Workshop slides from Center for Inquiry Leadership Conference. How can you create & sustain teams of skeptical people that are able to keep their diverse knowledge and expertise while avoiding group think and spinning into an asphyxiating death spiral?

1. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

2. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

3. How can you create & sustain teams of
skeptical people that are able to keep their
diverse knowledge & expertise while
avoiding group think & spinning into an
asphyxiating death spiral?
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

4. Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/2839923659/Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

5. Share:
Who you are & where you
are from?
What have you already found
useful about the conference?
What has to happen for the
CFI Leadership conference to
be of value to you?
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

6. Systems-Drive-Behavior
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

7. Team = a group of people who come
together, either through self-
selection or appointment, to achieve
a shared task or goal within a
defined time-frame.
Goal = What by When
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

8. ChoicesMichael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

9. Read each set of choices.
Write down the correct answer
from each choice set.Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

10. Cold or Blue
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

11. Up in the
Air or
Down on
the Ground
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

12. Metal or Cloth
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

13. Stars or Planets
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

14. Green or Red
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

15. Snow or White
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

16. Stripes or Plaid
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

17. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

18. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

19. o How did you make your choices?
o What criteria was used?
o What led you towards your choices? Why?
o Now that you have seen the goal; what is your
reaction to your choices?
o What causes that to happen?
o What about this activity can we use in our current
organizations and teams?
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

20. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

21. What behavior is your current
system creating?
 If I was to observe your team what would I see?
diversity - inclusion - acceptance - exclusion -
difference - same – all look the same – etc…
 Without knowing what goals (if any) are
established – what would I assume are the
goals of your team?
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

22. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

23. Evidence
 An organizational culture that is dedicated to telling the truth, even
when uncomfortable.
 Challenging excessive Pollyannaism, Positive Psychology, and
beliefs that may be founded upon false assumptions.
 Decisions are based upon evidence that can be replicated and
examined by peers within and outside of your field.
 You are prepared to change or abandon your processes and
thought IF better evidence is found that shows a better way to do
something.
 There are secondary sources (academic journals, peer reviewed
articles, existing Body of Knowledge, etc…) that are applicable and
provide evidence for what you are doing.
 Organizational, Team and individual exploration for risks and
drawbacks of what is recommended. Everything has side effects-
There is no “Silver Bullet Solution”
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

24. Unicorns
This term is from Elliott Jaques-Life & Behavior of Living Organisms;
 False assumptions and beliefs that we create through language I call these
“unicorns”. We can describe the unicorn, its color, weight, how long its horn
is etc…BUT when we look for evidence none exists.
 Organizations and management theory is rife with unicorns – and we hold
deeply onto these because much of the foundation for our management is
from the same land that the unicorns came from in the first place.
 People believe and may have evidence for “unicorns” and they may even
turn out to work very effectively.
 This challenge arises when we explore the difficulty of maintaining an
effective relationship between the sensible world (realism-the belief that
objects exist outside my self and thoughts) in which work and production
happen; And the world of language (Idealism-the belief that objects only exist
within my thoughts and interactions with them) in which creativity and ideas
can take on a life of their own.
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

25. Mix & Mingle
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

26. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

27. Closed Decisions
“determinate and
tractable and has a
clear-cut objective.”
Open Decisions
“loose multidimensional
nature of our objectives,
the subtleties of our
interactions with others,
the complexity of the
systems we handle.”
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

28. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

29. Decision Making in a Closed & Knowable Environment
 There is one & only one solution, and when it is identified we know we
have found it. Objectives are clear and constant.
 The implementation or action decision is not influenced by the responses
of others to one’s actions or decisions. Interactions with others, if they
are relevant at all, are limited and controllable or predicable.
 There is a complete list of possible actions, and we know that all the
potential actions we consider are in fact available to us. Even if we do not
know what will happen in the future, we know the range of possibilities
and can sensibly attach probabilities to them. The problem is closed.
 The number of alternative ways of completing the task, although running
into many millions, is nevertheless sufficiently small that all can, at least
in principle, be evaluated. Complexity, even if extensive, is bounded.
- Obliquity. Why our goals are best achieved indirectly; James Kay pp. 72
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

30. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

31. We cannot know + control + understand all the outcomes that may / will
happen. This is where judgment & using process (actions) while
examining results (outcomes) shows that when a group of smart people
work together, with the proper context & tools, great things can happen.
This is innovation & people working to their full capacity.
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

32. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

33. http://create-learning.com/programs/team-building/7-steps-to-high-performing-teamsMichael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

34. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

35. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

36. Written
Response
What do you find
most useful about
the ‘7 Steps to High
Performance Teams’
model?
How will you use
this model with your
team?
How will you
recognize progress /
regress?
Visual Response
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

37. ?
Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

38. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com

39. Michael Cardus - www.Create-Learning.com