"You might begin at the beginning," I offered to Dick when we resumed our conversation about the Guilds' School. "You could start by looking for what the school has going for it, and wallow in that for a while."
Dick called a time-out on the strategic plan, then gathered his staff and board together for a carefully considered purpose: To tell stories of their best moments at the school, in order to discover what had been at the heart of their success as an organization.
Believing in one another. That's what they found at the heart of the school and their work, at the center of the many assets and strengths they uncovered. Of course, you might expect people at a school would believe in kids. But at the Guilds' School, that core is so vital, so pulsating, that it overflows into relationships with everyone who is involved with the school: staff, siblings, parents, board members. Everyone. (Even me, an outsider.)
The realization of this identity, this DNA of the school, flipped their state of mind from deficit and defeat to genuine, grounded power.
They also had gained more information: the stories provided evidence from their own experiences, proof that showed them what they were capable of and what mattered most to them. This made it possible to envision a successful future for the school that was both ambitious and well-founded.
Out of this strength grew many new ambitions, including a bold idea for an international conference that the school soon developed and still hosts today. The conference lifted "believing in one another" to include their colleagues from afar, indeed their entire profession. In the course of a single year, this small school, barely known in the state but deserving of much wider influence, became an international leader in advancing its field.
"We reached firmer ground," Dick told me later. "We had more clarity about who we are and what we bring to the table. That made all the difference in raising our sights. When all we could see were our failings, there was just no way to imagine we could succeed, much less make a big leap."
The school had also moved beyond strategic planning in another important way. People experienced with planning often acknowledge that the tricky part comes when it's time to actually execute the plan. Even when implementation gets off to a good start, resolve may falter from time to time.
When the Guilds' School chose to begin at the beginning and see what they had going for them, they built the energy for sustained action right into the process. More precisely, they found the energy and idealism they already had in them, waiting to be released.
Once again, we see the importance of the simultaneity principle--the idea that the seeds of change are embedded in the first question we ask. We've already seen other examples: the company that dealt with sexual harassment by inquiring into high-quality cross-gender working relationships, the organization that asked for stories of success even though it had just laid off staff, the two consultants in Jacksonville who got very different results by asking very different kinds of questions.
Whenever we set out to move a group or a cause forward, we have a choice: We can build confidence and energy by fortifying the health and vitality that's already there. Or we can show people their deficiencies and expect that will motivate them. You already know where I'd place my bet.
So what happens when we follow the example of the Guilds' School and build on the greatest strengths of the social sector: passion, conviction, taking a stand for what we believe in, idealism, contributory spirit?
Well, we find that we can organize in ways that express our beliefs and aspirations (rather than compromise our values to get the results we seek). We can create the world we want by starting where we live: in our organizations.
And rather than treat social sector organizations as "wannabe" businesses, surely a deficit approach if ever I've seen one, we can strengthen their distinctive strengths and watch them thrive.