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The tyranny of flipcharts

October 23, 2010 By Art of Harvesting, Art of Hosting, Facilitation, World Cafe 7 Comments

Flipcharts.  Let me count the ways that we are tyrannized by them:

1. Power accretes around a flipchart. The next time you are in a meeting, see if you can tell where the front of the room is.  It’s likely that, even if you are in a circle, the “front” will be where the flipchart is.  As I wrote this I am in an Open Space meeting where people are gathered around flipcharts, and rather than organize in tight circles, several groups are arranged in semi circles facing one person holding a marker and writing on the flipchart.  This defeats the purpose of a conversation in which every voice is equal.  Who controls the flipchart, controls the story.  Be very careful about having an easel stand in the room.  People are easily silenced and controlled by them at a deep unconscious level.

2. We have to write everything down.  Having a flip chart in a meeting seems to demand that everything spoken gets written down for all to see.  This does not facilitate a good flow in a conversation, and it is rarely a useful harvest of a discussion.  In free conversations, not everything is useful, not everything is weighted the same, not everything matters.

3. Flipcharts are linear beasts. Unless you use a flipchart creatively, such as by mind mapping or the way Jim Rough does it in Dynamic Facilitation, flipcharts are useless linear beasts.  Most people simply write lists of points on them, in sequential order and when the page is full, they flip it over and keep writing.  Wisdom disappears over the fold, every point is given equal weight and conversations tend to proceed in linear ways rather than emergent ways.

4. Renting easel stands is a scam. Hotels charge exorbitant rates to rent a flipchart stand.  It is not un common for these things to go for $50 a day and at one hotel I worked at, the Sheraton in Atlanta, they charged $170 for a flipchart stand with half a pad of news print paper on it.  NEVER rent them.  (Look at this scam!)

5. Post it flipchart pads are a bigger scam. If you use flipcharts in any kind of creative way you will have already discovered that the overpriced post-it flipcharts are incredibly confining.  You can only hang them one way, it is difficult to cut them into smaller pieces, it is awkward to roll up notes at the end of a meeting because everything sticks to everything else.  Give me a pad of 75 sheets of large white paper, and I’m happy.  I can cut them into quarters for Open Space topics, or tape them on a wall together to make large murals, or cover cafe tables with them. Seventy-seven dollars for a pad is plain wrong.

So what is a GOOD way to use flipcharts and easels?

1. Put the paper in the middle.  In small meetings, say in a board room, take the paper off the easel stand and put it flat on the table.  If possible, allow everyone access to the paper so that multiple notes can be taken.  Putting the harvest tool in the middle of the table allows everything we are doing to be directed towards the centre.  This is the basis of the way we harvest in World Cafe and it is brilliant.  It democratizes the harvesting tools in a powerful way.  Your conversations WILL be different.

2. Make a mind map.  Get used to taking notes in a non-linear way.  Mind maps are much better ways to capture the essence of a conversation because the group can see linkages and watch the emerging whole of the conversation.

3. Use easels to make signs.  Easels are useful for static signs pointing out times and places, instructions and so on.  The moment they become the focus of attention, you will notice that they play on different levels.  The note taker is above the group, and the notes are elevated.  In improv we call this a status game.  So neutralize the status.  Use easels for signs.

4. See what you can do with tape, scissors and paper. Tape helps you make flipchart pads bigger by taping several sheets together.  Scissors help you make flipchart pads smaller.  In these three tools you have everything you need to scale your work.

5. Learn how to do graphic recording. The Grove teaches this skill.  And what I love the best about the graphic recorders I work with is how they quietly listen and create harvests without being a dominating presence in a room.  even though the murals they create are huge, their presence is small as they are working, allowing groups to focus on conversation and listening rather than “speaking to the record.”  Also, learning to use basic graphic recording tools such as icons, diagrams and pictures helps make your own notes less linear, more meaningful and more useful in general for a group.

So, banish the easel, liberate the pads, be creative, be aware of power.  Have fun.

Inspiring hope and change

October 22, 2010 By BC, Being, Collaboration, Community, Open Space, World Cafe One Comment

From my recent work in the labour movement, a quote to inspire you in your work for social change:

Howard Zinn: ”Ž”To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we… see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

I’m in Prince George today and tomorrow working with the BC Government Employees Union in a great regional conference that is looking at forging the links between unions and communities.  There is much organizing capacity and heart based action in the labour movement and much need on the ground here in the north of the province.  Putting one to work on the other is a huge and easy capacity building thing to do.

So today a cafe on where we can go to work in community to make a difference, and tomorrow a short Open Space for people to ground action and make some plans to get out there.

A witness to history

October 20, 2010 By BC, Collaboration, First Nations, Open Space 4 Comments

In the middle of a four day gathering of indigenous child and family services organizations here in British Columbia.  I’m back in my room even though it’s after lunch and our meeting was supposed to have restarted because history just got made.

To understand what this means, you have to have an appreciation of how the state has related to indigenous communities in this country since colonization began.  The essence is that tools of law and legislation have been used repeatedly to deny the jurisdiction, rights and responsibilities of First Nations from nearly the moment European governments set eyes on this continent.  Nowhere has that become more of a hot point than with the issue of children.

For more than 100 years the stated policy of the federal governments was to place First Nations children into the care of the state and the churches by sending them to residential school.  The residential school system was designed originally to educate the “Indian out of the child” and to assimilate people by breaking up communities, punishing kids for speaking their language and subjecting them to slavery, by forcing them to work to keep the schools running.  This one policy alone has left a legacy of unhealthy family structures, weakened cultures and multiple generations of vulnerable children. When the provincial government stepped into to take responsibility for children in the 1960s the infamous “sixties scoop” happened whereby kids were removed from their families to be raised by non-native familes.  By the 1980s the sixties scoop had ended and the residential school system was shut down.  From that time onwards, Aboriginal kids were at the mercy of the non-Aboriginal child welfare system.  In BC alone, the percentage of kids in care who were Aboriginal skyrocketed to today where it is now more than 50%.

In the last 20 years, First Nations have become more proactive in creating their own child and family services agencies and taking back responsibility and later control over the system.  Starting at a historic meeting in 2002 in Tsawassen, BC, the provincial government began the process of recognizing the authority of First Nations communities to look after their kids.  A process that began in 2002 (which I was involved in primarily on Vancouver Island) saw the creation of regional authorities around the province to oversee the establishment of First Nations child welfare systems.  These authorities, had they been passed into law, would have taken all responsibility short of law making authority and placed it in the hand of communities through regional authorities.

The problem with the regional authority model was that it didn’t work well with the inherenet jurisdiction of the First Nations governments in BC.  Problems began to appear in 2007 between the provincial political leadership and the leaders of the regional authorities.  At the last minute, literally as the enabling legislation was to hit to the floor of the Provincial legislature, the provincial political leadership – against the wishes of many First nations cheifs – shut the process down.  For a couple of years we were back to the status quo, and things looked grim.

But behind the scenes, the provincial ministry of child and family development was working to transform the child and family services syste.  Led by a deputy minister, Leslie Du Toit, the ministry worked to help nations develop their own systems and did it from a position of recognizing the authority and jurisdiction of First Nations to care for their kids.  As a result the 15 and more projects that are gathered here got off the ground, reestablishing a child and familiy services system that is deeply ingrained in the cultural, spiritual and political power of the Nations themselves.  It has been a hugely decolonizing experience (the children of the Haida Nation even wrote their own declaration of their rights which is to be passed into law).

So things are ticking along and this has brought us to today where we have gathered 120 people to share their experiences and accelerate their work together.  It has been a good meeting so far, conducted in ceremony and working productively and positively.  Today the deputy minister made an announcement though that has rocked us all.  She announced today that provincial government was now opening the door for First Nations and Metis groups in BC to create their own legislation to replace the Child and Family Services Act and to enbale indigenous child and family services systems to be established and supported designed and delivered by the Nations themselves.  It is the first time anyone can remember the colonial government ever stepping out of the power they have and giving over the legislative jurisdiction to First Nations.

Suddenly our meeting has got a lot more interesting.  Accompanied by the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn A-in-shut Atleo, she stood for the principle that only a system created by the people for whom is it intended will be the right system.  Everything we have been working towards suddenly is a reality.  The chiefs are excited, the people who have been developing and delivering the indigenous systems are elated that their work will be made the formal system for their people in the province and everyone is buoyed by the right thing happening at the right time.

Suddenly we are all on the same side.  My long time mate David Stevenson who is an Art of Hosting steward is right at the centre of the work in his job as the Executive Director of Aboriginal Services for the Ministry.  Many other people who were with us through the regionalization process on Vancouver Island including Marion Wright, Kyra Mason, Pearl Hunt, Bruce Parisian and others are here celebrating and preparing for the hard work ahead.  We are taking a break now while we get ready to go to the Sts’ailes longhouse for an evening of singing and speaking in ceremony.  Tomorrow when we come back to work, we’ve thrown out our agenda and will just spend a half day in Open Space to articulate the opportunities that we have among us, all of us hosting together the very first steps on what will become the next chapter in a historic journey.

Twenty years of intense bliss

October 19, 2010 By Being, Poetry 2 Comments

October 19, 1990 in Peterborough, Ontario was a dark and cold autumn day with sleet falling and grim grey cloud.  The only light at all was the fact that I met my beloved partner Caitlin Frost that day.  Here is my anniversary poem for her.

On a sleet driven day
when the sky split into a million bits of darkness
and rained down on the groggy morning
I could never imagine
that what was falling
was me for you.

May you all know the love I have been lucky enough to be blessed with.

Engaging from deep principles

October 19, 2010 By First Nations

Nenan is a child and family services initiative serving the treaty 8 region of northeastern BC.  Have a look at their work here for simple, direct, culturally based ways of engaging everyone in their community as they create a new system deeply rooted in culture and integrated world views.

Nenan has utilized the Circle of Rights Community Empowerment Process (formerly Triple A) in many communities in the north-east providing an invaluable wealth of information on the strengths, assets and resources- specifically culturally based, as well as risks and challenges to supporting children and families. A deep exploration of community values has also been undertaken providing a wonderful foundation from which systems and services will be built upon.

A grounding principle of the Circle of Rights approach is that the wisdom of Elders and community members,   including young people, will be central to the redesign of services for children and families to ensure the strengths of the past and present are respectfully applied to creating holistic, strength based services for children today and for generations to come

There is a fine art in doing this work to surface the values that are inherent in the language and way of life and translate them into principles and ways of working without trivializing them or minimizing them or creating boiler plate statements.  The 15 projects that are gathered here at the conference I am co-hosting in harrison Hot Springs are feeling their ways through, and producing marvelous work.