USWD eConnect #1

For four days in May, 32 Leaders and one Leader’s husband (and several children) from across the USA and Canada gathered in Bloomingdale, IL, to learn new meeting facilitation techniques, and to talk about things that mattered to them. The central theme of our conversations was "Supporting internal health to enhance external growth in LLL." The workshop was guided by facilitators Christine Whitney Sanchez and Claudia Haack.

Learning Together

This workshop was a very intense learning experience! We started off with an informal dinner on the eve of Day 1, which gave us an opportunity to get acquainted with other participants, and to receive a bag of goodies – a binder of materials we’d be using for the workshop, and these books:

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond
The World Café by Juanita Brown, with David Isaacs and the World Café Community
Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide, 2nd Edition, by Harrison Owen
A blank journal

The next morning we started off with Appreciative Inquiry interviews. The purpose of these paired interviews was to share our stories about an experience each person had as a Leader when she felt particularly good about her work in La Leche League. Each person had 15 minutes to find out as much as she could about her partner’s experience. By listening carefully and asking just a few questions, we learned how our partners felt about themselves as Leaders, their LLL work, and about LLL as a whole. The interviews ended with each person identifying three wishes she had for supporting the internal health of LLL, while enhancing external growth of the organization.

Next we divided up into "learning circles." We kept the same learning circles for the duration of the workshop, and met regularly to talk about how and what we were learning, to ask for feedback, and to reflect together. My circle included Leaders from Michigan, Washington state, Illinois, and Oklahoma. We found it very helpful to stay with the same people for the duration of the workshop, and to share our different insights.

On Day 2, we spent the morning in World Café conversations. We created three table topics, one at each of three tables and a fourth table repeated one of the topics. The first topic I participated in was "How are we incongruent with what we say and do?" We focused on the fact that a Leader serves mothers best when she meets mothers where they are in their lives, rather than trying to convince them to breastfeed and mother the same way she did. A quote I have in my journal from that discussion is, "Meet yourself where you are, then you can meet mothers where they are."

Discussing huge issues

A topic at another table I joined was "What does it mean to value what each of us says?" My notes on this page of my journal include "go beyond acceptance to valuing;" "If I'm telling you something and trying not to offend you, I may not tell you all of what I think/feel;" "if you leave the difficult conversation, it'll go underground."

While most of us moved from table to table at regular intervals, and discussed all the topics, one person – the host - stayed at each table for the entire morning. That person acted as the scribe, taking complete notes. When new people came to her table for their turn at this topic, she told all of them what the previous group(s) had talked about. Sometimes the new group continued the discussion in the same vein, sometimes they took off on a completely different track.

Key points from these table topics were used to come up with "headlines" which were posted to one of the sticky walls in the room. Some of those headlines read:

"LLL Reports that 95% of One Year Olds are Breastfed. They credit change in legislation, support from AMA, AAP, insurance industry for the change."

"97% of LLL Leaders report, 'We feel valued!' Women in international breastfeeding organization value each other for their diverse perspective and experiences in helping mothers and babies."

"IBM and Motorola adopt the new organizational communication model developed by La Leche League International."

That afternoon, we started "Open Space Technology" and continued in Open Space sessions through the morning of Day 3. Some of the Open Space sessions included:

How do we give all Leaders a voice in LLL?
Let's talk on a walk outside.
How do we solve the "rift" among Leaders?
LAD issues and opportunities.
Creative alternate forms of communication.
How can we encourage participants to follow the Guidelines for Skillful Conversations when having important conversations?

Pleased with their work

We spent the afternoon of Day 3 and the morning of Day 4 doing project planning and sharing what we'd learned with/from each other. Some Leaders had very specific plans to incorporate some of these new meeting facilitation techniques with their LLL communities, and some had plans to use them with other groups in which they're involved. Some of us, like me, decided we already had enough projects going on right now, and chose to listen to the plans of others (though I do have ideas for using Appreciative Inquiry with a mother-to-mother support group I'm helping to form in my church).

Our binder of materials included a number of thought-provoking quotes. You’ll find them scattered throughout this and future editions of USWD eCONNECT.

Click for description for a non-League audience done by Vicki Parnell.

If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves. -Thomas Alva Edison

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead

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