Relational Leading: Let’s Get Practical Ginny Belden-Charles And Mary Gergen

Introductions Name Where you live/what you do A little known fact about yourself

Agenda What is Relational Leading and how is it distinct? Team exercise Framework for Relational Reflection Examples/cases Identify/discuss challenges in leading

FROM: TO: Leadership embedded in position Top down approaches Focus on individual traits Leading is “in-between” and throughout Collective engagement Focus on social and systemic processes

The Challenge: Build the tallest free-standing structure out of: 20 sticks of spaghetti one yard of tape one yard of string one marshmallow- needs to be on top Aesthetics add value You have 18 minutes

Relational Design Reflection Framework ConnectClarify Collaborate Co- Construct Co- Evolve Who do we need to engage on this? What can we learn about the context: people, culture, history? What relationships do we need to develop? What compelling need are we addressing? What principles will guide us in working together? What is our purpose/intent? How will we engage a diversity of voices? What possibilities could we imagine? What limiting beliefs will we examine? What is the “light structure” we need to frame our work? What is our concept, plan, design or prototype? What are our questions and experiments? What are we learning? How can we refine our design? How can we take this out (scale up, localize, etc.)?

Connect What was your strategy in putting together your team? What did you learn about them that helped you in your challenge? What relationships did you develop and how did you do that?

Clarify What was your goal? What principles guided you in working together? How did you understand “tallest”? Define aesthetics?

Collaborate How did you engage a diversity of perspectives? What possibilities did you imagine? What limiting beliefs surfaced?

Co- Construct How did you structure your work? What was your concept/plan/design? Who was engaged and when?

Co- Evolve What did you learn? How could you apply learnings going forward?

Relational Design Reflection Framework ConnectClarify Collaborate Co- Construct Co- Evolve Who do we need to engage on this? What can we learn about the context: people, culture, history? What relationships do we need to develop? What compelling need are we addressing? What principles will guide us in working together? What is our purpose/intent? How will we engage a diversity of voices? What possibilities could we imagine? What limiting beliefs will we examine? What is the “light structure” we need to frame our work? What is our concept, plan, design or prototype? What are our questions and experiments? What are we learning? How can we refine our design? How can we take this out (scale up, localize, etc.)?

At Your Tables Identify challenges you face in helping your teams, communities, or organizations work effectively and co-creatively together Pick one challenge to work on at your table Apply the reflection questions in the framework to see what insights it might provide you Develop a relational strategy for this challenge to share back with the full group