Mini-Minutes of Ottawa Meetings
of the Network of Organizations Alive! Practitioners

Archives:     All     2006     2007

December 14, 2007 - Organizations Alive! Practitioners joined RA Associates for a Christmas party at Cille's home in Kanata. It was great to have a relaxed social time with old friends, and to make many new acquaintances. Thank you, Cille. Santa Jan passed out buttons with the Organizations Alive! graphic on it, specially made by Elizabeth, of Tiger Tale Projects.

November 9, 2007 - Thank you Michelle, John, Julia, Linda, Alejandro, Yvette, and Marina for a great ‘Breakfast Plus’ meeting on Friday! It was wonderful having an open agenda to spend some quality time together. How did the four hours fly by so fast?! And thank you, Linda, John, and Michelle, for bringing your projects to the table for some real-time application with OA!

Some of the books that were mentioned/recommended included:

The Passion Test (Attwood Bray)
Moonshine Consulting
Sales Dogs (Blair Singer)
Non-Violent Communication (Marshall B. Rosenberg) 

We also discovered how great the Crayola Twistables SlikStix markers are on a flip chart. I have had these in my briefcase for a long time, but never tried them out. They write smoothly and quietly, have no smell, don’t dry out, and come in four bright colours. Available at Staples in the kids drawing section.

October 12, 2007 - Thank you, Jen, for leading us through the discussion on Communities of Practice, and in particular, NOA! So much to think about!

Recommended reading included:

Spiral Dynamics by Beck and Cowan
The Up Side of Down
Alchemy of a Leader
Ahoy Mates! by Ottawa’s own Bob Garrow
Scaling Up

Also recommended:

Movie – Jane Austen Book Club
Program - Lifesong Adventures
Conference – Systems Thinking in Action in Seattle in Nov.

Best quotable – “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” (thanks, Julia!)

September 14, 2007 - Thank you, Don Officer, for initiating and facilitating our conversation on Poetry and Facilitation. There were many wonderful connections and ah-ha moments through the day. Great job. Thank you, Linda Vanderlee, for sharing your dreamy space (www.RendezvousRupert.org) and gourmet talents. Ahhh and yum! And thank you, Poets - Yvette, Julia, Alejandro, Linda, Don, Pamela, and Synandra! You wrote wordsworth gold! Amazing discoveries!

But we didn't just sun ourselves, eat a great meal, and write poetry! We explored the use of poetry in facilitation, which brought many thoughts and tools together. Some of the many ideas shared were:

1. Post short poems, or quotable quotes (which can sound a lot like poetry!), on the wall and ask participants to choose the one they like (or relate to) the most. Have them introduce themselves using the poem (and what they like about it), or go into groups to explore it (and each other) in more depth.

2. Read a poem together and let the group discuss it free-flow, as Don did with us using 'Constantly risking absurdity' by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It is a safe way to speak of the unspeakable, the conflict, the loss, etc. - to break up a log jam in conversation.

3. Share poetry (stories, quotables, etc.) as part of the organization's folklore - in newsletters, e-mails, board room graffiti, signature bylines, etc.

Jan also used the Organizations Alive! lens to help 'see' poetry in organizations - where it originates, what it could influence, and what could feed it. Check out The Heartbeat ... (blog) for more.

August 10, 2007 - Alejandro Gonzalez presented on the SAS², which is a collection of concepts, methods, and tools designed to support collaborative research and social action in a wide range of fields. Its purpose is to broaden and deepen diagnostic thinking about real-life situations so that the people involved may creatively solve problems and increase the effectiveness of decision-making.

He also overlaid the Organizations Alive! lens to help us see how they complemented each other. Thank you, Alejandro, for sharing the processes, examples, and potential of this new resource that you are so enthusiastic about!

July 13, 2007 - We had another wonderful breakfast meeting last Friday. Breakfast conversation was of birds, things falling from the sky (berries, rain, fish), teamwork, persistence for a task, brain science, changing paradigms, leaving a legacy, positive policies and procedures, and the difference between knowledge and action. You had to be there to know there was indeed a flow of conversation!

Pamela Schreiner brought us all into focus with a presentation, handouts, and discussion on the Balanced Scorecard. Thank you again, Pamela! The definition she shared of BSC from Kaplan and Norton was - ‘The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic management system that uses performance measures to implement the strategy.”

There were four (maybe more) connections to Organizations Alive! that we made:

1. The usual groupings or themes typically used in the Balanced Scorecard corresponded to the four Success Factors of Organizations Alive! These were Vision and Strategy (Strategic Vision), Financial and Internal Processes (Resource Management), Customer (Customer Service), and Learning and Growth (Membership Potential).
    

2. Organizations Alive! helps to make the linkages for the groupings when using the Balanced Scorecard (i.e. the interfaces). The Balanced Scorecard alone does not identify how the groups interrelate.
    

3. The Balanced Scorecard process moves from Strategic Vision to Resource Management to Strategic Vision to … - i.e. the first interface. It is a process of establishing the vision, mission, strategic themes, objectives, and performance measures. Then, as the work is done (Resource Management), data is gathered and fed back to the Strategic Vision to keep the process aligned, meaningful, and on target.
    

4. The Balanced Scorecard process is on the ‘task’ side of the Organizations Alive! Model, but it is only truly effective when it incorporates the ‘people’ considerations, input, and feedback as well – i.e. that it itself is balanced!

Some of us stayed for the Mastery Group meeting from 10:00-12:00. As usual it was a powerful time together, with many insights, affirmations, and encouragements. 

Book references from the morning were: The Balanced Scorecard, The E-Myth Revisited, and McLuhan for Managers. Check out the Recommended Reading List for links and details.

June 8, 2007 - It is strange how our breakfasts seem to unfold with a theme, despite our lack of coordinating such a thing! This month the theme seemed to be Feedback - The Welcomed, the Unwelcomed, and the Necessary.

Yvette, Sevilla, Alejandro, Don, Jennifer, Dave McColl (guest), and Jan met for breakfast and Jennifer's presentation on Emotional Intelligence facilitated by Jennifer. She is trained by MHS to use the Reuven BarOn EQ-i. Thank you for your great story-telling style, Jennifer! Check out the recommended reading that wove its way through our conversation!

We also launched our first Mastery Group meeting following breakfast. Don, Yvette, Sevilla, Jennifer, and I stayed to share, discuss, and explore the challenges we face in our work, and as a community of practitioners. We hope this will become a regular event.

May 11, 2007 - Don, Alejandro, Yvette, Cille, Carole, and Jan met at Kristy's Restaurant. It happened that we found ourselves talking about making money (and our various attitudes, fears, and desires about it) during breakfast, which was a perfect segue for Don's presentation and facilitation of the discussion about the book -  Meet and Grow Rich by Bill Hibbler and Joe Vitale. He prepared a one-page handout for us, which you can read on the NOA! website (in the files section). The core idea of the book is the mastermind approach to meetings. Although our discussion was a shorter version of a typical mastermind meeting, we decided it was worth incorporating into our monthly breakfast meetings. Well done, Don, and thank you!

April 13, 2007 - Gordon Laing facilitated the mindful discussion this morning at Kristy's Restaurant on the subject of the federal government's Management Accountability Framework as viewed through the Organizations Alive! lens. Jen, Alejandro, Jennifer, Synandra, Pamela, Cille, Julia, Sevilla, and Jan were his attentive audience and rowdy inquisitives. We may have to finish our discussion at a future breakfast meeting or special meeting! Thank you, Gordon.

March 9, 2007 - Synandra, Sevilla, Jennifer, and Jan met at Summerhay's Grill for a tête-à-tête and eggs. We talked about the latest version of the 3-fold Applications brochure, upcoming meetings with new clients of the Organizations Alive!™ Model, Sevilla's worldwide contracts, the tipping point, customer courage, politics, the Training Workshop in Calgary, and personal news.

February 9, 2007 - Thank you, Tracey, for facilitating our discussion about marketing the Organizations Alive!™ Model. Julia, Yvette, Jen, Jennifer, Alejandro, Gordon, and Jan, along with Tracey, brainstormed phrases, expressions, questions, etc. that we use to share the model, start discussions, explore possibilities, etc. Feedback was also given on the current marketing tools, and the proposed 3-fold brochure on applications of the model.

January 12, 2007 - Linda (www.rendezvousrupert.org) took Jen, Don, Alejandro, Yvette, Sevilla, Jennifer and Jan through a taste of her Visioning Workshop in Sevilla's home for the afternoon. Among other pot luck treats, Sevilla served her fabulous, homemade, gentle lentil soup. As Jennifer said: "We were fortunate to have our bodies and minds nourished with fabulous soup and creative ponderings."