2013 Summer (in Chatham, NY)+week 4+Coaching Team Call
Call Agenda:
- Review structure and purpose for weekly call
- Discuss Felix's measurement/assesment doc
- reschedule weekly call?
Call Summary:
July, 9, 2013, 1pm EST
Present: Maia, Art, Ruben, Dave, Alexandra, Maggie, Felix, Yana, Gonzalo, D'Artagnan
Missing: Chet, Christie, Mary
Call started with an open inquiry into what kind of agenda/call structure we wanted to have to support our mission. Suggestions were shared. Discussed the idea of having a fluid structure that would support room for creating/valuing unexpected outcomes. Discussed the different nature of working in smaller groups vs. as one large group. Gonzalo shared a practice for group work from "Holocracy": we all can ask and speak to "what do we jointly want to become? What is the big picture we are all working for?"
Current call structure agreement: using our weekly call to 1) Get feedback/on-site reporting from those at the ELL site. 2) And sharing our personal journey/inquiry as we pursue supporting emerging potential. 3) Exchange of relevant information.
Additionally, we encouraged the idea of us coaches making one-to-one connections between calls. And to share notes and reflections through writing here on the ELL site.
Art and Ruben then reported from on-site:
Relatedness and trust building. Deeper bonding happening on off days with games and hanging out. Building the kitchen (a structure for more connection on site) became a fun, group project. The physical location is primed for FOOD (with LOTS of food donated from local farms). Art noting he had thought there would be more confrontations with deeper vulnerability in the group process (with Tomis, Claire, Conner pushing into further vulnerability).
We further discussed vulnerability: noting that quantum leaps in project productivity corresponds with expansion into our breakthroughs with our own authenticity (vulnerability); personal expansion supports the expansion of the group process; a project evolves when a person evolves; the capacity to be honost with yourself, to 'come as you are', is part of the leadership development that generates the success of a project.
We stated that this week's theme was "Up-Leveling Vulnerability" - and that a breakthrough in this starts with us. We discussed embodying that in our 'coaching' relationships. Doing this changes the coaching dynamic from a hierarchical relationship into an embodied intimacy in which both 'partners' strive for excellence and success with trust and love. (We breifly talked about the word "Coach", Ruben expressing a concern/reaction to the word. Maia mentioned her own exploration with in using other words to describe her work/role: i.e. "creation partner", "social change agent").
D'Artagnan shared his thoughts on supporting Leadership: he noted paying attention to the effect that geographical closeness/separation has on what is possible to create with a group. He expressed the value in having deeper clarity around the specific outcomes we want to support by the end of the ELL; he contributed 'Transformational Learnng Outcomes' model as a resource.
We acknowledged the PARADOX of what we are all doing together: Wanting to achieve specific outcomes, while being a container for completely unpredictable outcomes...be who you are, while striving to become bigger/greater than you know yourself to be, etc...
Value-Creation:
- Structure for interconnection, and ways we can connect with each other.
- Creating understanding for the intention of the call. Forum for how we share intentionality. More Freedom.
- Being with the discomfort of holding an open-ended inquiry, leading to deeper Trust in the group.
- More transparency, honesty, being present, comfortable and safe: Coaching 2.0
- More open together: the more we connect, the more the 'makers' will connect.
- More comfortable. Embodying what we talk about. Talking from our own actions.
- Coaching call 2.0 - deeper intimacy and sharing.
- Openness. Connection. Aliveness.
- Openness of the space.
- holding each other with integrity.
- Excitement.
- (And Dave Dobias' energy - being silly! :)
Week Focus:
Up-Leveling Vulnerability
Highlights/Insights/Value creation:
+discussion
Hey this is a place we can share Insights and thoughts. Just type them and submit. The system will automatically date and sign it showing it's from you.
Shared Resources:
http://transformativelearningtheory.com/corePrinciples.html
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=15150
Notes from Felix:
"I was hearing the team yesterday speak about some different levels and spaces of interaction and reflection.
Coach and coachee/Advocate and maker:
What is happening in these conversations? Not information in a personally detailed way, but just the patterns of motion and change. How is the maker changing? How do you know? Are you as the coach being affected? Is the supporting someone from the ELL different than other folks you work with?
Coaching team/community of practice:
I'm not that familiar with the coaching world-- would most professional coaches work with a community of practice or some other group of folks doing similar work so they can reflect together, or is that unusual? If unusual, then I think there is a lot to think about there, in terms of learning from each other. Not just methods, but even deep things like, motivations and aspirations, theories of change, etc. Christie's idea of some coaching 'buddies' might help a lot with this kind of sharing.
Personal/professional reflection:
What are the bigger things we are struggling with or encouraged by? What are our vulnerabilities and growing edges? How do these influence the way we work? How do we balance being and doing, internal and external? What do we want to contribute to and take away from the ELL?
The ELL as a whole:
This one is harder. I think that's why the individual updates about the makers during the call (or written down in advance) is useful. Otherwise the coaches have a very narrow view of the ELL process. Also very important to get the updates from Art and Rueben and whoever else is on site to understand the process as a whole that is happening and so it's not just the one on one relationships the coaches have with their coachees. The info on the website comes out mostly as lists, so it's still a bit difficult, from a distance. to really get a rich picture of the process behind the outputs. So I think these are important areas of sharing to retain in the coaching call, in keeping how you've facilitated things from the start.
Leaving it open for people to post whatever they want is best, but I thought perhaps breaking it up into some different spaces and levels might stimulate people's thinking even if they don't respond categorically to these one by one. Having some reflections shared by email or on the coaching tab of the site would really spark some interesting conversations I think. Keeping a good connection with the ELL might be a challenge, so that it doesn't become such a good conversation between ourselves that the ELL shifts to the background.