Being Your Greatest is No Reason To Stop Growing

We saw this at the airport in San Francisco - it captured exactly how we felt after learning about blending Appreciative Coaching and Asset Based Thinking.



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Some Myths about Leadership

A great blog post on the Myths of Leadership.

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2007/02/slaying_6_myths_leadership_qualities_misconceptions_leaders.html

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Quote on Resiliency

A Thought for the New Year from SLHI's January 09 newsletter

"Destruction and renewal, death and life are necessary for any healthy system. The Greek word for 'crisis' means 'to sift.' Sifting suggests we are letting go of what is no longer necessary but retaining the essence. Resilience represents this capacity to sift: to let go and hang on simultaneously. The challenge is knowing what and how to let go."

- from Getting to Maybe

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What Is Your Word?

"Ask yourself this: If I could say one word to the world, if I knew the world was listening attentively and would to the best of its ability follow the directive this word sent out, what would that word be?

And then, instead of trying to think of the word, open yourself to seeing all the places in your life where the word you were meant to embody has been calling to you. Because it has from the day you were born, one word has been calling to you, begging you to be with it, to learn the unique way in which only you could hold and embody and teach this word to the world. We think that the call, our vocation, will direct us in what to do with our lives.

But I think the call tells you where you must begin to practice the not-doing that will allow the one word you are here to embody fill you and shape your life."

The Call, Discovering Why You Are Here by Oriah Mountain Dreamer (p. 179)

We've been having so much fun talking about what our word may be. Some find it comes to them immediately, others have held that space open until the word revealed itself. What is your word?

Cassandra at cassandraoneill@comcast.net

http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com

Death by Power Point

This is really funny and contains some great information on how to make great slides.

Check out the slide show here:
http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint.


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Wisdom Video

This is a link to a wonderful and short video on wisdom. When you have a few moments and want to be inspired check it out. http://www.wisdombook.org/

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What Does it Take to Turn a Good Idea into Good Outcomes?

Grants and Foundations Review - Article

What Does it Take to Turn a Good Idea into Good Outcomes?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

by Cassandra O'Neill

Every call for proposal or request for proposals asks for good ideas, innovative ways to create desired outcomes. Every proposal that is submitted to a funder outlines what the applicant thinks is a good idea and a description of how the organization plans to implement that good idea. So, what percent of good ideas actually become good outcomes? Would you be surprised to find out that research has found that only 10-30% of good ideas become good outcomes? Are you interested in finding out more about what your organization can do to increase the odds?

When I first heard the following statistics, I was up in the middle of the night thinking about them.

* In business, change initiatives that are heavily dependent on people (reengineering, TQM, culture change) fail 80-90% of the time.
* Up to 70% of the failures in business are not due to poor strategy or a lack of good ideas, but to flawed execution.
* About 10% of what is taught in training gets transferred to the job. (R. W. Rogers, 2002) With coaching, this percentage goes up to 95%. (Joyce and Showers, 2002).

While those statistics aligned with my experience, I hadn’t realized it was so universal. I thought if things are so ineffective, why don’t we do things differently? Aren’t we all focused on asking the wrong questions like how can we improve training, when a better question is why aren’t we providing coaching?

The National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) is helping people think about how we can do things differently which will result in higher success rates. This group researched implementation across sectors and has published their findings in a monograph called Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature. (http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn)

This report outlines what is known about implementation, and suggests a framework for successful implementation that is based on seven “drivers” of implementation. The seven drivers are pre-service training, consulting and coaching, staff performance evaluation, decision support data systems, administrative supports, systems interventions, and focus on recruitment and selection of staff and participants. These are displayed in the following graphic:

What Does Work? Impementation Drivers


A key focus of the document is to apply what is known about successful implementation to the design and implementation of new programs or system changes. There is also focus on applying this knowledge to the adoption of evidence based practices in service delivery systems. When you read the descriptions of what does not work when implementing a change or new program, it sounds familiar – because it sounds exactly like most implementation plans. What this meant to me is that when our reliance on things that don’t work is so universal, it is no wonder that there aren’t better outcomes when implementing something new. Here are a couple of important bullets on what does not work when done alone:



* Dissemination of information by itself does not lead to successful implementation (research literature, mailings, promulgation of practice guidelines)
* Training alone, no matter how well done, does not lead to successful implementation

It is not enough to have a good idea or plan to adopt a program or best practice. You must have a successful implementation or there will not be good results. Effective intervention practices + Effective implementation practices = Good outcomes for consumers. While this might sound obvious, it is not generally reflected in the practices of the social sector when designing and implementing programs. In fact, someone told me recently that when they asked their evaluator to measure outcomes they were told – “We know the program works.” Well they knew that it had worked in other places, but to leap to the conclusion that because of this it was working at their site – was to completely ignore the fact that implementation matters.

Another piece of information which explains why traditional implementation plans are not so successful is the data from the learning pyramid. According to this research the average retention rates with different methods of teaching are as follows: Lecture 5%, reading 10%, audio-visual 20%, demonstration 30%, discussion group 50%, practice by doing 75%, and teach others/immediate use of learning 90%. This also explains why the dissemination of information and telling people things does not result in good outcomes. To make the critical link from retention to using information is the research on coaching.

Extensive research has found Coaching to be effective.


Outcomes

Significant finding: Of teachers who attended the same training, 95% of those who also received Coaching used what they learned on the job while they were teaching compared to between 0-5% of individuals that did not receive Coaching. There is extensive research on coaching in a variety of fields that shows similar success in behavior change and using training on the job as a result of coaching.

Some factors that contribute to the inability of people to apply what they’ve learned in training to their jobs WITHOUT coaching are as follows:

* Doing something new is difficult
* Asking someone to stop doing something they are proficient in – (even if the results aren’t good) and asking them to do something they are not proficient in i.e. something they are just learning is also difficult
* Newly-learned behavior is:

1. crude compared to performance by a master practitioner,

2. fragile and needs to be supported in the face of reactions from consumers and others in the service setting, and

3. incomplete and will need to be shaped to be most functional in a service setting

So how can we apply this information to our efforts to make change or develop and implement new programs or practices successfully?

* Recognize that traditional efforts are not going to be effective the majority of the time, and
* Explore the inclusion of elements that have been proven to increase effectiveness.

If you’d like to know more about using the seven drivers of implementation you can read the Monograph.

In addition, you can explore adapting a set of questions that are based on these drivers when you plan, design, and implement changes. Attached is the link to this tool that was developed by the Kentucky Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Feel free to post your comments on this tool.

http://evolutionarysustainability.blogspot.com/2008/12/questions-to-ask-when-designing-and.html

Reference:

Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature (Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman, and Wallace) 2005 University of South Florida

_________________________

Publisher:

CharityChannel LLC

Editor:

Michael Wells

Mr. Wells is joined by a body of contributors who are well-respected leaders, observers, and pundits in the field.

Legal

Grants and Foundations Review™ is a domestic and international trademark of CharityChannel LLC. Copyright (c) and Trademark (tm) CharityChannel LLC. All rights reserved. The article in this issue, "What Does it Take to Turn a Good Idea into Good Outcomes?," Copyright © 2008 by Cassandra O'Neill.

Grants and Foundations Review is published by CharityChannel LLC, 30021 Tomas St., Suite 300, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688-2128 USA. Telephone: +1 949 589-5938.

How to Advertise

If you have a product or service that would be of benefit to the thousands of nonprofit-sector subscribers, and would like to learn more, contact us on our contact form, or telephone CharityChannel's business office at 1+ 949 589-5938.

Reprints

You may:

* Send an electronic copy of this enewsletter to a friend or colleague.
* Link to this article from another web site.
* Print a hard copy of this issue for your direct personal use.

Except as stated above, you may not reproduce this article, whether in print or electronic form, without the express consent of both CharityChannel, as publisher, and Cassandra O'Neill, as author.


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Strengths Based Approaches to Change and Everything Else

Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review - Article

Strengths Based Approaches to Change and Everything Else

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

by Casssandra O'Neill

Ever heard of strengths based approaches to change? If you are serving on a nonprofit Board of Directors or are an Executive Director -- you can use strengths based approaches with your leadership team, staff, volunteers and clients. This article describes what strengths based approaches are, how they are different from traditional approaches, and the benefits of using them.

Strengths based approaches focus on the identification and development of the strengths of an individual, organization, community, and system. They build upon what is working, where you are strong, successful, and passionate. They are based on and align with the research on resiliency, positive psychology, and asset based thinking.

Principles that strengths based approaches share include:

* There are hidden and unrecognized assets, strengths and resources in every individual, family, organization and community;
* Desired outcomes can best be achieved when attention is focused on discovering these collectively and connecting them to a shared vision;
* Focusing on what is working and how to build on this creates collective resiliency;
* There is always something that is working well; and
* Solutions exist within communities and organizations and are waiting to be discovered.

Traditional approaches are often based in a world view that is mechanistic and linear. They focus exclusively or primarily on deficits, weaknesses, and needs, and operate from a scarcity paradigm. In the social sector, almost all funding is distributed from a deficit paradigm which results in:

* mountains of needs assessments that catalog what is missing;
* the development of unsustainable programs that are designed to meet the perceived needs of the target population by delivering services from experts, i.e. professionals; and
* a pattern of dependency among service providers and recipients.

The good news! There are strengths based alternatives that are based in a different world view and have much different results. Ever heard of positive deviance? This approach is contingent on the identification of what contributes to positive outcomes for individuals, families, organizations, or communities. What makes these outcomes a deviation - is that they are achieved by a minority of the population. This approach began internationally and is now being used in this country.

Think of the following situation: the majority of children in a Southeast Asian village were malnourished. What might be a traditional response be? When I pose this question to groups they often say things like: send food and do a needs assessment. When I ask them to think of an alternative response, one that is strengths based people say things like talk to the people, find out what their perspective is, look at the context, and provide education.

What actually happened? A team discovered what the families whose children were not malnourished were doing. And guess what? The community learned what these families were doing and did it too. It was simple, eating shrimp from existing resources. They did a similar inquiry in Haiti and found another sustainable solution that the entire community could easily adopt.

How could this inform our work in the social sector? The solution did not exist outside of the community – it existed within it and was discovered. The solution was not contained in an analysis of the root causes of malnutrition. Analysis of the root causes of success contained the solution. Maybe there are some solutions waiting to be discovered in our own communities and organizations.

Positive deviance initiatives are occurring in hospitals and schools in the United States. Teams are studying hospital employees who have low infection transmission rates and teaching what is being done to others. Teams are also examining what schools are doing right! For more information on the Positive Deviance Initiative go to http://www.positivedeviance.org/.

When people first hear about strengths based approaches they often find it very hard to think outside traditional approaches. In the social sector, we’ve been conditioned to focus on what isn’t working i.e. the problems, gaps, needs and weaknesses. Do you think of your staff, your peers, your clients as problems or unmet needs, or do see them as resources?

You can deliver a service to people and view these individuals as possessing gifts and talents. How might this make a difference? Two programs delivered the same service, one used a strengths based approach and one used a traditional approach. The service delivered was assistance with tax preparation. This service is delivered by volunteers who are trained in tax preparation. One program used a traditional approach, people came and got their taxes done, and that was the extent of their interaction.

The other program offered the same service and used a strengths based approach. As soon as people came to the program site, they were asked “What have you been gifted with?” If someone said they were bilingual, they had them help translate. If their gift was taking care of children, they assisted with the children who came with their families to get their taxes done. How did this impact the clients and program? The following year, this program found that half of the people who trained as volunteers had received tax assistance the year before. They were former clients!

These individuals saw themselves as resources and were giving back, rather than just passively receiving a service and becoming repeat customers. This tax assistance program also helped individuals establish savings accounts and Individual Development Accounts (IDA) in order to purchase a house or a vehicle. These program enhancements were a result of strengths based inquiry. The staff and volunteers simply looked beyond what services they could provide and asked “How can we have the most impact? How can we help people build on strengths and pursue dreams?”

Ever heard of asset mapping? It’s a strengths based alternative to needs assessments. What happens when a group looks at what does exist in their community rather than what doesn’t? Asset mapping is more than developing a list of organizations in a community. When asset mapping is done as a collaborative process, it can lead to the development of relationships and insights about how to build on existing strengths and assets. Why does this matter? When people see connections between their own expertise, resources, skills and the interests and resources of others in their community – magic happens! By simply focusing on a clear and compelling purpose, zooming in on what already exists, and what outcomes people want to see -- people naturally identify ways to create the outcomes they want using what they have. Find out more about this at the Asset Based Community Development website at http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/abcd/

Many resources are available to you to support your use of strengths based approaches with your Board, staff, and clients. Gallup did extensive polling and found out that 70% of people do not get to use their strengths at work. Think about what would be possible if everyone do use their strengths?

Do you know your strengths? Many of us cannot immediately identify our strengths, because attention is directed at addressing our weaknesses. Focusing precious time and energy on our weaknesses is counterproductive when there are others who have those talents and skills. By allowing people to do what they are best at – everyone benefits. A client of mine builds job descriptions around employee strengths. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t you want to work there?

Interested in learning more about your strengths and those with whom you work? StrengthsFinder 2.0, a book by Tom Rath, comes with one on-line Strengthsfinder assessment. If your agency works with kids, there is also an assessment for kids aged 10-14 called StrengthsExplorer available at www.strengthsexplorer.com.

Martin Seligman the father of Positive Psychology and author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness has developed several on-line assessments available at www.authentichappiness.com. The VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire measures 24 Character Strengths.

Whole system methods such as Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology are strengths based, because they are designed to elicit the best thinking of everyone in an organization, community, and system - not just one group. These can be used in many ways from conducting strengths based strategic planning to increasing engagement at Board and staff meetings. Would you like to raise the energy at your Board and staff meetings? It’s easy when you ask Appreciative Questions or use Open Space Technology to facilitate a discussion.

Are you ready to increase the impact of your Board and organization by focusing on what is working, and identifying and building on strengths? Are you excited about creating opportunities for high levels of engagement and participation when planning, implementing, and evaluating the work of your organization? For more information check out the Resource Guide on Strengths Based Approaches available at the following link: http://evolutionarysustainability.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html.

_________________________

Publisher:

CharityChannel LLC

Editor:

Jane Garthson

Ms. Garthson is joined by a body of contributors who are well-respected leaders, observers, and pundits in the field.

Legal

Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review™ is a domestic and international trademark of CharityChannel LLC. Copyright (c) and Trademark (tm) CharityChannel LLC. All rights reserved. The article in this issue, "Strengths Based Approaches to Change and Everything Else," Copyright © 2008 by Casssandra O'Neill.

Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review is published by CharityChannel LLC, 30021 Tomas St., Suite 300, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688-2128 USA. Telephone: +1 949 589-5938.

How to Advertise

If you have a product or service that would be of benefit to the thousands of nonprofit-sector subscribers, and would like to learn more, contact us on our contact form, or telephone CharityChannel's business office at 1+ 949 589-5938.

Reprints

You may:

* Send an electronic copy of this enewsletter to a friend or colleague.
* Link to this article from another web site.
* Print a hard copy of this issue for your direct personal use.

Except as stated above, you may not reproduce this article, whether in print or electronic form, without the express consent of both CharityChannel, as publisher, and Casssandra O'Neill, as author.


http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com