The document provides a summary of the keynote presentations from the 2010 Tamarack CCI conference. The summaries highlight the following key points: 1. Thomas Homer-Dixon discussed the need for collaborative leadership to address complex problems, and shifting perspectives from seeing the world as machines to seeing it as complex systems. 2. John Ott discussed the concept of collective wisdom and how bringing diverse perspectives together can lead to insights beyond any individual. 3. Brenda Zimmerman discussed differentiating between simple, complicated, and complex problems and how an "act-learn" approach is needed to address complexity. 4. Anne Kubisch emphasized the importance of internal and external alignment in collaborative efforts to drive

1. Tamarack CCI 2010
SUMMARY OF KEY NOTE
SPEAKERS
http://tamarackcommunity.ca/
Thomas John Ott Brenda Mark Anne Kubisch
Homer-Dixon Zimmerman Chamberlain
Assembled by Barbara Dart & Mark Holmgren

2. Introduction
• Conference Dates: September 27 through October 1,
2010
• More than 135 in attendance, with Canadian and
International representation.
• This slide show is a consolidation of the presentations of
the five key note speakers. All copyrights are retained by
them.
• Barbara Dart (United Way) prepared a first draft of this
presentation for a meeting of the Edmonton attendees of
the CCI Conference.
• Mark Holmgren (NPVS Table) continued the
development and expansion of the presentation.

3. Stuck In Perpetual Crisis?
Collaborate!
from Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute
We need leadership that acknowledges the complexity
and chaos of the world in which we live.
We need leadership that is rooted in the sometimes
grim reality of our day to day world, yet concurrently
is able to fuel our highest aspirations and embolden
us to great change.
From the opening Plenary

4. Stuck In Perpetual Crisis?
Collaborate!
from Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute
We need leadership that is authentically inclusive;
recognizes multiple truths in the world; and taps into
our shared wisdom.
We need leadership that is adaptive and flexible and
embraces risk-taking, change and failure as
opportunities for learning.
From the opening Plenary

5. Dr. Thomas
Homer-Dixon
Day One Key Note:
Chaos, Uncertainty and the Possibility of
Collaboration, Framing the issues facing our
communities – our world
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Centre for International Governance
Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International
Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, and is a Professor in the Centre for Environment
and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. He is
author of The Ingenuity Gap and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. Learn
more about Thomas on his website here. Access Thomas' keynote
presentation here.

6. Thomas Homer Dixon
REASONS FOR RESISTENCE TO CHANGE
Cognitive: Cognitive inertia due to availability bias (assessing
change and challenges based on recent or current experiences)
Emotional: Motivated bias to defend one's identity. It is hard to
change when what you are facing is a redefinition of yourself and/or
your role.
Economic: Misleading price signals. Example if the price of oil
included what it will cost to find alternatives to dwindling reserves,
we might think differently.
Social: Vested interests pose barriers to making change that will alter
what social position or benefits we experience.
Political: Short time horizons tend to define problems in small and
often unrealistic chunks. Governments work in annual cycles and
within the context of elections. Change that falls beyond the short
term may not be sell-able to the public.

7. Thomas Homer Dixon
“We need to shift from seeing the world as
composed mainly of MACHINES to
seeing it as composed mainly of ……
COMPLEX SYSTEMS”

8. Thomas Homer Dixon
“Whereas MACHINES
• can be taken apart, analyzed, and fully
understood (they are no more than the
sum of their parts)
• exhibit “normal normal” or equilibrium
patterns of behavior
• show proportionality of cause and effect,
and
• can be managed because their behavior
predictable . . .”

9. Thomas Homer Dixon
COMPLEX SYSTEMS
“Are more than the sum of their parts
(they have emergent properties);
Can flip from one pattern of behavior to another (they
have multiple equilibriums);
Show disproportionality of cause and effect (their
behavior is often nonlinear, because of feedbacks
and synergies), and
Cannot be easily managed because their behavior is
often unpredictable.”

10. Thomas Homer Dixon
There are no simple fixes to
complex problems.
“Complex problems require
complex solutions.”

11. Thomas Homer Dixon
Is rising social, economic
and technological
complexity a good thing
or a bad thing?

12. Thomas Homer Dixon
“A GOOD THING!
Complexity often helps us solve our problems
Complexity is often a source of:
Innovation (through novel combinations)
Adaptability (through diversity and distributed
capability)”

13. Thomas Homer Dixon
“A BAD THING?
Complexity can cause
Opacity and extreme uncertainty
Threshold Behaviour
Managerial Overload
Cascading Failures
Brittleness.”

14. Thomas Homer Dixon
“How do we innovate in
a world of rising complexity and
increasingly likely breakdown?”

15. Thomas Homer Dixon
Increase system resilience
Learn to identify problem types
(simple, complicated, or complex)
Decentralize and diversify problem solving
to rapidly explore solution landscape
(with safe-fail experimentation)
Aim for “mid-range” coupling
Generate scenarios for breakdown
( to enable robust decision making)

16. Thomas Homer Dixon
“The PROSPECTIVE
MIND is a
RESILIENT mind”

17. Thomas Homer Dixon
From Dr. Homer-Dixon's CCI Presentation

18. Thomas Homer Dixon
Too much
connectivity
can harm
resilience.
From Dr. Homer-Dixon's CCI Presentation

19. Thomas Homer Dixon
“How do we lead in a world of rising complexity?
Leaders should constantly probe to determine
patterns in changing solution landscape
Small experiments are probes.
Leaders should be “gardeners” who create conditions for
experimentation – and for creative failure”

20. John Ott
Day Two Keynote: John Ott
Connect: The Collaborative Leader
Understanding Collective wisdom and change
John Ott is co-author of the brilliant new book The Power of
Collective Wisdom. John, a graduate of Stanford Law School, lives in
California. He began group work as a community organizer, helping
residents discern their collective voice and claim their power. For the
last 15 years he has designed and led large-scale community and
organizational change efforts and is a founding member of the Fetzer
Institute’s Collective Wisdom Initiative. Learn more about the John
Ott and the Collective Wisdom Initiative here. Access John's full
keynote presentation here and summary here.

21. John Ott
“A key distinction to remember:
Facts: verified or verifiable
Stories: the meaning we make of facts”

22. John Ott
“When human beings gather in
groups, a depth of awareness and
insight, a transcendent knowing,
becomes available to us that, if
accessed, can lead to profound
action. We call this transcendent
knowing collective wisdom.”

23. John Ott
“This knowing is not of the mind alone, nor
is it of any individual alone. When this
knowing and sense of right action
emerges, it does so from deep within the
individual participants, from within the
collective awareness of the group, and
from within the larger field that holds the
group.”

24. John Ott
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

25. John Ott
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

26. John Ott
Stances that support the arising of
collective wisdom
• Suspend certainty
• See the whole
• Seek diverse perspectives
• Welcome all that is arising
• Trust in the transcendent

27. John Ott
: THE SCALLOP
PRINCIPLE
Each one of
us is an eye (I); the
whole discerns
through us.
The corollary: when
we don’t hear
from any eye (I), the
whole is at
greater risk.
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

28. John Ott
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

29. John Ott
“Often when human beings gather in groups,
we become conduits for wisdom’s
opposite—folly.
We use the term folly to reflect a
continuum of behaviors, from mere
foolishness to acts of depravity. Put
bluntly, if human beings have the capacity
to access collective wisdom, why don’t
we?”

30. John Ott
BE WARY OF...
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

31. John Ott
Image from John Ott's CCI Presentation

32. Brenda Zimmerman
DAY THREE KEY NOTE: Brenda Zimmerman
Engage: Systems Change
Healthy communities, complexity and collaborative
leadership
Brenda Zimmerman is co-author of the best-selling book Getting to
Maybe: How the World is Changed, which explores real-life
examples of social change through a systems and relationship lens
and applies the insights of complexity theory to lay out a brand new
way of thinking about making change in communities, in business,
and in the world. Dr Brenda Zimmerman is the Associate Professor
of Policy and Director, of the Health Industry Management Program
at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Learn more
about Brenda Zimmerman and complexity here. Access Brenda's
keynote presentation here.

33. Brenda Zimmerman
Time is too short
and things are
too bad for
pessimism.
Dee Hock
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

34. Brenda Zimmerman
Despair to Intention
How can I make a difference in this complex
system?
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out
well, but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out.”
Valclav Havel

35. Brenda Zimmerman
We need to differentiate between
the simple, the complicated and
the complex
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

36. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

37. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

38. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

39. Brenda Zimmerman
“When In The Zone Of...
Simple or Complicated
Plan then act
Aim for consistency
Limit type of action (best practice)
“Blueprints”
Project Management
Complexity
“Act-learn” at the same time (tight feedback loops)
Aim for “coherence”
Multiple actions
Minimum specs/simple rules
Generative thinking AND Generative relationships
Inquiry”

40. Brenda Zimmerman
Cooperrider and Whitney
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

41. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

42. Brenda Zimmerman
“Wicked questions –examples
• How can we dramatically improve quality while drastically
reducing costs?
• How do we work together when we all have different agendas?
• How can we commit ourselves to be accountable for achieving
measurable results, while at the same time staying open to the
possibility that we may be measuring the wrong outcomes?
(from Paul Born’s book)”

43. Brenda Zimmerman
Image from Brenda Zimmerman's CCI Presentation

44. Anne Kubisch
DAY FOUR KEY NOTE: Anne Kubisch
Mobilize: Collaborative Action & Community Impact
Observing patterns of successful collaboration
Anne Kubisch is the founder and Director of the Roundtable on
Community Change at the world renowned Aspen Institute. She is
the author of two books about the work of the community roundtables
and is a community policy specialist who has spent many years with
the Ford Foundation at their Latin American/Caribbean, Nigerian and
New York offices. At Tamarack, Anne is considered the founding
thought-leader in Comprehensive Collaborative Community
Initiatives. Learn more about Anne Kubisch and the Aspen Institute,
Roundtable on Community Change here. Access Anne's keynote
presentation here.

45. Anne Kubisch
“The Bottom Line
The bad news: Community change efforts have
not (yet) transformed poor communities
The reality: We can’t reduce poverty and promote
equity without community-based efforts
The good news: We have learned so much about
how to do this work and already can see the
difference when lessons are applied”

46. Anne Kubisch
“Conclusion: We must move beyond “initiatives”
Community change is really about:
• Democratic institution-building
• Developing strong, well-anchored and legitimate
community platforms for technical and financial
support”

47. Anne Kubisch
“How to do it? The Three Key Points
Internal Alignment: Allows us to embrace
complexity without being overwhelmed
• Be clear about the theory of change
• Make sure there’s alignment among mission,
governance, management, programs,
• Revisit it regularly”

48. Anne Kubisch
“External Alignment: Allows us to embrace the
“openness” of the process while still managing the
moving parts
• Make sure there are brokers and aligners
• Develop accountability systems: authority and
responsibility are distributed
• Share both credit and blame
• Revisit the collective work regularly”

49. Anne Kubisch
“Continuous learning: Allows to have a clear goal but
to adapt our strategies and let the work emerge and
develop
• Make sure evaluation and learning mechanisms are
built-in, not external
• Develop an evaluation framework up-front based on
the theory of change
• Emphasize a culture of learning
• Develop mechanisms to review data and evaluative
findings, and revisit them regularly”

50. Mark Chamberlain
DAY FOUR KEY NOTE: Mark Chamberlain
Mark Chamberlain is the CEO of Trivaris, a firm that invests in early
stage technology companies. He is an entrepreneur and collaborator
who received the Distinguished Citizen of the Year award in 2007 for
his work as Chair of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.
Mark is currently a member of the Board of the Ontario Centres of
Excellence. Learn more about Mark Chamberlain and the Hamilton
Roundtable for Poverty Reduction here.

51. Mark Chamberlain
Mark did not use a Powerpoint. The following is based on notes:
Hamilton, Ontario, is a vibrant community
Poverty is Hamilton’s biggest challenge, with 20 per cent of its citizens
living at or below the poverty line.
As a community, Hamilton is saying this is unacceptable. In spring
2005, a multi-sector Roundtable for Poverty Reduction was formed
and the Tackling Poverty in Hamilton initiative began.

52. Mark Chamberlain
Ending poverty in Hamilton…
• Change is built on what we value
• We don’t use our knowledge to the best of our ability
• You need the right solution for the problem
• You need the right peopleat the table

53. Mark Chamberlain
We need people with the same aspirations, goals and values.
We need to abandon blame.
There are huge costs to doing nothing.
We need to start acting on what we know!

54. Mark Chamberlain
If children are hungry they can’t learn
What more knowledge do we need to
understand that if a child isn’t fed, they are
hungry!
What more do we need to know!

55. Discussion