What does this mean for those of us working in organizations, teaching in schools and colleges, and creating communities?  It means we have to shift the way we engage with information.  We have to shift from knowing to inquiring. Both individually and together, we will be more effective by developing inquiry practices that surface new knowledge and diverse perspectives as well as encourage learning, adapting, and innovation. We are stepping into the age of generativity!

Managing Your Reaction

If this rapid change overwhelms you and leaves you feeling stressed and anxious, you’re not alone. Anyone thinking or feeling that they have to have the answers, they have to figure it all out, they have to solve the problems alone should be overwhelmed! That is an impossible task in this day and age. If you have that reaction, it is sure to escalate over time because anxiety and fear actually inhibit your capacity to deal with reality we are facing.

A bit of cognitive dissonance or discomfort can be quite helpful in getting our attention and stimulating creative responses.  Fear, on the other hand blocks our ability to think critically, clearly, or creatively. The greater the fear, the more we are immobilized; a feedback loop ensures that may even spiral into the fight or flight response. As this happens we become more and more reactive and concerned with self-preservation; risk-adversity eliminates any opportunity for creative responses and solutions. Our greatest fears then become our reality.

The flip side of the overwhelm response is one of excitement and anticipation! This is a logical perspective when your shift your thinking and work practices towards collaboration and continuous learning . Resilience, full engagement, open minds, hearts, and wills combined with  practices and policies that surface and generate knowledge and information and advance learning and innovation offer a portal into the world of exponential change.  How do we get there? The good news: current research in positive psychology provides evidence-based practices that actually broaden and build our capacity.  These practices are not foreign to us, however, they are counter-intuitive to a mechanical model for organizing and working.

The Positivity Factor

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business examined how positivity affects managers. They found that managers with greater positivity were more accurate and careful on making decisions and were more effective interpersonally and spread positivity within their work teams, which in turn produced better collaboration.

Barbara Fredrickson, one of the most reknowned researchers in the area of positive psychology has discovered that positive emotions actually broaden our thinking capacity and build our resilience. Negative emotions narrow our responses, often leaving us with tunnel vision and habitual responses to situations.  This may be beneficial in a crisis where emergency response teams need to react with precision and speed in order to save lives; however, this is far less useful in a training or boardroom.

Wherever you are dealing with human systems and the creation of plans or solution for organizational challenges, it is valuable to have broad thinking capacity. Positive emotions literally give us access to greater thinking capacity, greater recall, creativity, and vision.  Actions, policies, and practices that create a positive environment and positive relationships literally expand the capacity of your organization—instanteously!

You can listen to Dr. Fredrickson talk about positivity, resilience, the broaden and build theory and the importance of positive emotions on YouTube; there are a series of podcasts. Here is a short one to get you started.

The bottom line is that a 3:1 positivity ratio will improve job performance, build resilience, broaden thinking capacity, and generate creativity in your department and organization. Happiness and joy are not the only positive emotions that relate to positivity; there is a much broader spectrum of emotions including, curiosity, interest, contentment, humor, love, gratitude, serenity, hope, contentment, connection, playfulness, mindfulness, appreciation, optimism, and openness.  What’s your positivity ratio?

Managing with the Brain in Mind

As a manager, you set the pace and influence the environment.  An environment that is safe physically, emotionally, and mentally generates a field where positive emotions can flourish.  This means making mutual respect and trust core principles and core practices. It means paying attention to what you say, how you say it, and what you mean to do with your words. Your actions either increase or decrease positivity; change happens the moment you ask a question. Since you cannot avoid having an impact, you must decide what impact you want to have and then be mindful of your actions.

There is a positive feedback loop entailed in this practice because you’re not in this alone: positivity is created in relationship; it is a dance. By acting in ways that enhance a positive environment, you increase respect and trust, which further increases positivity and productivity. Success increases positive emotions, which forms the positive feedback loop.  When the dominant feedback loop is positive, you and your colleagues will be more resilient when adversity does arise. You will be in position to respond efficiently and effectively.

If you are practiced in traditional problem solving, looking for problems or things to fix, this new way of working will feel awkward and perhaps even impractical.  It does not mean you don’t handle the problems; it is the way you go about it that makes all the difference. These new practices invite you to take a step back first. To look at a situation within the context of desired outcomes and to discover where you are most successful in the process of developing strategies for going forward.

You will generate the best solutions for your department/division when your team can access collective creativity and critical thinking; this is facilitated by positive relationships and a positive environment. If you are paying attention, you should see evidence of your efforts in behavior, workplace practices, and organization/department policies.

Practicing Inquiry and Positivity

This week . . .

• Pay attention to the emotions that are motivating you and others. Track your positivity ratio. Become aware of your dominate motivators—your own and what you think is necessary to motivate others.
• Notice when you experience positive relationships or a positive environment. Describe how they impact your team’s capacity to be productive and effective.
• Over the next two weeks, identify things you’ve done to generate positive relationships and/or a positive environment.

This innovative system will ensure that more middle school students have access to quality learning opportunities after school, however, this project is still in great need of community support.  We need community leaders to own this project, funds to support development and growth and volunteers to use their expertise and time to keep this wonderful community effort off the ground and flourishing.

LTOTN would not have formed without the eagerness of our community to support out of school time learning and the healthy development of Asheville teens.  It is amazing that our community pulled together to support and build this project, but this is only the beginning and success will depend on collaboration from all levels of our unique and vibrant city.

Check out the awesome Fall programs!

ABYSA (Soccer)

UNCA Craft Campus

The Health Adventure

Asheville Art Museum

FEAST (teacher club) (organic gardening and healthy cooking classes)

Our Voice-Climbing Towards Confidence

YWCA

NC Outward Bound

Torch Club – Boys & Girls Club

NC Stage Company

Cougar Mountain Club (teacher club)

Directing Ourselves Movie Making

POETIX

French Club (teacher club)

Roots + Wings School of Art

Cougar Creativity Club (teacher club)

Delta House (academic support)

LEAF in Schools and Streets (music from around the world)

WNC AIDS Project

Building Bridges (relationships across divides)

LTOTN will offer three 8-week sessions

Fall:  September 20th - November 19th

Winter:  January 10th – March 12th

Spring:  March 21st - May 27th

If you work in a school system, I want to hear what’s happening at the system level, the administrative level, in the classroom and after school that is consistently moving at risk kids forward. If you know someone who should be interviewed, please have them contact me or let me know how to contact them.

If you work in the community, I want to know how your community is helping to deliver the kinds of successes you’ve had.

If you are one of those kids–one that grew up in rural or urban poverty and are now “out from under the system” and successfully making your own way, I want to hear your story. What was the turning point? What happened that changed your future for the better? How were you supported? What recommendations do you have to make?

In case it matters, I want to let you know my intention with these interviews.  There is a lot of research on the achievement gap and what the problems are that we need to address.  I haven’t found a lot of research on those kids who are succeeding–despite poverty and the other factors identified by deficit-based research.

I think it will be valuable to identify what is working and what makes the difference for those kids who do succeed.  I hope to use my research to help expand options for communities, inform practice, and inspire possibility. I will blog about it in hopes of spreading the information as rapidly as possible.

Contact me: cheri.torres@collabydesign.com

Like any “younger generation”, this one is slammed for the faults we see because we haven’t yet appreciated what they bring into the mix of creating our next new future. I recall the negative comments made about my own generation (boomers) by my parents generation, and yet now when my generation is described, it is accompanied by a wealth of positives that came about as we came of age and contributed to the world.

We won’t know the full positive impact of Gen Yes until they begin to significantly inform our future, which may mean until we ‘boomers’ get out of the way.  Here’s what people are saying, along with some ways to see the positive and work with it:

• Gen Y does see themselves as special. They grew up in an era where we went out of our way to protect and keep them safe . . . because we realized our children are our most precious resource. This has given them a positive sense of self and worth apart from anything that they have accomplished or earned.  They are ripe to recognize that everyone is special in some way without having to earn it. Perhaps they will create our future schools and communities where each child can discover that special gift they bring to the world.  How to work with it? Affirm that they are special . . . and therefore, “we expect special things from you.” As Jason Dorsey, the Gen Y Guy says, “when your new Gen Y hire comes in the first day, hand him or her their very own business cards, make them feel special, let them know ‘you now represent us. This is what we expect from you . . ..’ and then ask them, ‘What do you expect from us?’” Learn to capitalize on the full potential of every individual by creating opportunities.
• They are team-oriented and highly social.  They are more loyal to “their peeps” than to the institution or organization. The future requires us to collaborate in ways that are unprecedented–working beyond the individual ego and more for the greater good will be a mark they will place on our new future.  They will be well-poised to take the lead! How to work with it: reinforce their collaboration and team skills, connect youth with service projects (especially kids helping kids), mobilize volunteer groups, let them work together and celebrate their collaborative capacity.
• They are connected to peers 24/7 and though technology dependent, they know very little about how it works. They develop relationships in a virtual world naturally, easily, and comfortably. They will create the bridges around the world, across cultures. They are paving the way towards a new neural communication system for the planet. How to work with it: use technology in the classroom and in the workplace. Ask them how to create virtual work teams and use the internet to enhance school and the workplace. Allow for the possibility that they just might be able to multitask and produce good work at the same time!
• They are achievement oriented and entirely outcome driven. They will help us get out of our own way, if we let them.  They live in a world of possibility and opportunity. Once we know what it is we’re trying to do, they will take the reins and drive towards it.  Dorsey tells us, their motto: tell us what you want us to do and then get out of the way. How to work with this: Start with the outcome, especially if your explanation or a process is complicated.  First describe the end result and then work backwards. If you want ideas about possible ways to achieve an outcome, engage them in the planning.  Once they know the outcome, they’ll look for the most efficient or effective ways to get there.

Every generation brings with it the tools that are going to be essential for the future. This generation is no different.  Perhaps we can do ourselves and them the greatest favor if we look for the potential gifts they are bearing and create environments where those gifts can help us create a stronger, healthier, more sustainable future for all of us.

Strategic Planning and Continuous Improvement

The quality movement is making its way into education with remarkable results in a short period of time. The best practice workshops on this topic featured schools that are generating consistent improvement in student achievement over time. Key themes in these workshops were:

• Aligning strategic planning and action at all levels in a school system.
• Creating only a few, sharply FOCUSED strategic goals (2-3), which generate many well focused action items within schools and classrooms.
• Making all goals SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable (but a stretch), Realistic and Time-sensitive.
• Using formative measures that allow teachers and students to track their success all along the way. (It’s too late to make adjustments if you only take measurements at the end of the term.)
• Creating professional learning communities that help teachers share best practices and support one another’s success.
• Engaging in regular cycles of action learning: Plan, implement, measure, adjust, and monitor (the formative assessment piece); this is what helps teachers and students keep themselves on track for achieving their goals.
• Making sure professional development is aligned with goals and offers a direct impact on student achievement.

The Challenge: Positive Relationships and a Positive Environment

Implementing this kind of continuous improvement process in schools (or anywhere) can be a challenge. Fear can block the willingness to take risks, ask questions, and be transparent. No one wants to feel stupid or exposed.  Success hinges on positive relationships–especially between school administration and teachers–a positive environment, and a focus on results.

The creation of a positive environment and positive relationships begins with the administrative leadership. Superintendents, Principals and Vice Principals who encourage learning at all levels make it safe for teachers to be transparent, share what’s working, ask for support, and take risks in the classroom. When leadership encourages everyone to work together to discover what is working, rather than point out failures, learning flourishes.

What would this look like in a teacher conversation?  They might ask, “What’s happening for high achievers that is supporting their success and how can we spread that to all our students?” These kinds of questions generate a distinctly different environment than questions such as, “Why are your kids failing, what are you doing wrong?”As Doug Reeves says, “Go on a treasure hunt, not a witch hunt!”

Learn more about the impact of creating a positive learning environment

Listen to the leading researcher on positive emotions talk about positivity and how it broadens and builds thinking and learning capacity?

Share how your school is improving student success.

The luxury of knowing something…once and for all…is gone.  It is becoming increasingly clear that collaborative learning and intentional systems design will be essential capacities for individuals, teams, and organizations as a whole.

How fast are things changing, check out this youtube video!

Being mindful is absolutely essential to our success in achieving strategic goals and overall mission, and it is central to leading and facilitating collaboration in communities and organizations. It is important enough that the concept of the ‘mindful organization’ has emerged.  Tom Heuerman and Diana Olsen define mindfulness as paying attention to what is (inside and outside of ourselves) and then reflecting non-judgmentally on what is and why it is so. They define organizational mindfulness as the connecting and sharing of the mindfulness of people, in a forum such as dialogue, to create new meaning and knowledge that will help people and organizations achieve greater congruence between their intentions and outcomes.

Organizations committed to learning have improved their capacity for reflection-on-action, but mindfulness is calling for reflection-in-action. It calls us to collectively focus on a number of things even as we act:

• our collective intentions–our strategic outcomes and vision
• the ways we are working together
• the way work is being done

The result of mindfulness is greater alignment of actions with outcomes. It’s like polishing the stone, creating a smooth, frictionless surface, making it easier for us to be successful.

In their research into mindful organizations, Weick and Sutcliffe found that organizations where error and disaster can lead to catastrophe have a unique structure which leads them to think and act differently from other organizations. They use mindful organizing for the unexpected as well as the expected.

Not all organizations have the potential for catastrophe in the event of failure, however, the substance of the elements that Weick and Sutcliffe identified may be broadened in ways that offer key elements for intentionally designing the mindful organization:

1. Anticipation

• Attention and sensitivity to early warning signs and key measures relevant to strategic outcomes
• Commitment to inquire instead of simplify interpretations
• Sensitivity to and awareness about operations, taking into consideration the dynamic and nonlinear nature of Sociotechnical Systems and their relationship to strategic outcomes.

2. Commitment to resilience:

• The capacity to function even in the face of adversity
• The capacity to return to service and excellence following adverse events
• The capacity to learn and grow from whatever happens

3. Deference to Expertise:

• Include “lower ranking” members of the organization
• Place greater emphasis on collaboration, focus on an assembly of knowledge, experience, learning, and intuition.

The good news is organizations can intentionally design for mindfulness. In mindful organizations the stress of having to be the all-knowing leader or manager, of having to make all the decisions and have the answers, is alleviated as organizational members realize that mindfulness and collaboration moves them more rapidly towards their vision and delivers more effectively and efficiently on strategic objectives.

Michael Strong is posing some exciting questions–asking us to look at the way our structures and systems are influencing what’s possible economically and environmentally. What if we intentionally designed our governing structures to support entrepreneurial decisions that benefitted the world. The September FLOW newsletter is worth pondering! Read on . . .

FLOW Vision News – September 2009

What if it was possible to re-arrange our legal institutions so that more economic growth resulted in ever greater improvements in environmental quality? What if the power of capitalism was harnessed on behalf of sustainability?

One of my greatest frustrations is the ongoing public and media focus on environmental moralism: People urging us to change our personal behavior vis-a-vis various environmental problems. This ubiquitous moralizing is frustrating because while well-intentioned, in general the focus on environmental moralism prevents real solutions to environmental problems from being understood and implemented.

Since at least the 1940s, free market economists have been proposing property rights solutions to environmental problems. Most (and, arguably, all) threats to environmental sustainability are due to the fact that many aspects of our environment are treated as externalities – the cost of the environmental damage is not included in the price of the good sold. From the perspective of an economist, the solution to such situations is very simple: internalize the externality so that the cost of the environmental damage is included in the price of the good sold. Once this is done, the price system, a.k.a. free market capitalism, automatically solves environmental problems. From this perspective, the moralizing is entirely superfluous. Let’s just solve the problem rather than righteously continue to harass each other.

For instance, in order to prevent the damage caused by acid rain, in the 1990s a property right was created that allowed polluters to emit a specified amount of sulfur dioxide into the air. Many environmental organizations fought this approach to solving the acid rain problem because they regarded such an approach as giving polluters “a license to pollute.” But what they didn’t understand is by limiting the total amount of such permits and allowing a tradeable market in sulfur dioxide permits to come into being, a mechanism had been created that resulted in the profit motive driving environmental improvements. A company that invested in innovative technologies to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions could sell some of its permits on the market, and thereby become more profitable by reducing emissions. Meanwhile, environmental organizations bought up some of the permits, reducing the total number of permits to emit sulfur dioxide, thereby increasing the incentive of for profit companies to invest in innovative technologies that reduced emissions.

The net result was a powerful win-win, driven by the profit motive, such that sulfur dioxide emissions have been cut in half in the last 20 years at a cost of less than one-tenth of what had been expected, and most ecosystems that had been damaged by acid rain have largely recovered.

Meanwhile, the plants that emit sulfur dioxide have expanded, adding to our GDP, and the sulfur dioxide reduction technologies that were developed added to our GDP, such that with respect to the impact of this property rights solution, increased economic growth directly resulted in an improved environmental impact. Most sulfur dioxide emissions come from electrical power plants, and thus consumption of electricity increased while forests recovered simply due to the interaction between property rights, innovation, and the profit motive.

Many environmentalists are Malthusians who believe that we are “running out” of natural resources and that we must “conserve” resources. In the small tribal environments in which we evolved, if some of us were taking too many fish out of the river, and especially if we were wastefully destroying the fish in our river, the rest of us quite appropriately would scold those who were wasting resources. In a small tribal environment, such scolding was a necessary and appropriate response to the waste of resources, and the scolding was likely to be an effective solution to the problem of wasteful or destructive behavior.

While occasionally such scolding may still be useful, most of the time it is not. Encouraging electricity conservation through moralizing is largely ineffective; most of the time people continue to use more electricity when prices are low and less electricity when prices are high. Many of these “decisions” are hard-wired into business plans and family budgets. When companies select various technologies for their factories, or when homeowners select heating and cooling systems for their homes, fundamental decisions regarding electricity consumption are made that may be varied slightly, but which are mostly taken for granted on a month-to-month, year-to-year basis. More scolding will not change the behavior of those aspects of the economy that have been “hard-wired” into budgetary systems.

Insofar as a significant focus of the environmental movement consists of such scolding, it is not useful and, moreover, serves as a distraction from the implementation of real property rights solutions. Worse yet, many people have come to the conclusion that “we,” usually meaning very comfortable, well-educated people in the developed world can’t “let them”, usually meaning the poor people of China, India, Africa, and elsewhere develop because “there aren’t enough resources.”

Prior to the creation of the sulfur dioxide permit system, it was true that further economic growth would result in increased emissions of sulfur dioxide that would result in increased acid rain and ecosystem damage. The system was not “environmentally sustainable.” After the creation of the sulfur dioxide trading system, increased economic growth did not result in increased sulfur dioxide emissions and, as environmental groups continued to purchase some of the sulfur dioxide emissions, it even resulted in decreased sulfur dioxide emissions. With this set of rules, increased economic growth results in improved ecosystem performance.

Unless one has studied property rights solutions to tragedy of the commons problems, this sounds paradoxical, even impossible: Increased economic growth results in healthier ecosystems. Most of us are so constantly bombarded by messages of environmental catastrophes every day, combined with moralizing messages telling us that we must conserve resources, that the possibility of increased economic growth combined with healthier ecosystems sounds inconceivable. And in reality, because most key ecosystems and natural resources are not yet protected by means of property rights, it is true that many aspects of our current economic system are not environmentally sustainable.

It is important to note that the point I am making here is an analytic point; property rights solutions are a general strategy that is under-utilized. How, exactly, to implement property rights solutions to diverse problems, including those relating to the global atmosphere or the deep seas, will require thoughtful and creative legal arrangements in the coming decades. But these thoughtful and creative legal arrangements are more likely to come into being if we approach them from the perspective that we are creating a win-win world that works for all rather than if we continue to scream righteously at each other. What if leaders of the environmental movement graciously thanked the free market economists for their far-sighted wisdom (as Peter Barnes acknowledges Ronald Coase in his book Capitalism 3.0)? Might gratitude be more effective than invective?

Once one deeply internalizes the powerful win-win dynamic of property rights, innovation, and the profit motive, then one realizes that the extraordinary power of capitalism can quite elegantly be flipped around from being a force for environmental destruction to being a force for environmental sustainability. It may take us thirty or forty years to complete this process, but as we do so, we can then look forward to living in a world of an ever-expanding standard of living for all the world’s people, while also living in a world in which our relationship with the natural world of our planet is deeper and more positive than it was throughout much of the 20th century.

Towards a sustainable peace, prosperity, happiness, and well-being for all,

Michael Strong
CEO & Chief Visionary Officer
FLOW

P.S.: For an example of marine ecologists understanding this dynamic in the case of deep sea fishieries, see this New York Times article. Conversely, for an example of marine ecologists failing to understand this dynamic, see this earlier, more typical, New York Times article. All too often very smart people in one field (say, marine ecology) fail to understand this elementary economic logic.

A key factor is trust and faith. As a group, millennials don’t think twice about making their lives transparent and available over the internet, but for many older adults such an option generates big-time fear. It seems that older generations have always admonished the younger generations for their lack of understanding about what they should be afraid of. Younger generations, on the other hand, have always acted without fear or limitations around one thing or another. It is the youthful willingness to act in the face of fear, however, that has always pushed the edge of what is possible.

What if we looked for the wisdom in this particular situation. Without throwing caution to the wind, what if we entertained sharing more and more data and information openly. What might be possible if all information and knowledge was accessible and able to be categorized and re-categorized in a heart beat? What new discoveries might emerge? What solutions to global issues might be innovated? What new opportunities for abundance around the world might surface? What world view would we have to hold in order to make this safe?