cascading conversations: building a state of trust

Minnesota Rising | Cascading Conversations Blueprint

OUR MINNESOTA: BUILDING A STATE OF TRUST

CASCADING CONVERSATIONS BLUEPRINT

All of us at Minnesota Rising are excited to launch ―Our Minnesota: Building a State of Trust.‖ Over the next two years, ―Our Minnesota‖ will connect people through a cascading conversations tour, which will collect the ideas of thousands of Minnesotans from across the state through one-on-one conversations. These conversations will spark fun, engaging opportunities for people to discuss their values and visions for Minnesota’s future and to share how they could make that future a reality. Over two years, the number of conversations and places in which those conversations occur will grow exponentially. Each person invited to participate will be asked to continue the conversation with another person, growing an ever-expanding network of people who will ultimately build ―Our Minnesota‖ together. Our objective is to strengthen the network and capacity of emerging leaders in Minnesota and to work toward a shared vision for the future of our state. While we cannot develop a strategic plan for our generation, we can be strategic about our intentions for the Minnesota we will create together. The cascading conversations tour is an attempt to discover what we have in common, to learn about what’s working in Minnesota that we can build on, and to uncover how we can work individually and collectively to achieve the future we desire. We invite anyone and everyone who thinks this matters to join us in these conversations!

INCLUDED IN THIS BLUEPRINT

A QUICK BREAKDOWN: HOW TO PARTICIPATE……………………………….……....………...…Page 2

WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE’RE DOING………...……………………………………….………….Page 3 CONVERSATION GUIDE.…....……………………………………………………….………………Page 4

FEEDBACK FORM.…………………………………………………………………...……….………Page 5


A QUICK BREAKDOWN: HOW TO PARTICIPATE

STEP 1: Invite someone you want to know better to join you for a conversation about our generation and Minnesota’s future.

STEP 2: Use this conversation guide to frame your discussion. Spend time talking through each question. Write down your conversation partner’s ideas and stories using the feedback form provided. At the end of your conversation, invite that person to host this same conversation with someone else (this is how conversations will cascade)!

STEP 3: Following your conversation, share what you learned. You can do this online through our website, via text messaging, or through good old snail mail.

STEP 4: Follow Minnesota Rising to see how your conversations have contributed to the themes, values, and hopes emerging from young Minnesotans across the state.

DESIGN + LOGISTICS

Setting Up Your Conversations We encourage you to think about inviting people you want to know better. You can invite your friends, but consider reaching out to somebody you don’t know very well. This is a great opportunity to pick the brain of someone you’ve been meaning to reach out to for a while!

During Your Conversations

● Use the conversation questions provided for script guidelines and note-taking. ● Listen for the deep values and creative ideas embedded in the stories and capture those through

quotes and summaries of what you hear. ● Cultivate curiosity about the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of the person talking. ● Let the other person tell his/her story. ● If the person talking doesn’t want to answer a question, that’s okay! ● Keep an open mind. Let the person speaking interpret whether the questions apply to work, school, or

personal situations. ● Here are some possible questions to use and probe further:

Tell me more? What was your contribution? Why was that important to you? How has (an experience) changed you?

Following Your Conversations: All of us can learn from this project if everyone who participates shares their insights after each conversation. This will allow us to identify emerging themes, common values, and shared hopes across the state. It will also allow us to map where and how often the conversations are happening. Sharing your insights after your conversation is easy…just choose the most convenient method for you and take 10 minutes to submit the highlights from your conversation using the feedback form!

Online Text Mail

Visit www.minnesotarising.org and click on ―Contribute to Our Minnesota.‖ Enter your feedback in the online form!

Scan or fax your completed feedback form to [email protected].

Text the responses to the Feedback form to 612.454.0924.

Start text stream with #MRCC, share names and contact information, then feedback form responses by number!

Simply complete the feedback form below and mail your feedback to:

Minnesota Rising P.O. Box 403 Rochester, MN 55903

http://www.minnesotarising.org/





WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE’RE DOING ABOUT MINNESOTA RISING Founded in 2009, Minnesota Rising is a network of emerging leaders in Minnesota. Minnesota Rising works to build relationships, trust, and a shared vision for Minnesota, and engages emerging leaders and young professional groups to work toward that call both now and in the future. Our efforts include a blog and online media presence, an annual Un/Conference focused on building collective capacity for impacting Minnesota’s future, and active partnerships with emerging leaders and their organizations across the state. Using geography and generation as uniting values, Minnesota Rising is creating the conditions for emerging leaders to work together in a new way and to become familiar with each other’s stories so that we can work together to build a stronger Minnesota. Learn more about us at www.minnesotarising.org

Inquiries can be directed to Diane Tran at

[email protected]

or 612.454.0924 BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Minnesota Rising reaches out to diverse groups of young professionals, undergraduates, high-school students, community and youth centers, and more. Cascading conversations will allow us to connect and involve even more of Minnesota’s emerging leaders from across the state. These conversations will kick off with a collaborative design session at the Minnesota Rising 2011 Un/Conference. The stories, hopes, and dreams shared through these conversations will be collected through the Feedback Forms, and our design team will study the feedback throughout the two-year process. We will share back publicly, with participants and interested organizations, the emergent themes, a dynamic map of where the conversations are taking place, and how what we learn will inform the future work of Minnesota Rising. We have designed this process so it can continue to evolve as we learn, so we anticipate the guide and conversations questions may be revised over time. The Tour will kick off in November 2011 and conclude in Fall 2013. This process will only benefit our state if we are willing to host conversations, and are then willing to share what we learn from them. Thank you to everyone who believes that this matters enough to participate!






mailto:[email protected]





CONVERSATION GUIDE

Introduction

Thanks for joining me today, and for agreeing to take part in ―Our Minnesota!‖ Before we get started, let me take a minute to share why I want to have this conversation with you. [Share your reasons for participating in ―Our Minnesota,‖ and why you want to build a better future for Minnesota]. Between November 2011 and Fall 2013, young Minnesotans are talking to other young Minnesotans—high-schoolers, college students, emerging leaders, young professionals, and millennials. Do you have any questions before we start? Conversation Questions

1. Tell me about a time in your life when you were involved with something that was meaningful to you (either at work, in school or elsewhere).

What or who contributed to your experience?

Which of your core values were expressed and made this meaningful?

2. Imagine it is some time in the future and people you care about, love and respect (maybe your grandchildren) are being told a story about you.

What are you most proud of that you would like them to hear about?

3. Think about a time when you went through a process of building trust (i.e. at home, in school, place of work or community).

What specifically did you and others involved do to build an environment of trust?

How did this strengthen your relationships?

How did you know an environment of trust was present?

4. In order to foster a stronger environment of trust within our organizations and communities, what next steps could we be taking today?

5. Describe a time when you played a role in an effort bigger than yourself (i.e. the big picture of your organization, community, etc.).

What did you learn about how to create shared vision with a team, group of peers, or whole organization/community?

What do you see today (not future possibilities, but beginning to happen right now) that gives you hope for the future of Minnesota?

6. The future of Minnesota is in our hands.

What would be the most meaningful thing we could do as a generation for Minnesota?

Describe how you envision our state would look different 30 years from now.

How do you see yourself contributing?

7. What was this conversation like for you?

What did you like?

Were there any challenges, and if so, what were they? Closing

Thank you for contributing your ideas and stories to this project. In order to continue the cascade, we’re asking everyone invited to participate if they’d be willing to help keep this alive by inviting someone else to have this same conversation. A blueprint that outlines each step of the process is available online. Would you be willing to continue the process by hosting this same conversation with one other person and then sharing your feedback?


FEEDBACK FORM

Capture the following information from your conversation. Date of conversation: [_______________________________]

Location of conversation (include city and zip code): [_______________________________] Your name: [_______________________________]

Your email address: [_____________________________]

Your phone number: [____________________________________]

Your age range:

18 or younger 19 – 24 25 – 30 31 – 36 37 – 42 43 or older

Conversation partner’s name: [_______________________________]

Conversation partner’s email address: [_____________________________]

Your conversation partner’s phone number: [_____________________________]

Conversation partner’s age range:

18 or younger 19 – 24 25 – 30 31 – 36 37 – 42 43 or older

Capture answers to these questions as you listen during your conversation.

1. What deep values did you hear about during your conversation?

2. What ideas were shared that could contribute to leaving a generational legacy in Minnesota?

3. What was the boldest, most inspiring vision for Minnesota’s future you heard during your conversation?

4. Is there anything else you learned through this conversation that you would like to share?

cascading conversations: building a state of trust

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