Connection and intimacy
21 January 2010I like this summary of how the internet enables us to stay connected. It’s also a good follow-up from my previous post. No surprises, but a good reminder of how the work landscape has changed in such a short time and how individuals are streets ahead of organisations. No surprises there, either!
Participation in the news
18 January 2010Rob Paterson has an interesting post on the differences between growing an audience and growing a community. I think he’s nailed it. “We don’t want a bigger audience – defined as passive transactional consumers of transactional content delivered on our terms. We want to have a deep attachment with our community – defined as their active…
A ‘sliding door’ moment
3 January 2010Funny how things turn out. Way back in the 1990s I took some Playback Theatre classes – my intro to improvisation. Then early in the last decade, in 2004, I discovered the Applied Improvisation Network (then known as Improv in Business) on the web and took myself off to their conference in San Francisco. I…
Possibility
22 December 2009Maybe it’s the time of the year – long days, warm evenings, sitting about with a bottle of wine, chatting with good friends. End of the year, beginning of a new one. Is it any wonder that ideas abound? That anything seems possible? I was listening to Sir Ken Robinson on the radio today. He…
Friends and community
15 December 2009This last week I was reminded just how valuable friends and community are, especially for those of us who (mostly) work alone. I was in India. Chennai. A city of some million people. I asked one of the Indian participants the population of Chennai. To be fair, he wasn’t from there, and his answer was,…
Community building with Playback Theatre
23 November 2009We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. Ben Sweetland My introduction to improvisation was via Playback Theatre. Playback is a form that uses real stories – moments and stories from the audience – as a basis for the enactment. The players use deep listening skills and metaphor to play…
Nick Owen keynote at the improv conference, Portland Oregon
15 November 2009Thought I’d try some live blogging. I’m at the Applied Improv Conference in Portland Oregon with about 100 other people. It’s day two – and Nick is our only keynote. The title of his session is called Touching the Heart: Exploring Core Values through Personal Storytelling. He’s doing some introductory stuff – building rapport with…
Beer for water
23 September 2009I just discovered this slideshow and the accompanying campaign. I think it’s a great idea. Check it out and see what you think. Beer for Water – What I Want For My Birthday View more presentations from Scott Schnaars.
A doorstop versus relationship rules
23 September 2009Many years ago I read a very good article about the differences between a Big Mac and the Naked Chef by Joel Spolsky. It was 2001. It’s about scaleability, and quality. And surprisingly, it’s still on the web, hence the link. The main premise was this: Some things need talent to do really well. It’s…
Open Space in action
20 September 2009For the past four years or so Fr Brian Bainbridge has been using the principles of Open Space Technology, and the process of OST, to transform the suburban parish where he is the Parish Priest. This is a remarkable story of transformation within one of the most bureaucratic and hierarchical of establishments – the Catholic…