Category: Innovation

Keeping it fresh

1 September 2015 0

With lots of Creative Facilitation training under my belt, the challenge is to keep it fresh. The danger is complacency. Two things happened in today’s training that helped with the freshness. Actually, one happened even before I arrived. I’d decided I’d done enough preparation, so on the train to Melbourne, decided to read the paper…

By Viv McWaters

Facilitation and equilibrium

30 September 2014 5

Some beliefs and theories in facilitation have always bothered me. What appears to be sane and sensible on paper, in reality, just simply don’t stack up when working with a real, live group of humans. One of these is divergent thinking and convergent thinking. It presumes that people will engage in divergent thinking (coming up…

By Viv McWaters

What change looks like

21 August 2012 0

This TEDxHarlem talk by Jake Barton describes how we can move beyond the traditional (and mostly dysfunctional) public meeting and mobilise the community to be involved in creating a better future. As well as the messages about “re-imagining public participation” this talk highlights a few other things as well. Jake Barton uses story-telling to good…

By Viv McWaters

Meetings or Meetups?

8 April 2012 2

After September 11 in 2001 in New York strangers started saying hello to each other. There was a yearning for community, says Matt Meeker, co-founder of Meetup. Today meetup.com facilitates off-line group meetings on any imaginable topic, now in 101 countries. I’m new to Meetups. I participate in two Meetup Groups in Melbourne: The Creative Performance…

By Viv McWaters

Trying too hard

3 July 2010 4

Sometimes I find myself trying too hard. Trying too hard to impress, or to keep the peace, or to come up with a brilliant idea. And this despite that I know that I can’t do all or any of those things even some, let alone all, of the time – and certainly not on demand.…

By Viv McWaters