Just ask. The answer might be ‘yes!’
22 January 2009Check out this photo. It announces some tour dates for Eric Bibb in Australia. Nothing strange about that. Now take a closer look. There’s a gig in Melbourne, capital of Victoria. Population 3.8 million. And another one in Hobart, capital of Tasmania. Population 205,000. And Meeniyan. Population 1006. Meeniyan. Where the…
Create your own fonts
4 January 2009Is there no end to cool stuff on the web!!!! I’ve just discovered via Nancy Duarte’s slide:ology blog (written by Mark Heaps) this great free font generator at yourfonts.com What have you discovered on the web lately?
Rediscovering typography (and converted to slideshows)
13 December 2008I’m rediscovering typography. Way back in the 1970s, when I got my first job, fresh out of agricultural college, I fell into a job that would shape me, influence my choices and provide me with knowledge and skills useful even now. Who would have thought? I had a pretty lowly job, but it was working…
Time
2 December 2008Thanks to Cyriel Kortleven for suggesting this blog topic. I’ve sat with this for a couple of days now – such a big topic, time. And now I know why I waited. Today my friend Chris Corrigan wrote a post reflecting on an open space event he’s been hosting. Here’s some of what he said:…
Insanely Great Slideshow Presentations
1 December 2008My friend Geoff Brown and I see some great slideshow presentations and lots of ordinary ones. We probably see more than most because of our work facilitating with groups. Many workshops include a slideshow presentation. We’ve decided to offer a one-day training course on how to make Insanely Great Slideshow Presentations. It’s actually insanely easy…
Getting serious about collaboration
20 November 2008I’ve been talking about collaborating for a while – now it’s actually happening. And it’s VERY exciting. Projects underway include a fantastic (even if I say so myself!) presentation skills workshop; a book about facilitating with confidence; and yet another book on facilitating and improv. These collaborations are happening locally, in NZ and in the…
Group Genius for people not in groups
2 November 2008I’m re-reading Keith Sawyer’s book Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration after hearing Keith speak at the improv conference in Chicago. Many of the things that Keith said resonated: Improv has important lessons for business – the group generates something better than even the best individual Improv is action without planning where the meaning…
A few ‘end of week’ links
31 October 2008Luke Weaver has written a nice paper (easy to read too) that explains the phenomenon Twitter. Read, then sign on and see for yourself what it’s all about. I love this return post by Hugh MacLeod on blogging – good to laugh at ourselves. Nick Smith has a nice post about our gifts to share.…
Fireworks
30 October 2008I was chatting with Andrew Rixon on skype, catching up and talking about the Applied Improv conference and this blog post emerged, as we were talking. This is my first emergent, collaborative blog post. Or as Andrew would call it, co-constructed, improvisational writing. Cool. Mind you, I think he emerges sounding smarter than me (not…
Improvisational writing
29 October 2008I did an amazing workshop at the improv conference on improvisational writing, with Denzil Meyers. Here’s what Denzil did. We were a small group of five or so people. It’s a process I’ll be trying more often… 1. Denzil gave us the word ‘island’ and we spent 5 minutes doing a ‘spoke’ association ie putting…