Notes from NTL Bay Area Meetings 2001

Notes

Hi all!

10 of us gathered at Frank Friedlander's home on December 12 and had a

wonderful conversation. 

The question "What's up with you at this point in

time?" seemed sufficient to keep us engaged with one another for the entire

meeting if we hadn't agreed to additional agenda.

We found several common themes in our sharing / dialogue. Time and

effectiveness; vulnerability and emotionality; and really good / really

challenging poles of experience.

The last 45 minutes or so, we talked with Dennis and John about their

interest in collaborating with NTL on a PhD program. It was the strong

consensus of the group not to pursue a strong affiliation at this point in

time -- rather to design the program we really want, then call on local NTL

resources and Stanford trained facilitators to help in delivery. Dennis and

John agreed to make the purpose and vision of the PhD program clearer, and

then to invite BA-NTL to help brainstorm HOW to do it.

Regards and my very best wishes for the holiday season.

John Adams, PhD

Director, Organizational Systems

Saybrook Graduate School

415 753 6668

415 753 6669 Fax

www.eartheart-ent.com

Hi Folks,

The Oct 24 meeting will be at Arlene's in Tiburon, and I am coordinating

details for it.

I will be presenting my TRUTH AT WORK game--we'll play it and share

ideas about how it can be used in our work...and how it can be improved.

The other presentation was to be Dennis, but he now has a schedule

conflict and cannot be there...so we might use the remaining time to

talk about getting work. I see from Scott's email that this topic was

of interest to some. Or is there someone who has a passion that they'd

like to share about?

I'll get directions and details about the program to you later.

Susan

I am afraid that I have some sad news. Dennis Jaffe's sister is among the

missing in the World Trade Center. He has flown back to New York.

We have decided to still hold our Thursday meeting, but it will now be at my

house in Berkeley. Directions are attached.

No lunch, but we will have coffee and cake at 12:30 so that we can start at

1:00. The first agenda item is for us to jointly plan a weekend

trainer-of-trainer program for the Stanford Facilitators. Also attached is

a memo setting out the parameters.

The second agenda item was to be led by Dennis (on how we are handling

money) and that will be postponed. In talking with a couple of you, it

seemed most appropriate to talk about last week. As helpers, we usually

help others and do we get enough of a chance to take care of our needs?

There are a couple of ways we can approach this.

-- Obviously, one way is to speak about what this has personally meant to

us.

-- Another approach is, as behavioral scientists to try and understand this.

[Scott Bristol has an interesting analysis from his value perspective --

Scott, could you e-mail that to all of us?)

We will decide when we are together, which approach we want to take.

Meeting from 1 to 5:30 followed by wine and cheese. There are also

wonderful (and inexpensive) restaurants in Berkeley so consider sticking

around and a group of us will be going out.

Hope to see many of you here on Thursday.

David Bradford

Folks,

Last week 11 of us met at David Bradford's to continue our Bay Area NTL meeting. The meeting ran from 12:30-5:30 with 6 of us having dinner together before heading home. Here's a review of day.

I mention this because it seems to be a structure we are adapting to:

12:30-1:00 Welcoming,

1:00-3:00 1st Subject

3:00-5:00 2nd Subject

5:00-5:30 Wine/snacks

Dinner together- optional

Also, we've established some norms around setting the agenda and making the time meaningful:

- People who have a passion/interest they want to present to the group take the lead on structuring the agenda for their session. They can use the whole session if they need it. This includes getting out any pre-work that might facilitate the session.

- Meetings are open to all NTL members and alumni.

- We hold our couterdependency in abeyance:) and go with the design of the session.

Two topics were addressed at the Sept 20 meeting.

1. David provided the structure and task for the first half of our meeting: Designing an Advanced Train-the-Trainers weekend for a group of the Stanford Facilitators that have been active in the Stanford B-School 'personal skills course'. Mary Ann, Judith and Flo are actively involved in this course, Frank has worked with it before and I've also participated as a Sr. Trainer. Present in our group was good degree of personal experience with the Stanford project and the issues the trainers appear to struggle with. We split into two groups. A number of different themes were explored. One theme that was more of a dialectic was 1) to what degree to we as 'experts' declare and structure the session base on our years of experience vs. 2) to what degree to we ask the participants to declare their own learning needs to which we respond. On top of this was added the complexity and learning model, of concentric "fish bowls"- Sr Staff- Co-Trainers- Participants, etc..

The conclusion was that we had provided enough training material for more than one weekend.

2. The second half of the meeting focused on recent events at the WTC. To various degrees we we're all still working through our different personal experiences. We used this short time to tell our own story's, share feelings and concerns, and have them heard by a group of empathetic colleagues that could tolerate difference.

3. Evaluation. We all left feeling 're-vitalized' to a degree and appreciating both the intellectual and emotional events of the day and especially appreciating our group of peers.

4. Future topics: Since many of us have been negatively impacted by recent events... we joked about our open schedules.. but also raised the question about how might we generate work? A topic for a future meeting.

Regards,

Scott Bristol

In attendance:

David Bradford, Arlene Scott, Ted Scott, Tracy Gibbons, Flo Hoylman, Jack Sherwood, Frank Friedlander, Mary Ann Huckabay, Judith Noel, Joseph Luft, Scott Bristol

Next sessions are scheduled for

Wed., Oct. 24 (Sue Campbell will be organizing the agenda and it will likely be held in Tiburon)

Wed. Dec. 12. (Frank Friedlander and Tracy Gibbons will be organizing the agenda and it will be held at Frank's house in Las Gatos)

Meeting July 26, 2001

Agenda

Greetings To All!

We have received replies from about 15 members indicating

they will join us on Thursday, July 26 from 1:00 pm to

5:00 pm to learn about Mark Williams’ unique approach to

diversity training and discuss trainer self disclosure in

a T-Group arising from David Bradford’s work at Stanford.

Our meeting will be held in the Community Room on the

second floor of the new Town Hall in Tiburon. We’ll have

wine, cheese and other nourishments to support us during

our explorations and discussions.

Since we are meeting in a large enough space, last minute

and late arrivals are welcome. However, it is nice to

have a sense of how many might attend so continue to send

us your intentions right up to July 26.

For those of you attending, if you wish to take the draft

Gallup Instrument measuring Mark’s diversity dimensions,

e-mail us your address and we will send you a copy which

you will need to send back for scoring before our

meeting. Unfortunately, we cannot release this instrument

to all who may be interested until Mark’s book is out and

his Diversity Channel is up and running this Fall. So,

please ask for the instrument only if you are coming to

the meeting.

Directions: From Hwy 101, drive East on Tiburon Blvd (CA

Route 131) for approximately 3.9 miles. As you enter the

“downtown” area, you should note the new Town Library and

the new Town Hall (with clock tower) on your left. There

is free parking between the Library and the Town Hall and

behind the Town Hall. The signs say 2-hour limit and, we

are assured by our friends in the Recreation Department,

that there is no problem parking for longer periods. For

those of you who wish to be law abiding, there is a fee

parking lot ($2) next to the Town Hall on the Eastern

side. If the little red machine does not spit out a

ticket, lift a lid to your right, look inside the box a

get an envelope to put your money in. A slot in the box

is for the envelope. (We have been playing Myst III and

this sounds very familiar).

We will start setting up around 12:15 pm so come early and

move chairs! After the meeting, we thought it would be

fun to have as many of us as possible eat an early no host

dinner together at one of the waterfront restaurants. Let

us know if you want to be a part of the dinner group and

we’ll make reservations.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 26th.

Sue & Howard

Notes

Summary Notes

Bay Area NTL Learning Community Meeting

7/26/01

Present: David Bradford, Scott Bristol, Susan Campbell, Tracey Gibbons, Flo Hoylman, Mary Ann Huckaby, Dennis Jaffee, Howard Lamb, Sue Ries Lamb, Joe Luft, Jack Sherwood ... Notes prepared by Sue Ries Lamb

  Another gathering of Bay Area NTLers -- this time with 11 of us present to stimulate, debate, tease, amuse, learn from and enjoy each other. The first half of our session focused on Mark Williams’ Lens approach to diversity, with Howard and Sue Lamb presenting an overview of the approach and asking for input from the group on ideas for developing a diagnostic process to assess the organization’s human resource systems from a Lens perspective. (Howard and Sue are working with Mark on the development of training programs, eLearning courses and a diagnostic consulting process, using this Lens approach.)

Mark has identified -- and the Gallup organization is in the process of psychometrically validating -- 10 different lenses, or perspectives, which can be applied at the intrapersonal, interpersonal and organization levels of diversity work with special emphasis on race, color, ethnicity and nationality. (A second set of lenses will focus on gender, with subsequent sets focusing on additional key dimensions of diversity). The Lenses and their “mottos” include:

•              The Assimilationist Lens -- “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”

•              The Colorblind Lens -- “When I see you, I see a person, not your color”

•              The Culturalcentrist Lens -- “My culture is central to my personal and public identity”

•              The Elitist Lens -- “Membership has its privileges”

•              The Integrationist Lens ‘’ “Ebony and ivory live together on my piano keys ... Shouldn’t we?”

•              The Meritocratist Lens -- “Cream rises to the top”

•              The Multiculturalist Lens -- “The more, the merrier”

•              The Seclusionist Lens -- “Birds of a feather flock together”

•              The Transcendent Lens -- “We’re all one race -- the human race”

•              The Victim/Caretaker Lens -- “We shall overcome”

The approach is intended to be both diagnostic and developmental. Each lens has its strengths and shadows, as well as what Mark calls its “highest level of expression” to contribute to effective interpersonal, team and organizational functioning.

Each cultural identity group has its legacies -- the historical events and conditions that have influenced the way that group views and interacts with other groups. However, the individual members of any cultural identity group will prioritize the layers -- i.e., race, gender, ethnicity, age, profession, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, etc. --by which s/he identifies him/herself. Our preferred lenses are influenced by, and in turn influence, the ways in which we think about our legacies and layers. Mark suggests that a key way to change the diversity conversation and have more meaningful dialogue with each other is to use “the 6 L’s:”

  •              Looking inward to identify our own:

               -               Lenses

               -               Layers

               -               Legacies

•               Listening for the content, meaning and world view of the other person, including

               what lens s/he’s viewing the situation from, what layers are most important to

               him/her, what legacies s/he’s been influenced by

•               Languaging in ways which are not offensive or distracting for the other person,

               given his/her cultural identity, lenses, etc.

At the systemic level, understanding the lenses that are most influential with respect to marketing, product development, advertising, customer service, and recruiting and development of employees can help the organization leverage the strengths of these lenses, minimize their shadows and identify additional lenses which may be complementary to the predominant lenses in accomplishing the organization’s business goals.

  After a lively round of discussion and some (ed. comment) extremely helpful  input about the approach for the Lambs to work with, the second half of our meeting focused on a discussion, facilitated by David Bradford, on the topic of “How much should we self disclose and be vulnerable in our role as HI trainers?” Some of the reasons for disclosing include: modeling how participants can work their own issues, being authentic in our interactions with group members, demonstrating the importance/power of being in touch with one’s own feelings and able to share them, and showing that we are empathic with what is going on. Some of the reasons for not disclosing include: the potential for working too many of our own issues and keeping the group members from working on theirs, the fact that the group needs to feel reassured - especially when it is in its early stages - that the facilitator has his/her stuff together and the potential for group members to feel coerced into having to self disclose in the same way.

While we all have our own perspectives on what is “too much” or “too little” self disclosure, there was a lot of agreement on the following points:

•              As trainers, we have an obligation to create psychological safety for the group;

               there may be times when we need to self disclose for this purpose

•              The maturity of the group and the timing of self disclosing interventions are

               critical issues -- Self disclosure early in the group’s history is not usually                appropriate

•              Sharing our feelings about what’s going on in the here and now, using I                statements, is the way most of us would go about self disclosure

•              Some times, when we think a group member needs to feel that someone else has

               gone through/understands/empathizes with what s/he is going through and no

               one else in the group is providing this reassurance, it helps for the trainer to

               self disclose for this purpose

•              There are nonverbal ways to show that we are fully present and show empathy, as

               well as the verbal ones

•              There are legitimate reasons for maintaining the trainer role (vs “hiding behind” it)

•              We all have experienced the nervous sensations in the gut and the repeated

               question in the head about “Should I/Shouldn’t I say what’s going on for me!”

A Review of Our Norms

Since we were a much larger group than at our last meeting, we reviewed and added to the norms by which we want to operate:

•              We will stay with the planned agenda for a meeting

•              Participants in the group will be current or former NTL members

•              However, we will not be focusing on NTL as an organization or turning these meetings into gripe sessions about NTL

•              There will be no pressure about attendance at these meetings

•              Those who do come will have the most influence about the selection of dates and topics for the next round of meetings

•              The agenda will be based on our “passions” -- what we are most interested in and/or needing support on at the current time

•              Whoever volunteers to present/facilitate a discussion for the next meeting will serve as the host, be responsible for the agenda and, also, for minutes after the meeting

•              If the presenter/facilitator requests preparation ahead of time, we agree to comply with the request

•              We will engage in straight talk with each other

We also updated our list of possible topics for future meetings. This list is attached on a separate page so that we can continue to refer to it at future meetings.

Before ending the meeting, Scott and Tracey gave a brief report on the NTL Membership Meeting which was held in Bethel last week.

After the meeting, seven of us capped a delightful afternoon by having dinner together at Sam’s on the Tiburon waterfront.

The next meeting will be hosted by Dennis Jaffee on Thursday, September 20th. Topics will include a discussion facilitated by Dennis on “Money, Legacies and Retirement” and group input to David Bradford and Mary Ann Huckaby on a design for a weekend training program for Stanford facilitators.

P.S. Book recommendation from Dennis Jaffee: Developing Cultural Competence by Franz Trompenaars

Potential Topics for Future Meetings of the

Bay Area NTL Learning Community

•              Design of weekend training program for Stanford facilitators -- September 20th

•              Money -- its significance for us, how we’re earning it, what we want to do with

               it in retirement, what legacies we want to leave -- September 20th

•              Bringing in special workshops for our own growth -- e.g., Power Equity Group

•               Developing other weekend training programs for professionals and others

               (Maybe be able to generate some income from this ... Maybe develop a

               training program that could be used as a “feeder program” for new younger

               NTL members  

•              Our professional development and support

               -   What we’re currently needing support with in terms of client cases, crit incidents, etc.

               -  Questions/discussion on theory and practice

•              What we’re working on that’s “new and different”

•              “Johari Safari” -- exploring our hidden and blind sides

•               Community building -- where is it, what are useful corrective points?

•               Redesign and staff some of NTL labs to offer them in this area

               -               More business-focused HI    

Bay Area - NTL Members

This is a reminder and a request for confirmation if you plan to attend.

- Need know how may people will be present on Wed so I can have enough chairs, etc.

- Need to know if your coming Tuesday night and want to attend an informal dinner at my house (108 Clark Ave, Santa Cruz 95060).

Date: Wednesday, May 30

Time: 9-4

Place: (My Office) 55B Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Phone: 831-457-3117

Theme: "Values, Words and Meaning"

Schedule

Tuesday Evening: 6:00 PM Informal dinner at my house Wednesday:

Wednesday: 9:00-4:00

9:00- 10:30 Focus Session

a) Overview

b) Personal "values disclosure":

-Individuals share and discuss personal values that are motivating them at this stage of their life?

- How do these values relate to our work in group dynamics?

c) Identify relevant pressing questions we want to address.

d) Use "pressing questions" and group size to structure the days agenda.

Break

10:45-12:00 Working session 1

12:00- 1:00 Lunch- (Enjoy the environment!)

1:00 - 3:00 Working session 2

Break

3:00- 4:00 Summary of Learnings and Next Steps.

Additional Request for Information:

1) In order to facilitate disclosure and discussion of personal values and to directly relate "values" to group and organizational development I'm requesting that you complete the Life Journey Map, an online values ranking process I developed. You'll receive immediate feedback after completing ljMap ranking- your top 6 priority values. We will use our personal priority values to start and structure the day.

2) If you have "pressing questions" and agenda items please send them to me so we can build a list. Here are some I've received:

- "exactly what is the role of the trainer in a T-group?" ,

- "how (and when) disclosing should we be?

- "How and when to use our own issues?"

- "What about our values; do we bring them in?"

- It would also be nice if we could share times when we felt we used ourselves inappropriately.

Best regards,

Scott Bristol

Bay Area - NTL

Recently at a meeting a David Bradford's house a number of us (NTL) agreed

that we wanted to continue to meet and dialogue about what we are doing that

is of professional interest and passion. I volunteered to organize and

facilitate our next meeting.

You are invited to our next meeting.

Date: Wednesday, May 30

Time: 9-4

Place: (My Office) 55B Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Theme: "Values, Words and Meaning"

My work in recent years has been in the area of "measuring and mapping

culture, values and meaning".

An "aha" that has been important to me is that I create and sustain

personal meaning through my language. Implicit in my language are my values.

If so... then, who do I want to spend the remainder of my life talking to?

and what do I want to talk about?

In order to explore these observations and questions in more detail I will

send you an invitation to complete the Life Journey Map, an online values

ranking process I developed. You'll receive immediate feedback after

completing ljMap ranking- your top 6 priority values. We will use our

personal priority values to explore our similarities and differences on May

30th. This is a scaleable measurement methodology that I have used at the

individual, group and organizational (cultural) level.

Please confirm your intent to attend or interest in receiving an ljMap

values ranking invitation.

Best regards,

Scott Bristol

831-457-3117

www.ljMap.com