Mary Jo Schnell: Thanks for the detailed roadmap. The conscious analysis of the consequences of decision-making may indeed be the way to get groups to own the process as well as the results. I’ll try it out and report back!

They broke down their approach/strategy into 3 stages:
1. The discussion method–structuring effective communication by
naming/identifying typical stages people go through when asked to make decisions:
a. objective for facts,
b. reflective to allow emotions and associations (this allows egos and biases to
surface but within the process of discussion not as the determining
goal/decision),
c. interpretive as a way to surface individual values and meanings from their own
stories, and
d. the decisional where, after everyone’s participated in the above, folks arrive
at a new opportunity to name these processes, recognize them, and decide to work
with eachother in a “workshop” setting to identify common goals, and action plans
needed to reach them.

2. The workshop method–designed to generative energy and creative thinking,
infuse the group with a shared sense of responsibility, integrate thinking, and
build consensus by structuring that process into 5 steps:
a. contextualize/set the stage for work to be done and decisions to be made
b. brainstorm and generate new ideas through discussion and document ideas/insights
c. organize the thinking by breaking into small groups that form new relationships
and further “ideate” brainstorms–this is mostly where folks are writing their own
ideas on small pieces of paper, then creating consensus about those ideas in small
groups and agreeing on categories for the ideas, and then reporting back to the
group (again, keeping egos in check by always having to report to a group that is
newly awared of when emotions or biases are at play)
d. name those things that seem to be common denominators and build consensus
e. reflect on the process and further gain consensus as well as confirm the groups
desire and resolve to work together toward common goals now identified.

3. Action planning–designed to clarify directions, align resources, designate
leaders and responsibilities, and continue to build team trust and support.
Pulling from info gleaned from above 2 stages you set up an action plan that:
a. decides the victory by folks sharing their ideas about what it’d look like,
current realities (swot for victory), and what folks wanted to commit to given the
reality
b. discerns key actions through brainstorming, organizing thinking and breaking
into groups/task forces to create actions for clustered ideas
c. creates calendar of actions and assignments given results from task force
brainstorms and identifies a kind of launch activity (could be reaffirming current
program with tweaks), ongoing activities with calendar dates, reporting, etc., and
what they see in place after the actions that indicate they’ve arrived at their
victory. This action plan also includes who is responsible for what, costs and
creation of a mantra or title for the plans and a visual to show progress. Neat
thing about this last piece, not only can folks see where they’ve been and what
they’ve accomplished toward the goal, but it also becomes a touchstone for the
process they’ve been through as a group.

Parts or all of stages 2 & 3 are what I’ve mostly experienced in strategic
planning sessions at nonprofits. The ones that have been most successful,
however, were those consultants who intentionally walked the group through stage 1
and held the group accountable to that experience and the lessons the group
learned about themselves and each other….kind of got all the cards out on the
table and created accountability to each other.

Have seen this process used very effectively by Heifer International in their
strategic planning process for US programs, by multi-org collaborations where a
larger org in the group had been a dominant org, etc. and very impressed each time
by the outcomes.

Not sure where ICA is at these days but I have long felt that each exec dir, board
pres and consultant could benefit from the strategies and processes put forth.

My two cents.