July 20, 2010

Great use of YouTube by Dave Snowden

I spent about 30 minutes putting together this post and if you have got a spare 20 minutes (and you are keen to challenge your own worldview), go grab a cup of tea and work your way through these videos. I have put them in an order that will make sense to someone exploring these concepts for the first time.

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Why do we still see policies in workplaces like, “You Tube banned on Government Servers to stop staff wasting time!”, when staff could be learning stuff as rich as these videos from Dave Snowden? Dave is the Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Cognitive Edge. His blog is very heavy, often amusing and well worth following.

Dave is working with an Australian video producer to help communicate his models and frameworks with the world. The videos bring a subtle and effective use of visuals and graphics to illuminate the key points that Dave is making. Dave’s confidence and sense of humor shines through as well.

I have embedded a series of videos from Dave (and others) to help you understand the world of complexity. Another place to visit is Dave’s series of posts on the Origins of Cynefin.

The Set Up

Understanding the Cynefin framework is probably the first place to start. One from Shawn Callahan (Anecdote), the 2nd from Dave the third a Pecha Kucha presentation from Mark Schenk (also at Anecdote).

The most humorous story

If you have listened to Dave’s podcasts, you will have heard his ‘how to organise a children’s birthday party’. I often show clients this video when facilitating strategy and planning workshops. Apart from some laughs, the key message can challenge last century ways of working that still persist today.

The Close

This final run of videos, again from Dave explores some of the other concepts and ideas that relate to working in a complex world. They tell great stories and the final one shines a light on the Cognitive Edge Sensemaker Suite.

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July 19, 2010

Emerging possibilities and collaboration

My life’s work is in a really fascinating place right now …

I am sensing a shift in the work that I do. A shift from being reactive to client offers, to a more proactive space. New ventures where collaboration with others, co-learning and creating opportunities for new types of work to emerge. This shift is not part of any clever business plan, in fact, these are the first written words to describe it. Allow me to ramble, share a story and then get back this this change I am sensing …

About working with others …

Viv McWaters mentions collaboration in this post, I tend to agree with her and she says …

“I can’t speak for organisations, or anyone else for that matter. All I can say is that for me collaboration has never been easier. I can find people to collaborate with – whether they live nearby or on the other side of the planet – and we can communicate using a whole range of media, with my particular favourites being  skype, blogs and Twitter. All of the people I collaborate with are friends first. We get to know each other, learn of each other’s skills and contributions, find opportunities to collaborate, challenge each other, have fun and provide something as collaborators we couldn’t each provide alone. Given the choice, I wouldn’t work any other way.”

A couple of Friday’s ago, Euan Semple and I co-facilitated a Social Media training day with a mixture of people from across the Victorian Public Service in Melbourne. Despina Babbage, at DIIRD (Dep. Innovation Industry & Regional Development) helped to make it happen. DIIRD fully sponsored the training and invited a range of people – most were connected through an Innovation Hub and most are experimenting with social media in their government work. Big thanks to Despina and Glenys!

Anyway, the point I want to make here is that we now have amazing opportunities to find each other, learn together, have conversations and work together more than at any other time in history. In the last paragraph, I was going to write “I was lucky enough to work with Euan Semple”, but realised that it wasn’t luck, Euan and I (and Despina) made it happen by ‘showing up’ and trusting each other!

This day of training started as a long shot, a possibility and something that might happen. We kept the conversation going and I tapped into some of my networks. One thing lead to another and whole lot of trust was on offer. Despina had never met Euan or I. In fact, I had never actually met Euan or worked with him face2face.

The thing is though, Euan and I did know each other. We have read and contributed to each other’s blogs for years. We have shared great weblinks, resources and a few passing comments about peacocks on Twitter. I have worked with people who know Euan and I hear his name pop up in podcasts that I listen to. So, trusting Euan was easy.

What about the question, ‘will we make this day of training work?’. Again, we both knew we would click and be able to improvise and co-facilitate together. Those online interactions on blogs and twitter have allowed us to understand each other’s worldview and a sense of what’s important. It’s intangible and difficult to measure but it’s so true. I like Howard Rheingold’s thoughts on this which remind us that it’s not the shiny, new media tools that’s important here, it’s the emerging changes in human behaviour that is happening as a result of their use …

“It’s not the technology (or the social media tools), it’s the emerging social practices” H. Rheingold.

Back to shift in what I do …

The work phone has all but stopped ringing. The offers from traditional clients to work with me is at an all time low. On the flip side, the offers from friends and worldwide networks to work & play is at an all time high! At times that means a whole lot of work for very little money. It means giving away a heap of time to the Gift Economy. But, I am getting more and more connected with people … people like Viv described above as being ‘friends first’.

One such person was in my home office last week and he asked me, “So, what do you see yourself doing in 5 years time?’. Great question and to be honest, I don’t know. My sense is that I’ll be working more and more with friends. More work overseas in both f2f and online ways. More work of my choosing and more using processes that I truly believe in.

And now I’ll take some advice from my friend Chris Corrigan who writes …

“Indigenous science is about discovering the connections between things, rather than isolating something and trying to understand it free from the externalities that tie it to everything else.”

And from here, as a sense this shift in what I do and who I am becoming, I’ll “dive in, connect and put relationships to use”.

And here’s some graphic note-taking that I made when Euan was running his part of the day …

Cheers

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July 6, 2010

A turning point in my life

Recently, I have had many requests for copies of the Castlemaine 500 Report – a report that I co-authored in relation to a community scale sustainability project that ran a few years ago in Castlemaine. You can read more about the project here.

Why was this project a turning point in my life? Here a just a few reasons …

1. The failures of our efforts to bring about change (i.e. sustained reduction of household energy use) were confronting. I was lucky to have a client (thanks Bron) and a team (you know who you are) willing to go on a learning journey and explore ‘why’. After 12 months we responded to our observations and changed direction. We started to focus on the emerging stuff that was working … that leadership and capacity of the community itself.
2. Our ‘inquiry’ lead to new ways of thinking and, for me anyway, a whole new worldview on ‘How Stuff Changes’ emerged. If there is 1 section of the report to read, I would direct you to Chapter 3 Principles: Getting the Mindset Right. Much of the writing in this chapter informs everything I do now.
3. The people and community of Castlemaine. Let’s face it, relationships between people are everything and I have been gifted with a whole new network of people.
4. This blog space emerged from my need to connect with others during the ‘dark days’ of running this project. Thanks to Viv McWaters, I started writing in this space and connecting to others around the world. Through blogging and ‘showing up’ and contributing to other people’s work, I find myself blessed with a worldwide network of great thinkers, writers and artists who I can call on at any time to collaborate with.
5. In writing the report, Curtis Riddington and I decided at the outset to create a ‘remarkable’ report story – that is, something that would be ‘remarked on’ and even criticised. We employed a cartoonist (Simon Kneebone) and a design company in the Netherlands (Studio GloriusVandeVen). Our first drafts of the report were described as being ‘way too harsh’. In the end we toned it down and I regret we removed the stuff in the first paragraph about the importance of learning from failure.

In sum … Nowadays I expect to fail more and therefore I learn more . When trying to ‘change things’ I am a disrupter and expect criticism (keeping everyone happy when dealing with complex stuff is futile). Share everything, give it away and connect with others and often. Let go of control and be prepared to improvise. Before you try to change everything … start by simply opening your senses, slowing down and noticing more.

Cheers, Geoff

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June 18, 2010

What’s Your Time Perspective?

Rob Paterson has written about a talk I have heard before. This time, however, the message was clearer due to the fantastic visual animations done by the RSA Animate crew. Watch and learn for yourself …

In response to the content in in talk, I like Rob’s points here …

“School is all analog and sequential. It is all about the future – when you know this it will be great when you are 30! School is all about it being in control not you. School is all passive. The rewards are all off in the distant and abstract future.

This is the heart of the problem that boys today face. Working harder to drill stuff into boys is not going to work.

School demands a cultural revolution that starts with this new context. We can’t go back – we have to find ways of making learning more engaging.”

It also starts me thinking about another dimension that I haven’t considered when facilitating workshops … what is the time perspective of the people in the room and of their workplace culture? What are the implications for future oriented strategy sessions, or, a backward looking learning workshop?

This concept of time perspectives also has implications for the climate change discussion. I wonder if particular people/groups/cultures are more (or less) likely to accept the future consequences of present actions? The futility of ramming 1-way information and knowledge into the brains of adolescent boys plays out the same way climate change scientists (and groups/government) work really hard to persuade skeptics with facts and figures.

Interesting stuff and will dig a little into these questions.

Geoff

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May 26, 2010

My 201st post!

Just realised I have passed my double century of blog posts! Here’s my 201st post featuring 3 cartoons that happen to be sitting side by side on my desktop. These cartoons are also very linked by the people around them and concepts they explore.

The first features “The Slips” (and that’s me in 3rd slip). The Slips is an international consortium of blogger and facilitators. Many of my 200 posts have featured links back to the blogs of Anne Patillio (wicket keeper), Viv McWaters (1st slip), Johnnie Moore (2nd slip) and Chris Corrigan (4th slip). Thanks to Simon Kneebone for the artwork!

The next 2 are linked around the theme of status and power. This second cartoon is from the stables of Hugh McLeod over at Gaping Void. I just love Hugh’s ability to cut through and be totally honest and blunt! As part of the The Slips, I am constantly working with the Improv principle of Yes!And – which also inspired the name and theme of my blog. When new ideas and new ways of doing things are proposed in workshops, Yes!But … can often be heard as the automatic response. And if you don’t hear it, watch and you’ll see it in the body langauge!

The last one again comes from Simon Kneebone and was drawn at the recent Show Me The Change conference. The design team for this gig happened to be The Slips (told you these pictures were linked!) and we embraced the principles of self organisation and emergence in it’s design. The other concept we brought was the notion of Keynote Listeners and Participants rather than Keynote (Expert) Speakers.

Cheers, Geoff

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May 16, 2010

The Slips

Over the past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of playing (and working) with an “International Consortium” … of sorts. We call ourselves The Slips and we are (from 1st to 4th slip) … Johnnie Moore (UK), Viv McWaters (Australia), me (Australia) and Chris Corrigan (Canada). Without a wicket keeper we’d be useless and Anne Pattillo (NZ) takes up this position.

Together in May we worked with Swinburne Uni and Sustainability Victoria to host the Show Me The Change conference. Johnnie and Viv ran a workshop called Crumbs in Sydney and we all took part in the fringe OSonOS (Open Space on Open Space) in Melbourne.

We have been working together for some time now, however, our methods (and deliveries) have been somewhat ‘unorthodox’.

Until this May, The Slips had never been together in the 1 place at the same time. That had only ever happened on Skype. 4 of us managed to get to the 2009 Applied Improvisational Network conference in Portland, Oregan – with our 1st slip missing in action! Apart from all being facilitators, we all share a passion for applying Improv to our craft.

It now looks like The Slips will be together again in Amsterdam this September at the 2010 Applied Improv gathering. Who knows what we collaborate on together afterwards in the UK? We don’t know yet either, but, whilst we continue to learn from each other and have fun … something is bound to happen!

We came together as a results of many small offers. We build on each other’s learning through our blogs and in conversation. We inspire and support each other. On some levels we are the same – and very different. We love what we do.

To sum up, I’ll draw a great post written by Viv here.

From Viv …

We come from Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada. We share a love of improv, are skilled facilitators, blog, use open space, are curious, adventurous and love to travel. We like to do risky, edgy work. We each have our own businesses and work, naturally, in different parts of the world. We’re generous, with what we know and what we share. We each bring different, and complementary, perspectives. We play together. We work together. We’re individuals. We’re different. We agree, we argue, we struggle, we care.

Are you seeing a theme here?

Before we worked together we were friends. Separated by oceans. Connected by ideas. Inspired by an audacious plan. We’re still friends. Maybe even better friends. Family. Love. This is what binds us. This is what makes working together a joy. This is why we’ll do it again.

Geoff

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May 1, 2010

Using Improv to ‘Save The World’

If you want to hear 3 people talking about how Applied Improv can ‘save the world’ … then head over here to my podcasting blog Winkipod!

The names, the voices, stories and laughter from these 2 wonderful people will be revealed at Winkipod …

Winkipod-cast link – Using Improv to Save The World

Cheers, Geoff

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March 30, 2010

‘Messing Around’ with Adam Hills

Saturday, March 27th was a huge day in Victoria. The F1 Grand Prix was on, the Melbourne Comedy Festival kicked off, Apollo Bay Music Festival and the global movement Earth Hour coincided.

It was also my 39th birthday which means I have one more thing in common with comedian, improviser and Spicks & Specks host Adam Hills … our age. Thanks to Adam Hills (and the audience at his Mess Around gig), my 39th birthday has been my most memorable so far.

Apart from our age, Adam Hills and I share something else in common … a belief.

Throughout his Mess Around gig, Adam repeated his belief that ‘normal’ people (you and me) are way more interesting than the celebrities we adore in the media. So, his shows are more about ‘us’ than him. He used the time to have a conversation with ‘us’ (the audience) and unearthed our stories – which ended being rich, diverse and funny. He connected audience members together and created a space to work together on something. After 2 or 3 of these shows, a social movement has been created around 1 man’s effort to raise money for a charity … all this momentum and action created from nothing but a story and a belief that everyone has can contribute. Most would say that their contribution is ‘ordinary’, but combined the ordinary can lead to something special. More on that story later.

Image Source

In my work with groups, I facilitate conversations between people. Some with small groups and some with large groups over a number of days. My belief is that the conversations and relationships between participants who attend workshops (or between delegates at conferences) are way more interesting than individual ‘keynote speakers’ or ‘panel members’ that we so often see on the conference circuit. Traditional conferences who worship ‘experts’ seem to have forgotten that we are a social species – where conversation and relationships are the foundation for any form of action. Even many of us (the non-experts) have fooled ourselves into the same ‘celebrity’ or ‘expert’ worship.

Viv McWaters has written about the same here … Johnnie Moore here … Chris Corrigan here … and I wrote about it here when describing the Aireys Inlet Open Mic Music Festival.

Back to Saturday night’s Mess Around …

If you want to follow the full story of the ‘movement’ that has emerged from Adam’s Mess Around in Melbourne, read his blog posts here. If you want a snapshot of the story in the form of a 1 minute sales pith to donate money, watch this video (and thanks to my wife Ingrid who put this together on her Mac) …

Adam Hills making Chris Hughes famous! from Geoff Brown on Vimeo.

Adam Hills’ summary of the story so far …

But first, the story so far: I have decided that throughout this Festival I will do my best to make a mild-mannered IT Manager I found in my opening night’s audience as famous as possible. I want Chris Hughes to be more famous than Shiloh Jolie Pitt.

Chris only agreed to go through with it if we raised money for a charity that gives physical therapy to people with cystic fibrosis – The Simon Rhoden Foundation. At last count (bearing in mind it is only four days into the festival) we have raised over $2000. If we hit $20000 Chris will perform a strip in Federation Square on the final night of the Festival. Other audience members have offered lycra, a barbeque and to MC the strip.

There is now a viral video available at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmU-hqdJD7k

and for higher quality

http://www.vimeo.com/10497445

a facebook page here

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107878905899360&ref=ts

And you can join in the donations here http://www.simonrhodenfoundation.org/donate.asp

What we can learn from Adam Hills?

So how does one man generate so much commitment to action AND whilst everyone is having a riotously good time? Most clients I work with only dream of seeing so many ‘transactions’ emerge from a ‘workshop’ full of strangers. But would they employ a ‘mess around’ approach to run their workshops? Here’s Adam’s description of his Mess Around series …

“Adam loves ad-libbing with the crowd. So much so that this year he’s throwing the script out the window and devoting an hour-and-a-bit to simply messing around. No script, no plan, no idea. Literally anything could happen – and if you’ve been to a Hilsy show before, you know it probably will. NO TWO SHOWS THE SAME!” Melbourne Comedy Festival website

And reference statements include …

“His interaction witht he audience proved so fruitful that they were reluctant to release him back on to the stage. 5*” The Scotsman

“An Adam Hills show is always a festival highlight … with real weight, wit and purpose behind his contagious positivity.” Chortle (UK)

Would you employ this ‘Mess Around’ approach to an upcoming workshop where you want agreed and sustainable actions and outcomes?

Ok, so I hear you saying that the context of your workshop if totally different …  I understand that – people are doing ‘serious’ work and your workshop is not a performance. You are right, many things change when we shift from a Comedy Festival gig to a workshop where the stakes are high. However, many things also remain the same – people are people and relationships are still the glue that connect us into sustainable action. Here’s what I think we can learn from Adam’s Mess Around approach.

As I have already said, everyone has a story to tell. In a complex world, we need more connections between people, more spaces for more conversations and less listening to experts (we still need some of this like at TED). We need to harvest stories from our employees and conference delegates and learn from them.
We need less scripts and way less plans and time spent doing strategies. Instead, we need to get ourselves ‘prepared’ for dealing with the unexpected and uncertainty. (Viv gives a real example of being prepared here).

Weik and Sutcliffe in their book ‘Managing the Unexpected‘ also highlight some characteristics of High Reliability Organisations (organisations that have a track record of remaining resilient when the unexpected happens) For me, these characteristics share a remarkable resemblance to the principles of Improvisational Theatre and the approach Adam takes to ‘messing around’.

Wanna Save the World?

If you want to ‘save the world’, you can read about how Improv can be used to help at the Applied Improvisation Network site. Belina posted this very question and many responses have come through so far. Read about it here.

In Sum …

From where I sit, 1 thing is clear. Conversations and relationships between people and groups are the platform for collective action. Complex issues like ”adapting to climate change” are messy and complex. They are unpredictable and context specific. As a community/society we need news ways of working and being together. We need to ‘let go’ of control and learn to be more comfortable in the ‘mess’. I believe that applying Improv, and the ‘Adam Hills’ approach, is one way of getting more traction.

Geoff

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February 15, 2010

Trying too hard!

I have been noticing some stuff written about working and trying too hard. Allow me to ramble and explore some emerging thoughts on this and other related (or maybe unrelated) things …

One example was in an email conversation and gave the example of a ‘process/model’ (for doing things differently) that appeared on the Open Space list. A comment made about it was something like, “yer working too hard …”.

So where are you/we/I working too hard? Where are we working hard at following processes and linear schemes to get things done better and more effectively? Are these processes a distraction from what is actually happening? Do approaches like Solution Focus, where descriptions of ‘Future Perfect’ are central, distract us from the the here&now?

Johnnie Moore comments here on Dave Snowden’s latest post ‘Avoiding reality in favour of a Vision‘. Dave suggests that a future focus provides a good excuse to avoid dealing with the drudgery of reality:

“Present possibilities are rarely as compelling as future visions… visionary journeys through the silvan forests to the land of milk and honey that lies beyond is much more fun that dealing with the harsh reality of the present.”

Johnnie’s response really has me thinking (and re thinking) about the processes I use like Solutions Focus …

“However, I think when we really get attuned to what is happening now, really see all that is going on, it can turn out to be a lot more interesting and thought-provoking than we imagine.”

Viv McWaters also buys in by asking …

“Ideas, and thoughts are rarely linear. Makes me wonder why we try and capture them that way, why we struggle to make order out of chaos. And why we focus on what might be, sometimes avoiding what’s happening right in front of us.”

Dave Snowden is right. As a consultant it is easier to take groups into “Future Perfect” and avoid the ‘harsh reality of the present’. I still believe that future-focused processes serve an important step as they help groups to imagine new ways of doing and being. Experientially, they can help groups to feel open to the possibilities of the present and generate enthusiasm and energy.

So, this blog post started out with the title “Trying too Hard” … it started with a direction in mind and as I read more and wrote, it evolved into something else. That something else is challenge to myself. A challenge to hold space for groups so they can focus on (and be present to) what is happening right in front of them. No linear roadmap will help here. Instead I’ll continue to explore and learn from these types of ongoing/iterative processes …

• Watching how my own kids grow, learn and adapt
• Notice more of myself in pursuits such as learning Karate – my biggest block here is in the ‘trying too hard’ which was the original inspiration for the post
• Playing more with Improvisation and watching groups struggle and learn about themselves – I feel inspired to jump in and take Improv to my son’s school community … or join an Improv group … or start one up myself!
• Re engage with playing music with others and notice what happens as we develop over time and finally …
• Use Open Space more in my work with groups – why don’t I use it more is the big question???

Geoff

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July 24, 2009

Three Questions that I Hold

Both Johnnie Moore and Chris Corrigan have written about Holding Questions – “What-the?” I hear you ask and why is holding questions relevant?

Johnnie reflects on what he has learned from Chris had this to say here …

“Chris would talk about “holding questions”. Again, my first reacting was: eh? It sounded a bit crazy to me, but just sensible enough to leave me with this puzzle, what would be good about that?. I was probably only just on the curious side of cynical. And again over time, I’ve started to get clearer, and more enthusiastic about the idea of sitting with questions instead of always anxiously demanding answers.” JM

My inner control freak is quite demanding of answers too. And not just answers but also decisions about which way to go next, with whom and when and why. In those rare moments of being present, I can find myself slowing down and being happy to simply carry questions with me. When I surf and practice martial arts these questions surface again and help me to focus on what matters most in life.

And Chris writes this here in response to a question from a friend …

“The question I hold tend to be both (broad ones and specific questions) … for a while now I’ve been carrying these questions with me…they are varied and they take different forms and they even come and go, but they lead me into fascinating places:  Sometimes they appear as research projects, other times they are direct and specific, and sometimes they float, nebulous and seem to inform everything I do … I don’t have these questions written down anywhere, I just sort of hold them lightly and they focus my attention. What are the questions you hold?” CC

1. Who do I need to be (as a parent) to support my children to follow their passions?
2. How can I combine my love of playing music and songwriting with my work as a facilitator/consultant?
3. What contribution can I make to my local community to build resilience and connectedness? – this question has been in sharp focus since Black Saturday … I often wonder what this community’s response would be to such a disaster

“We’re often very attached to certainty, and to ending meetings with “definite outcomes” and sometimes end up with matching language. (My friend James quips about a meeting where everyone agreed that what they needed was a “measurable, implementable, deliverable”). Sometimes leaving with a good question is much more engaging, even if at first it’s a bit frustrating.”

I’ve written about this desire for actions and next steps before. And it’s always been wearing my facilitator’s hat. As a community member, I hear the same needs and demands for resources, next steps and actions. At community meeting I often hear about the next steps and actions that ‘others’ should do to fix things. Enter Ton Zijlstra’s reflection at Roboot 11 and this slide about ‘Action’ that I really like …

“I really warm to this notion. I easily tire of conversations where people come up with top-down solutions which often involve lots of angst about how to make other people change. These are bad enough from people at the top of a hierarchy. Even more strange are the times I hear people doing this where I suspect the real issue is that they can’t get the powers-that-be to listen to whatever grand plan they generate. The question “but what is my part in all this?” seems to be missing.

I think the question “what is my part in all of this?” is a question that our Transition Town project should hold and help fellow ‘tribe members’ explore along the journey.

Geoff

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July 1, 2009

Wave Riders

Harrison Owen‘s latest book (Wave Rider – Leadership for High Performance in a Self Organising World) has a great title and I, being a novice surfer, was drawn to the title. Here’s some quotes from Chapter 1 …

“Wave Riders are curious people possessed of an innate capacity to go with the flow, constantly seizing upon opportunity when others see no possibility, or even disaster. Their level of performance is consistently high, and projects are often completed in breathtakingly short periods of time, with a degree of excellence that may seem unbelievable.”

“The times have changed. The anomalous behavior of the Wave Rider holds a critical clue to new ways of surviving, and indeed thriving, in our chaotic world, enabling all of us to achieve levels of excellence and high performance previously unknown.”

“The second lesson (we learn from Wave Riders) relates to the subject of control. Stated bluntly, any surfer who ever thinks, even for an instant, that he or she is in charge of the wave, is in for a profound shock, delivered in most memorable way. Assuming, of course, that there is any memory left to capture the moment.”

This last quote is a nice lead into some magnificent footage of Wave Riders off the West Australian coast this year. I’ll let the video do the talking and encourage you to read more of Harrison Owen’s book Wave Rider – Chapter 1 can be read here

The Right – WA June 09 ‘For all – the RIGHT reasons’ from Tim Bonython Productions on Vimeo.

Here are some words from Tim Bonython who shot the film.

“For all the RIGHT reasons…By Tim Bonython.

“After get just getting back & recuperating from epic filming trip at Choppes in Tahiti, I glazed onto the LOLA swell map that shows a storm that has a spread as big as half the planet. Not so much a monster super storm but a storm that grew from below South Africa that continued to mutate across the Indian Ocean that went from Pakistan all the way to New Zealand. And right in the middle of its path was my new favorite new spot on the globe, the Right – right in the middle of its path!

So as per usual I was hot on the phone to all the usual suspects & all of them were all eying off the potential. Great minds think alike!”

Cheers

Geoff

ps. Hat Tip to Rob Graham for putting me onto this video

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June 14, 2009

Getting out the way

I’ve been on the road lately … facilitating lots and lots of conversations with lots of lots of people. Big groups and small groups, mixed and unmixed groups.

The conversations have been about learning from our past and working out ways to ‘do it better’ in the future.

When you accept the offer to facilitate day after day, there is such a great opportunity to practice the art of being present … to enter a space with purpose yet being able to ‘let-go’ of how/what/when and respond to the group’s needs.

With each workshop I got better and better at getting out of the way of the group. By connecting people and ideas through conversations the group knew what mattered most, took responsibility and participated fully.

As for me … I simply opened up a space and then got out of the way of the group when I could. Occasionally leaning back in to offer something … and then stepping back (but not doing nothing – as Seth would say in Tribes).

My big Ah-ha learning was about rediscovering and seeing the power of conversations. Through conversation, the important stuff bubbles to the top and a shared understanding emerges. Relationships and networks between participants strengthens. As facilitators we need to remind ourselves that ‘it’s all about them’.

Cheers,

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May 24, 2009

Yes!And before Opening Space

In keeping with name of my blog, I used a quick Impro activity with a group before Opening Space on the weekend.

After re listening to this podcast at the 2008 OSonOS confernece, Chris Corrigan and Viv McWaters (and others) took my own understanding of the OS priniciple “Whatever Happens is the Only Thing that Could Have” to a new level.

I have always struggled to articulate the essence of this principle. In the podcast, Viv McWaters explains the importance of using Action Methods to help participants ‘experience’ the principles and not just ‘intellectualize’ them. Viv introduces us to the Impro gift of Yes!And and I decided to apply it on the weekend before Opening Space.

In practice, I simply asked people to form pairs, introduce themselves and then play a quick game. I call it ‘YesBut vs YesAnd’ (and learned it off Viv) …

I invited participants to imagine they were meeting up to quickly work out where they would stage their next work Christmas celebration. Once the first person makes a start on the conversation, I instructed that every subsequent idea had to begin with the words “YesBut” … after a minute or two I interjected and then instructed them to replace YesBut with the words “YesAnd”. A quick group discussion highlighted how much easier, effective and fun the YesAnd option is. In Impro, YesBut is a classic ‘block’ that we often see in our world. YesBut stops the flow of conversations, saps energy  and prevents new ideas from emerging.

I ‘forgot’ to re incorporate their experience of Yes!And when introducing the Open Space principle ‘Whatever happens in the only thing that could have happened’ … despite this omission, I think I managed to connect the group to this principle better than I have before. In the closing circle, a participant did it for me and said something like … “My experience of that YesAnd game helped me to understand the power of this space … and of today.”

Another participant approached me at lunch and said that my opening (of space) helped her to reframe many of the negative thoughts she had about events over the past 18 months.

Thanks to Chris for asking the question and recording the responses at OSonOS.

Geoff

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May 15, 2009

Doing More With Less

What’s Tiger Woods’ win at the 2008 US Open got to with high performance under stress? Allow me to share a quick story first …

Recently I facilitated a workshop when in the onset phase of ‘Gastro’. As participants arrived I suffered from weakness, nausea and waves of stomach cramps. If I was at home, I would have curled into bed, shut the door and placed a bucket by my side.

I disclosed my discomfort to my client and we decided to press on … 50 people had given up their evening to contribute critical thinking. The stakes were high.

Despite my own discomfort and pain, the workshop (by the account of the closing comments) was a big success. I was also surprised by my own performance and I learned (or re learned) something that I will try to hang onto to. Here it is …

My illness forced me, as an extrovert, to become introverted … quieter and less ‘notice-able’ than I usually am when playing the role of facilitator. In fact, I often slipped into the background and became almost invisible to the group and allowed the process to run it’s course. Chris Corrigan writes beautifully about The Art of Holding Space … in this case I was force to hold space in a different way to my default style. I was more effective than usual and by saying and doing less I ‘noticed’ more about what the group needed … I was then able to respond and support the group more effectively.

A Sporting Metaphor – Doing More With Less
I usually dislike sporting metaphors but this one has relevance.

Golfing fans will remember Tiger Woods stunning victory at the 2008 US Open, despite being hampered by an injured knee (which need a full reconstruction soon after). Tiger admitted later that his injury really helped him to focus more on ‘every shot’ he played. His swing has limited and this forced him to improvise and ‘do less’ … shortened his backswing which brought him more control and accuracy around a very tight layout.

My own golfing ‘turning point’ moment came when I had an injured shoulder when 16 years old. This shoulder injury forced me to shorten my swing which in turn force me to keep my head still. As a result my golf improved and the simpler, more compact swing became a permanent feature of my game.

In Sum …
Forced constraints (such as time, illness/injury) often lead to improvisation where we have ‘Do More with Less’ … look out for the big lessons that can be learned during these times.

Pain and suffering helps us to ‘let-go’ of outcomes and our own ‘expectations’ of high performance … and in my case this week … notice more about what is going on around me.

Geoff

Note: You should also read this book by Robert Poynton

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March 1, 2009

Why facilitation is necessary after a disaster

Created at Wordle.net

Viv McWaters and I chatted with Gil Brenson-Lazan about the role of facilitators in disaster recovery. Gil has 35 years experience in this area and a background in social psychology. He is a co-founder of the Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC).

You can download the podcast over here at Winkipod.

Gil Brenson-Lazan

Cheers

Geoff

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