1. Idea Dancing & Pebbles
from Heaven:
Challenges for Leaders
Thomas
Homer-Dixon
John Ott Brenda
Zimmerman
From a summary of key note speakers at the Tamarack 2010 CCI Conference
Assembled by Barbara Dart & Mark Holmgren
Further development by Mark Holmgren for the LenP300 course.
FEATURING THE WORK OF
AND OTHER THINKERS
2. Stuck In Perpetual Crisis?
Collaborate!
from Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute
We need leadership that acknowledges the complexity
and chaos of the world in which we live.
We need leadership that is rooted in the sometimes
grim reality of our day to day world, yet concurrently
is able to fuel our highest aspirations and embolden
us to great change.
From the opening Plenary
3. Stuck In Perpetual Crisis?
Collaborate!
from Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute
We need leadership that is authentically inclusive;
recognizes multiple truths in the world; and taps into
our shared wisdom.
We need leadership that is adaptive and flexible and
embraces risk-taking, change and failure as
opportunities for learning.
From the opening Plenary
4. Opening Exercise
Finish these opening statements...
We need leadership that acknowledges...
We need leadership that is rooted in...
We need leadership that is authentically...
5. Dr. Thomas
Homer-Dixon
Day One Key Note:
Chaos, Uncertainty and the Possibility of
Collaboration, Framing the issues facing our
communities – our world
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Centre for International Governance
Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International
Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, and is a Professor in the Centre for Environment
and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. He is
author of and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. Learn more about
Thomas on his website here. Access Thomas' keynote presentation here.
6. Thomas Homer Dixon
REASONS FOR RESISTENCE TO CHANGE
Cognitive: Cognitive inertia due to availability bias (assessing
change and challenges based on recent or current experiences)
Emotional: Motivated bias to defend one's identity. It is hard to
change when what you are facing is a redefinition of yourself and/or
your role.
Economic: Misleading price signals. Example if the price of oil
included what it will cost to find alternatives to dwindling reserves,
we might think differently.
Social: Vested interests pose barriers to making change that will alter
what social position or benefits we experience.
Political: Short time horizons tend to define problems in small and
often unrealistic chunks. Governments work in annual cycles and
within the context of elections. Change that falls beyond the short
term may not be sell-able to the public.
7. Thomas Homer Dixon
“We need to shift from seeing the world as
composed mainly of MACHINES to
seeing it as composed mainly of ……
COMPLEX SYSTEMS”
8. “Whereas MACHINES
• can be taken apart, analyzed, and fully
understood (they are no more than the
sum of their parts)
• exhibit “normal normal” or equilibrium
patterns of behavior
• show proportionality of cause and effect,
and
• can be managed because their behavior
predictable . . .”
Thomas Homer Dixon
9. Thomas Homer Dixon
COMPLEX SYSTEMS
“Are more than the sum of their parts
(they have emergent properties);
Can flip from one pattern of behavior to another (they
have multiple equilibriums);
Show disproportionality of cause and effect (their
behavior is often nonlinear, because of feedbacks
and synergies), and
Cannot be easily managed because their behavior is
often unpredictable.”
10. Thomas Homer Dixon
There are no simple fixes to
complex problems.
“Complex problems require
complex solutions.”
11. Is rising social, economic
and technological
complexity a good thing
or a bad thing?
Thomas Homer Dixon
12. Thomas Homer Dixon
“A GOOD THING!
Complexity often helps us solve our problems
Complexity is often a source of:
Innovation (through novel combinations)
Adaptability (through diversity and distributed
capability)”
13. Thomas Homer Dixon
“A BAD THING?
Complexity can cause
Opacity and extreme uncertainty
Managerial Overload
Cascading Failures
Brittleness.”
14. “How do we innovate in
a world of rising complexity and
increasingly likely breakdown?”
Thomas Homer Dixon
15. Thomas Homer Dixon
Increase system resilience
Learn to identify problem types
(simple, complicated, or complex)
Decentralize and diversify problem solving
to rapidly explore solution landscape
(with safe-fail experimentation)
Generate breakdown scenarios
( to enable robust decision making)
18. Thomas Homer Dixon
Too much
connectivity
can harm
resilience.
From Dr. Homer-Dixon's CCI Presentation
19. Thomas Homer Dixon
“How do we lead in a world of rising complexity?
Leaders should constantly probe to determine
patterns in changing solution landscape
Small experiments are probes.
Leaders should be “gardeners” who create conditions for
experimentation – and for creative failure”
20. John Ott
Day Two Keynote: John Ott
Connect: The Collaborative Leader
Understanding Collective wisdom and change
John Ott is co-author of the brilliant new book The Power of
Collective Wisdom. John, a graduate of Stanford Law School, lives in
California. He began group work as a community organizer, helping
residents discern their collective voice and claim their power. For the
last 15 years he has designed and led large-scale community and
organizational change efforts and is a founding member of the Fetzer
Institute’s Collective Wisdom Initiative. Learn more about the John
Ott and the Collective Wisdom Initiative here. Access John's full
keynote presentation here and summary here.
21. John Ott
“A key distinction to remember:
Facts: verified or verifiable
Stories: the meaning we make of facts”
22. “When human beings gather in
groups, a depth of awareness and
insight, a transcendent knowing,
becomes available to us that, if
accessed, can lead to profound
action. We call this transcendent
knowing collective wisdom.”
John Ott
23. “This knowing is not of the mind alone, nor
is it of any individual alone. When this
knowing and sense of right action
emerges, it does so from deep within the
individual participants, from within the
collective awareness of the group, and
from within the larger field that holds the
group.”
John Ott
24. THE SCALLOP
PRINCIPLE
Each one of
us is an eye (I); the
whole discerns
through us.
The corollary: when
we don’t hear
from any eye (I), the
whole is at
greater risk.
John Ott
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation
:
27. Stances that support the arising of
collective wisdom
• Suspend certainty
• See the whole
• Seek diverse perspectives
• Welcome all that is arising
• Trust in the transcendent
John Ott
28. EXERCISE
What must leaders know/learn in order to
help create and sustain the kinds of
stances John Ott talks about?
29. “Often when human beings gather in groups,
we become conduits for wisdom’s
opposite—folly.
We use the term folly to reflect a
continuum of behaviors, from mere
foolishness to acts of depravity. Put
bluntly, if human beings have the capacity
to access collective wisdom, why don’t
we?”
John Ott
32. Brenda Zimmerman
DAY THREE KEY NOTE: Brenda Zimmerman
Engage: Systems Change
Healthy communities, complexity and collaborative
leadership
Brenda Zimmerman is co-author of the best-selling book Getting to
Maybe: How the World is Changed, which explores real-life
examples of social change through a systems and relationship lens
and applies the insights of complexity theory to lay out a brand new
way of thinking about making change in communities, in business,
and in the world. Dr Brenda Zimmerman is the Associate Professor
of Policy and Director, of the Health Industry Management Program
at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Learn more
about Brenda Zimmerman and complexity here. Access Brenda's
keynote presentation here.
33. Brenda Zimmerman
Time is too short
and things are
too bad for
pessimism.
Dee Hock
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
34. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
We need to differentiate between
the simple, the complicated and
the complex
35. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
What is a simple system or
challenge non profits can
address with a recipe?
36. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
What is a
complicated
system or
challenge non
profits face that
have knowable
components and
solutions?
37. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
What is a complex
system or challenge non
profits face and what
might be some of its
unknowable components
leaders must address?
38. Brenda Zimmerman
“When In The Zone Of...
Simple or Complicated
Plan then act
Aim for consistency
Limit type of action (best practice)
“Blueprints”
Project Management
Complexity
“Act-learn” at the same time
(tight feedback loops)
Aim for “coherence”
Multiple actions
Minimum specs/simple rules
Generative thinking AND
Generative relationships
Inquiry”
Generative thinking is getting
to the question before the
question. Generative work is
almost always about
questions of values, beliefs,
assumptions, and
organizational cultures.
That's what makes it
interesting, but also what
makes it important is to have
people in those
conversations who
understand the institution,
but have some degree of
distance.
Richard Chait, Harvard
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4735.html
39. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
A divergent question is a question with
no specific answer, but rather exercises
in one's ability to think broadly about a
certain topic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_questions
41. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
Can God create a stone
that God cannot lift?
42. “Wicked questions –examples
• How can we dramatically improve quality while drastically
reducing costs?
• How do we work together when we all have different agendas?
• How can we commit ourselves to be accountable for achieving
measurable results, while at the same time staying open to the
possibility that we may be measuring the wrong outcomes?
(from Paul Born’s book)”
Brenda Zimmerman
43. Exercise
How might doing away with outcomes
and outcome measurement liberate
our organizations to help people and
communities achieve their
aspirations?
What questions arise out of this question?
What are different ways of seeing success
other than identifying outcomes?
How might designing services to achieve
outcomes limit our ability to help create
significant and lasting change?
44. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation
AI is based on the assumption that organizations
change in the way they inquire and the claim that
an organization which inquires into problems or
difficult situations will keep finding more of the
same but an organization which tries to
appreciate what is best in itself will find/discover
more and more of what is good.
http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/Appreciative.htm
47. Awake at the Wheel
Highlights:
“The future state is so radically different than
the current state that a shift of mindset is
required to invent it”
Transformation requires transformed
behaviour.
Transformed behaviour requires transformed
thinking.
48. Awake at the Wheel
“Mindset is causative...”
Leaders' mindsets about people,
organizations and change determine...
What they see and don't see.
How they react and process what they see
and don't see.
Their leadership style, the results they
strive for, the strategies they espouse.
51. Theory of Change?
A theory of change is a strategy or blueprint for
achieving large-scale, long-term goals. It identifies
the preconditions, pathways and interventions
necessary for an initiative's success. ...
www.skollfoundation.org/skollawards/glossary.asp
52. Theory of Change?
it shows a causal pathway from here to there by
specifying what is needed for goals to be achieved
(e.g. you might argue that children a ttending
school a minimum number of days is necessary if
they are going to learn).
it requires you to articulate underlying
assumptions which can be tested and measured.
it changes the way of thinking about initiatives
from what you are doing to what you want to
achieve and starts there.
http://www.theoryofchange.org/background/basics.html
