I need help

Recently I received a great little gift from my friends at On Your Feet. It was a reminder about asking for help, and the rewards that often go beyond the help itself.

So, here I am, asking for your help to let others know about a conference I’m organising. It’s called Thriving in Uncertainty and will be held in Melbourne on July 12th and 13th.

I am simultaneously excited and nervous about this – the first time we’ve publicly explored how applied improv can be used in different business and organisational settings. I’m passionate about the power of improv practices to build people’s capacity to respond to uncertainty, navigate change and be agile and responsive. And I know passion is not enough.

A significant insight I had recently was about the role of practicing improv exercises regularly to build our capacity to do our work more effectively. It’s like going to the gym to build your strength to be a better tennis player; or it’s like practicing scales on the piano so you’ll be better able to perform that tricky musical piece. I believe we provide too few opportunities for people in businesses and organisations to regularly practice the skills of making and accepting offers, noticing, making their partners look good, letting go, and doing something when they don’t know what to do.

I’ve promoted the conference widely amongst improvisers – now it’s time to share with businesses and organisations who we know could benefit from some improv wisdom.

Can you help?

Believing it’s possible

Maybe this will be my new motto.

Last week, through  a series of quite unexpected circumstances, I found myself co-facilitating with someone I’d never met face-to-face, and with me arriving a day into the gig with a group where I knew some of them quite well and many whom  I was meeting for the first time.

There was no plan.

There was a set of beliefs that we shared, and a willingness to give it a go.

My first sign that we were on a similar wavelength was when the group had finished some activity, and I was thinking to myself what I’d do next. I wasn’t called on to offer anything right then, but my co-facilitator offered it anyway. Was he a mind reader? Maybe. My second sign of believing it’s possible was when we decided to try an approach that neither of us had ever seen in action, let alone facilitated. We shared a willingness to try something new – to believe it’s possible.

Chris Corrigan is the first person I recall telling me to ‘believe it’s possible’ when I asked his advice about rock balancing. Funny enough, it works too.

There’s worse beliefs to hold.

Practicing to perform

Those of us who have seen an improv group perform are sometimes in awe of the skills and teamwork a group of players can demonstrate when performing – in front of a paying audience, and with no script.  It’s no secret that they can do this because of the way they approach a performance, the rules that create a platform for what they do, and their willingness to practice together.

Most of us are also familiar with sporting teams. Whether successful or not in terms of winning, these teams also operate from a basis of rules and practice. They can at least play the game, even when pitted against a team that can play better.

Then we see groups and teams in organisations sometimes struggle to work together. There may be rules and structures and guidelines that support what they do (and sometimes hinder). The missing element may be practicing together.

And there’s also individual pursuits: yoga, music, tennis, juggling, driving, karate, weights, painting – just about anything I can think of requires some sort of practice, whether that be to build skills, to build confidence, to develop muscle memory, to be able to automatically jump into the task.

Yet some work seems to be different. A one- or two- or five-day course and you’re trained in something. Back at work there may be little opportunity to practice newly-learned or even long-held skills. There’s the real work to be done, pressure to perform, meetings to attend, deadlines to meet. Where is the practice that supports work skills, especially the practice that underpins skills that are highly sought after and rewarded? Skills of leadership, of communication, of teamwork, and personal interaction. Skills of participation, of awareness, of knowledge transfer? Is there space at work to practice, to do activities that hone these skills so as when they are needed it’s innate?

Where is the equivalent of the gym or the rehearsal studio at work?

Navigating uncertainty with serious playfulness

If you’d like to know a bit more about these super cool cards that Johnnie and I have made, check this out. It’s all about using serious playfulness to navigate uncertainty.

And they were designed by the super talented Mary Campbell.

Three continents. Three individuals. Connected by a shared project. Now sharing it with the world. It’s times like these I love the internet – not to mention the people I get to work with.

Being on the receiving end of ‘make your partner look good’

Last week I had the privilege of working with a couple of people who – probably even unknown to themselves – epitomised the principle of ‘make your partner look good’. I was that partner, on the receiving end. I can’t yell you what a joy it is to work with people like this. Reinforces for me how important it will be for me, in the future, to make my partner look good too, whoever it is I’m working with. Oh, and it helps a LOT if you like, maybe even love each other a little, admire each other’s work, trust each other and just like hanging out together. How different could work be if we sought out those people who helped us be ourselves and do our best work?

Asking for help

I quite enjoy helping others. I’m not so good at asking for help. From an improv perspective it’s like making offers – asking for help is making an offer to the world. And boy, does it pay back big time.

Those of you reading this blog recently will know I’m in foreign parts designing a biggish two-day event. Those of you who know me well will know that I’m never satisfied, always looking for new (and rediscovering forgotten) ideas. And those of you who know me even better will know I’d give my right arm to have a facilitation buddy or two to hang out with, toss about ideas, egg each other on. Sigh.

So I’ve turned to the next best thing, all you good folk in internet land. Some of you I know, some I’ve never met. I’ve no idea how many of you read my blog (I know, I know – there’s something I could do with google analytics to find out and, well, I really don’t care that much and I’ve never been that big into numbers. Are you out there Stephen?). If I’m only talking to myself, that’s quite okay – it gets my thoughts out of my head and on to the screen where at least I don’t forget them.

I try stuff. I like blogging. I like twitter. Facebook’s okay. Don’t mention google+ (makes me feel guilty), I’ve tried amplify, and instgram, I’ve lost count of my email addresses (they all go via gmail anyway), I quite like rapportive, I’ve just joined pin-somethingorother, I have a neglected flickr account, I think I have a YouTube channel, I subscribe to my favourite bloggers and thinkers, I just LOVE Skype – I could go on, obviously. What’s that? What about LinkedIn? Well, of course I’m on LinkedIn – I just don’t know how to use it that well. Then, in a little burst of activity towards the end of last year I created a LinkedIn Group. Wow! Just wow! I had no idea. It’s not a big group, less than 200 people – but what a generous and creative bunch.

And what I’ve learned from having a LinkedIn group is that it’s not about leading with answers – it’s about leading with questions. Real questions. Making big, bold offers by asking for help. Who knew?

Influencing and being influenced

Here’s another gym-inspired post. This time I was noticing how I run faster on the treadmill and generally try harder when there’s someone else on the next treadmill. If they’re faster than me (and most of them are) I’ll try and go faster too. If they’re slower than me, I notice a slight sense of superiority. Oh, I know all that stuff about doing your own thing and what’s right for you etc etc. I think we are always being influenced by those around us, and probably forget that we are influencing other people too.

At it’s best this is a good thing. I work occasionally at The Hub in Melbourne, a co-working space. It’s a long time since I’ve worked in this sort of environment, with people coming and going, hearing snippets of sometimes interesting conversations, sitting in on discussions, throwing ideas about, sharing a story or a glass of wine with people doing completely different work to me. I am happy to be influenced by this environment and the people in it.

Anyone competing in any physical endeavour will be able to tell anecdotes of how they were able to find something extra during competition. Performers experience it too – that feeling of ramping up for the actual performance. Improvisers (who are, after all, performers too) call it ‘being affected’, being open to the influence of people and the environment we’re in.

It seems to be a small step from being influenced though to being competitive. I have mixed feelings about competitiveness. Sure, I love the feeling of winning, of getting ‘there’ first, whatever ‘there’ might mean, of being recognised (which I think is what winning is all about, after all, no-one remembers who came second). And I’m also aware that a focus on winning denies all sorts of other possibilities,not the least of which is success. I learnt from some improv buddies the difference between winning and success, and how winning can be celebrated mostly by the winners and success can be celebrated by everyone.

This whole influencing, competitiveness, success dynamic is writ large on the internet. There’s the shallow, yet hard to ignore, numbers – of followers, of retweets, of likes, of friends. And there’s connecting with people in the same or different industries who are doing incredible work. There’s great writers, and great thinkers, incredible ideas, amazing analysis, brilliant artists, and people willing to share their successes and their failures.

It’s easy, for me, to feel intimidated. To feel inadequate, to feel that I have nothing new, or original, or interesting to say. Everyone else seems to be saying it – and much better than I could.

Woah! I’ve fallen into the Tyranny of Excellence – a feeling where nothing is ever good enough. We are doing amazing things, yet see ourselves as inadequate. This tyranny  is the dark side of ‘being affected’ – of influence, of collaboration, of easy access to what’s happening across the globe and of living in amazing times where being amongst creative entrepreneurs and thinkers is the norm. But it’s not the norm for everyone. It’s also easy to fall into a space of scarcity, where it feels as if there’s only so much to go round and not enough for everyone. Much better to remember a sense of abundance where the world needs ALL of our ideas and approaches and there really is no ‘right’ way.

The Be Affected art is by the amazing Mary Campbell (in the US) and the Tyranny of Excellence art is by the incredible Milan Colovic (in Serbia) and I’m writing this from Australia. See what I mean – we live in amazing times.

Exploring the Edges of Work II

Anyone visiting recently will probably know that I’m exploring the edges of work – offering a series of short workshops to explore how we might move beyond the rigidity of existing systems and processes to open up workplace creativity, innovation and agility – especially when the currency of much of today’s work is ideas.

So I’m delighted to announce a full-day workshop with Johnnie Moore as part of this year’s Story Conference; Widening the World of Work in Melbourne. Here’s a little about what to expect:

If you’d like to register go here (and if you register before 31 August, you’ll get that cool early-bird rate)

Join me at these events?

There’s lots of up-sides to travelling and working in different countries. Not the least,  I love it! The major down-side seems to be losing touch with locals. So I’m looking forward to these local events and would love to say hello to you at any of them.

Gathering ’11 - To build better futures: Melbourne 11 – 13 June

This sounds like fun and I can’t wait. Our intention is to provide a space and experience that supports the emergence of socially innovative and transformative ideas, and is a platform for their development in to implementable projects and enterprises.

I’m looking forward to lots of conversations and connecting.

Victorian Facilitators’ Network Meeting: Melbourne 20 June, 5.30 – 8.00 pm Kent Hotel, 370 Rathdowne Street, North Carlton.

We all know that ‘trust’ is an essential element of any good relationship. So how do we build trust and rapport as facilitators? What supports a good working relationship with a group? Come and hear some wisdom from our very special guests including Viv McWaters (Beyond the Edge: “I’m interested in improvisation, disruption and not playing by the rules.”), Rhonda Tranks (Illumina Consulting: “My approach is to shed light on new possibilities and pathways, drawing people towards their own realizations.”) and Ed McKinley (Groupwork Institute: “I’m a great believer in creating safe environments in which people can express diverse points of view on their way to identifying a unified sense of purpose.”) We are in for a wild and exciting ride! Trust us – it will be fun!” Facilitated by Michelle Howard.

Ah, Michelle, so brave agreeing to facilitate facilitators! I’ll try and not be too disruptive (with fingers crossed behind my back!)

Story Conference – Creative Methods: Widening the World of Work, Melbourne October 5 – 7

My friend Andrew Rixon is organising his third Story Conference. I missed the last two so I am really excited to be going this year and to be offering a pre-con workshop with my other good mate, Johnnie Moore. I’d go to this conference just to hang out with these two. You could come and hang out with a whole lot of other cool people as well, and share and learn stuff about stories. Awesome.

Johnnie and I are offering a pre-conference workshop Friction and Fiction: Creating space for deeper conversations

Co-facilitating: how hard can it be?

Can you pick the co-facilitators in this pic? A few recent incidents have thrown co-facilitating into sharp relief and helped clarify some of my own experiences and expectations of working closely with others. Co-facilitating can be a joy with the right person and a nightmare with someone else, simply creating even more work and stress in an already potentially stressful situation.

Recently a client refused my choice of co-facilitator for budget reasons and offered one of his own staff (whom I had never met) to help out. I declined. And at another workshop, two of the participants who had done facilitation training with me in the past wanted an opportunity to co-facilitate. I agreed, with conditions.

Here’s what works for me when co-facilitating (and most importantly, if it works for me it’s also better for the client):

Full-time facilitation

Part-time co-facilitation just doesn’t work. Just when you need your partner to discuss something, they are off with their mates (read work colleagues) doing something else. So I have a rule for co-facilitators, especially if they are from within the client’s organisation: either full-time facilitator or full-time participant.

Someone to hang out with, brainstorm ideas, rant occasionally

This is really important to me (it may not be so important to facilitators who are extroverts) – even when we’re not facilitating we’re talking about stuff (a technical term that covers everything from ‘what time is lunch?’ to ‘what can we do to really break down some of the inherent behaviours we’re noticing that could be preventing the group from moving forward?’ to ‘who’s going to lead the next bit?’). This is the role of friend, ally, confidante, someone with whom I can share my fears and insecurities (therefore, not a good idea to be the client!) and someone to be with without having to make an effort. And someone with whom I can winge and get things off my chest, knowing it’s not going to go any further.

A mentor and co-learner

We need to be partners, we need to learn from each other, we need to mentor each other, we need complementary and different skills, we need to push each other, we need to restrain each other. We need to enjoy working together, have fun even.

Similar world view

We don’t need to be clones but we need to share some values about facilitating groups and have some common understandings of our approaches. And we need to be comfortable with each other’s idiosyncrasies, be able to let go and trust each other.

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Co-facilitating is more than just sharing the responsibility for facilitating a workshop. It’s a partnership. With the best co-facilitators, we seemlessly tag off each other, anticipate what the other needs before they have asked for it, hand over with complete trust to the other that they will do whatever is needed (even if we haven’t discussed what that might be) and can step in when the other needs us without being seen as taking over. In short, we make each other look good – and ultimately everyone benefits, most especially the client and the workshop participants.