately. I needed to be near the boundary that contained the berries and the hands and the land that did no harm.

What "knowing no boundaries" means to me, is that when I first love and care for the boundary that I am in, I am compelled to love and care for all that extends beyond the invisible line.

How Great It Is To Be Living In Today's World!

I woke up this morning just thinking about how great it is to be living in a time when there are so many opportunities for each of us to Do Good in this world. I have been blown away by the people we have met recently who have intentionally made changes in their lives so they can bring their talent and passion to causes and work they believe in.

Here are just a few of the heroes we've had a chance to work with recently:

• Winston Riley is putting it all on the line to ensure we have a healthy food supply. Catalyzed by books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and the documentary film Food, Inc., he is starting the Ecological Food Manufacturers Association. FutureWave will be partnering with him to facilitate focus groups for the Food Initiative 2010 Project in November.


• Harold Moss is dedicated to combining storytelling and technology to make media that changes the world. We had an opportunity to work with this amazing man on our NC Sustainable Business project. Check out what they're up to.


• Eleatta Driver is a Durham artist who is taking her art to the next level. She will be using her new DREAM Series to inspire others to imagine and follow their dreams.

All over this country there are individuals, communities and corporations who are stepping up to meet the challenges we face today. Their stories need to be shared. We feel this is so important that we will be adding a page to the FutureWave site that is dedicated to storytelling.

More to come!