Archive for 2009

Home Archive for 2009

Through many hours of conversation with Board members and ELT members I have been exploring the concept of leadership in a community dedicated to consensus. I know I have personally shied away from being a leader due to fear about this apparent conflict. And yet, I believe that building consensus and leadership not only can go hand in hand, they must. So I am working on exploring taking on the mantle of leadership in ELT. To that end, I've been looking at the issues of buy-in at the Board level, how to foster collaboration, communication, accountability, commitment et cet errrrrrahhhhhh . . .

Found a summary I thought was interesting to share:

Five Dysfunctions of a Team
There is an excellent book on leadership called "the Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni.
Although it is presently a hot topic in the business community, they could have filled in "SAR Team" in the applications and had it every bit as meaningful.
This is a summary, taken from the book, with additional info copied below:
The first dysfunction is an ABSENCE OF TRUST among team members. Essentially, this stems from their unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation of trust.
This failure to build trust is damaging because it sets the tone for the second dysfunction: FEAR OF CONFLICT. Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas. Instead they resort to veiled discussions and guarded moments.
A lack of healthy conflict is a problem because it ensures the third dysfunction of a team: LACK OF COMMITMENT. Without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement during meetings.
Because of this lack of real commitment and by-in, team members develop an AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY, the fourth dysfunction. Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.
Failure to hold one another accountable creates the environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. INATTENTION TO RESULTS occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career development, or recognition) or even the needs of their decisions above the collective goals of the team.

Dysfunction 1: Absence of trust. In the context of building a team, trust is the confidence among team members that their peers' intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. Members of teams with an absence of trust: conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another, hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback, fail to recognize and tap into one another's skills and experiences, etc. The most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first. This requires that a leader risk losing face in front of the team, so that subordinates will take the same risks themselves.
Dysfunction 2: Fear of conflict. All great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow. Teams that engage in productive conflict know that the only purpose is to produce the best possible solution in the shortest period of time. They discuss and resolve issues more quickly and completely and they emerge from heated debates with no residual feelings or collateral damage. Ironically, teams that avoid ideological conflict often to so in order to avoid hurting team members' feelings, and then end up encouraging dangerous tension. When team members do not openly debate and disagree about important ideas, they often turn to back-channel personal attacks, which are far nastier and more harmful than any heated argument over issues. Fear of conflict results in "artificial harmony".
Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment. The two greatest causes of the lack of commitment are the desire for consensus and the need for certainty. Great teams understand the danger of seeking consensus, and find ways to achieve buy-in even when complete agreement is impossible. They understand that reasonable human beings do not need to get their way in order to support a decision, but only need to know that their opinions have been heard and considered, which then creates a willingness to rally around whatever decision is ultimately made by the group. Great teams also realize it is better to make a decision boldly and to be wrong-- and then change direction with equal boldness-- than it is to waffle.
Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability. This results in low standards. The essence of this dysfunction is the unwillingness of team members to tolerate the interpersonal discomfort that accompanies calling a peer on his or her behavior and the more general tendency to avoid difficult conversations. Members of great teams improve their relationships by holding one another accountable, thus demonstrating that they respect each other and have high expectations for one another's performance.
Dysfunction 5: Inattention to results. Every good organization specifies what it plans to achieve in a given period, and these goals make up the majority of near-term, controllable results. For some members, merely being part of the team is enough to keep them satisfied. For them, the achievement specific results might be desirable but not necessarily worthy of great sacrifice or inconvenience. Others may focus on enhancing their own positions or career prospects at the expense of the team. A team that is not focused on results stagnates and fails to grow; it loses achievement-oriented members and is easily distracted.

Anyway, looking forward to Saturday.

Teresa

It is always good to feel part of ELT in a more active way. It is also often confounding. I am often confused by our legal and financial issues and compelled to explore more our social and political context and culture. No surprise there, that's how I often feel at PRAG.

Seeing as we just met, I've been thinking a lot about what it will be like to facilitate the next meeting in an unfamiliar place with an increasingly familiar, but still new group of people to me. There are some logistical points that I want to get clear on, but more importantly I want to hold space that is not only efficient and productive, but feels safe, trusting and honest. Many on the board have been working more intimately together over a longer period of time and then there are a few of us still discovering where our strengths are most needed in the group dynamic, including me. These are things for me to consider as one of the new members of the board. (Has it already been almost a year?)

I heard several folks express empathy and recognition with those at Sunset who are struggling on many levels to find balance. Can we on the board foster more safety, trust and honesty; even though all may waver, than we sometimes feel capable of in our communities? As conflicts ebb and flow and as personal psychologies are stimulated or triggered, as is normal, can we try to override some of our impulses and reach for and attain our aspirations in our human interactions? Well, Hell Yes! I think we already do this, are capable of this. One of the things that I've been thinking about though is, can we ask ourselves if some more refined and committed practice around difficult issues can make us more capable as we return to our communities, tying us all together? Again, Hell Yes! There's always room for it.

I know I often walk into these kinds of meetings with an aspiration to be on my best, at my best, and speak with honest inquiry and honest interest. For the most part, I do pretty good. Sometimes I see conflict where there is none, due to my own vulnerabilities and cultural background. Sometimes I experience conflict that no one else senses or witnesses; and sometimes, or rather often, I am oblivious to the dynamics of issues or personalities colliding. All of these things effect how skillfully we can handle any given moment.

So where does this bring me. I want to get to know all of you better and do really hard work together with as much integrity as possible in the short amount of time that we have together. I've been coming up with some ideas that I think might be helpful to set the stage for holding space at our next meeting based on some of my musings; basically setting up a brief and useful tool for starting our meeting with that fosters our best. I'm trying to get it moving while our most recent meeting is still fresh. In any case, I will flesh some of them out via this forum and probably with a couple of you more directly, but I would like any personal suggestions, stories or experiences that you would like to share that you think might be helpful.

By the way I just finished a fabulous book by a very wonderful, disarming author called A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward and Undivided Life - Welcoming the Soul and Weaving Community in a Wounded World by Parker J. Palmer. It's heavily Quaker influenced and a wonderful example of one way we can create spaces of deep trust and listening.

Best,

Bianca @ PRAG

Clarence Williams, from the Gullah Geechee people living for hundreds of years in (on?) the Charleston islands, sent ELT a request for help. He wanted us to review their bylaws, as their land is being threatened by development. Here's the text of the document he sent:

FORTY ACRES AND A MULE:
Sea Island Bioregional Land Trust

Introduction

“The Islands of Charleston south, the abandoned rice fields along the river for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering St. Johns River, Florida are reserved and set apart for the settlement of Negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.

At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine and Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations, but on the islands, and the settlements hereto to be establish, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves”

Excerpts from Sherman’s Special Field Order 15

The Mission of the Forty Acres and a Mule: Sea Island Bioregional Land Trust, is to promote Environmental Justice, Bioregionalism, Sustainable Development, Land Trust Creation, Eco Tourism, Permaculture, and Self Determination, Self Reliance, and Self Sufficiency through Grassroots Participatory Democracy on Local and Regional levels, in Cities and Rural Communities located within in the Bioregion.

This Bioregion is Ecologically known as the “Sea Islands,” historically known as the “Promise Land” of “Forty Acres and a Mule,” and culturally known as the “Home Land” of the “Gullah Geechee,” People. To the Native Americans of the Region it was once known as Guale (pronounced Wali). This land was granted as a Reserve or Reservation to African Americans, to support Self Determination, Self Reliance and Self Sufficiency for African Americans at the end of Slavery, and the beginning of the Reconstruction Era, so that African Americans would be truly Free, with Land Autonomy. The United States reneged on the promise, and sold African Americans out, to bring the Southern Confederacy back into the Union, after the war ended, and the assassination of President Lincoln. “Reconstruction” for “Freemen” Ex- slaves and Poor Whites, was overturned and White, Rich, Slave-owners were given “Restoration” of land, and re-admittance into the Union. This injustice resulted in a hundred years of Legal Discrimination (Black Laws), and Legal Segregation, until the 1960s.

Sherman’s Special Field Order 15 was backed by Congressional Acts that granted this Reserve also known as “Sherman’s Reservation” beginnings at Charleston S.C., along the whole coast of Georgia, to the St, Johns River Florida, thirty miles inland from the sea, and all the islands along this coast. This land was “ reserved and set apart for the settlement of negroes,” and there they would have “sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves” on this Promise Land. The borders of this Bioregional Land Trust is not only historical, it is ecological, beginning at the Santee River near Charleston South Carolina, and ending at the St. Johns River near Jacksonville Florida, along with all the Sea Islands along the coast of the Mainland.

The phrase “Forty Acres and a Mule” comes from the fact that this land was to be divided up into forty acres plots for families, and we were to be given a mule to work it, so that we could be self-reliant, and achieve self-sufficiency. The idea of the phrase “Forty Acres and a Mule, “ is the greatest symbol of the idea of Self Determination, Self Reliance, and Self Sufficiency in the consciousness of African Americans, passed down for generations. The “Promise Land” of “Forty Acres and a Mule” is our Bio Regional “Terrain of Consciousness,” and our “Politics of Place.”

Major Objectives

Promote Sustainable Development through the use of Permaculture
and Bioregional Management.
Develop a Bioregional Map.
Promote Land Reclamation and maintenance through Land Trust acquisition and protection. We also will work for Land Reclamation and the Reunification of the Gullah Geechee and the Estelusti (Black) Seminoles who are their Descendents that were exiled into Florida, and later removed from their land on the “Trail of Tears.”
· Promote and protect Gullah Geechee Culture, History, and Language through Classes, Speaking Engagements, the Arts, and Media.
· Promote the History and Geo-Politics of Forty Acres and a Mule through Classes, Speaking Engagements, and Media.
· Promote Environmental Justice by Community Organizing against the “Over Development” of “Plantation Resort” Development that is raising taxes, causing foreclosure of land and houses owned by the Indigenous Gullah Geechee People, and taking traditional lands used for Gullah Basket Weaving and Trade.
· Promote Organic Gardening, Farming, and local Farmer Markets, along with a Buy Local Campaign.
· Wage a Brown Paper campaign against Paper Plants that are polluting an enormous amount of land, air, and water throughout the region, and educate regarding alternative appropriate technology.
· Promote ecologically and economically sound Cooperative Development base on Spanish Mondragon and African Ujamaa Models.
· Promote Eco Tourism through Bioregional Bed and Breakfast, as and alternative to Plantation Resort Development

Conclusion

We understand the huge task before us, the needs of the people and land. The Gullah Geechee People have maintained sustainable practices of the use of natural resources as part of their African Tradition. Gullah Geechee Culture is the greatest carryover of African Culture in the United States. This rich culture and land is being endangered by “Plantation Resort Development,” and the Pollution of Paper Mills. These Social Ecological problems must be challenged, and eliminated, for the preservation of the People, Land, Air, and Water. A Bioregional approach to the problems of the region is direly needed to address them.

This Sea Island Coastal Region extending from the Southern Region of South Carolina, to the Northern Region of Florida, has a unique Culture and Ecology that must not be loss to Economic Plunder of Plantation Resorts and Ecological Pollution of Paper Plants. A Bioregional approach to Sustainable Development is its only hope of Preservation of the Land and Culture. To combat Plantation Resort Over Development and Pollution from Paper Plants, we will focus our attention on promoting humanly scaled Eco Tourism, as a form of Horizontal Development instead of Vertical Development that impact so much land.

Our vision is of a Bioregional Confederation of Eco Cities and Rural Villages working Cooperatively to achieve Permanent Culture, of Self Reliance, Self Determination, and Self Sufficiency. The fulfillment of the promise of Forty Acres and a Mule (as mush as possible) is our mission in life. Anyone interested in helping us to achieve our mission may contact:

Suleiman El Mehdi at 404- 914-5508 and 404 756-1055 or at:

fortyacresandamulebioregional@yahoo.com

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