Tom Salinsky’s improv wisdom
2 July 2012I’m at Improvention in Canberra – a festival of improvisers from all over Australasia, and a smattering from elsewhere. There’s shows, and competitions, and workshops, and serious discussions, and partying, and lots of coffee and other beverages. I feel like an imposter. There, glad I got that off my chest. And that’s all I’m going…
Facilitation in pictures
25 April 2012In March I was delighted to facilitate a workshop at the Malaysian Facilitators’ Conference in Kuala Lumpur. And yesterday, “The world is getting smaller and smaller”, wrote a friend in an email. “Recently I contracted an artist for a project and saw this on her blog.” Thanks to the amazing Wendy Wong of Welenia Studios…
Influencing and being influenced
28 December 2011Here’s another gym-inspired post. This time I was noticing how I run faster on the treadmill and generally try harder when there’s someone else on the next treadmill. If they’re faster than me (and most of them are) I’ll try and go faster too. If they’re slower than me, I notice a slight sense of…
Joy and delight
9 December 2011Wouldn’t you like to have more of whatever it is that’s making the people in this pic react this way? You bet. The cause of all this joy and delight is bubbles. The sort of bubbles that you blew as a child, and that you thought you’d outgrown. Seems none of us outgrow the pleasure…
How to be more playful
29 November 2011I’m always banging on about bringing playfulness – which can be an attitude, a point-of-view, an approach – to work, to problem solving, to meetings, to life. “But how?” I hear you asking. Here’s a few ideas: Have a play space – a space at work or in a conference for people to play: shooting…
What does ‘edges of work’ mean?
13 September 2011A long time ago I learnt of a very useful tool called the wave analysis*. It uses the metaphor of the wave to explore elements of any practice. It’s a useful model because it helps categorise practices and the wave metaphor is dynamic and can be taken further to include undercurrents, rips and even whitewater!…
Meetings. How can we make them better?
2 September 2011Recently my friend Chris Corrigan wrote about objections to participation in conferences and meetings. One of his key points was the question of who is responsible for the experience. Often it rests with the organisers, or in the case of a meeting, the chairperson or convenor. We are all responsible for our meetings. This is…
Spend a day exploring the edges of work
1 September 2011About 16 years ago, I made the leap from full-time employment and started my own business. I agonised over a business name. I wanted something that would last the distance, and not lock me in to some sort of work that I’d outgrow. I eventually settled on Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd. I was initially…
Good advice
31 August 2011Two things caught me eye in the newspaper this week. Sarah Wilson was writing about trusting the process. She was referring to the creative process – the sometimes messy, unconnected, seemingly random process that we go through when being creative. The secret? Just start. Good advice. And the other was an interview with Eva Cox,…
What can facilitators learn from Steve Jobs?
26 August 2011Here’s some quotes from Steve Jobs on design: “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked.…