TOUGH SPOTS (9 video clips)
Handling Silence
This is tough! Handling the silence of a Case-in-Point session is often—especially for those not used to this work—one of the hardest things to do and yet one of the most helpful. The experiential work of Case-in- Point is not possible without an artful management of silence. Silence creates the space for the adaptive work of the group, because it reinforces the norm that speaking or holding attention will NOT be exclusively from the "front of the room." Silence allows participants to reflect. By slowing down the rhythm of the exchanges and modeling the reflective stance, Case-in-Point facilitators create space for groups to do the work and go deeper than usual. Notice how naturally Jill holds the space of silence to allow others to fill in. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
Handling the Heat – Questions of Safety
Here the group begins to close in on the risks inherent in this way of thinking and engaging. Adriano is regulating the heat. He moves from joining their laughter to holding people to the fire, to questioning assumptions: "because I’m here you feel safe?" When one participant turns to another, fanning herself and whispering, “It’s so hot in here,” Adriano could have used that snapshot to talk about the very heat he is helping to generate. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Holding the Group Accountable - Work Avoidance
We might subtitle this section “the relief of direction.” While the group displays overt work avoidance—for example, laughter, and jokes—Adriano holds them in a space of curiosity, asking that they look at themselves more closely and diagnostically. The final few seconds when Adriano questions their collective relief are succinct, spot-on, and hold the group to account. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Confronting the Group - Doing Nothing
Adriano keeps the temperature up here. He notes the gap between what the group says they find meaningful (free conversation) and their behavior (relief at someone offering protection/order/direction). He then connects this up with the ways the group “uses” an individual member. There is plenty here as well about the technical vs. adaptive work in the room, and the “systemic default” to technical interactions. As Adriano physically stands beside the participant, he both supports and confronts her—and the group. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Naming the Gap between Aspirations and Behaviors
When Adriano asks, "What assumptions are working in this room right now?” he effectively shifts the room from talking about what he is doing to what the group as a whole is doing. When the participants talk about their ability to work as a group yet direct comments only to the authority figure, Adriano notes this gap. Tentatively, he both surfaces a possibility and allows the participant to disagree. The notion that leadership is distributed gets traction, and in turn participants begin to go below the neck: heart pounding and fear replace earlier talk of “order” and “agenda” and progress is made. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Giving the Work Back? – Modeling the Way
Adriano asks the group to pause and look at the gap |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Retreating to the Familiar
Adriano helps the group see themselves and their relief when someone takes charge in familiar ways. At one hour in, the group again circles back to their known ways of interacting with one another. This moment helps participants notice what feels like getting somewhere, doing something—and what it would take for the system to renegotiate their ideas of progress. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Handling Casualties
Not everyone in a session is able to deal with the demands of this approach. As such, Case-in-Point educators must learn to deal with "casualties." As Case-in-Point aims at teaching leadership in action, it is essential to understand that no leadership work is accepted by one hundred percent of people. Therefore we honor its experimental nature by accepting that no matter how good our intention or masterful our facilitation, some people will not like what we do. See how Jill handles and talks about the person who wants to leave the room: implicitly giving permission and accepting his choice while using the moment to ask more relevant questions. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|
Shifting from YOU TO WE –Deploying Oneself
When Adriano confronts the group with an elevated voice, moving into the group space, look what happens next. One member makes way for another, lesser vocal member to speak. And that member holds the group to a new measure: one of deeper relational capacity. Notice how the deliberate way in which Adriano deploys his own authority impacts the interactions across the system. If you compare the depth, intensity, truth-telling quality, and the inevitability for progress of this conversation with what the group originally started with, you might have a measure of the power of this methodology. |
|
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
|
|