Posted on by Tenneson Woolf

Powerful Questions

This weekend I was in a design call for an upcoming Leadership Symposium for a health care system. One of my colleagues, Toke Moeller offered the questions below as a a general framing for an agenda. I have learned there is an art to asking powerful questions and that the questions are a tool to focus a group in its learning and exploring. Eric Vogt, Juanita Brown, and David Isaacs have an excellent article on this topic. What I like about these questions in particular is they come from core assumptions, core process assumptions, about how a system, in this case a health care system, can be in transformative thinking. I’ve noted some of those core assumptions that I see below the questions.

How will we together create our short and long term solutions to care for our future health care system in Ontario?

What am I will to let go of and what am I inspired to contribute to be part of co leading a healthy health care system in Ontario?

What is a wise overall approach and practices that we all are willing to work within, practice and support for us to find the next level of our health care system in Ontario?

Together create — intractable problems and outrageous dreams require social technologies that support working together

Short and long term solutions — the work that we do must be grounded in solutions to real needs and purposes

Care for a system — transformation requires tending not just to the demands of the moment, but to the capacity of a system to support itself, including the relationships

Willing to let go — letting go is a choice; innovation requries some choosing to let go

Inspired to contribute — wisdom comes from many realms; innovative solutions are born from offerings and contributions

Co-leading — the best that we know on solutions that last is that they come from shared ownership and creation

Practice and support — innovative solutions don’t come tested; they come with challenges that require a commitment to practice, a willingness to make mistakes, and an agreement to support each other in levels of unknowing

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

Question Cards is an accompanying tool to Gifts of Circle. Each card (34) offers a quote from the corresponding chapter in the book, followed by sample questions to grow your Circle hosting skills and to create connection, courage, and compassionate action among groups you host in Circle.

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This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in In My Nature. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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Most Mornings is a collection of 37 poems. I loved writing them. From the introduction: "This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. The poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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