Building the mental rolodex with cascading conversations!

I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my experience participating in Minnesota Rising’s Cascading Conversations Tour, so far.  The Cascading Conversations Tour was designed to help build trust between two people through one-on-one conversations. I have been fortunate enough to have Cascading Conversations with all kinds of people – friends, colleagues, complete strangers, acquaintances, etc., and needless to say: no two conversations are the same. 

Using the Minnesota Rising Blueprint as my guide, each conversation starts out the same, but that is where the similarities end. To be perfectly honest, I cannot recall off hand exactly how many people I have hosted in a Cascading Conversation, but I can tell you that each conversation has provided me an opportunity to learn, grow, and understand other people’s perspectives. Every single conversation has had an impact in my daily life.

Sharing stories is one of the most effective ways to build trust. Even when I have a Cascading Conversation with people that I already know, I am always surprised by their answers and I find that I always learn something new about the person. Throughout the conversation, people share stories from their past, their hopes for the future and advice to take away. I store these take-a-ways in my mental rolodex, and apply these words to live by as I need to. The part that is truly unique about these conversations is how deep they go and how invested you become with what the Tour is creating.

If you have not had a chance to take part in the Cascading Conversation Tour, I want to personally invite you to join in the Conversation! Email me at heidismith2002[at]gmail.com.

Reportback | Millennial Leadership: "Different by Design" World Cafe

Minnesota Rising’s Cascading Conversation Tour: "Our Minnesota," has revealed many different and interesting ideas about “What’s next for Our Minnesota.” In efforts to dig a little deeper into some of the emerging values and visions, Minnesota Rising hosted a World Café, entitled Different by Design, to further explore Millennial leadership and potentially classify some of the characteristics that define Millennials. Since our purpose in hosting the World Café was to discuss how Millennials are different by design, we wanted to ensure that the dialogues were varied and that the emergent themes were captured in the same way.

We were lucky enough to have four table hosts guide our World Café sessions. Each hosted three breakout session rounds throughout the evening. Participants were invited to sit at any one of the four hosted tables, which allowed for both the participants and hosts to see and hear fresh perspectives as they rotated to new tables with each discussion round. To begin conversation with a shared focus on Millennial leadership, all four tables kicked off with the question, “What’s at the intersection of Minnesota & the world’s deepest needs and the rising generation’s greatest desires & potential?” At the close of every discussion round, each group collectively generated a new question for the next group. When the following group of participants sat down, they began to tackle the question the previous group left for them with the guidance of the table host. Because of the nifty mix-up process that is an intentional part of the World Café method, no discussion is the same and each table has a unique dialogue. This allowed us to capture a wide variety of perspectives, experiences, and insights from the evening's conversations.

A great deal Millennial distinctiveness shone through in the discussions, including an overwhelming sense of adaptability and the ability to make the most of current situations whether employed on a full-time basis or not.  The eclectic values of the group were also notable: some attendees talked about the importance of community, education, and other issues, while other participants focused on the need for analysis and measurement. The evening concluded with the large group reconvening after the breakout sessions to reflect on the event in total. People overwhelmingly shared a collective appreciation for the higher-level conversation and expressed excitement to see what comes next!

For more information you can find some of the questions that surfaced during our World Café below, as well as the evening’s entire list of notes below.

What can we do to create effective communities to take action today?Who will come with us?

• Do we have a culture of opportunity?

• How to capture their curiosity?

• What would an effective community look like?

What can be done to create an ethical, bottom-up approach to encourage *people as we define the path to the future*?What are the new ground rules?

• Technology connects us to others and information isolates networks are these unintended consequences?

• How do we move to action? How do we connect with new folks at the same time?

• How do we BREAK OUT OF COMFORT ZONES!

• Out from behind technologies

• Outside of our own interest groups

• Beyond just my social network

How do we move people past the intersection? (together)How do we be patient? How do we practice waiting?

• Where do people want to be?

• Collaborate with people who complement you and challenge you

• Are you willing to create tension to make change?

• What cost are you willing to pay for change?

• Millennials don’t necessarily create change, but they want it therefore they ask why? When the answer is “It’s always been this way” – they ask why.

• How can we refine how we connect to each other?

If we are different by design, how can we refine how we can connect today as Millennials?  

• All social networks are Internet based: are we becoming more isolated? Extreme left and extreme    right?

• What does it mean to be diverse? Sometimes it can be bad if only want commonalities

• More people in cities now than in rural areas: brain drain? Evolution of where our community is going?

• What matters to our kids’ and grandkids’ futures?

How do we measure our systems moving forward? What are our evaluative resources?What is success? What are our goals?

• Change is a huge buzzword. Not everything has to be changed. Pick wisely and prioritize. Not changing something is also an option.

Minnesotans on the rise: Sarah Burt of Saucy Burt's!

Sarah Burt is the saucy owner of Saucy Burt’s, a fun and fabulous food cart on the corner of 8^th and Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis! Even though Sarah is a relative newcomer to the Minneapolis food scene, she is clearly here to stay. Though Minneapolis has lately seen a growing trend of all things food, Sarah located a hole and had just the product to fill it – her meatball sandwich.

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Like most professionals, Sarah did not have a direct path leading her into entrepreneurship and even with the amount of joy cooking brings to her, she has not had it easy. Aside from the incredible amount of pre-work there is to owning a business, Sarah had to cook for 12-14 hours a day in the early days of running Saucy Burt’s.

Sarah’s takeaways from this experience include insights that other young professionals can incorporate into their lives. She has a few tips to share with other young professionals:

1. You cannot hide from social media, so use it to your best advantage. That means engaging your network. Without her built-in social network of online supporters, Sarah might not have had the initial success she did.

Thanks to social media, Sarah had a built-in fan club.  Sarah had about 1,000 Facebook friends for her personal page before the launch of Saucy Burt’s. She frequently communicated food related thoughts, pictures, reviews, updates, etc., through various social media outlets.  This integrated fan base gave her the momentum and pushes she needed to keep moving forward.

Sarah credits her remarkably successful launch to the growth of the food network and word of mouth.  Sarah was quick to point out that the word of mouth piece comes in two parts: the first being the more traditional word-of-mouth taking place off-line in the form of personal conversations and the second, and arguably the most important type of  word-of-mouth, is the online messaging spread via digital social networks.

Another contributing factor to her immediate success was the drop of Heavy Table’s piece on Sarah’s food cart, Saucy Burt’s. Couple Heavy Table’s article with the fact that Saucy Burt’s was secretly shopped by the Star Tribune’s food critic Rick Nelson, who of course gave a glowing review of Saucy Burt’s Classic Meatball Sandwich. 

2. Find a mentor. Having the ability to brainstorm with someone who had already found success in  the food industry was critical for Sarah.

Of course, there were many steps in between her initial days as a cook at Haute Dish and the launch of Saucy Burt’s, but after a lot of planning Sarah was finally ready to begin her entrepreneurial journey and open her food cart.  First thing on the long list of to-dos was to find a mentor – someone who to guide her through the process of opening her own business. She successfully found the perfect mentor thanks to the website Mentor Planet, which uses the same algorithms as many on-line dating sites to pair mentors to mentees. With the help of her mentor, Sarah began to find other leaders within her sector that were able to guide her though some of the back work that she needed to consider: building a long-term business plan, some expected pitfalls to anticipate, how to secure a small business loan, etc.

3. Do what makes you happy. 

Now that Saucy Burt’s is established and Sarah officially has her saucy brand, she has found what means the most to her: sharing her passion for cooking with her supporters. Sarah really wants to continue engaging the food community here in Minnesota. She keeps her fans up-to-date through Facebook, Twitter, and more she often uses these tools to share a piece of her day or any other information about daily life at Saucy Burt’s. Sharing these real life experiences and bits and pieces of daily life are how she continues to engage with her network and continue to build support for her brand.

Sarah has broadened her food cart options this year. She now has Saucy Chicken Meatball Sandwich as well as the Classic Meatball Sandwich, for those customers who want all the saucy goodness of the Classic Meatball Sandwich, but might not be so keen on the pork.

So, if you find yourself downtown Minneapolis you should stop by her cart on the corner of 8^th and Nicollet, and in the meantime follow her on Facebook or Twitter!  

Event Recap: Linking Leaders

Last Tuesday’s Linking Leaders evening hosted by Minnesota Rising at The Beat Coffee House was full of "good people having good conversations.” Organized in a speed-mentoring fashion, the evening was a way for emerging leaders to connect with established leaders and hopefully pick-up some tips and tricks on being an effective leader.

To kick-off the evening everyone jotted down three key leadership moments in their life and placed them on a large time line at the front of the room. Each person got a chance to share one of their key leadership moments with the crowd – talk about a fantastic way to get to know people and their stories!

The mentoring session was broken down into three timed discussions, where the dialogue was prompted in a number of ways, but remained open and flexible, allowing conversations to develop naturally. The resulting dialogues were both concrete and abstract conversations about leadership. Wrapping up with some additional one-on-one networking, the evening also served as an additional way to highlight the importance of organic conversations like those that are taking place though Minnesota Rising’s Cascading Conversations Tour, a discussion around “Our Minnesota.”

If you missed this event and would like information on future events make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. If you are looking for information on the Cascading Conversations Tour you can download the Cascading Conversation Blueprint or email us at minnesotarising@gmail.com!

Feel Like Pitching In?

Today is the first day of National Volunteer Week. National Volunteer Week began in 1974 as way to highlight the importance of actively serving local communities.

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If you are anything like me, volunteering is great, but ‘micro-volunteering’ is more likely what you have time for. I find that between graduate school and full-time work, my free time is very limited. Even with my best prioritizing efforts, time is often one of the major reasons I cannot commit to such events. I imagine most of us are in similar situations when it comes to our availability. However, according to Volunteering In America, Americans spent 8.1 billion hours volunteering in 2011 -- Wowza, right?! That is a serious chunk of time! Unfortunately, their statistics also show that compared to Boomers and Gen X, Millennials volunteered at lower rate.

In order to demonstrate how little time it takes to make a difference, I thought I would pass along these micro-like local volunteer opportunities from the United Way-Twin Cities. Conveniently, this list has several volunteer assignments that only require a few hours of time. If we all micro-give a little more in 2012, I am hopeful our generation will take volunteering cake!


 

Collaboration: An Admiration of Variation

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Jamie Millard and Chris Oien, bloggers for YNPN-TC, have taken their discussion on networking from the recently posted ‘The 4-step program for successfully networking as an introvert’ a step further by asking, “What do you do to help the introverts at networking events feel comfortable?”

When I read this I instantly thought, “This is where I come in handy!” For better or worse, I have made it my job in life to begin conversations with perfect strangers (hence my love for Minnesota Rising’s Cascading Conversations project). Cracking the silence and starting a conversation sooner rather than later eases tensions and, if nothing else, provides a vehicle into the conversation for those who are slightly introverted.

It has been my experience, as an extreme extrovert, that introverts bring out my best qualities and add a new dimension to my critical thinking. Working amongst different personality types is half the fun of collaborating! Further, being aware of where you sit on the personality spectrum can really be an added value for you as you work with others. Identifying your tendencies is one way to highlight your strengths and combat any weaknesses you may typically fall prey to. I know my list of tendencies is probably a mile long, but at least I am aware of them and face them head on.

My better half, as an INTP on the Myers Briggs (my polar opposite), often wishes I would not facilitate such conversations for him. I often drag him outside of his comfort zone and go about my merry way, leaving him in the middle of whatever it was I was doing last and with no real idea of why he is there in the first place. But, what can I say? There is something to be said for the person who can force out the brilliant ideas from the much too quiet wallflowers, even if the prodding is slightly unwanted.

I find introverts really challenge me to slow down and clarify my thoughts. I have learned a great deal about myself this way. I embrace these opportunities and see them as a way to fine tune my skills. Without these experiences I might not be able to comprehend why someone didn’t grasp what I said, or be left wondering why my point was missed. In case you want more, check out this TED Talk! It is another great example of the beneficial power of introverts. And me -- I am just their biggest fan!

Minnesota Rising Blogger Bio: Heidi Smith!

Greetings! I am Heidi Smith the newest contributing blogger for Minnesota Rising. Since you will continue to see my posts here on Minnesota Rising’s blog, I thought I would tell you a bit about myself and how I found myself contributing.

I moved to Minnesota from Florida in 2009 and have since joined the team at Grassroots Solutions. It was at Grassroots Solutions that I met Diane and learned about her work with Minnesota Rising. I simply am interested in anything that has to with generational studies, diversity and leadership. Lucky for me Minnesota Rising is designed to incorporate this kind of collaborative nature, therefore do not hesitate to approach Minnesota Rising if you have something to share, post or blog about.

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More about me

Name: Heidi Smith

Age: 27

Employer: Grassroots Solutions

Studies: I graduated from the University of Central Florida and am currently in the MAPL program at University of Minnesota -- Duluth

In my spare time: Well for starters, I wish I had more spare time for travel, exploration and hammock napping, but since I am not being paid to tour the world exploring barely-discovered magnificent places for the Science channel, I try to spend as much of my time as possible just being outside here in the beautiful state of Minnesota. My goal for this summer is to finally learn to fly fish, but it is too soon to tell whether or not that will actually happen. If it is a rainy day you can probably find me at home working on a crossword puzzle or catching up on some reading, although I must admit being lazy does not come too easy for me – even though I wish it did.

My Vision for Minnesota: I hope that Minnesota can continue to be a great place to live with diverse denizens who maintain high integrity and respect for one another.

Why I am passionate about Minnesota Rising: Engaging young leaders and building trust one conversation at-a-time is easy to get behind. I am excited to see the results of the Cascading Conversation Tour unfold. Being a part of such a unique project gives me hope that the future of Our Minnesota is bright.

Reportback: Step Up to Diversity! presented by Torch Community

Torch Community, an organization which aims to connect young professionals in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region, orchestrated a fantastic event entitled “Step Up to Diversity! What I Can Do NOW: Being the Diversity Competent Leader.” Minnesota Rising, along with BRIDGE-MN and the National Association of Asian American Professionals – Minnesota Chapter (NAAAP - MN) co-sponsored the event. Each of the co-sponsors took time to share their current work concerning leadership and diversity among young professionals. The evening’s presenters found fun and engaging ways to talk about leadership and diversity though hands-on activities, such as shaping something you find meaningful out of pipe cleaners.

The evening’s keynote speaker was the highly entertaining Jermaine Davis. Jermaine gave an inspirational and interactive talk on diversity. With his anecdotes and exciting tales, Jermaine found a way to combine the perfect amount of humor, statistics and classic quotes in order to emphasize the importance of having open discussions about diversity and being a diversity leader in our communities. For example, Jermaine revealed that over half of the children under

age 10 in the United States are children of color and asked participants to consider what the implications might be of this diversifying demographic on our future workforce, healthcare, education, and more.

Jermaine chronicled how he was able to reestablish a friendship with his seemingly delinquent younger brother through what he calls cognitive complexity – the idea that you try your best to consider another’s perspective and the conditions of their subjectivity. The relationship between Jermaine and his brother was given a second chance when Jermaine stopped trying to change his brother and learned to accept his brother and his brother’s actions before making assumptions. Jermaine is a Communications professor at Century College and has authored more than 10 books on leadership, diversity, inclusion, and more.

If you missed this great event, be sure to visit MinnesotaRising.org to watch for more great upcoming events for young professionals!

Millennial Direction

Trolling the Internet the other day, I came across a Pew Research study which found that 40% of the Millennial generation (ages 18-28) are currently enrolled in some type of higher education program. Pew’s study speaks to how many of us are still trying to figure out which pathway will serve us best in reaching our career goals. Baby Boomers reluctant to retire and a sluggish economy are contributing factors to extending the time we now have available to figure out all the details. How best to use this time? The Pew findings show that many of us are opting for additional education. But for those of us not in school and still not on the fast track, it’s important to remember that in many instances, trial and error can be an effective way to figure out what one does or does not want in life. It’s cliché, but very often there is something valuable to be gained from new experiences, no matter how disparate they may appear from one’s long-term goals.

Michelle Martin, author of the Bamboo Project, writes about career planning. She suggests focusing on the direction faced and the process taken rather than the final destinations; which is to say, ‘consider what one can accomplish today’. Martin champions the benefits of moving forward and taking the journey’s first step, urging her readers to rid themselves of their fixation on the right moment, the right time, or the right move when it comes to planning their career.

It seems that most of us are doing the right things, but still waiting for our turn in the limelight. As emerging leaders it is important that we continue to remind ourselves that when we are determined, we are able. So this month I challenge you to take the time to re-examine the directions in which you are facing and the valuable skills you are acquiring. Savor the process of becoming. After all, there isn’t much left once the journey ends. photo credit