Rock Balancing

I learnt about rock balancing from my friend Chris Corrigan. Today as I was hiking the rim of the Tangkubanparahu Volcano in Indonesia, I couldn’t help stopping to try my hand again. Here’s the results.

Playing with open space (literally)

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be a part of the Australian Theatre Forum. I did a bit of facilitating (mind you it was a tad daunting standing up in front of 240 theatre folk, but that’s a story for another day) and enjoyed being a participant, yes, participant, in a one-day open space facilitated by Nick Sweeting of the Improbable Theatre Company in London.

I snatched a few minutes of Nick’s time to chat about open space and how come a producer is facilitating open space. You can listen  here at WinkiPod.

It’s people who matter

So often the ‘plan’ takes on a life of its own, seemingly more important than the people who will implement it. This is summed up perfectly in this example from Bill Seyle at 17 Word Street.

“…the marketing director started a session by sharing the stage with an easel that held a copy of the marketing plan. The marketing director didn’t say anything for a few minutes. He just stared at the marketing plan as if expecting it to talk. Finally he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, there stands the marketing plan. It hasn’t made a single sale.” He then began a rousing pitch for a committed effort from every sales rep. From time to time, he would stop and wait for the marketing plan on the easel to do something, then shrug and put the onus back on the reps. You could see the futility of depending on the plan to carry the day. You could feel the individual responsibility to launch the product successfully.”

Serendipity

Sometimes I love my work – it brings me in contact with people I might never meet. Like today for instance.

It was Open Space Day at the Australian Theatre Forum where I’m co-facilitating with Nick Sweeting from the Improbable Theatre Company in London (stay tuned for a Winkipod podcast with Nick coming soon). Nick was opening space while I was chilling out in the audience. I happened to be sitting next to another Londoner, Tim Joss, Director of the Rayne Foundation. Tim has published an e-book titled New Flow: A better future for artists, citizens and the state.

Here’s the blurb that goes with book: “Tim is the Director of one of the UK’s leading private Foundations supporting arts and culture. His key message in this new book is that artists’ contribution to our society and economy is not being properly or fully realised. His argument runs from the daily life of the solo artist to a radical recasting of state support. Following the Web 2.0 examples of writers, Charles Leadbeater and Lawrence Lessig, New Flow is published here in its first version. Comment and debate are invited and will inform a final version for publication in 2009.”

I’ve downloaded the book and look forward to reading it.

Let go – Gifts from improv

The simplest, most innocuous and hardest to implement gift from improv theatre. Let go. Let go of judging, yourself and others, and allow ideas to grow and evolve. Be surprised by where they, and you, end up.

Having just completed delivering some training in Open Space Technology I’m reminded how difficult this principle is to embrace, and how easy it is to do the opposite of letting go – taking control. It’s easy to fall into the trap of knowing best, being right and having the answer. Much harder to let go of all those judgements and be present to whatever emerges. 

One thing that is becoming increasingly clear as I write about these gifts from improv theatre is the interconnectedness of them all. Looks like I’ll have lots of opportunities to practice letting go this week.

Do something! – gifts from improv

I’ve been working my way through the set of six small cards I made to celebrate and share the gifts from improv theatre. One of the things I love about doing this is that I never know where inspiration will come from for my next post.

Today I visited Patti Digh’s blog 37 days, attracted by her latest post called Tapping Into the Generosity. I’ve written about generosity here and here and here, so was naturally attracted. Little did I know that this would spark a post about the improv gift –  ‘Do Something’.

Here’s what I found on Patti’s site – a meme about generosity.

The first five (cinq) (cinco) (5) people to respond to this post in the comments (on this blog) will get something made by me. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully…

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (No refunds… no exchanges!!!!) What I create will be just for you, with love from me. It’ll be done this calendar year (2009) and when you get it, you have to let me know it arrived.

I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you!! It will be handmade and may be any medium I choose. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!

I reserve the right to do something painterly or whatever – it may be just weird!

The original meme requires you to post this text into a note/post of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to it. I’m not going to require that of you. If you would like to do it, great. I encourage you to do it but it’s not a requirement.

So if you’re willing to take the risk and receive something completely hand made by me – made with love and generosity (I can’t guarantee skill or talent) then leave a comment below.

What I will have to do is ‘do something’ – ‘solutions lie in action – move your body! Try something. Anything. Follow your instincts.’ The essence of this gift is starting. Starting anywhere. And doing, rather than thinking about doing. It’s a seemingly innocuous gift, this one. But my, it’s a powerful one.

This is what improvising is all about. Accepting offers, taking risks, being creative, and willing to make mistakes. Creativity and mistakes go hand-in-hand. I’m willing to tap into my creativity, and just DO SOMETHING (it WILL be surprising, for you AND me!). How about it?

(If there’s more than 5 comments I’ll draw names out of a hat)

On Open Space Technology

Today, Fr Brian Bainbridge and I will be hosting some training in Open Space Technology. Last night, Harrison Owen posted this reply to a ‘newbie’ – someone just starting their Open Space journey. It’s so true!

I have a big secret. We are all amateurs, and all gifted with a 13.7 billion year old process that basically runs itself almost no matter what we do. Of course there are a few tricks of the trade, particularly when it comes to the ongoing use of OST and integrating it into the everyday life of organizations. I don’t think this is rocket science, but it will take some attention. Here is another big secret: All organizations are already in Open Space but they just don’t know it. Or in some cases, they do know it but it scares them to death. The point is, you are not bringing anything new — just helping them to remember what they already are, and be it better. 

All of that said — things do get better with practice, and in the case of Open Space that usually means discovering more and more things NOT to do.

In search of Kurt Vonnegut

It’s become clear that there’s a huge gap in my reading history. I’ve never read Slaughterhouse Five or Cat’s Cradle or Breakfast of Champions. So if you see me trawling second-hand book shops, you’ll know why.

Visualisation

In my last post I mentioned visualisation. This is my main way of preparing for a workshop. Once I have a general idea of what I will be doing I visualise myself doing it. Step by step. I rehearse what I will say. This most often happens when I’m immersed in something else – walking, riding my bike, swimming laps in the pool, sleeping (OK, not sleeping, but resting).

It’s doing this visualisation process that I often identify something I may need. It also alerts me to what I’m not really prepared for and suggests a bit of extra thinking or exploration may be in order. 

There’s no one right way to prepare for facilitating. I tried writing a script for a long while but it just didn’t work as well, for me, as visualising. How do you prepare?

Make mistakes! – gifts from improv

Recipes have their place. They provide a checklist and a reminder. They are a guide. And this is the beauty of recipes. There are two ways of writing a recipe. There’s the traditional approach that has a list of ingredients, followed by step-by-step instructions of what to do, with the occasional instruction to do something at the end to combine all the elements. 

Then there’s another approach which is written in a more conversationsl style with the ingredients highlighted in bold. 

Here’s an example (from Ross Dobson’s book 3 ways with…)

tropical pav

Break 6 – 8 small meringues into large pieces and place them in a serving dish. Lightly beat 125 ml pouring cream with 2 tablespoons icing sugar to form soft peaks. Spoon the cream over the meringues. Top with 2 thinly sliced bananas, a cubed mango and cover the fruit with 3 tablespoons passionfruit pulp.

I quite like this style because it helps me visualise what I need to do. And it works really well with complicated recipes.

And I’ve been watching a new reality TV program called Masterchef where contestants compete with each other to become the one Masterchef. About 7000 people auditioned and the show is focused on the 20 selected for the show. Those 20 were selected for their skills and for demonstrating a good understanding of the basics and for taking risks. Taking risks means that they sometimes fail, and also potentially have fantastic successes. It requires an understanding of what works and what doesn’t plus a willingness to try something new that sets these risk-takers apart form others who ‘play safe’. Playing safe ensures you don’t fail (usually) but it also ensures that you will probably not discover anything new or exciting. Or create something unique.

Which is all a way of introducing the second of my ‘improv gifts for faciltators’ cards – Make Mistakes.

In facilitation it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. You spend a lot of time and energy learning a particular process, have it mastered and when you use it, it works. Why wouldn’t you continue to use such a process? You probably will. My caution is to ask yourself why you are using it – because it helps deliver the outcome your client wants, or because you feel safe using it? 

Whenever I feel too safe or too comfortable facilitating, I use this as a spur to challenge myself, to explore what other approaches or processes might be suitable. Often, I’ll return to the tried-and-true process. Sometimes, I’ll take a risk and try something else. Sometimes I fail – and have to return to the basics. Other times I find a new approach that delivers. All times I learn something.