CBODN: Communiqué Current

President’s Letter

Dear CBODN Members:

This month’s CBODN program is on the use of stories, so I’d like to share a brief story with you:

It was a hot, muggy afternoon, growing ever hotter, as the group began their third hour of team building on the ROPES course. The facilitator directed the team to stand on a platform built like a large, wide teeter-totter across a low fulcrum and gave the instruction: “Now, all you have to do is make it balance!”

One enthusiastic team member shouted as the group climbed onto the wobbling wooden deck, “how hard can that be?” The platform was resting with its right side on the ground, so a number of them naturally moved to the left side, which was slightly raised in the air. The left side of the platform abruptly slammed to the ground as the right side lifted into the air.

“Right,” someone said. “Let’s all move back a bit to the right.” The left side of the platform jutted upward with a swoosh, as its right side slammed to the ground with a loud thud.

“Okay, now just a teensy-tiny bit back to the left.” Swoosh-thud.

And so it went. Right and left, seesawing back and forth as members of the team made countless futile attempts to right the platform in perfect, horizontal, mid-air balance.

“Maybe if we just lean, instead of taking full steps back and forth . . .”
“Let’s all try surfing as it sways.”
“There are too many people trying too many things at once!”
“Let’s just designate Jason and Erica to move. Everyone else stay PERFECTLY still!”
“Stop moving!”
“Let’s just have Joe move and everyone else stand still.”
“I’ll hop off and tell you all how you’re doing. You’re close -- no. No. Hold it, hold it, no. Wait, hold it, no. Wait, no. Okay, hold – no. You’re not doing it.”
“This can’t actually be done, can it? Really, it can?”
“Do other groups take as long as we’re taking to figure this out?”

Does this sound like a team you’ve worked with in one of your interventions? How would you feel if I told you that I’ve just described one of the first attempts at collaboration by your new CBODN Leadership Team during our teambuilding session at Hemlock Overlook?

It’s true; we didn’t figure it all out right away. After initially forming, we had to sort through a fair degree of storming and norming in this exercise before we starting performing. As OD professionals, shouldn’t we know better? Of course not!

s your new President for the 2008-09 year, I’m here to tell you that the CBODN Leadership Team is committed to practice OD on ourselves. We’ve just completed our annual membership survey and we will be reviewing your feedback as we begin our strategic planning for the new fiscal year. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we commit to receiving your critiques with open minds, and to leveraging the strengths you say are working well for you. Your priorities and suggestions will drive our efforts as we determine where we will focus our energy and resources to serve you best.

We won’t get everything absolutely perfect every time, but we’ll work hard and have lots of fun bringing you the best regional OD network we can this year. And as we give our best to CBODN, we hope to leave CBODN even stronger than we found it – which is pretty darn good thanks to the Leadership Teams that have preceded us!

We are strengthened by a few returning members from last year, and by many new leaders who bring fresh eyes and new energy to the team. As we head into a new year of programs and services, for you our members, I am absolutely confident that you’ll find CBODN rich and rewarding.

I am confident because I was there when that teeter-tottering platform eased into perfect, symmetrical balance – and stayed there – and what began as a cautious whisper grew into a chorus of Leadership Team cheers: “We’re doing it! We’re doing it!”

So let’s do it! And, perhaps this small example of “use of story” will inspire you to attend this month’s program on stories . . .

Sincerely,
Michelle Poché
CBODN President 2008/09