Do you see any truth in the Red Queen Hypothesis?  It is based on the Red Queen’s race in Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass.  The Red Queen said, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The Red Queen Principle can be stated thus: For an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with.

Well, be truthful.  Haven’t you felt this way -- that it took all the running you could do just to stay in the same place?  Summer is the season of reporting for many of us as we assess the work we have been doing during the year and readjust our planning and improvement processes to meet growing and changing needs.  It often seems that we spend more time reporting than doing.  During these times of self-examination we sometimes lose perspective a bit with the busyness of it all – only to regain a new and more informed perspective as we assimilate all of the implications of the data and information that we have gathered. 

Twenty-three (23) of the thirty-one (31) ECI states participated in the ECI Conversations during May-June 2010.  You convened groups of your SF partners to share concrete examples of how you are actualizing the SF/PF framework in multiple contexts.  The scope of the infrastructures you are building to implement SF is incredible.  The impact you are having all the way from the systems-level to the family and individual level is inspiring and encouraging.  Your willingness to participate in the conversation process represents a strong commitment on your part and acknowledges the fact that assessing where we are is critical to moving forward. 

Here are a few general observations from the analysis we have done of all that you shared with us:

r It has been a tough year.  Some of you have spent enormous time, energy and resources just fighting for your continued existence.  Others have lost experienced and valuable staff, while workloads have increased.  You are still running – just like Alice and the Red Queen, but you have done better than those two.  You have brought new partners to the work to share the load and many have reported that there is a new willingness within your circle of partners to do what needs to be done, no matter what.

r You have all – in your own individual ways – been working hard to focus and prioritize on the three goals we set out to accomplish at this time last year.  That is: 1) To build state SF structure and sustainability; 2) to choose and focus on at least one systems-level outcome from our TOC, and 3) to choose and focus on at least one direct-service outcome from our TOC.

r You have been very successful in building capacity and learning opportunities around the protective factors.  Meaningful state systems partnerships to support the building of protective factors as a “new normal” are now wider and almost more importantly, deeper.  Much progress has been made to build parent partnerships at the community level. 

How do we make sense of everything?  I don’t know about you, but one way that I process the overflow of information is to listen.  I listen to you; I listen to what is being said out there in the world of government and policy.  I try not to forget to  listen to what is happening in the world of business, communication and social media.  Reading is another way of “listening.”  I have been reading an interesting book by John Hagel III and John Seely Brown called The Power of Pull.  The concepts discussed in this book fit the complex world of child abuse prevention.  We just keep running and running – trying to maintain equilibrium in a field that is constantly shifting.  We don’t want to discover that the Red Queen was actually optimistic – that it doesn’t matter how hard we run, we may still be losing ground.  Let me see if I can summarize some of the key concepts in the book that may apply to our work. 

r First, stocks of knowledge (what we know works) may not be as important as the flow of knowledge (how we share and utilize knowledge).  That really fits with the idea we keep hearing about -- of moving knowledge to action.

r Secondly, we are moving from a world of push to a world of pull.  What does that mean?  In the world of push, it is possible to forecast when/where resources will be needed and this allows us to push resources to answer the need.  However, because the world is shifting so rapidly around us (this past year is certainly proof of that – and many of you have told me that you are expecting even more rapid changes in the year ahead), when we persist in following the push paradigm, we actually impede effective responses to unanticipated changes that can and do emerge.  Pull gives us more flexibility.  It allows us to access what we need when we need it.  We can actually attract to us the people and needed resources that are most relevant and valuable.  As the world around us changes at an ever-accelerating pace, we can’t always even be sure we know what to seek out to meet our needs.  With a pull paradigm, we are open to attracting relevant resources that we didn’t even know existed, but that are ultimately useful to us when we find them. 

r Pull puts us in a position to collaborate in new and re-imagined ways.  This new collaboration curve is characterized by increasing returns: the more participants – and interactions between these participants – when added to a carefully designed and nurtured environment (the ECI Learning Community) – the more the rate of performance improvement accelerates. 

r And finally, passion is everything.  Hagel and Brown define passion as “more than simple satisfaction . . . when people discover the work that motivates them to achieve their potential by seeking extreme performance improvement – their job becomes more than a mode of income.”  In the 2009 Shift Index Survey, fewer than 20% of employees said they were passionate about their work and none of the industries surveyed had more than 25% that reported being passionate about their work.  The same survey found that passionate workers participate more actively in knowledge flows, which are key to the pull paradigm that creates new and deeper value for the workplace and in our case -- for children and families.. 

 So what does all of this have to do with the ECI Learning Community?  I think we have a very passionate group of people who have re-imagined a real community of practice (COP).  In this COP -- the ECI Learning Community --  everyone has the ability to enter the knowledge flow being continually created and recreated by your increasingly effective collaboration curve.  Members of the Learning Community are exercising their ability to find and connect with others in this community in order to pull towards themselves the resources needed to move their stocks of knowledge to a more useful and effective flow of knowledge – creating the action that moves us closer and closer to those goals of transformational systemic change that impact children and families. 

Was the Red Queen too optimistic?  In our case, I don’t think so.  We are not losing ground, but we have to keep evolving and changing to meet the rapidly changing needs of children and families.  As a learning community, we need to pursue a shift  from DIY (do it yourself) to DIT (do it together).  This doesn’t mean just scaling up a team – that doesn’t really work.  What we must aim for is creating a space, an environment where many teams (our states and even entities within those states) can collaborate and begin to create and share knowledge across team boundaries. 

We have started that process in the Cluster Groups.  Will we continue to work this way?  In the next weeks we will be considering some of those questions.  The Cluster Group leaders will be meeting with the Alliance team of consultants to consider this and other questions as we plan for our November annual meeting in New Orleans.  I hope we will be sensitive to the idea that transformation doesn’t come from doing what you are currently doing  -- only better.  It may involve stopping some things and starting others.  Stay tuned.  During our next networking call on Thursday, September 2, the Cluster Group leaders will be sharing some of their insights with the whole Learning Community and getting your ideas and feedback.  Be passionate about engaging in our Learning Community.  That is the only way you can really be a part of the flow of knowledge that will take us to the next big wave of change.  And make plans now to be in New Orleans for the November 17-19 annual meeting of the ECI.  Be a part of the flow!

Tell me what you are thinking about the concept of push and pull.   Do you sense that the ECI has created a flow of knowledge that is useful to Learning Community members?  How could it be better? How much are you willing to be a part of the collaboration curve?  I want to hear what you have to say.

(Click on this link to view some photo reflections)

After teaching at a university for many years, in 2003 I began working for the State of Arkansas.  One of the most difficult things about adjusting to being a bureaucrat for me was adjusting to the work year – no summers off.  As a teacher, I even felt that I had two lives – and spent my summers doing a variety of things that had little to do with teaching. 

   “Are You Going to Scarborough Faire?”   

( Reeder’s Digest - July 1, 2009)

Do you remember the song “Are you going to Scarborough Faire?”  (Click on the hyperlink above.)  It is a song with an unusual text, as many of the songs that speak to us about the human condition across the ages.  The lyrics tell just enough and leave out just enough, that everyone can recognize themselves.  For me, it is a poignant and beautiful song, but carries with it a twist of humor as well.  Years ago, when I first began tending an herb garden each summer, my husband would sing this song to me and chide me if I failed to plant all the herbs listed in the song.  Now every year I make sure to include parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  Herbs take almost no effort to grow, but every summer my family and friends are the beneficiaries of the delights of my herb garden.  The fresh herbs add just the right touch to all things sweet and savory – a refreshing rosemary and minted lemon tea, a fresh pesto prepared and tossed at the last minute into a pasta dish, a simple soup of summer squash with fried sage leaves.  Getting the idea?  Just a little effort, but many lovely returns. 

A typical week for me might include several conversations with some of you and perhaps a trip to a meeting such as the one I attended at the National Center for Children in Poverty earlier this week.  Many times I am learning new and amazing things.  At other times, a moment in a conversation with you might reveal a brand new insight to me.  I want to share, to flavor our conversations with these “small but significant” morsels.  It occurred to me that as a Learning Community, all of you involved in the Early Childhood Initiative have much to share.  We already have many rich and satisfying opportunities to “season” our individual work with the thoughtfulness and experience of others who are learning alongside us each day about how to be more effective at strengthening families. 

That is why I have launched this endeavor – “Reeder’s Digest.”  I do not presume that my thoughts and experiences are particularly enlightening or groundbreaking.  However, it is my hope that this may be a way that we can share with each other even the smallest tidbits to help us collectively benefit from the insights that can so easily vanish when not shared.  Please share your thoughts about what you may find here, or comment on what others may bring to the table.  Are you going to Scarborough Faire . . . or anywhere else, as a matter of fact?  While you are out there going, touching the lives of children and families, why not share a bit about what you are experiencing or observing?  You may not feel that your thoughts are ready for a peer-reviewed journal, but that “rough chop” of tantalizing flavor may be just what one of your colleagues needs to stimulate their own growing perception.  Just scroll to the bottom of this page and click on “Comments.”  This will open up a white text box, where you may type in your thoughts.  When you are finished, click on the “Add Comment” button.  I am looking forward to hearing from all of you. 

My best to you,

Martha