How It's Done

Distinguishing the community

Distinguishing the community

Launch event

We begin with a two hour launch event with all key members of the community present. The purpose is to introduce the community to the approach, get their buy-in to participate and to get them engaged right away in distinguishing their community.

Individual Discussions

We meet 1-1 with each key person over 2 hours and work through the following:

1. How long have you worked with each other individually? This defines the community in terms of the time spent with each other as well as gets people thinking about how it’s been working with each person.

2. Consider your best experiences working with these people. Who are we at our best?

   • Write down real examples (what happened, with whom, when it happened)

     • Have you acknowledged this with them? If not, agree when this will happen.

   • These are summarised into concise points

3. Consider your worst experiences working with these people. Who are we at our worst?

   • Write down real examples (what happened, with whom, when it happened)

     • Have you addressed and resolved this with them?

     • If not - would you like help in resolving it?

     • Create a plan to resolve each unresolved issue

   • These are summarised into concise points

4. Over the last year, how much time is spent at our best vs. at our worst? This can to any degree rather than the extreme examples. 50/50? 80/20? Has it changed over time?

5. How long do you intend to remain in this community? What is the minimum and maximum number of months/years. This can be confidential.

6. Why would you want to work together with these people for (maximum) years? What inspires you about who you are and what you’re up to as a community? Separate the people from the business; imagine the same group of people being transported somewhere and you got to do anything you wanted - what would you do?

Group Confirmation

Following the completion of the individual discussions we will summarise and play back and discuss what we learned:

• The community consists of [#] people working together for [#] years

• At our best we are:

  • [trusting] - example, example

  • [innovative] - example. example

  • ..

• At our worst we are:

  • [dismissive] - example, example

  • [selfish] - example, example

  • ..

• Over the past year we spent [#]% of our time at our best.

  • Current performance is an expression of this

  • What performance is possible at 100%?

• Draft expression of who we are as a community

  • Based on shared inspiration

  • Share how long the community is willing to stay together

• Actions

  • Refine the expression of community - have this become your group’s north star

  • Be responsible for managing the health of the community

    • Celebrate expressions of us at our best

    • Work through times when we’re at our worst

Performance Coaching

The individual discussions followed up with weekly coaching sessions which challenge people to operate at their best and produce results as an expression of the community at their best.

Typical coaching points:

• Over the last week, how much time have you operated at your best vs. at your worst?

• Actions to resolve incomplete issues between people

• Actions to acknowledge people at their best

• What would be possible if you operated at your best over the next week? Write down the specific results possible.

We can also provide follow-up sessions for the whole community at regular intervals.

Community Mediation

Through this process any unresolved issues will be surfaced. We will facilitate the resolution of these issues and foster healthier relationships between everyone involved. This typically consists of 1-1 discussions followed by group mediation.