Have you ever noticed while driving past a field of sunflowers that all the large blooms face the same direction?
If you took a day to watch, the field of yellow and black blooms would follow the sun as it travels across the summer sky. This phenomenon is called the heliotropic principle: plants turn to face their source of light and energy.
Human organizations and groups operate in a similar fashion. Unlike machines that can be programmed to ignore the environment, people and organizations are influenced by where they direct their attention. This is one of the principles that Future Search and Appreciative Inquiry share. When groups seek to grow through positive experiences, the process and the results reflect a proactive approach.
Both Future Search and Appreciative Inquiry are participatory change models committed to relationship building and results planning. Both also focus on planning for the future, not problem-solving for the present.
These models were used in organizing a three-day Child Care Partnership Forum, which was sponsored by the Washington Head Start-State Collaboration Office to continue efforts to achieve quality, affordable, accessible child care in the state. Six community teams, each representing one of the state's districts, sent leaders from stakeholder groups that included Head Start, child care, subsidies, licensing, resource and referral, and local health jurisdictions. A comparable group representing state agencies also participated in the gathering. All teams were at various stages of collaborative efforts; many of these groups had been meeting regularly at the local level for years, while others were formed fairly recently. As always, new members had come in and out of the groups, changing their histories, experiences, and dynamics.
A variety of adult-learning techniques for communication and future designs were incorporated into the conference format, including one-on-one dialogue, small and large group activities, flip charts, gallery walks, report outs, interviews, skits, and lots of laughter and positive language. Time was allotted for local teams to work together, and for like-work (stakeholder) groups to do the same.
A luncheon and inspirational keynote speaker kicked off the event. Marti Isler, Director of the Early Childhood Initiative, United Way of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, set the tone by reflecting on her experiences, both accomplishments and challenges, and enlightening the group with her learnings from several years of working to pull together early learning programs. Participants began the work session energized and believing that the results are worth the monumental efforts that effective collaborations may take.
Discovering Common Ground
Future Search helps members of organizations or collaboration partners to determine commonalties and create self-managed plans to move toward their desired future. Participants engage in a series of open dialogues on where they've been, where they are, and what they want to do.
Experience indicates that, as collaborative partners, we assume that people who meet regularly know one another, understand each others' particular agencies and jobs, have the same goals, and communicate effectively. But these assumptions are not necessarily true.
The three-day event provided an opportunity for collaborative partners to get much better acquainted. As one participant summarized: "We have been meeting for years and only after participating in this forum do I really feel I know each partner and understand what each of us does."
Sharing personal and professional milestones with members of local or state teams began a process in which each member gained recognition for his/her individual contributions. Construction of a "river of culture" allowed each individual to perceive clearly where he/she has participated in a history that spans a century of Head Start, child care, and early intervention services. At the end of the day participants created a large, colorful, visual mind map identifying current trends and resources affecting early care and education issues. These activities allowed members to appreciate the past and the present as we worked toward planning a future together.
Appreciative Inquiry and Building Future Scenarios
Appreciative Inquiry provides a framework for participants to become energized about change and to inspire collaborative action that serves the whole system. Stories are discovered through interviews that are used to create new, more compelling images of the organizations and their futures.
Day Two of the forum began with participants interviewing each other to identify individual and organizational strengths. Asking participants to recall successful endeavors and to identify what supported the accomplishment helped each person internalize a "positive core" on which to build future plans. One question that worked especially well in inviting thoughtful ideas and discovery was: "Describe a time you experienced a creative partnership with several different agencies while feeling alive and engaged. Who were the different partners? What made it work?" Practicing this process prompted one participant to say, "I will never look at an interview the same - this exercise will forever change how I will work with people."
Taking into account the past experiences, present trends, and forum learnings, each team collaborated on a dramatization depicting its desired future for early care and education services in 2007. In visualizing their future, teams were to be creative and not base plans on current bureaucratic and fiscal realities. A key component of this activity was having each group describe steps to be taken to achieve this Year 2007 outcome. Each presentation reflected the goals the team wanted to pursue. This process also provided a transition to the final day's activities.
Outcomes and Action Planning
Each team began Day Three by constructing "constitutional propositions" -- key values important to all members -- on topics such as funding, wages, professional development, continuum of care, collaboration, comprehensive services, and accessibility. The following examples illustrate the dynamic, energetic statements written. Collaboration: "A gathering of equals passionate about meeting our community's needs and willing to actively commit resources and time." Funding: "Like public education, the continuum of care is an entitlement."
As positive and future-oriented as the Future Search and Appreciative Inquiry processes are, groups still want to discuss hurdles they are encountering in the present day that may keep them from achieving their envisioned future scenarios. Like-work groups discussed the hurdles and made suggestions for overcoming them. Although solutions take time to develop, participants concluded this activity feeling hopeful and confident that these hurdles would not halt their progress.
The six communities each created a "back-home" plan with various degrees of specificity, including outcomes, success criteria (indicators), measurements, activities, and first steps (quickest wins). Several of the teams determined that they needed to bring additional stakeholders into the process, most specifically community businesses. All groups are expecting to hold follow-up meetings to build on the momentum gained during the forum. The State Collaboration Office Director, Terry Liddell, has prepared a summary of the results and will follow up on how communities are implementing their plans.
Building and sustaining an impetus for change require large amounts of positive outlook and social bonding. Consequently, the gathering was about hope, excitement, inspiration, caring, joy, and planning. The more positive the process, the more creative and positive the outcomes. Together we kept our attention on the positive possibilities of communities working together to build even better communities.
A community will thrive when all families enjoy quality, affordable, and accessible child care. This is possible by building strong relationships among child care service providers; Head Start agencies; education, health and local, state, and federal funding agencies; and businesses. This was the sun that attracted all of us, and that we will pursue.
Linda Maslowski is a Child Care Specialist at the Region VII QIC, T: 402-483-6569. David Nelson is a consultant and coach for the Human Agenda, T: 816-453-3835.
