Visioning in Baltimore

I’m always stunned by spring in Baltimore, and not just by all the trees that break into a riot of blooms at this time of year. For 23 years in April I’ve been going back to facilitate the annual Visioning Retreat for the Leadership, a program run by the Greater Baltimore Committee. Fifty five leaders from public, private, and community organizations participate in this one year program, one of the most evolved in the country for people who are still full time employed. It’s a cross gender, cross race, maximum diversity group. If you’ve ever watched The Wire (on HBO for five seasons) you’ll appreciate just how tough things are for many in this city. But there is another side, which is the incredible resourcefulness of local leadership as they struggle to deal with problems. It is these “buddings” that inspire me the very most. I can’t share the confidential stories, but I’d like to share the format for this retreat. It is a time-tested success model.

We begin the retreat with an introductory exercise on a big bird’s eye mural of Baltimore that I create the evening before. We ask “what would you support or change” and everyone introduces themselves with their offering. I record it all, and this is the result. It hangs up the rest of the retreat as everyone focuses on what is being called for from his or her as leaders.

What Would You Support or Change in Baltimore?

Following this introduction Jan Houbolt, the director (for the last 20 years), introduces Ralph Moore and Carol Melvin, two community leaders who work in the toughest parts of the city. They invariably catalyze the group with a perspective seasoned with many years of work. And the discussions that ensue are profound.

The group moves from the morning looking at all the problems, to assessing the state of Baltimore leadership by them selves. I create another large mural, recording high level generalizations toward the top of the chart and specific stories toward the bottom. We encourage people to appreciate that we don’t really touch each other very deeply until we get down to these core stories. Our next part is to have everyone move into small “personal best” sharing groups. Each person in a group of eight tells a ten minutes story of the best leadership experience they have ever had in their lives. The group then provides a couple of minutes of feedback about what this reflects about their leadership style.

People come out of this invariably astounded at the lives people have lived, and the talent in this leadership group.

The rest of the afternoon is open for information socializing. The turning point comes in the evening. We used to have an important guess come and talk about Baltimore, but have concluded that the Leadership group itself is really the main attraction. So we have instituted a “fireside chat.” We sit in a double circle around a drawing a campfire and simply tell stories. I usually being with one to set the pace, and literally anything goes. This year’s session was extraordinary. I’m not at liberty to report on the stories, but let’s just say that everyone was “telling it like it is” for them. We cried. We laughed. We couldn’t believe our lives.

On the morning of the second day we move into a visioning process that has never failed to be anything but profound. It’s a simple progression. Here’s the agenda chart. You can see it begins with open reflections for an hour, then individual guided imagery that Jan leads. After the individual reflections we go outside for a silent break, then back into our big meeting room for sharing in dyads. Each person tells his or her vision story for 5 minutes in the past tense, as though it has already been achieved. Then the listener gives feedback about what was compelling—what touched them. Then the listeners tells their vision.

This process repeats three times, and the stories get richer and more relevant. After lunch everyone returns to a small group they met the day before when they shared the best leadership experiences they had ever had so far in their life. Now they share their leadership visions with the same group. People are deeply moved by the breadth and seriousness of everyone’s involvements.

The retreat ends when people return to the big room, write up their visions, and then participate in a two hour traditional circle, where people speak when they feel moved to, and nobody interrupts. It’s a powerful experience, and for many a first.

While the groups were off in their small groups in the afternoon I was thumbing through a book of Rumi poems that Jan brought (he starts every session with a poem all year!). One jumped out that seems to be a speaking to our times and the purpose of the retreat.

How will you know the difficulties of being human
If you are always flying off into blue perfection?

Where will you plant your grief seeds?

We need round to scrape and hoe,
Not the sky of unspecified desire.

….Rumi

If you want to learn more about the Leadership, click here.