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What harvesting tool works best?

February 11, 2011 By Art of Harvesting, BC, Collaboration, Design, Emergence, Facilitation, World Cafe 2 Comments

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 ended up with 400 index cards, each containing a single insight which we later transcribed.   It would be folly for me to work with a taxonomy of my own design, so I invited eight people to help me make sense of the work.   We all read the 18 peages of raw data and noticed what spoke to us.   From there we created a conversation that drew forth those insights and organized them into patterns.   The final result was a report to the 400 people that had gathered that was rich and diverse and as complex as the group itself without being overly complicated to implement.

So it depends.   If you use the Cynefin framework, which I have been studying and using a lot lately, you will see that different domains of action require different harvesting and sense making tools.   So be careful, use what is appropriate and try to never have a place where one point of view dominates the meaning making if you are indeed operating the realms of complexity, chaos or disorder..

Simple instructions for building a question

February 7, 2011 By Facilitation, Stories One Comment

I am preparing some questions tonight for an exercise I am running, and I rediscovered this elegant and simple process for constructing questions that elicit stories, courtesy of the Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles.

Build the question.

People remember events when  they can picture an image reminding  them of a  specific situation. Combine this idea with the suggestion of adding emotion and you have the two building blocks to create good questions.

First start with an image-building phrase:

  • “Think about…”
  • “Imagine…”
  • “If…”
  • “Consider…”

For example, ”Think about a time when you were given advice by your manager.”

Add an additional sentence or two to enhance the image:

“This might have been done formally in the office or perhaps outside the formal environment.”

Then add the open question with the emotive words:

“When have you been annoyed, ecstatic or perhaps just surprised by what you were told?”

Notice there is a spectrum of emotions, which increases the chances of a memory being triggered by the question.

Simply asking  people to tell stories rarely results in stories being told. In fact  people are often confused when you ask for stories, thinking  they might have to concoct an event or perhaps demonstrate Hemingway-level storytelling. Consequently, we suggest you avoid the term ‘story’ and use terms like: examples, illustrations, experiences.

So simple and results in great questions.

The First 20 Questions

February 6, 2011 By Collaboration, Facilitation 3 Comments

Researchers working on communication with dolphins came up with this list of 20 questions to ask our ceteacean cousins should we every be able to conduct a conversation with them:

  1. What name does your species call itself?
  2. What is the social structure of your pod? Of your general species?
  3. What species of Cetaceans are able to communicate with each other?
  4. Why do entire pods strand themselves?
  5. Are there environmental changes are that concerning to cetaceans?
  6. What are the most important things that we can do to help you?
  7. Do you have some way of preserving your knowledge, such as an oral tradition and mnemonic devices? If yes, what is the oldest memory or oral tradition that your species has?
  8. Does your species remember living on land?
  9. Do you perceive that your echolocation has an effect on human bodies?
  10. Do dolphins purposefully use their echolocation to affect humans physically, mentally or emotionally?
  11. Why do some dolphins save human lives?
  12. Do Cetaceans believe in a powerful entity that created the world?
  13. Do Cetaceans believe in an Afterlife?
  14. Is there important knowledge about the ocean which you think mankind is unaware of? Will you share that information with us?
  15. What would you like to know about humans that you have not been able to understand?
  16. Our evolutionary science/fossil records show that modern cetaceans evolved long before modern man. Some ancient human texts and several aboriginal creation legends claim that cetaceans have been observing mankind for a very long time and that you have played a role in our development. Is this true?
  17. Are cetaceans in communication with other animals on this planet?
  18. What ocean animals or organisms do you fear? ?
  19. Are cetaceans in communication with life forms beyond this planet?
  20. Does your species know what this planet looks like from space?

Some of these strike me as a little strange.  For example, I think I’d like to know how dolphins think they can help us before I’d like to know if they are chatting with extraterrestrials.  However, it’s an interesting exercise to think about.  You might consider designing one similar to it if you are working with a group of people that is confronting another group for the first time, such as between cultures, or merging organizations or having a large company move into a small community, or even blending families.

(PS…the dolphins might not be as interesting to talk to as we thought they were…)

via SpeakDolphin – The First 20 Questions – From Humanity to the Cetaceans.

The week’s tweets

February 6, 2011 By Notes

  • An incredible moon rise this morning. A wizened old moon cleared Eagle Ridge beneath shimmering Venus. Purest light in the dark predawn sky. #
  • "You don't hold space with a point…you hold it with a triangle or a circle." – Ginny Beiden-Charles on a call today. #
  • RT @thuddz: Expecting one last shock before 11pm, any suggestions?? <– Who do U want playing in front of you thuddz? #
  • Wondering if 'Arry is drafting up a contract or a press release explanation. Hoping for the former, fearing the latter. #coys #
  • Bet Harry and Levy were surprised by the market. Couldn't find an 8mill striker to spend their 30mill on. #coys #
  • RT @Lewismccullagh: #COYS looking forward to the Blackburn game now:) <– my fear now is that we will be forever looking foward to Blackburn #
  • RT @DustinRivers: The Squamish Nation has released a new dictionary http://amzn.to/hzpFiF <– #Bowenisland tweeps! Learn the local tongue! #
  • RT @ajkeen: Liverpool get Carroll & Suarez and we get nobody. Sixth? #COYS @greensandbox nice pickups for you. Here's fourth place back Tx. #
  • First redwing http://post.ly/1Yutr #
  • Sand Heierbacher's Best-of-the-Best dialogue and deliberation resources – http://ncdd.org/rc/best-of-the-best-resources #
  • RT @thotstr:New guide: Beyond Civility. From Public Engagement to Problem Solving http://bit.ly/dENY42 via @steve4good #bowegov #
  • Storms in central Canada and eastern Australia pummelling friends. Clear sailing here in Vancouver for a flight to Kelowna this morning. #
  • http://yfrog.com/h2is2tuj my commute this morning over the Cascade mountains of southern BC glowing in the first light of day. #
  • Wet warm morning on Bowen. Grey clouds light sky, heavy rain, no wind. Typical for early spring! #
  • Crossing Howe Sound http://yfrog.com/gzc3vurj #
  • My gorgeous partner Caitlin Frost has a number of workshops coming up in BC and AB using The Work of Byron Katie: http://t.co/3Rv92PO Go! #
  • Sitting in the woods at dusk. The first mosquito of the year lands on my forehead. Blood drawn. #
  • Terminal Creek http://post.ly/1a37D #
  • The incredible thing I witnessed today: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/chriscorrigan/5419598363/ #

A little wildness in us

February 1, 2011 By Being, Flow One Comment

I see it all the time, where cultivated and well-raised people stumble in the wild land of chaos and open space. Whether it is the tourist in the forest who complains against the mud or the leader in an organization, community or country (like Egypt) who clings to the illusion of confidence and control and who cannot make friends with the wild and the chaotic.

Thoreau:

I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.

Are you friends with the wild within you? Do you cultivate that characteristic as a mould against the uncertain future? How do you prepare to welcome surprises of all kinds?