Author Archives: Peter Jones

Business Model Innovation for Social Entrepreneurship

Written by . Posted on April 25, 2012. Filed under Act, Think. Tagged , , . No comments.

How can social organizations thrive in a post-funding society?

A special innovation circle session was held with Maya Roy and the Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto.  Through turbulent economic times, Maya and staff leadership grew a team of committed members and made the organization a successful NGO for helping new families settle into Toronto. With impending budget cuts, they are faced with an immediate need to change their business model from a publicly supported service to a social entrepreneurial model.

York University’s Antony Upward presented the “Strongly Sustainable” Business Model Canvas (an innovation of the BMG canvas) the framework for group ideation and collaborative design. In large and small group sessions, the group explored innovation of business and revenue models, service provision, new relationships and communications channels.  As the first public unveiling of the research and design of the  “strongly sustainable” business model, we gained valuable and practical feedback on the applications of the new approach.

Generating one group’s model based on its “What If” starting point (orange label).

Sharing the group’s model with the whole and Antony collecting and aggregating the unique values of each in a common map.

This was the first public application of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas – and most of the participants were unfamiliar even with Alex Osterwalder’s original Business Model Canvas. Therefore, even with all having watched Alex’s videos and our handout materials, we found the session required a significant degree of education in the methods. The SSBM Canvas is not a tool that can be applied “out of the box” but requires context setting and some training in the concepts.

May Roy shared her experience with the process in terms of outcomes for Newcomers:

The use of the expanded canvas allowed NEW staff, volunteers and members plan though how the organization will continue to innovate in the next 3 years. We used the DWD session and day long strategy sessions to discuss, argue, debate and sometimes cry over the challenges and opportunities inherent in a time of economic restructuring.

Nonviolent Communication: Moving from Stuckness to Possibility

Written by . Posted on March 4, 2012. Filed under Act, Learn. Tagged , , . No comments.

What If You Had the Answer All Along?

Henry Wai of the Center for Nonviolent Communication conducted the March 2012 DwD with Patricia Kambitsch of Playthink .

THE WORKSHOP

The session engaged people in interpersonal interactions that revealed the principles of nonviolent communication (NVC). NVC is a technique for opening possibility in areas of life where individuals experience being stuck or frustrated. When provided with an empathic space, such as created in the workshop, an innate resourcefulness in the person is freed up for opening up possibility at work, home, or community.

Henry Wai’s hands-on workshop explored:

  • How common thinking and habitual patterns limit our capacity for constructive possibility
  • A simple and powerful approach to get to the heart of issues
  • How this insight serves as the basis for creative action

The workshop held three seminar sessions with a total participation of about 40 people. Methods for exploring empathy and listening in communication included dyad and triad exercises and the NVC Feelings / Values cards.

 

Visual reflection by Patricia Kambitsch.

Online References:

Henry Wai helps people to work effectively, compassionately and with vitality. He has 25 years of experience leading trainings, developing programs and delivering direct service in areas such as housing and food co-ops, volunteer management, adult education, social enterprise and employment counselling. Henry’s experience includes working with individuals, teams and boards from diverse cultures and backgrounds. For 10 years Nonviolent Communication has been a very powerful addition to his approach which emphasizes self-awareness, choice, relational skills and ways to build co-operation in both work and personal settings. Henry is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication.  More recently he has been exploring contact improvisation dance for lessons in finding ways through stuckness or awkwardness.

Long-term Thinking

Written by . Posted on February 7, 2012. Filed under Think. Tagged , . 1 Comment.

LENGTH MATTERS:
How might we bring a long-term perspective to near-term decisions?

Consumers, organizational leaders and politicians make daily decisions that will affect our families, communities, prosperity and habitat for decades into the future. How would our culture and world be different if we made decisions in consideration of the well-being of our children’s children, rather than only looking at the next tweet, fiscal quarter or electoral cycle?

February’s DwD explored approaches to over-coming “short-termism” with a long-term view to make our resources and systems more sustainable.

  • Unpack the assumptions that keep us locked into a short time frame
  • See what our decisions might look like if framed in a long view
  • Explore how a values shift might reframe our perspective
  • Jam ideas on new incentive structures that could influence our behaviour

References:

 Images from the session

How do our values drive our decisions? How might that skew us towards a short-term view?

 

 

What incentive structures might shift values such that our decisions will consider a long-term view?

Designing a Future for our Future: Personal Foresight

Written by . Posted on January 11, 2012. Filed under Dream, Think. Tagged , , . 1 Comment.

Get ready for The Multiplicity.

This workshop engaged participants to co-create multiple personal futures in large and small group collaboration. This social design experiment in personal foresight generated the creation of possible personal scenarios for the challenging next-future term possibilities. We started by creating a personal profile for the Low Tech Social Network. Communities listed on the profiles were shared in the closing circle to co-create a living network among the participants.

An amazing array of participants were involved, suggesting that DwD is reaching beyond its business + creatives + designerly roots. More and more people from dedicated social change communities are engaged and returning. While businesses can benefit from and afford these creative group processes, social change agents need to learn from each other. A community across communities is forming.

The event was framed by the question of considering the multiple futures we have choice to create. When we think of the future, we tend to push a vague collection of dreams, possibilities and wishes out to a speculative point in the years following the nearest term. We can guess about the world in two years, we can plan for 5 years, but 10 and 20 years challenge personal vision. Our concept was to confront the future opportunities for humanity, by learning to position our own inherent multiplicities as creative narratives to counter a technologically-determined future, whether a career ideal or the “singularity.”

The venue supported the creation of a circle and pairs for the exercises:

  • Values conflicts at the Crossroads
  • 3 Whys of 3 Values: Core values, Calling values, Contra values
  • Mapping Values to Actions
  • Mapping Value-Actions to future possibilities in the Pathway template

The workshop was convened by Peter Jones and Patricia Kambitsch (visual reflection) at The Design Exchange  Feb 24th in the DX boardroom as part of the Toronto Design Week Design Offsite Festival.

 

The Meta-Design of Dialogues as Inquiring Systems

Written by . Posted on December 30, 2011. Filed under Think. Tagged , , . 2 Comments.

About 30 participants attended the first DwD of 2012 (Jan 11). This educational session explored the relationship of systems inquiry to dialogue. Small groups facilitated their own learning to identify knowledge profiles and to design dialogic inquiries that would best address a selected area of concern.

There’s a multitude of ways to conduct dialogues.  Which approach will be most appropriate for attaining desired outcomes among different groups?  This DwD engaged systems thinking for some foundations, with an overview of C. West Churchman’s design of inquiring systems.  With these foundations, participants (dialogue designers) sharpened their appreciation of alternative modes and techniques.  More open dialogic approaches might (or might not) be preferred over more bounded and structured approaches, under different conditions.  Theory was translated into reflective practice through group exercises. The session started by generating a range of concerns and ideas for inquiry. These were selected by groups for further

About the Convener

David Ing is president (2011-2012) of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, an organization with members with interests crossing disciplinary boundaries (e.g. social systems, technological systems, biological systems, ecological systems).  In that role, he is designing the program for the ISSS annual meeting (in San Jose, CA in July 2012), and working with the Systems Science Working Group of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).  Over the past year, he developed new courses in systems thinking for the Master’s in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University in Finland.  He is a visiting fellow with University of Hull (UK), an itinerant scholar with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and previously a cofounder of the Canadian Centre for Marketing Information Technologies (C2MIT) at the University of Toronto.  David has had a continuous 27-year career with IBM, with home base in Toronto.  He can be found on the Internet at http://coevolving.com

DwD Reflection & 2012 Shared Vision

Written by . Posted on December 9, 2011. Filed under Dream, Retreat. Tagged , , . No comments.

Every end of year we retreat and reflect on what we learned over the year’s events and who we are becoming in DwD community and practice. Fifteen people attended to co-create the vision for 2012 priorities, sessions, and direction. An Appreciative Inquiry guided the exploration and reflection, leading to harvests for each phase, as illustrated:

Discovery

Discovery explores the best in our experience, sharing and learning from our past and bringing forward the positive values to be honored in the inquiry. Paired shares led to whole-group expressions of valued experiences and impressions from Design with Dialogue in the 2011 season.

Visual reflection of DwD 2012 by Patricia Kambitsch.

Dream

Dream envisions what might be, and generates a multiplicity of possibilities for the group to reflect and decide. Individuals generated their ideas, shared in triads to review and add more, and posted and clustered in a harvest sheet. We organized and labeled clusters in a following session, resulting in a document shared with participants. The original harvest appeared as follows (not the full image):

Design and Destiny

In concluding the review and vision, people expressed their own hopes and encouragement for the 2012 season. People added their personal commitments to their proposals, which all ensures a rich, diverse, and heartfelt community in 2012.

  • Have continuity between sessions, with blogging and conversational support.
  • Have workshops to explore the nature of inquiring systems (of which AI, DwD are representative)
  • Evaluate the impact of learning from dialogue. Observe and evaluate the forms and outcomes of design. Relate the learning and observations to academic impact.
  • Inquiry into experiential modeling and experiential learning. What contributes to enhanced perception in dialogue?
  • “Listening sessions”  How to best share what we are learning in listening?
  • Continue with “sessions on what’s going on right now.” Capturing relevance as its emerging.
  • Holding new types of experiential dialogue sessions (e.g., Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects)
  • Continue to connect with conferences and academic groups
  • Consider interim DwDs that provide continuity – Hold special interest groups for hot topics
  • Develop the practice and “rituals” of dialogue:
    Save 30 min at Pre or Post for continuing topics
    Provide coaching / video in basic facilitation and process skills
    Start Web conferences or online sessions

 

A Question of Questions

Written by . Posted on August 31, 2011. Filed under Dream, Think. Tagged , . No comments.

Can a powerful question change the world? Why do some questions motivate people to deeply reflect and act?

The creation and sharing of a catalyzing question is a generative act, it creates a point of view. Such a true question provokes a deep response and outlook. Great questions are the inspiration of research, journalism, strategy, and our imagining of alternative futures.

September’s DwD session inquired into the “question of questions.”  We practice different methods and arts of the question, and explore the impact of powerful questions in dialogue.

We can see this principle in action around us. Companies, innovations, and social movements can start with a leader’s question that inspires others to get involved. People living in a question invite us to answer that question with action.

Such is the pull of the powerful question.

The session presented three challenges to participants:

1. The Question Game – Conduct three conversations entirely in questions.

2. Inquiry into: What is the process and practice of asking questions?

Based on asking the following three questions:

  • What is the function of a question?
  • What is the effect of a question on the person being asked?
  • What kinds of questions have “potential” or the potency to open experience?

The comprehensive dialogue sketch was composed throughout the evening by Patricia Kambitsch, Playthink.

3. How might your questions shape an intentional future?

Writing and sharing powerful questions, which appeared on the board as:

Participation was engaged by a group of 30, at least half of whom were new to DwD. We appreciate the energized attendance!


ABOUT THE HOST. DwD co-founder Peter Jones teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation graduate MDes program at OCADU. Peter founded Redesign, an innovation research company based in Toronto that conducts ethnographic research and concept design for early stage innovations and services.

 

Authentic Leadership in Action

Written by . Posted on July 6, 2011. Filed under Act, Dream. Tagged , , . 2 Comments.

The ALIA (Authentic Leadership In Action) Institute, based in Halifax, gathers a global network of systems-change agents for programs that explore how we can act as more powerful leaders in our communities and organizations. ALIA’s approach integrates experiential skill-building with mindfulness, creative process, and dialogue.

The recent annual Summer Institute, held in Columbus, Ohio, was well attended by DwD community members. July’s DwD session engaged about 20 participants with Greg Judelman, Patricia Kambitsch, Mark Kuznicki and others that attended revealing their learnings and insights. The structure and inquiry of the evening was inspired by processes from ALIA,  a movement exercise and reflection into our own deeper capacity to lead positive change.

The July DwD led to a voluntary continuation of dialogue at Sin and Redemption. It appears that our goal of re-creating the ALA experience was achieved – since the DwD, we’ve had numerous reflections on the core idea of vulnerability as authentic risk in leadership.

In his Attention Surplus podcasts, Sean Howard discussed his insights into the practice of attending to vulnerability explored in this DwD. Being vulnerable in leadership, listening, and engagement with others was a core notion from ALIA.  Highly recommended -

Enabling Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Written by . Posted on May 31, 2011. Filed under Act. Tagged , . No comments.

DwD and the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) hosted Karen Mock and Raja Khouri, co-founders of the Canadian Arab-Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group. The June 2011 session was held in cooperation with the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation, with joint participation between our groups.

THE WORKSHOP

The session engaged the challenges of the Canadian Arab-Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group by an inquiry into their goals, community development, and future. About 20 participants workshopped strategies in small group sessions, with Patricia Kambitsch and Elsa Lam capturing proceedings in visual reflection.

         Photo by Pamela Purves

Issues directly related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were not addressed. The session was organized for the benefit of the Arab-Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group to have impact locally and in their larger mission to draw attention to alternatives for peacemaking.

OUR GUESTS

Karen MockDr. Karen Mock (Ph.D., C. Psych.) is an educational psychologist who has been the Executive Director and CEO of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and was  National Director of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada, as well as Executive Director of the League’s Human Rights Education and Training Centre.

Dr. Mock has conducted research and published widely on multiculturalism, anti-racism, human rights and diversity, and has received many awards and honours for her work. Dr. Mock chaired the National Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State and Canadian Secretariat for the UN World Conference Against Racism, and was on the Canadian delegation in Durban South Africa.

She chaired the Hate Crimes Community Working Group for the Attorney General, and served as Senior Policy Advisor on Diversity and Equity to the Minister of Education for the development and delivery of Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy.

Raja KhouriRaja Khouri is an international consultant in organizational development and capacity building, focusing on civil society and human rights work.  He is a commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, advocacy co-chair of Human Rights Watch Canada, and co-founder of the Canadian Arab-Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group.

Raja formerly served on various government and civil society bodies, such as Ontario’s Hate Crimes Community Working Group, the Minister of Education’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy Roundtable, Pride Toronto Community Advisory Panel, and the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.  He also served as president of the Canadian Arab Federation in the period following the events of 9/11. Raja has chaired conferences, given and moderated lectures, given numerous media interviews, and published commentaries in journals and major Canadian dailies.

C2D2The Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation(C2D2) is a community of individuals and organizations dedicated to the creation and sustainability of vibrant communities, businesses, governments, not for profits and learning institutions through the good practice of dialogue, deliberation, collaborative action and decision-making processes.

Masters Workshop: The Reinvention of Civilization

Written by . Posted on April 16, 2011. Filed under Masters Workshop. No comments.

The Reinvention of Civilization : Our Historical Opportunity to Innovate Everything

The Reinvention of Civilization is an ideological shift in what constitutes the center of history. Such an invention comes about because of a change in awareness, which provides movement from a single locus of imagination and the knowledge it evokes, to an awareness of simultaneous, multiple, yet sovereign centers of history. This shift in the source of the imagination that constitutes knowledge brings a revolutionary matrix of history into existence.

In this workshop Yogiraj Charles Bates models his commitment to serve all sentient beings with designing in system inquiry (‘We’ can Relate), innovation (The 10th Dot®), reinvention endeavors (The Reinvention of Civilizationtm) and leadership (Integrity and The Fourth View).

A collaborative dialogic process (Sacred Dialogues) provides the practicum format to demonstrate the ideas he will bring forth. This is a participatory experience with developmental and transformational intent. Anyone contributing to creating sustainable models that seek to benefit humanity will be supported by this workshop.

This was the first workshop in the Masters series.  A companion workshop ‘We’ Can Relate was held Saturday April 30, 2011 at the Redesign studio, 7 Fraser Ave. #12, Toronto.