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In the meantime, here’s something from the archives via my mate Andrew Rixon (and in memory of my much loved and missed dogs Radar and Comet)

What I have learned about facilitator energy from my dogs…

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you’re not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.   Persevere.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

And if I had known about improv (improvisational theatre) back then I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have had the courage, enthusiasm and conviction to use improv in my work and in training. Not so today.

This video shows Alan Alda taking a communications class with scientists and using improv theatre games to help them connect with their whole bodies, with their story and to allow their natural enthusiasm for their work to emerge. The before and after clips are very telling. I particularly liked this comment: “It’s much easier when you make it up, then when you write it up the night before.” Of course, she wasn’t referring to making up the story, rather to improvising the story and sharing her message. I think it’s important for all of us to share our messages, rather than just information. Messages affect us emotionally, and can be supported by data and information. But you are unlikey to change my mind or get buy-in to your idea just by bombarding me with more information.

This class using improv games and principles enables these scientists to show their enthusiasm and passion for their work, and hence communicate more effectively. Who wouldn’t want that?

Hat tip: Geoff Brown

At the heart of this dilemma is fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of being found out. Fear of admitting that sometimes, despite our best efforts, we just don’t know. So the story is drowned in facts, in graphs, in details. All very commendable but not at all engaging. And importantly, the message is lost amongst all the information.

I’ve seen this lately with climate change and other environmental communications. Information overload. People don’t engage because you give them more information. They don’t listen to your argument because of the weight of the data supporting your argument.

We listen, and engage, when you reach our emotions, when we are affected by what you say. I’m reminded of an improv principle (isn’t there something from improv for every situation?) which says ‘be changed’. The characters need to change in some way for the scene to be interesting. Maybe that’s also true of science writing – the reader needs to be changed by what they have read. This may not mean they have changed their mind, rather it reflects a change in feelings, maybe from apathy to interest, from absolutely sure to doubt, from interest to excitement.

But I must admit, I have little to be gloomy about. Sure, I’ve made less money than usual, but that was planned in a way by deciding to only accept work if it met my criteria. And anyway, Dan Pink’s research shows that we are not motivated by money once we have enough. The work that I have done has been great – challenging at times, edgy, fun, rewarding and when I get to collaborate with friends, enjoyable in a completely different way that I’m excited to repeat. So here’s a special shout out to The Slips.

I guess these criteria reflect my values – not that I really thought of them that way when I wrote them. I’m not really a fan of organisational values, but this post by Leon Gettler has come close to changing my mind. Why? Because the values these companies have come to embrace sound far more authentic than many of the wishy-washy motherhood statements espoused as values (and often immortalised in laminated posters).

For example, here’s Zappos 10 core values:

1. Deliver WOW through service

2. Embrace and drive change

3. Create fun and a little weirdness

4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded

5. Pursue growth and learning

6. Build open and honest relationships with communication

7. Build a positive team and family spirit

8. Do more with less

9. Be passionate and determined

10. Be humble

The values of Atlassian, one of Australia’s largest software exporters are bold and in your face.

• Open company
• No bullsh.t
• Build with heart and balance
• Don’t f..k the customer
• Play as a team
• Be the change you seek

And Rentoid, which is trying to build itself into the eBay of renting, has a similar manifesto of values that speak the customer’s language.

Some examples of the company’s values include:

• Our people work where they please geographically
• We trust each other; we don’t confuse people with our language
• We don’t trick people with terms and conditions
• We speak like people. We are people
• We answer our phone calls
• Too much money creates laziness and reduces creativity. We use our brains first and our wallets second
• For rentoid, and personally; we don’t work with jerks. Even if it could be financially beneficial
• Fun at work is more important than all things. It is not a corporate event, a team building exercise or a day out

I’d be happy to work for any of these companies – and any others that embrace similar values. And even ones that wish they did. The common element for me is a sense of risk, and fun, of edginess, and of looking forwards, even if we don’t know what’s there, compared with looking longingly backwards at what might have been.

*Raises glass*

To a fun, and edgy year ahead.

PS: Here’s a great post by Chris Ashworth about hiring artists – and why working for love trumps working for money. A story that really embraces all that I’ve been trying to say.

Ah, ha! I hear some of you say, regular readers who know my thoughts about planning: “I always knew she was a closet planner!”

I like to plan how I will drive across Melbourne. I like to plan when I will have an annual holiday (because if I don’t block those dates out of my diary, it’ll never happen). I like to plan what I will cook for guests when they come over. I like to plan what flights I will take to avoid killer connections (either too short or too long). I like to plan meeting friends for coffee or dinner. And I like to plan weekends away. It appears that most of my planning is really scheduling. Is that what planning is then?

I was once asked in a job interview, oh maybe 20 years ago, if I had a five-year plan. The answer was no. I wondered if I ought to have a five-year plan. Did everyone else have one? I didn’t know. I got the job. I never did get a five-year plan.

As I was leaving a meeting recently someone asked me for my advice on strategic planning. Hmmm…

Strategic planning is one of those activities that organisations are expected to do. I suspect many people, deep down, know that it’s a waste of time. Yet we cling to it, fearing to try anything else. Or we do it because it’s always been done.

I do think there is a place for planning in organisations – allocating resources and people to activities (and then letting them get on with it – I am certainly not a fan of milestones, and performance indicators etc) – a bit like my own scheduling.

This seems to be the main purpose of planning – to allocate resources: people and time and money to certain activities over others. And to justify grants and budgets, especially for NFPs, with the added burden of identifying outcomes in advance. All of this seems to stem from an era when predictability was the norm. Surely everyone has noticed by now that un-predicatability is the new norm? Operating in complex environments means we have to try multiple small actions to see what works, because the very nature of complexity is unpredictability.

And what about predicting the future? Three, five, ten, twenty years from now – especially now when the world seems to be speeding up? It seems to me that things change too quickly for any sort of strategic plan to be meaningful. So what to do? Is it time to drop the notion of strategic planning completely? Or at the very least have a strategic plan on a whiteboard or on a wiki where it’s easy to change and adapt as needed. I guess there’s some value in knowing which direction you’re heading – I’m just not so sure there’s much value in scheduling all the stops along the way. What happens when an exciting, unplanned opportunity emerges?

HT – Mary Nations

From The Collapse of Complex Business Models by Clay Shirky.

And here’s some more: “When the value of complexity turns negative, a society plagued by an inability to react remains as complex as ever, right up to the moment where it becomes suddenly and dramatically simpler, which is to say right up to the moment of collapse. Collapse is simply the last remaining method of simplification.”

Well worth reading the whole article here.

Hat tip: Rob Paterson via Twitter

Realist, real time, first person: probably the easiest of videos to make

More realist, this time the protagonist is filmed and there’s some editing. This relies on the awesome talent of the protagonist and a steady hand and keen eye of the maker.

Then there’s this real time, whole-day open space filmed with a fixed camera and compressed  to 30 secs (hat tip Johnnie Moore)

And now we move away from realist to some other cool ways of sharing information. CommonCraft developed this paperworks approach which remains a favourite.

And my favourite style uses kinetic type. This is still my all-time favourite video. The Girl Effect.

And now motion graphics. A current favourite.

And finally, someone I just discovered last night (thanks to Kath Copley) Tales of Mere Existence by Lev Yilmaz.

What’s your favourite video style?

Today I’m writing a blog post (on my MacBook Air) about different styles of video production. And I’m doing all my research on-line. I still read books. The increasingly large pile of unread ones in my office is testament to that. And the overflowing bookcases. And I can happily while away many hours researching on the web too. It’s like having all those library resources right here in my lap. I love it!

I’ve yet to read a bad post on this aid worker’s blog Tales From the Hood. Even if you have no interest in, or knowledge of, aid work, these stories will touch you.

Les Posen is my favourite commentator on all things Mac, especially Keynote, of which he is a guru. In this post, ostensibly about the iPad he touches on inter-generational issues, technology for psychologists (and by inference, others) and ‘how to’ hints. Great stuff.

Redbubble is my favourite photography/art site. Check out the excellent landscape photography by Tristan Clements aka morealtitude.

Dave Snowden is writing on his blog about the origins of the Cynefin Framework. Really interesting and I’m looking forward to Part 2.

Johnnie Moore has been active on his blog lately and has even started doing podcasts again. I enjoyed this one on agility in organisations with Rob Paterson and Neil Perkin (inspired by this post by Neil). Particularly agree with the bit about strategic planning.

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up! Sometimes I don’t visit a site for a while (even a few days) and when I return find a wealth of stuff. This is true of Nancy White’s blog. Lots of really interesting posts on the digital world we live in.

And there’s so much more too, but I’d better stop.