The following article appeared in the Summer/Fall 2007 issue of
"Solutions...we're part of", a magazine of the Illinois Department of Human Services.



CHP SEED PROCESS

Wiping out poverty is a lofty goal, but a New York psychiatrist and a ballerina-turned-activist believe it can be done through a training design they created. Part therapy and part action plan, founders Carlos Monteagudo and Melinda Lackey call it the SEED process.

The key, they say, is that governments, not-for-profits and social change leaders need to listen more effectively in order to move toward making social services, such as health care and education, more universally accessible - thus affording to all people the possibility of a life free of poverty. While the initial and ongoing focus of SEED is on eradicating poverty, the training on effective listening and communication can also be applied to almost any endeavor.

Last spring, senior staff from the Division of Community Health and Prevention (DCHP) spent six days in SEED training. While the division's focus is on fostering health and well-being, DCHP staff members say the training was a helpful experience that has improved communication within the division. "This should make division programs more effective in serving the community," says Kim Fornero, chief of the Bureau of Community and Primary Prevention.

Monteagudo says he and Lackey, both Kellogg Fellows, developed the process after traveling all over the world and selecting the best practices of other groups, including decision-making techniques used by Fortune 500 companies.



In the first stage of the SEED process, those in the training learn to avoid focusing on differences and trying to resolve them in favor of engaging in "deep listening." This exercise is aimed at helping the group to function better as a unit.

The second stage focuses on re-framing opportunities. Participants are taught to listen to someone else and then repeat back to him/her what they heard, to make sure they understood it correctly. This part of the process is about appreciating the diversity in perspectives among people in the group. It is hoped that this opens up group members to seeing obstacles as opportunities rather than problems.

Next, the group is taught to "design seed patterns," that is, figuring out what problems (or opportunities) they want to tackle and how to do so. An example might be how to better welcome or include new staff into the division, or how to enhance relations with community providers. In stage four, they develop prototypes and implement them, after which they move to the last stage - replicating the procedures they have laid out.

While SEED focuses on group exercises, Monteagudo notes that when people are really listened to, each individual's "brilliance" is tapped. SEED is in the business of "touching souls." If individuals feel listened to, they will be more creative and their effectiveness will be increased.

In addition, Monteagudo says, through deep listening, the SEED process is designed to change the relationship between government and the people it serves. He points out that the DCHP touches millions of people, so that the training has the potential of very wide-reaching effects.



DCHP Director Steven Guerra says that SEED fit into his vision of having his division and its programs work more collaboratively together. He notes, "We were like ships all moving in different directions."

The division also suffered from a common issue: even though people would be sitting at the same table in the same meeting, they wouldn't always hear what the others were saying. "We would think that we agreed upon something, and we would all nod and walk away, but we all had different understandings," he says. "People only hear about 40 percent of what is said in a meeting."

Guerra says that techniques such as re-framing are already making communication more effective. Dan Blair, Manager, DCHP Fiscal Support Services, agrees. "Trying this led to some interesting insights," he says. "When you are listening, it forces you to attend carefully to everything that is said instead of thinking about how you are going to respond. In some cases, what the listener repeated back was not what the speaker had intended to communicate - and may even have been the opposite!"

The DCHP has also implemented "e-mail-less Fridays," an idea developed at the SEED training. By decreasing the number of e-mails sent on Friday, staff have to leave their computers and communicate face to face, or pick up a phone and have a personal conversation in order to conduct business. Fornero says this interaction fosters a deeper level of conversation. Fornero also noted that as she and a new staff member went through the training together, they discovered they had similar ideas and approaches, which has allowed them to work well together.

Following the training, each bureau chief and program manager adopted a new goal of working more collaboratively with another program. Blair says he thinks the Department has benefited from the change in mindset about how staff work with each other and with the public. "Some of the steps in the SEED process involve developing a sense of 'we,' rather than 'us' or 'them,' removing a major barrier to effective communication."

Monteagudo adds that this is an important realization: "We will never win if we work as individuals; we will only win if we work as a group."

Sarah Karp is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Chicago Re-porter.

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