A lovely description of what happens when the magic of conversation flows. This past weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a Quaker-style “clearness committee” with a few twists thrown in. I have done a few similar sessions in the past, though it has been a while, and once again it proved to be a remarkable experience. The impetus for the session was a friend who, acknowledging that she is at a crossroads in her life and career, reached out for help with discernment. My wife, Emily, and I suggested convening a small group of …
In this video piano soloist Maria Joao Pires is confronted with a nasty situation. As the conductor begins the piece of music they are to play, she discovers that it is not the piece she prepared. She has left her music at home Imagine that. Undaunted, she engages in a short conversation with the conductor who encourages her to play it any way – she played it last season, she knows the piece well. Pires digs ddep – you can see it in her face – and conjures up Mozart’s D minor concerto form the depths of her mastery. There …
Nice post on using the Cynefin framework to design an ideas generation workshop: At a workshop I facilitated last week – the challenge was helping a team to generate new ideas for innovating their business – I used Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework to great effect. This was a smart crowd, who were willing to go along with our approach on helping them see new directions through a process of emergent discovery – but they wanted to understand why we were following this approach. For the many cerebral folks in this crowd, I explained the Cynefin framework – and they got …
News from Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea about upcoming PeerSpirit Circle trainings, including a new advanced course. This may be some of the finest learning you will ever do with respect to learning about and working with groups: The PeerSpirit Circle Practicum gathers small groups of people at retreat centers for four-and-a-half days of intensive, experiential learning that blends council time with significant skill development. via PeerSpirit : Circle Training, Circle Process, Circle Practicum.
A colleague emailed today and asked me this question: “which tool do you use when you have to analyse the content of your harvest with groups?” My answer was that it depends on so much. Which means there is no one rule or tool but rather a principle. The principle would be this: “Participatory process, participatory harvest, simple process, simple harvest” The primary tool I use in complex decision making domains is diversity. A story. Once, working with the harvest of a a series of 4 world cafes that had about 100 people in each, I …