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‘Forced Out of Our Traditional Conference Box’

The website welcome page for the joint Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) 40th Annual Conference and Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) Super Conference, held Oct. 8–9 in Dearborn, promised attendees a different experience. And not just because the two organizations had joined forces to host “Strong Partners for a Strong Michigan” — bringing together more than 1,000 nonprofit leaders from grantmaker and grantseeker organizations. “You will be invited to be a builder,“ the welcome message read, “to help construct the 2013 road map for a stronger Michigan nonprofit sector.”

CMF President & CEO Robert S. Collier’s impetus to make this a highly participatory event came from reading Convene’s interview with Appreciative Inquiry (AI) pioneer David Cooperrider. Collier was already well-versed in AI and had trained his staff to use this leadership approach, so it seemed logical to use it as a framework for the conference.

The CMF/MNA joint 2012 annual conference began with six speakers presenting rapid-fire five-minute “Tool Talks,” each addressing a different theme beginning with the letter “I” — investment, impact, inclusion, information, involvement, and innovation — to help ignite attendees’ thinking (see “The I’s Have It,” at right). The goal was for

participants to build “a roadmap” around those six themes, Collier said. Approximately 700 people were broken into 12 groups; each group had two facilitators — one from MNA and one from CMF. “We had two discussion groups on each theme,” Collier said. “And first, they did two discussion sessions. Monday afternoon, right after the plenaries, their charge was to identify five strengths, three opportunities, and a vision around that ‘I’ word, whether it be innovation, impact, etc. And then during the same discussion time, the next day on Tuesday, they focused on and each came up with three action steps — so we now had 36 recommended action steps. And out of that group, we identified one for each that we talked about at the closing plenary.”

At the closing plenary, a graphic illustration of the six I’s was presented for the group (above), “and it said, based on what you all have done in these construction- zone discussions for the last two days, we’ve now given some action steps which we are committed to going forward with — and here are some examples,” Collier said. “So we were able to give them a good teaser.” After the conference, Collier and his team wrapped up the details with the facilitators to “put all of this up on our 2013 roadmap website” for the nonprofit sector for Michigan.

How was the AI approach received? “I have no qualms about saying it was a great strategy for us to introduce,” Collier said. “I had people say to me that they’ve been coming to our conference for years hearing good speakers, getting to network. But this was the first time they’d ever really been asked to participate in building something for the future. It was really cool to watch this. I mean,

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The I’s Have It The six TED-style speakers at the CMF/MNA 2012 joint conference and their themes, from the conference website and as described by CMF’s Robert Collier:

Investment Peter Berliner, managing director of Mission Investors Exchange, will describe investments made by foundations and other mission-based organizations to further their philanthropic goals. How can we best maximize the opportunities of the social economy?

Impact John Kania, managing director of FSG and co-author of Collective Impact and Channeling Change, will engage us on measurement. How do we know our nonprofit organizations and foundations are making a difference?

Inclusion Dr. Lynn Wooten, associate dean, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, will enlighten us on the growth promise of equity and inclusiveness. How do we ensure that all Michiganders are at the table?

Information Lucy Bernholz, futurist and author of Blueprint 2012: Navigating the New Social Economy, will energize us on the role of data and communications in this rapidly changing environment. How do we collectively use data and social media to best tell the story for our roadmap?

Involvement Breannah Alexander, commissioner, Michigan Community Services Commission, will ignite our thinking on engaging all Michiganders in service — especially our youth. At a time of great change, how do we make sure our youth are not sitting on the sidelines?

Innovation Toby Barlow, chief creative oficer, Team Detroit, moved from Brooklyn to Detroit because it is “a vast enormous canvas where anything imaginable can be accomplished.” How can we use this spirit of innovation to strengthen our partnerships to benefit all of Michigan?

clearly one of the key issues is making sure the facilitators are well-prepared, understand Appreciative Inquiry, and also understand their role.”

While he conceded that “not all facilitators are equal,” he

has found the feedback to be overwhelmingly positive. Several attendees made a similar comment: “You forced us out of our traditional conference box, Collier.”

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