From the Archives: Knowledge Translation and Knowledge Implementation

hand drawn notes about the Theory U model of change

This old draft from 2014 on knowledge translation rings a bell after a couple of weeks helping out a colleague working with a large international development consulting group grappling with the funder demands of scaling and “localization.” All which sound good in theory, and very messy and complicated in practice. I love Melanie’s focus on practice too. Right up my lane! 

Melanie Barwick, in a guest post on the CRFR blog, speaks sooth:

In a nutshell, this is what I now know.

Knowledge translation and implementation are complimentary but different constructs. Knowledge translation involves helping others to understand the evidence; implementation involves supporting them to make the changes needed to apply the evidence. Impact means capturing that people knew what to do with the knowledge you shared.

Practice change is not one-off. It’s a complex process that has many moving parts, some of which are likely universal but some that are unique to the particular context, and we are still learning what those are. There is alchemy in the practice change recipe. Every context calls for different amounts of the more universal ingredients, and a dash or two or other key elements that are necessary for that particular context. The practice change recipe for child and youth mental health, for health, or education will (I hypothesize) look different from one another.

Practice change calls for structure and an approach that is both adaptive and incremental. There is a method to the madness, and the application of good project management combined with the application of implementation teams, stages, drivers, and cycles will lead to more effective implementation, whatever the context.

The road to practice change – the implementation journey – has far better signage and lighting than it did 14 years ago. As implementation frameworks and theories become more refined, we are digging below the surface of categorical frameworks to identify the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of changing practice. It is no longer sufficient to direct implementers to identify barriers and facilitators, tailor interventions to populations, facilitate the change endeavor, and measure outcomes without specifying how they are to accomplish these things. We are beginning to identify key factors that are implicated in effective implementation of evidence in practice across different sectors, and we are focusing on how to measure these key elements in a standardized way so that a common story can be told across case studies and contexts. Lastly, there is a growing library of openly accessible resources to help practitioners map their own implementation journey. Researchers are endeavoring to produce both scientific outputs whilst also developing resources and tools that can be of real and practical use in the field. It has never been a more fascinating and illuminating time, and the journey continues.

via CRFR Blog: Getting the Word Out: A Journey in the Science and Practice of Bringing Evidence to Application and Impact.

From the Archives: From idealized to self-aware facilitation

Take into account that “last week” was in February 2014… And if I were writing this today, I would look deeply into creative destruction…

Picture of a paper bag luminaria glowing in the dark

Last week I posted some comments on the dark side of facilitation (on the KM4Dev community list) which have now started to make the rounds of my friend’s blogs. That is an indicator of a couple of things. I have great friends (YES) and maybe I should write something about this on my blog!

First, the list I shared on KM4Dev, as part of a larger conversation on defining facilitation in the international development context. 

“The real life and dark sides of a facilitator below. I’m sure there are a few people here who can add to this list. ;-)

Nancy

  • called in after everything is really messed up (tip: build relationships before client lists)
  • is not briefed on the deeper, real and often problemmatic issues (“Oh, this is a fantastic group.” Right! Tip: develop a good set of questions to help discern the issues)
  • is asked to facilitate, but not included in design of a (really bad) agenda (tip: refuse to do this unless the designer was brilliant!)
  • runs into very interesting gender issues that are often unspoken, unrecognized (tip: pay attention to and make gender issues discussable)
  • has to facilitate in really BAD rooms in large international organizations (chairs nailed to floor. tip: go outside.)
  • sometimes is given great trust w/ sponsors and groups and all have a transformative experience. LIVES for these moments (tip: debrief: why was this so good? How can we do this again?)
  • mistakes conflict as something that must be shut down (tip: conflict is often the flag that you hit a core issue. Use it generatively)
  • sometimes crazy arrogant and drives to their own agenda (tip: self awareness is a facilitators best friend)
  • does not build capacity in others (tip: co facilitate, mentor, give up control)
  • actually facipulates  (tip: be honest when your approach has any manipulative elements. Use that in your favor, transparently)
  • leaves after the meeting so does not live the consequences (good, bad or otherwise) (tip: what about simple follow up… how are things going? What did we learn?)
  • is not an integral part of the organization (tip: when hiring, hire at least SOME people with facilitation skills and talents. This should not always be an outside job! Let’s co-source, not outsource)
  • is serving the sponsor, not the group (tip: power is always in play. Discuss and use it generatively. It is OK to challenge your client, and essential as a consultant.)
  • works hard to facilitate listening but sometimes fails (tip: learn how you listen and always work hard. There are lots of ways to improve)
  • doesn’t speak the local language and mistakes happen through interpretation (tip: first choice, hire facilitator who speaks the language. Second choice, have a more spacious agenda to really deal with meaning making across multiple languages.
  • takes him/herself too seriously (tip: use fun. seriously!)
  • has no repertoire or gets stuck in one approach/or is flip flopping all over the place (find the balance) (tip: always be learning. Invite your facilitees into that learning process. Build capacity all around)”

Ewen added some great stuff about the positives and dark sides of co-facilitation — and he knows of what he speaks because I’ve co-facilitated with him! I encourage you to read the post.

What both our lists surface is that facilitation, like anything else, holds tensions, dualities and can be idealized or mythologized to the point of uselessness. Dave Snowden often maligns facilitation/facilitators (a.k.a. “fluffy bunnies” ) and my sense is he is talking about that rather self-involved and idealized side of facilitation. I’m not!

Ewen quoted these as ways to navigate co-facilitation. I think they often apply to solo facilitation:

What does it take to overcome that dark side?

Shared experience: Knowing each other definitely helps – the more of a common history you have built with one another, the better it is as you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and can co-design around this. Talk about it together and explore what you both enjoy doing (or not).

Co-creation and exploratory design: Grapple with the big picture together, toy around with objectives and translating them in work forms in an exploratory conversation, and when it comes to the details of who does what, fear not asking very practical, very silly-looking questions (“do I speak before or after you for the participant’s introduction?”, “After your summary comments do you want me to transition to the next session and announce coffee break?”).

Curiosity and openness: Embracing change and the unknown with an open mind is the key to joint facilitation, particularly if the latter involves dual improvisation (as it works on the principle of ‘yes AND’, not ‘yes BUT’…)

Generosity: Rather than play the card of keeping to one’s sessions and ideas, bring the other person along in your reflection, and show them you are interested in their ideas, in finding good ideas together. Who gets the credit doesn’t really matter, developing strong relationships by working hard on a joint initiative is a lot more important.

Joint reflection and an open heart, to discuss frankly what went well or not, much beyond blaming each other or uncritically praising each other or both (even though some sense of achievement can be really helpful in boosting the duo’s morale). In cases when you disagree on how the other ran a session, discuss it as soon as possible and reflect together. And if, at the end of the gig, there’s a consensus that the two facilitators can’t work each other, being conscious of that is also helpful for the future ;) though in most cases facilitators should be able to negotiate an amicable solution together, as that’s also our job isn’t it?

Focus on the task at hand. At the end of the day, keeping in mind that you have to do a fine job at getting the best out of the participants and achieving objectives set (or whatever better pursuit was identified along the way).

Humour and talking in self-derision… this really talks to the examples that Nancy mentioned above and it will help focus on what really matters, i.e. not you as facilitators.

Once again, fun, focus and feedback seems like a winning formula!

So what keeps us out of that morass? Well, I have some insights as I fall into the morass now and again, and it is always a great moment of learning. As my own practice evolves, here are some of the questions I’m using to be a more self-aware facilitator.

  • Where can we channel power and energy. I used to say “give it away” but that implies it has a steady or singular owner. It doesn’t.
  • Where can we strategically use “private conversations in public” (Hat tip Neil McCarthy) to expose our own questions, uncertainty or missteps as both transparency, moments of learning and to open up the possibility of different ways forward?
  • Where is it ok to use “performance art” in the process of facilitation and when does it mask things unproductively?
  • When acting as an expert, be a fox, not a hedgehog. (Alas, broken link…)

From Graphic Recording to Real Time Collage Capture

Today I had a TON of fun with Beehive Productions “Origin Stories” series where they brought in the two founders of Liberating Structures, Keith McCandless and Henri Lipanowicz. Beehiver Amy Lenzo called to ask if I would do a graphic recording of the two hour Zoom session.

So today I got out my paper and pens with glee. I was all set to draw when my eye caught a piece of interesting paper in the mess that is my desk. Just a few days ago Keith had shared some of the collage work he is doing and I thought, hey, I’ll collage! So without permission I went to work. I pulled and piled scraps in front of my computer, grabbed blue glitter glue and a tray of acrylic paints and went crazy.

Is it useful? Who knows, but it was SURE fun to do. It was total improvisation on my part. Here is the final piece.

A collage of words, pictures and colors that attempts to capture the two hour zoom conversation.

From the Archives: Does having 8 legs give the Spidergram more… legs?

Sometimes I wonder what I was intending with a blog draft. Maybe I should have just deleted? 🙂

I was looking for something amongst my Slideshare uploads and noticed that the Digital Habitats Community Orientation Spidergram Activity had..,. whaaat? 40,305 views? Mama mia! (Update: that was in 2014. Apparently we lost views. Today it says 39,706 views! LOL)

Digital Habitats: stewarding technology has been out since 2009, but it appears that people are still finding value from the artifacts. That is gratifying.

Psst, you can get a free PDF of the book here: https://technologyforcommunities.com/2016/12/happy-holidays-free-download-of-digital-habitats/ – Or you could buy a paper copy! LOL!

Screenshot of a slide deck on Slideshare

From the Archives: Planting Trees, Investing in Ecosystems

From the blog draft archives 2014. This one is posted as written in 2014…

You know that feeling when ideas keep converging? It has been happening to me lately. And the central theme that shows up for me is investment — investment in people, communities, ecosystems, organizations.  There is too much for one post, so let me start by planting a few seeds in your mental garden.

Looking up the twisted trunks of a 100 year old big leaf maple tree with blue sky behind. No leaves.

Last week on our beloved Seattle Farm Coop email list (yes, an urban farm coop!) there was a discussion on native plants.  Why they are valuable. How to grow them. Then this post came in from Emily (used with permission .  The emphasis in bold and clarifications in italics are mine  because things lose context out of context!):

Oh Elder…we appreciate you! (referring to elderberry)

Yes on Burnt Ridge (a Western Washington plant nursery)! Their site makes notes on fruiting plants for shade
For seeds couldn’t say enough beautiful things about Horizon Herbs. http://www.horizonherbs.com/. They have varieties of Elderberry seeds. I started some seeds this fall…red, blue and black…so we’ll see how they do. (sending them love now!) Will post on Market Days when plants start emerging from their rest. I can’t describe the feelings of starting trees from seed…but for me, they come from the most inside places. Unpredictably moving, significant, precious.
Emily

 In the whole message, she demonstrated appreciation and network connecting practices. Beautiful. But in that last sentence Emily caught, in her last sentence, what I SENSE about online communities and made me recall the early, deep and significant experiences I had online in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  It was in the leap of faith to invest in people. Simply go for it.

I had time to do that in the “early days.” There wasn’t a profusion of options for online connections. No Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Mobile phones were for calls and maybe texts. So stepping into an online discussion board was not a fleeting moment, but a chunk of time I used to explore and deepen experiences and connections with others. I invested.

Today, it takes quite a bit of gardening to nurture an online community with deep roots and spreading boughs. It seems we are in an era, though, of rhizomes, instead of simply trees. Networks that spread like the amazing mycorrhizal fungi, the symbiotic association of fungus and roots. From Wikipedia (perhaps a mycorrhizal network itself in some ways)

Mycorrhizal networks (also known as common mycorrhizal networks – CMN) are underground hyphal networks created by mycorrhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon, and nutrients. The formation of these networks is context dependent, and can be influenced by soil fertility, resource availability, host or myco-symbiont genotype, disturbance and seasonal variation.[1]

So where do we invest when we are aware that we are operating in an ecosystem? This is now a driving question. Is it more than planting a tree seed that takes time to germinate and mature?

Then Sue Braiden posted the following on Facebook, spawning a wonderful response thread that criss-crossed between technology, sociology and many other juicy things. It hearkened so much to me that I asked for permission to post it on my blog as a guest post which went up earlier today.

An ecomuseum is a participatory approach to culture by definition. And their motto at the Ecomuseum of Santa Cruz is ‘a people will only preserve what they love and they will only love what they know’. The values of participation are encoded into their DNA, they are the very reason why the institution exists and they affect everything about the experience, from the language it uses to the way people experience it – the soul of the organisation.

(Can’t refind on FB… grrr)

EDITED NOTE: The list of links below were intended to inform the subsequent parts of this blog series. Clearly I never got around to drafting those. Clearly the passing of one of my idols/teachers, Pete Seger, crept into my train of thought.