Convening Collaborative Learning Environments using Social Artistry Techniques for Effective Sustainability Leadership

Madison, Wisconsin

 

Project Leader Erin Schneider Contact Information Project Team Project Website

Status    Member Since: 4 years ago   Last Updated: 3 years ago   Online Status: OFFLINE

 

 

 

 

 

      

 

The compelling story the motivated our project...

Sustainability work in the past has been addressed and accessed through the lens of field techniques, new technology developments, and an emphasis on science in forming an object truth about how to live and be in the world. While this has led to a greater understanding of social relationships and personal connections to the ecology and economy of environments, this approach may limit and isolate community members in trying to learn and live a sustainable lifestyle in their communities. Many of the challenges with addressing and accessing sustainability can be distilled to a problem of leadership and communication, whether in neighborhood, classroom, or in the global arena. Human interactions are complex, which requires a wide variety of leaders to have the wisdom, courage, and compassion to work effectively with other people.

 

Working collaboratively with the University of Wisconsin's - Madison Office of Human Resource Development staff, we seek to pilot a study group that explores the potential of social artistry in order to develop effective social sustainability leadership skills. Using Jean Houston's Field Guide to Social Artistry Techniques, facilitators will work with approximately fifteen participants representing a crosssection of students, staff, and community members to meet as a study group. Over a six week time period from November - December they will explore and develop social artistry skill sets such as personal narrative, sensory awareness, myth, and integral problem solving. Participatory, constructive feedback using pre-post survey tools and reflective journaling, will be important in shaping the future of this course. Ultimately, a core group of people will be empowered to lead, to practice making a difference around a sustainability issue they care about, which will lead to positive social change and a greater ability to bridge gaps and solve community problems.

 

A systems representation of our project...

 

A vision of future our project hopes to bring forth...

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The formative project update...

 

Project Formative Report for: Convening Collaborative Learning Environments using Social Artistry Techniques for Effective Sustainability Leadership

 

Social artistry is an emerging discipline in leadership development. It taps inherent human capacities for greater imagination, compassion, and resolve. It empowers people to deal with emergence and complexity by facilitating the development of human capacities. It is the discovery of living in a holistic fashion, of how to be in a world that assumes what you do is who you are.

When in doubt, turn to wonder. Curiosity led me to explore the field of social artistry. I was doubting the sustainability paradigm that I was working in and the sustainability company I was working for at the time. All talk and no substance, stuck in a hierarchy, wherein everyone needed to be the expert yet loyal to the leader, advancing technology and making a profit at the expense of labor and Mother Earth, only under the language of collaboration, innovation, and 'green'. Greenwashing in all its subtleties.

 

I had all the technology and resources: so what is missing? All of this fed into my discovery of the need to connect with a hidden wholeness. Convening a study group on Social Artistry and my interest in helping build a community understanding of what social artistry is, seemed a logical next step toward understanding effective approaches toward building community sustainability.

What ways does one help people source action from wisdom? Considering the urgency of today's crises and issues, interdependence and global complexity, I believe we have no option but to learn to do things differently. The liberating aspect to this is that we already have the potential to do this - and social artistry is the tool to help aid in this discovery. I could not have discovered or developed this course without the help and facilitation skills of Marian Fariror, whom worked with me as a co-facilitator and designer in the Social Artistry Study Group.

In our intention to understand and meet participants where they are at in developing their leadership potential - their personal to planetary explorations - we set out to understand who we would be welcoming into our learning community, what about social artistry called them, and what participants wanted to work on/apply social artistry to a project.  We did this in a few ways including: a transformational leadership goals worksheet adapted from a Social Artistry training workshop, check-in's at the beginning of our study group and reflective questions at the end, a pre & post self-assessment of participants' social artistry skills assessment regarding self awareness and self management and through an appreciative inquiry exercise during our last session inviting participants to share their personal ah - ha moment during the study group. We shared this information with both UW Office of Human Resource Development and the Institute for Social Artistry. I have included sample templates we used at the end of this report, should others in the MRCSE community choose to integrate and adapt our resources into their work and play.

This information fed back into the design of the course in both the present and future format. As this was a pilot course, we learned which activities resonated best with participants, what needed further development, timing and pace of the course, where and how to offer the course (is UW Madison a good fit?), and we drew on the expertise of the participants with a few of them leading activities.

All changes are subject to planning. Patterns of possibility emerged from our learnings which we will adapt to in the future construct of Social Artistry including: mentorship relations developing with Jan Sanders, of the UN Development Program and International Institute for Social Artistry,and the possibility of bringing Jan to Madison to teach a 'train the trainer workshop for social artistry practitioners/facilitators; a side workshop series on understanding archetypes in the shaping of myth and personal histories; reformatting of the study group to a two day workshop on campus to be offered in April of 2010; and how to integrate social artistry skills into our work as sustainability practitioners. The latter, I is a future story revealed through sensory awareness, authenticity, appreciative inquiry and sourcing action from wisdom - shifting mindsets that foster the culture of peace and the willingness to re-examine our planetary consciousness.

 

 

Appendix: Social Artistry Evaluation Templates

The following is a sample template we used for information gathering including: transformational goals worksheet and pre/post test evaluations used.

Social Artistry Study Group

OHRD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November-December 2009

Facilitators: Erin Schneider and Marian Farrior

Transformational Leadership Goals Worksheet

(adapted from a Social Artistry training workshop; please see

HREF="http://www.http://www.jeanhouston.org/socialartistry-whatitis-new.cfm" MACROBUTTON

HtmlResAnchor www.http://www.jeanhouston.org/socialartistry-whatitis-new.cfm for more information about Social Artistry opportunities)

1. What am I committed to exploring during this study group....?

1. a. For myself?

2. b.  For my workplace and/or community?

2. What gifts do I have that I will contribute to this study group?

3. What gifts am I open to receiving in this study group?

4. What project do I want to work on in this study group (can be for yourself, family,

work, or community)?

5. What about your life journey has called you to the field of social artistry?

Name __________________________________________________________________

Leadership Competencies for Results Through Social Artistry Study Group Post-Test

OHRD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November-December 2009

(adapted from Leadership Competencies for Results by Monica Sharma and Paola Babos)

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

How we manage ourselves (adapted from Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman et al)

Activities and Exercises Participant's Self Assessment

Competency rating - 0                         5

Not at all             Very

Competent                    Competent Participant's Remarks

SELF AWARENESS

Self Awareness: understanding one's authentic

self (senses, emotions, beliefs, assumptions,

personality traits, etc.) and recognizing their

impact; using "gut sense" to guide decisions; use

and access self awareness in creative ways

Sensory Creative Imagination

Yoga & Moving into Meditation

World Music and Dance

Chocolate Tasting Around the World

Meeting the Inner Crew

Accurate Self Assessment: Knowing one's

capacities  (strengths and limitations) Meeting the Inner Crew

Essential Self - Entelechy Process

Self Confidence: A sound sense of one's self

worth and capabilities Meeting the Inner Crew

Telling Your Story -

Hero/Heroine's Journey

I Am statement

Personal to Planetary

Transformation project

 

Developmental Consciousness: A sense of

presence in one's own body (centeredness,

groundedness),; creative imagination for

possibility and change; sense of self within a group

Developing Muscular Imagination

Skill Rehearsal

Sensory Creative Imagination

Yoga & Moving into Meditation

World Music and Dance

SELF MANAGEMENT

Emotional Self Control: Keeping distractive or

disruptive emotions and impulses under control Group Guidelines

Deep Listening

NonViolent Communication

Empathy

Transparency: Displaying honesty and integrity;

trustworthiness Introductions

Group Guidelines

Meeting the Inner Crew

Telling Your Story -

Hero/Heroine's Journey

NonViolent Communication

Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing

situation or overcoming obstacles Telling Your Story -

Hero/Heroine's Journey

Experiments in Using Time Differently

Achievement: The intention to improve

performance a to meet own measures of success Skill Rehearsal

Essential Self - Entelechy Process

Personal to Planetary

Transformation project

Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities Personal to Planetary

Transformation project

Essential Friends Tuning Protocol

Elevator Speech

Optimism: Seeing the upside in events Appreciative Inquiry

Essential Self - Entelechy Process

Celebration

 

 

Personal Transformation - Aligning with your Right Livelihood

1. Internal resources: What internal resources do you have! (skills, communication, clear goals, team cohesion, etc.)

2. External resources:

What external resources (stakeholder support, information/research, funding etc.) do you have?

Who are your critical allies whom you cannot afford not to talk to?

3. Moving Into Action:

Before -

1. What must be in place before you are ready to implement your plan?

2. What are your assumptions, what are you leaving out of your plan/project?

3. What obstacles do you anticipate, and how will you address them?

4. What is your fallback/contingency plan?

During -

1. What specific actions will be taken, by whom and when?

2. What are your indicators of success along the way?

3. What are your new learnings, methods, or transformations? (guidelines)

4. Who will be the central contact for problems or information?

After -

6. What measures will indicate success (wide and deep  - quantitative/deep)?

7. Which stakeholders need information about status and completion? Who will communicate with them and how?

8. How will you track any outstanding needs after implementation?

9. How will you track your success?

4. In what ways will you celebrate?

 

Social Artistry Course Outline:

	November 4	November 11	November 18	December 2	December 9	December 16
Themes	Overview and Introductions -- Community Building Introduce Social Artistry Model Introduce Physical/Sensory Realm	Physical/Sensory Realm	Psychology/ Historical Realm	Mythic/Symbolic Realm	Unitive/Integral Realm	Social Artistry in Practice
Learning Outcomes	Understand basics of social artistry Increase sensory awareness Awaken and access sensory data Hone imagination	Increase sensory awareness Use different sense modalities Improve sense of body Practice centeredness, groundedness Increase creative self expression	Access inner resources Learn a bit about current brain research Practice deep listening, NVC, empathy Learn how to be creative with time	Understand use of archetypes and personal mythology Reframe telling one’s life story Learn basics of storytelling Cultivate mythic imagination Cultivate new stories Increase creativity and flexibility	Access wisdom self Learn new models for project planning – source from wisdom Practice communications about project and purpose Get learning community support and feedback	Get learning community support and feedback Learn appreciative inquiry and essential friends techniques
Activities	Group Guidelines Brainstorm of 4 Levels and Madison exercise Developing Muscular Imagination exercise Skill Rehearsal exercise	Sensory Creative Imagination exercise Yoga and Moving into Meditation (Barbara Flesch) World Music and Dance (Virginia Calden) Chocolate Tasting Around the World	Meeting the Inner Crew exercise Essential Self --Entelechy Process exercise Deep Listening Skills exercise NonViolent Communications Empathy exercise	Social Artistry Archetypes Telling Your Story – Hero/Heroine Journey exercise Storytelling TED Videos	I AM exercise Personal Planetary Transformation projects Elevator Speech Conference	Essential (Critical) Friends Tuning protocol Appreciative Inquiry exercise Celebration
Readings	The Social Artist’s Fieldbook: Developing Your Inner Capacities by Jean Houston and Jan Sanders -- Introduction Principles of the Social Artist and Social Artistry by Peggy Rubin Social Artistry summary list by Flemming Funch Applying Social Artistry to Decentralized Governance for Human Development by Jean Houston	The Social Artist’s Fieldbook: Developing Your Inner Capacities by Jean Houston and Jan Sanders -- Chapter One Synesthesia excerpt from Natural History of Senses by Diane Ackerman p. 292-299 Sensory Integration excerpt from Brain Rules by John Medina p. 208-214 Sensory Map by Hannah Hinchman	The Social Artist’s Fieldbook: Developing Your Inner Capacities by Jean Houston and Jan Sanders -- Chapter Two Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation by Richard Davison and Antione Lutz Loving Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness abstract by Hutcherson, Seppala, Gross Brian Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina Deep Listening Skills handout Basic Model of NonViolent Communication, Human Needs, Self Empathy, Empathic Listening by Jeff Brown	The Social Artist’s Fieldbook: Developing Your Inner Capacities by Jean Houston and Jan Sanders -- Chapter Three Hero/Heroine’s Journey model by Jean Houston Heroine’s Journey model by Maureen Murdock The Relevance of Myth to Everyday Life excerpt from The Mythic Imagination: The Quest for Meaning Through Personal Mythology by Stephen Larsen p. 22-26 Archetypes of the Integral Facilitator from Journey of Facilitation & Collaboration training by Steve Davis and Darrin Harris Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley Storytelling For Peace by Caren Neile, International Storytelling Center website Get Real: The Art and Power of Storytelling in Workplace Communities by Bob Chartier	The Social Artist’s Fieldbook: Developing Your Inner Capacities by Jean Houston and Jan Sanders -- Chapter Four and Five Conscious Leadership at the Crossroads of Change by Monica Sharma Personal to Planetary Transformation by Monica Sharma Transformational Community Leadership Training brochure by Tricia Webster and Michael Krajovic	Essential (Critical) Friends Tuning Protocol from National School Reform Faculty Appreciative Inquiry by Jane Magruder Watkins and Bernard Mohr Knowledge Foundations of Appreciative Inquiry by Jane Magruder Watkins and Bernard Mohr
Opening Story/Video	Social Artistry/ Jean Houston YouTube video	Aimee Mullins TED video?	Richard Davidson/Dan Goleman interview???	Ben Zander video?	Call/Skype? with Jan Sanders	Ueli Gegenschaltz TED video?

 

 

Project Goals and Indicators Project Goals and Indicators GOAL INDICATOR

Project Timeline and Key Benchmarks    Project Timeline DATE BENCHMARK