Preparing for Learning Journeys

& Immersion Experiences

Marie McCormick, MBA, PhDLiz Alperin Solms, MPAwww.insytepartners.com@InsyteP 

“Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ ofperception in us.”

--Goethe

"The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.”

John LeCarré

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Why Learning Journeys and Immersion Experiences?The Story of the Lower Cat

Cognitive scientist Francisco Varela tells the story of an experiment with newborn kittens whose eyes were not yet open. They were put in pairs, one strapped to the back of the other, in a way where only the lower cat could move. Both cats had the same spatial experiences, but only the lower cat could do the legwork. The result was that the lower cat could see quite normally but the upper cat never developed full sight.

When it comes to innovation, learning and strategy, we suffer if we outsource our “sensing” to the experts, consultants and teachers. We become, in effect, the upper cat. The last thing any innovator would do is outsource perception.

Our Learning Journeys and Sensing Experiences give us collective first-hand sensory experiences that will enable us to truly perceive our system and its potential. They let us operate as lower cats.

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Learning JourneysVisits to places very different from the current context to get a fresh perspective on the trickiest questions facing

us.

For example,1. A branch of a university that felt beholden to its main campus (and dubbed it “Darth Vader”) visited a minor league baseball team and discovered it didn’t even talk about the St. Louis Cardinals but talked a lot about local family entertainment as its competition. They also visited the headquarters of an airplane engine manufacturer and heard “we wish more people would come to us asking for help.” This campus ended up going to the main campus and got help changing its name, getting permission to have dorms and changing its legal status.

2. A camp for children with serious illnesses was struggling with brand identity in their partnerships with the cancer association, children’s hospitals, Juvenile Diabetes Association, etc. They spent time at Sweetwater Brewery, where they discovered that brand is about fun and light-heartedness, and the way they promote the brand is by partnering to get people into their tasting room to broadcast their sense of fun. They also visited Coca-Cola where they learned about the “archetypes” of brand and discovered they wanted to project simplicity and they wanted to give “brand credit” to their partners, similar to the way Coca-Cola bottlers do. By relaxing their branding requirements and focusing their brand, they transformed their relationships with partners and maintained brand awareness.

Immersion ExperiencesOpportunities to get insight into a population or a “system” by immersing ourselves in “bright spots” and at the “edges” of the

system.

For example, 1. The GA English Learner Coalition immersed themselves in Clarkston, a community outside Atlanta with over 50 immigrant groups. They spent time at an elementary school meeting children and teachers, walked through the gardens of Refugee Family Services, engaged in conversation with elders from a North African immigrant community and interviewed parents at a parent leadership program. Their eyes were opened to see a very different picture than they had imagined. As a result of their experiences, they are organizing a series of immersion experiences for legislators and business leaders in this conservative state that aspires to be a global economic player.

2. A group looking to redesign a metro rail system shadowed people “on the edges” of the system—a person in a wheelchair, a person who does not speak English, a teenager and an elderly person.

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Purpose of Learning Journeys &Immersion Experiences

Learning Journeys and Immersion Experiences are ways to get a fresh perspective by immersing ourselves in promising places with eyes wide open, assumptions suspended, curiosity and all senses engaged.

Their purpose:• Ground ourselves• Have first-hand experiences as the “lower cat”• Explore core questions, especially our trickiest ones• Challenge deeply held assumptions• See our “system” as a whole—especially the “edges” of the system (extreme users, the

voiceless or people in special situations)—where we will get our most powerful clues

Learning Journeys are NOT benchmarking trips. The focus of those are metrics and comparison between organizations. Our purpose is to see our system anew. We are looking for inspiration to crack open old ways of seeing.

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Sample Agenda

1. Team Prep Meeting—small office (15 mins)• Remember our purpose—why this Learning Journey?• Name our most essential questions• Review our agenda for the day• Remember to hold a stance of openness—we are not evaluating or judging

2. Opening Comments—JFS Learning Journey Leader (5 mins)• Begin by thanking the host for welcoming us• Explain why we are here today.• Ask the host to speak personally first—tell us about you, how you got to this work, what it means to

you. 3. Host Welcome and Overview (15-30 mins)

• Personal story• Organizational overview• Address specific questions raised by us• Q&A and discussion

4. Tour/Walking Around (30-60 mins)• Time to take in the environment, notice the physical space, the energy, the way people interact• Connect with individuals spontaneously and informally

5. Panel Discussion (15-45 mins)6. Thanks and Closing Comments (5 mins)

• Share a few learnings• Thank you gift

7. Debrief (15-30 mins)—small office

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Planning For Your Learning Journey

As you think about this Learning Journey, please make notes about key elements of the visit to help our team plan the most worthwhile experience possible.Journey Destination: Questions to be explored:

Assumptions to be Tested:

What to see?

Whom to meet?

How much time needed?

Bring a camera for photos and plan to bring back some

“artifacts” for the Vision

Team.

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3. Process

Use prep time to remember our purpose and prepare.

One of our favorite mentors said to us “The most important part of the Sensing experience is the hour before.” The key is to arrive fully present—open to seeing all that’s there, open to testing assumptions, aware of clues about the future that are there for us to see if we can notice them.

Preparing

“Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.”

- Twyla Tharp

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3. ProcessObserve, observe, observe. Turn off your “judging” instinct and suspend your cynicism. Connect with your sense of appreciation and wonder to notice things you may have never seen before.

Trust your intuition and ask authentic questions. Pay attention to and trust your intuition in asking questions raised by your experiences. Ask simple and authentic questions and then see what happens.

Remember intent. It will be so seductive to get drawn into your host’s story and forget our questions and purpose. Keep bringing yourself back to your reason for being there. AND…Listen for the unasked, the unexpected and the synchronistic.

When speaking with people, use deep listening as a tool to hold the space of conversation. One of the most powerful interventions by a listener is deeply attentive silence. When your hosts have finished responding to one of your questions, don’t jump in automatically with the next question. Attend to what is emerging from the now.

Notice clues about the future for JFS. Clues about the future often show up as points of passion, interesting side experiments, points of tension, gaps, polarities (things that look like they are in opposition to one another but are actually interdependent) and sometimes, blind spots. Clues can be blinding flashes of the obvious or little sparks of possibility off in a corner.

Making the Most of a Learning Journey

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Sample Questions for Immersion Experiences

What personal experience or journey brought you here? What issues or challenges are you confronted with? Why do these challenges exist? What challenges exist in the larger system? What are the blockages? What are your most important sources of success and change? What would a better system look like for you? What initiative, if implemented would have the greatest impact for

you? And for the system as a whole? If you could change just a couple of elements what would you change? Who else do we need to talk to? Don’t forget to take

pictures and bring back some “artifacts” if your host permits.

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Learning Journey Listening

A Learning Journey or Immersion Experience requires engaging in three types of listening:

Listening to others: to what the people you meet are offering to youListening to yourself: to what you feel emerging from withinListening to the emerging whole: to what emerges from the collective and community settings that you have connected with.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

– Martin Buber

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Levels of Listening

disconfirming [new] dataLISTENING 2:

from outside

Factual listening noticing differences

seeing through another person‘s eyesemotional connectionLISTENING 3:

from withinEmpathic listening

reconfirming old opinions & judgments

Downloadinghabits of judgment

LISTENING 1: from habits

connecting to an emerging future whole; shift in identity and self

LISTENING 4: from Source

Generative listening(from the future wanting to emerge)

Open Will

Open Heart

Open Mind

I-in-me

I-in-it

I-in-you

I-in-now

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Reflections On Your Learning Journey

Use this sheet to keep track of your observations during and after your learning journey.

1. What is shifting within you? What touched you? What connected with you personally?

2. What surprised you or caught you by surprise?

3. What do people seem to care most about here—functionally, emotionally, socially?

4. What learnings or aha’s did you experience?

5. What are the implications for JFS?

6. What message(s) must be communicated to the whole Vision Team as a result of this experience?

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Notes

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Notes

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Debrief Outline

1. Get quick reactions that people want to share.

2. Allow 5-10 minutes for people to individually reflect on/journal on their observations, learnings and aha’s.

3. Debrief the experience:

• What 2-5 learnings or aha’s must be shared with the rest of the Vision Team?

4. Get someone to agree to send your summary to Ashley Fifield (ashleyf@jfssd.org) within 2 days. Twitter at #JFSGuiding.

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