Risk
23 October 2007I want to take more risks. I want to succeed spectacularly or fail miserably. My greatest fear is to be mediocre – safe. And I want the resilience to ride out the failures. What’s your advice?
Learning as a process
7 October 2007“Too much facilitation – not enough training” This was a comment made by a participant in one of my training programs recently. Which got me thinking – how do we reconcile the need that some folks have for a ‘recipe’ – just tell me what to do and I’ll do it – as opposed to…
Loving Uncertainty
5 October 2007OK I know it’s a bit out-of-date, but I’ve been travelling. An article in the August 4 edition of New Scientist is titled ‘Can we learn to love uncertainty?’ by David Malone, an independent documentary film-maker. He argues that certainty precludes further thinking. If we’re sure of something, we don’t need to think about it…
More Japanese inspiration
3 October 2007Anyone who reads this blog will know that I’ve written recently about the extraordinary similarities between Aikido (a Japenese martial art) and facilitation; and Haiku poetry as a reflection process. And today I discover Pecha Kucha (which literally means 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide) – learn more and see a demo by Daniel…
Solutions-Focus to the rescue
21 September 2007I’m grateful to my collagues Sharon McGann and Paul Jackson for introducing me to the solutions-focus (SF) approach – as yet again, SF has saved the day! In my last post I talked about some of the challenges of facilitating in Armenia – a post-Communist country where new ways of engaging the community and taking…
Facilitation in Armenia
16 September 2007I’ve just finished a week’s work in Armenia working with folk who are trying to encourage community engagement, citizenship and social accountability in a post-Communist environment. it was an interesting and challenging experience. Some impressions on Armenia. I have absolutely NO IDEA how the pedestrian crossing system works in Yerevan (the capital) – green lights…
Are we really in control of our thoughts & actions?
16 August 2007There was a really interesting article in the July 7 issue of New Scientist, written by UK writer, Mark Buchanan. It’s all about human behaviours and what influences what we do – the premise being that humans, like other animals, are influenced by their environment and by routines, meaning that a lot of behaviour can…
Different levels of strategy
14 August 2007Last week I heard a friend, Stephen Petris, talk about his view of strategy in organisations. It made a lot of sense. I’ll try and capture the essence of his message. He was mainly referring to government organisations. Corporate strategy encompasses the essence of the organisation – what it costs to exist and what value…
Metaphor to the rescue!
10 August 2007Imagine this. You have nearly 200 people in a room. It’s getting towards the end of a long day of travelling, meetings and workshopping – and you’ve promised to do some Social Network Analysis. You have about 30 minutes. That’s the scenario I found myself in this week. I know people (Andrew Rixon) who know…
Jumpstart Stories
10 August 2007I’ve used Jumpstart Stories twice now with great and surprising results. This activity is done standing up in a tight circle – up to 10 people per group for large groups. Each person has 90 seconds to tell a story about the topic. After the first round people find a new group and retell the…