August 28, 2010

M*A*S*H* Up with Improv, Scientists & Alan Alda

On the eve of a month long trip away, Belina Raffy sent Andy Middleton and I this YouTube video featuring Alan Alda, some scientists and the Centre for Communicating Science – Stony Brook State University (USA).

For anyone who has been involved in workshops where I use Improv games, here’s a video to watch. For those who practice the art of Applied Improv with me, you know who you are … I think you’ll like this video. For me, this inspires me to do more and bring the gift of Improv to lives of more people and groups. Enjoy.

According to the Centre …

“Alda, the longtime host of PBS’ “Scientific American Frontiers” and a passionate advocate for solid popular science, has been leading an innovative effort to help scientists connect better with the public. Through the Center for Communicating Science, Mr. Alda has been teaching science graduate students to play improvisational theater games. The goal is not to turn them into actors, but to free them to talk about their work more spontaneously and directly, and to connect personally with their audience. Early reports from students say the workshops helped them in teaching, defending a thesis, and simply explaining their research to people outside their fields.”

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August 17, 2010

Starting somewhere … the next chapter

My last post  told the story leading up to a local community event in Aireys Inlet that happened on Sunday. I am part of a Transition Town project called “The Mangowak Harvest“.

Here’s the story of what actually happened (simply click <> through the slides at your own pace) …

If you liked this Story and want to share with others, here are a couple of things you can send them via email or the web

The url link to the Slideshow – http://www.slideshare.net/GeoffBrown3231/aireys-inlet-story-waw2010

The html code to allow the Story to embed into websites -

<div style=”width:425px” id=”__ss_4985572″><strong style=”display:block;margin:12px 0 4px”><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/GeoffBrown3231/aireys-inlet-story-waw2010″ title=”Aireys Inlet Story WAW2010″>Aireys Inlet Story WAW2010</a></strong><object id=”__sse4985572″ width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=aireysstorywaw2010-100816190855-phpapp01&stripped_title=aireys-inlet-story-waw2010″ /><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”/><embed name=”__sse4985572″ src=”http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=aireysstorywaw2010-100816190855-phpapp01&stripped_title=aireys-inlet-story-waw2010″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object><div style=”padding:5px 0 12px”>View more <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/”>presentations</a> from <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/GeoffBrown3231″>Geoff Brown</a>.</div></div>

Our community has questions of ourselves and our political leaders:

We have statements to make:

And working together, with children at the centre, is our operating principle

and looking after our own stretch of coast is core:

Cheers

Geoff

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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 23, 2010

What will it take?

A story and questions conjured from viewing, and brought to tears by, Boston.com images …

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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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April 7, 2010

When is enough … enough?

I am frustrated with my apathy … and the apathy of those around me in relation to the big challenges of our time. Climate change, social justice and inequality are just a few.

As we go about our normal lives, the Chinese tanker Shen Neng is grounded on a reef 40 kilometres to the  Northeast of Heron Island. We are talking about oil impacting one of the most pristine coral reefs on the planet. The Shen Neng, ironically, is carrying hundreds of tonnes of coal – bound for ‘whatever’ in China to fuel our insatiable appetite for ‘stuff’!

Image Source

Too often in life I/we/you play-it-too-safe. We fear criticism for being disruptive – Viv writes about being disruptive as a facilitator here and here.

Protest is, in part, about being disruptive and taking a stand against something that is wrong. You have to put yourself and your values on the line – criticism & cynicism will follow.

My friend Chris Corrigan is following the unfolding drama on the Douglas Reef with interest. He sent me an email in which he wrote from his own perspective in Canada …

The issue of oil tankers plying our pristine coast is very alive right now in the media and several First Nations who I worked with last fall have released a strong statement about tankers travelling through their ancestral marine territories.

http://coastalfirstnations.ca/News_Releases/news03231001.aspx

That declaration by those Nations puts a major tar sands pipeline at risk, which is a good thing.

“The issue of oil tankers plying our pristine coast is very alive right now in the media and several First Nations who I worked with last fall have released a strong statement about tankers travelling through their ancestral marine territories.

http://coastalfirstnations.ca/News_Releases/news03231001.aspx

That declaration by those Nations puts a major tar sands pipeline at risk, which is a good thing.”

As I sit here, typing away, I am passionate about playing a part in ‘saving this planet’ for everyone and everything … I want my kids to enjoy the pristine southern ocean when they get to ‘almost’ 40 years old.

And here’s the bit that rubs … I do more than most, but it ain’t enough anymore. It’s time to get more disruptive and stop playing it safe.

Geoff

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March 17, 2010

Agile Planning & observations of a facilitator

Neil Perkin penned this terrific post Agile Planning.

Image Source

This post resonated loudly with me because of the recent work I have been doing as a facilitator with Government agencies. Also, the upcoming Show Me The Change conference in Melbourne this May is also linked.

Here’s a snapshot of Neil’s Agile post:

We are all bombarded by change and it’s accelerating (and will not slow down) … the enterprise of the future will be hungry for change … but our current business/government are stuck in linear systems that are slow, top-down & inflexible …

“Our structures need to be more speedy. Speed used to kill now lack of speed kills. Lets have organizations that can iterate quickly and empower its folks to make decisions. Percolating decisions up and down an organization makes little sense” Rishad Tobaccowala

… being ‘agile’ is not a process or panacea – it’s a philosophy that you either have or you don’t … Agile is:

… welcoming of changing requirements, even late in development, because it is an opportunity to harness change for competitive advantage. Big business creates big projects that take a long time to confirm, implement, and complete. Projects are often stalled by hierarchical management processes.

… focused on frequent deliverables, with a preference for shippable product and shorter cycles, and implemented at a constant pace which is measured and transparent.

… centred around the belief that the best results come from self-organising teams. Teams that reflect regularly on how to become more effective, then adjust behaviours accordingly.

… projects are built around trusted, motivated individuals who are given the environment and support they need.

… documentation is kept to a minimum, with face-to-face communication preferred, and a focus on simplicity – maximising the amount of work not done.

Got it?

Recently, I have noticed the word ‘Agile’ showing up in the ‘Strategic Objectives’ of agency and corporate plans. Whilst it great to see that agility is being recognised in words, I see little evidence of agility being practiced. When we begin to talk about what organisations need to become to be agile in a complex environment, I notice a lot of push-back and fear. In fact recently, when I presented the features of High Reliability Organisations (HRO’s) the response was that they appeared ‘too risky’. In other words, many are fearful of letting go of control … and are not prepared to make (and learn from) mistakes. They are still caught up in the Tyranny of Excellence – of trying to be clever and get everything right. Listen to this podcast featuring Johnnie Moore, Viv McWaters and David Robinson to learn more about the Tyranny of Excellence.

And I really like this paragraph as it sums up my observations of the planning processes that so many of our large institutions are stuck in …

“I don’t claim here that agile development processes are some kind of cure-all. But I do think that business processes in many industries and organisations are woefully out-of-date and hopelessly rigid. Businesses increasingly operate in complex adaptive systems which, as Bud Caddell rightly says, are “characterized by perpetual novelty – talking of equilibrium is pointless, equilibrium in a complex adaptive system is essentially a dead system”. Inflexible, long-term strategic plans are increasingly irrelevant.” Neil Perkin

Show Me The Change

Ok, so what’s this conference got to do with Agility? Everything!!!!

Participants who are coming to Show Me The Change (deep down) know that our current approach to the design, staging and evaluation of behaviour change projects needs a re-think. We need to take stock and challenge our assumptions about behaviour change and the goals that we set. We have tinkered with ‘behaviour change’ tools and tactics for long enough. It’s time to go deeper.

In the context of ‘Behaviour Change projects’, agility is a mindset and NOT a set of processes, strategies and tools. It’s a philosophy that everyone involved adopts.

In practice, I think it involves these types of tangible features (some adapted from Dave Snowden’s post here):

1. Do lots of little things rather than 1 big thing – Don’t put all your resources into 1 strategy … now matter how much ‘planning’ and research you have done
2. Don’t be afraid to experiment and some things will fail – We often learn more from failure than success anyway
3. Design projects that can be ‘monitored’ – By monitor I mean we can quickly notice if things are working or not. It’s no good if you need to wait 12 months for the data you need!
4. Beware of ‘Best Practice’ and the success of others - Why? Because your context is different. Just becasue a series of home assessments lead to a reduction in household energy use in Town A, it doesn’t mean the same will apply in Town B
5. Challenge the ‘Goals’ and ‘Evaluation Measures’ imposed on you by funders – Often we get asked to report a whole heap of indicators that are useless. At times, even the underlying goal of a project is unattainable … it’s aspirational at best. Don’t get sucked in to being ‘measured’ against such goals/aims. Have these conversations early.
6. Challenge the direction and priorities of your project as it emerges – If you pay attention and monitor your project, new insights will emerge. Many will be unexpected and point to new priorities. Don’t be afraid to challenge your project plan and re work it along the way. Again, have these conersations early on.
7. Collect and share Stories – Stories of failure and success are critical. Stories are memorable and they stick. Analysis of stories can uncover patterns that data analysis misses.
8. Don’t be fearful of failure – Did I say that already?

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July 30, 2009

A Whole Minded Performance Story Report

A report that I proudly co-authored is now available! It tells a story about a project called Castlemaine 500 (which I also helped to orchestrate) … it’s successes, failures and the lessons learned. It is also an example of how an evaluation report can come alive with design, cartoons and stories!

The Castlemaine 500 Performance Story Report was recently launched. You can watch interviews with participating households here. The best summary of the project is contained in the report though!

If you want a hard copy of the report booklet email me. If you want to download it click here.

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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May 5, 2009

I wonder if this idea will catch on?

Here’s yet another short-term solution to landfill problems. Take the old advertising billboards (made from toxic PVC) and turn them into art. Helps beautiful spaces and keep nasty stuff out of landfill.

Hopefully we’ll get smart and future billboards that get pulld down will be made from materials that could be taken away by landscape gardners and used as mulch mats … or something similar.

But for now … I like this solution!

Geoff

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May 5, 2009

Bring people together & give them something to do

Over at Faris’ blog here, he writes about a company that brought loads of people together and gave them something to do as a part of their branding . Watch for yourself.

Faris writes …

Let’s apply this principle to all Sustainability Projects, Conferences and Gatherings in the future. For me, the key here is that the ‘crowd’ are given the power. The crowd can contribute to the outcomes and they are not treated as ‘consumers’ or ‘spectators’ (even though the whole thing is staged an is about selling stuff).

An event like this also creates Word of Mouth (WoM) about your ‘thang’. People talk to other people about stuff that inspires them.

Open Space Technology is an approach to running workshops and conferences. When people come together in Open Space, the people/crowd/delegates create their own agenda and are responsible for their own outcomes. The participants are supported to self organise and contribute fully. An attractive and provocative theme provides the direction and reason for being there and our social instincts take over from there. It just works!

Faris Jakob can also to heard here in this Slidecast presenting about Social Media …

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May 5, 2009

Solutions for our Cities

Now here’s an entertaining little video called Future Cities from the World Science Festival. Here’s the description of the video …

“We stand at a crossroads. Cities must change radically to achieve long-term sustainability. Energy, food and water sources, transportation systems and basic infrastructure, must all adapt to emerging pressures from climate change, dwindling resources and growing urban populations.
Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer as well as a partner in Terreform, a New York–based organization for philanthropic architecture and ecological design. His design of a compact, stackable “city car,” developed with the MIT Smart Cities Group, won the 2007 Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year.”

Here’s the video (enjoy

Future Cities from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Why I like this?

Because these ideas know no boundaries. I think that the transportation of people (and food) is one area we can get dramatic chang ein over the next decade, particularly in cities. I like the boldness of these new designs and the ‘audacity’ to come up with stuff that is so different to what we have now.

Geoff

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April 12, 2009

Use More!?

Hat Tip to Mark Earls over at Herd for this one …

Anyone in the ‘sustainability’ field knows the ‘Use Less’ mantra when it comes to stuff we purchase and throw away. It’s important.

Enter Christian Erickson, Chad Hancock and Greg Wurm (aka Zeus Jones). In January 2009, Zues Jones won the Minneapolis regional PhizzPop competition. As a result of winning, they moved on to the national final at SXSW in Austin to compete against the winners of the other regional competitions.

The core concept of these regional comps was: a 3-person team conceives, designs and presents a solution to a fictional brief in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. They had 3 days to prepare and 7 minutes to present. Here’s a little about there idea …

“So our idea came from the idea that instead of focusing on using less – something that is important, but well-covered by others – we should focus on doing more with the resources that we already have. And to distance it further from the traditional thinking around sustainability, we gave it a provocative name: USEMORE.” Christian Erickson, Chad Hancock and Greg Wurm

The best thing to do is watch their idea here on this Vimeo video … personally I think they are onto a great idea. It’s a way of wrapping up LETS schemes and car pooling all into a simple social media application. The sky’s the limit really.

Zeus Jones Phizzpop SXSW Finale from Zeus Jones on Vimeo.

The other thing about this story is the ‘pitch’ and the use of video to present an idea.

You can read more about these guys over at their blog here

Geoff

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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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November 18, 2008

It takes a ‘field’ to hold a ‘field’ – Progress toward community sustainability

I rarely write long blog posts, but something has happened in my home Shire in 2008 that I must share with you! It relates to sustainability … community capacity … government and NGO partnerships … and a project team willing to allow direction and activities to emerge over time. It’s an exciting story with even greater possibilities for the future. This story also relates to the lessons our team learned in staging the Castlemaine 500 project.

Last weekend I had the privilege of co-facilitating a sustainable transport workshop with participants in the Surf Coast Shire’s Casuarina project. In 2008, an ‘eco’ stream of the Casuarina Project has seen 17 local, community leaders come together over 7 full days and learn new skills and build the self awareness and the confidence to go out and run their own community projects. The Casuarina project started way back in 2001 and was developed by the wonderful Viv McWaters with the equally wonderful Di Mahoney cooordinating the show from the Surf Coast Shire. I was a participant in that inaugural year and feel honored to be facilitating the new crops of local leaders!

I must say we have a great group of participants this year who have really ‘clicked’ with each other. We have formed an online Collective X community and it is thriving!

Here’s a very rough 3 minute sketch of what Casuarina is all about …

Together with the Eco Casuarina participants, I designed an interactive workshop that focused on Sustainable Transport in the Surf Coast Shire. The Surf Coast Shire, together with the Victorian State Government’s Sustainability Fund, sponsored the project in 2008.

Enter the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and their Green Homes Program. The ACF have run community workshops in the Surf Coast on topics like saving Energy, Water and Waste in the home and their 4th workshop (Transport), was run by me and the Eco Casuarina team on their behalf. Eco Cas participants were able to participate in the previous workshops and ‘hone’ the skills they have learned in Eco-Cas by watching, listening and participating in Green Homes. So, in a nut shell, the national Green Homes program was adapted by local people, given a local focus and some local ownership sprinkled in.

So why is this exciting? Well, this little transport workshop has pulled together many players in a complex field … the field of tackling climate change and building stronger communities. State Government, 2 arms of Local Government (enviro & community building departments), local community leaders and the ACF have all combined their skills and resources to create a little splash … but one that could lead to many future ripples.

I’ll write more about this unfolding story in the near future.

Here is the slideshow we used (along with some funky blues guitar) to kick start the workshop and get participant’s asking questions and thinking deeply about the future of transport in the Surf Coast Shire.

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