Excited and enthusiastic

About six months into my first real job, I discovered that I wasn’t their first choice. The  person they wanted declined so I was offered it because of my enthusiasm. That sorta left an impression. Can you tell?

I’m at my best when I’m excited and enthusiastic. So just lucky there’s a couple of projects on the horizon that I’m excited and enthusiastic about. Hopefully I’ll be able to reveal more soon.

Quantity

I guess we’ve just about all heard the story about Art and Fear by now. It goes something like this:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work—and learning from their mistakes—the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

I thought I might do a little experiment of my own here, after all it’s my blog and I can do what I want! I’m going to publish something here every day during August. I can’t wait. I’m starting now. At least it’ll be interesting to see what emerges. And it will allow me be more average.

Hat tip to Patti Digh and David Robinson for reminding me of this.

Friends

Don’t you think it’s interesting how twitter and facebook and whatever else is out there reflects the school yard? The way we now have ‘levels’ of friends? I suppose it’s a way to try and manage all these people we’re now connected with one way or another.

I think real friends are pretty precious. They’re not just people we met at a conference who we find interesting – they’re willing to be connected in a way that nourishes both of us.

Then there’s the phenomenon of following someone on twitter, for example, a complete stranger to begin with and over time, coming to sort of know them. I say sort of, because I’m not convinced we can really know someone well without meeting them in the flesh. But then again, I’ve been wrong about lots of other things!

On the whole, I’m pretty happy with being connected in all sorts of ways to all sorts of people – some of whom I’ve met, some I haven’t. And I still enjoy that great feeling of being with someone with whom I just click, and the way we can enjoy each other’s company without having to work at it, without having to, heavens forbid, network. Thats’ why I’ll continue to travel in all ways possible – electronic and real. Oh, and I’m still waiting for that cool George Jetson travel thingy that will make travel SO much easier!

Best and worst conference experiences

Every now and again – about once a decade in fact – I agree to become involved in designing and delivering a conference.

Why so infrequently? I have some specific requirements before I’m willing to devote considerable time and energy to putting on a conference.

I need to believe in the conference topic. I need to work with people open to possibility. And I need the freedom and support to take risks.

This scenario seems to be playing out right now and I’m enjoying the challenge and thinking that goes into this type of conference design. And I’m interested in your best and worst conference experiences.

Here’s a couple of mine.

Best: Using Playback Theatre to revisit our experiences and close a conference; the amazing, surprising people I’ve met at Open Space on Open Space gatherings; memorable celebrations, one of the best when my friend Geoff wrote a blues song, The Facilitation Blues, to celebrate the Naked Facilitator Conference; ‘famous’ people who are accessible.

Worst: A community engagement conference that had no engagement, just a never-ending series of presenters and bad powerpoint; high profile keynote speakers who bore the pants off everyone (actually if everyone took their pants off, it would probably be worth it!); and sessions that advertise one thing and deliver something else entirely, usually a (bad) presentation by the ‘facilitator’ about how good they are at what they do.

I’d really be interested in some of your best and worst conference experiences.

No regrets decision making

I’m a bit wary of certainty. And sure, I like a bit of certainty as much as the next person. If I’m really honest, I’d let my inner control freak out and say I like being in control. That’s why my work is a constant challenge – staying open to possibility, exploring, being curious and staying engaged. I’m wary of people who have the answer – and it’s usually described as the ‘thing we’ve been waiting for’, the process or approach that is going to cut through all the complexity and mess we humans are prone to create and give us insight, or certainty, or even the ‘answer’.

I take part in a few email discussion lists. Sometimes people will ask for advice and there will be a rush of replies that basically say ‘I have the answer you need’. I don’t buy it.

So that means I’m also wary of goals, and objectives, and targets – not to mention key performance indicators and the like, but I digress. If I set a goal and focus on that, might I miss some opportunity because I’m so focused on the goal? And that is exactly what I mean by not having an answer. That question, I think, is unanswerable. In fact, I’m not really interested in the answer, it’s the dilemma that interests me. The exploration. But it’s so much easier to come up with answers, conclusions, outcomes – even if they are ultimately meaningless.

I am variously challenged and inspired by my friends Chris and Johhnie who have also written on this topic recently.

In the last week or so I’ve experienced for myself the highs and lows of certainty – or uncertainty, depending on your persepective!

My friend Brenda and her son Cameron helped me do some long overdue tinkering with my web site and email (and such nebulous entities known as servers and domains). What we expected might take a couple of hours took days – and is still underway (hence the lack of photos on my blog at the moment). When it comes to the internet I’ve found a curiousity, combined with trust in people who actually know what they are doing, invaluable. Otherwise it’s just plain frustrating.

At the other end of the spectrum was the beginning of a process to collaboratively design a conference. Doesn’t sound like a big deal really. But it provides enormous scope for sitting with uncertainty, exploring and taking some risks, and treading that uncertain terrain of outcomes versus experience. It’ll be a roller-coaster of a journey and one I’m looking forward to.

And here’s what I’ve seen as a symptom of this need for certainty – the inability to make a decision. So wary are we of making the ‘wrong’ decision, we make no decisions at all. Even small decisions. It means we remain in a holding pattern of uncertainty. So instead of finding the uncertainty something to inspire us, we wallow in it. A farmer once described to me his philosophy around decision making – at a time when his decisions could be the difference between being in business or looking for a new job. He called it ‘no regrets decision making’. Nice.

BTW, Barry Schwartz has spoken about the paradox of choice in this TED talk. Well worth a look.

The joys of collaborating

Collaborating has become a bit of a buzz word, and as such, over-used. And I think we often use the term ‘collaborate’ when we really mean co-ordinate or co-operate.

I really like Shawn Callahan’s use of the Cynefin framework to explain the difference between each of these. Basically it’s like this:

When you’re operating in the known/simple domain where cause and effect have a direct relationship, co-ordination is what’s needed.

When you’re operating in the knowable/complicated domain,where cause and effect are still linear, but often separated by time and/or space, co-operation is useful because it brings in people with different knowledge and skills, often experts.

And when you find yourself in the complex domain, where effects may be felt before causes are known, collaboration is useful.

Shawn writes: “Collaboration works well for complex situations because the style of working collaboratively matches the nature of the issues that complex situations pose. Complexity is unpredictable, and collaborating is adaptable; complexity is messy – it’s difficult to work out the question, let alone the answer – and collaborating involves bringing together a diversity of people and talents to improvise and test possible approaches, all learning as you go. Complexity offers unique and novel conundrums, and collaboration draws on a deep foundation of trust to that fosters creativity and delivers innovations.”

I’m fortunate to have some great collaborative projects coming up, providing us with opportunities to explore the joys of collaborating. I think some of these are:

Help me with a pecha kucha presentation?

Pecha kucha. 20 slides x 20 seconds each = 6 minutes 40 seconds. You can read all about it here.

I love this approach to presentations. I’ve yet to try it – but that’s about to change! I have to do a pechu kucha presentation on Thursday. That’s the day after tomorrow. I found out about two hours ago. That’s OK. I don’t mind a deadline. I like the challenge.

I have to present to a group of fellow consultants who I’m likely to work with in the future. They don’t know me and I don’t know them. We’ll all be using pecha kucha to share our interests and expertise.

I like this comment about a pecha kucha presentation from Felix Jung.  It should be ‘passion, not portfolio’. Nice.

And here’s where I’d like your help. Let’s make it a collaborative project. I’ll post the final product here.

From what you know about me and my work, what would you include in a 20 slide x 20 second per slide presentation?

I’m off to start work. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Facilitating: More lessons from the field

The last couple of months have been so busy I’ve hardly had time to think about what I’ve learned, and sometimes, re-learned. So, now with a bit of precious time available, here’s a few bits and pieces that I’m recording here so as I don’t forget. Some of them might be useful for you too.

Look for patterns

Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s going on. Stand back. Get out of the way. Watch, listen. Don’t do anything. Stay out of the way for what seems like way too much time. And then some. Ignore the glances from the participants wondering what you’re doing – or why you’re not doing anything. Look for patterns. See if the same words or phrases are repeated. Who’s talking? Who’s not? Resist the urge to jump in and ‘fix’ something. Wait. Then act.

Model behaviours

Sometimes the only person you can rely on to act the way you’d like is, well, you. So that’s all you can do.

Just try it!

Not sure if it will work? Try it anyway. The worst thing that can happen is it won’t work and you’ll have to do something else. The best thing is that it will, and no-one will ever know that you didn’t know if it would work or not! Confused? So am I.

Recognise and stay with ‘the struggle’

When the going gets tough, they’ll take it out on anyone, including the facilitator. They’ll attack the process, anyone who’s not present, even the timing and the venue. Sometimes it’s so predictable I have to resist the urge not to laugh. Be the container for all those comments. Hear them. Don’t react to them. Stay present until the individual and/or the group is ready to move on. They will. They’ll run out of excuses and eventually get back to work. Caveat: you just might have to give them a gentle push out of the swamp if they wallow for too long.

Remember the ‘curse of knowledge’

Recognise this in yourself. It’s not a competition to show how clever you are, how much you know, how many books you’ve read. And recognise it in others. Focus on what’s needed now. Less is ALWAYS better. It’s like adding salt to a casserole. Easy to add more when it’s needed. Damn hard to get rid of too much.

Don’t take it personally

It’s not about you, so don’t take it personally. Get out of the way and let them get on with it.

Will I? Won’t I?

There’s a really cool performance piece that is a part of Playback Theatre. Two players physically enact an internal dilemma, or conflict. Naturally, it’s called Conflicts.

It’s great fun to watch because most of us can relate to an internal dilemma: small or big. Will I eat this piece of cake or not? Should I stay in bed a little longer or get up and go to the gym? Will I buy this house, marry this person?

It’s great fun to play as well – finding arguments to support the position you’re playing.

So here’s (just) one of my current internal conflicts. I’m self-employed. I usually get enough work. At the moment I don’t have a lot of work coming up. Should I get out there and chase work? Or should be grateful for the space to write that book?

What internal conflicts are you struggling with?

Forgetting to ‘be average’

So I’m stuck. Not sure what to write, questioning if anyone’s interested, cares or even wants to hear what I have to say. Stuck in an endless feedback loop with myself: one part of me saying “I’m going to finally write that book”. The other side saying “Whatever you write has already been written – you’re not clever enough or witty enough or even original enough!”

No wonder I’m stuck!

So I’m grateful today to an email from a colleague asking me to explain the improv principle of BE AVERAGE.

Here’s some of what I wrote in response:

I really should take my own advice more often! Hope you enjoyed this average post.