CLIPs: Communities of Learning, Inquiry and Practice Wellborn Evaluation Symposium March 25, 2010 Delia Clark and Matt Kolan Confluence Collaborative at Shelburne Farms

CLIPs: History An Ancient Idea: Guilds Indigenous Cultures

CLIPs: History Broad Contemporary Applications: Business Government

CLIPs: The Promise Innovation: Improving one’s individual practice Evolution of the field Tapping a sense of collective understanding, intelligence and creativity unavailable when working alone

CLIPs: The Promise Safe Environments for Risk: Willingness to accept and offer feedback Openness to multiple perspectives Willingness to make mistakes, explore new territory

CLIPs: The Promise Open Source: An antidote to our cultural norm of intellectual property A rapid way to disseminate promising ideas

CLIPs: The Shadow Side Group Think: Codified habits of mind

CLIPs: The Shadow Side Stagnation: Lack of authentic relationship leads to lack of tension, lack of willingness to challenge ideas

CLIPs: The Shadow Side Exclusion: Attract like minds In order to build common language and experience, exclude new perspectives

CLIPs: The Shadow Side Idea Appropriation: Great ideas get instrumentalized Partial adaptation of promising ideas

CLIPs: Promising Practices Common Purpose: Common set of problems and learning goals Specific shared practice Continually revisit the premise

CLIPs: Promising Practices Interdependence: Build trusting relationships through story- telling, shared experience, time liberation Sustain those relationships

CLIPs: Promising Practices Engage in the tension: Encourage each person to speak their truth, choosing their finest and kindest words Cultural commitment

CLIPs: Promising Practices Build Diversity: Invite fresh perspectives Intentionally expand the network Have agreements that welcome diverse points of view

CLIPs: Promising Practices Design for Emergence: Self- organization Collective responsibility, yet coherent governance Facilitate for diverse perspectives

CLIPs: Promising Practices Evolving and relevant content: Space for discoveries and new insights Aliveness: excitement, relevance, value Open source

CLIPs: Promising Practices Enough time: Ensure that participants are realistically able to devote time to the CLIP, during and between meetings Have occasional retreats

CLIPs: Promising Practices Meet Face-to- Face: Meet face-to- face Between meetings, use simple, accessible, flexible IT tools

CLIPs: Promising Practices Honor Life Cycles: Let CLIPs end gracefully when they’ve served their purpose Seek renewal when appropriate

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions How do we simultaneously continue to deepen relationships while maintaining a sense of inclusiveness?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions How do we simultaneously continue to deepen relationships while maintaining a sense of inclusiveness? How do we balance outcome-oriented governance with a desire for self-organization and emergence?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions How do we create conditions for shared ideas and open source while honoring the lineage of ideas and respectful exchange of information.

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions How do we create conditions for shared ideas and open source while honoring the lineage of ideas and respectful exchange of information. How does a CLIP tell when it has run through its natural life cycle and it’s time to end?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions How do we create conditions for shared ideas and open source while honoring the lineage of ideas and respectful exchange of information. How does a CLIP tell when it has run through its natural life cycle and it’s time to end? How does a CLIP continue to evolve to stay meaningfully focused on the questions that matter most?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions What are appropriate design principles for different levels of participation and access?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions What are appropriate design principles for different levels of participation and access? In what ways can we develop meaningful, accessible, and useful contact between meetings?

CLIPs: Ongoing Tensions and Questions What are appropriate design principles for different levels of participation and access? In what ways can we develop meaningful, accessible, and useful contact between meetings? How do we differentiate between a CLIP (collaborative, reflective, practice-oriented?) and a larger network (advocacy, system- oriented?)

CLIPs and YOU