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 …
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 …
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: What name does your species call itself? What is the social structure of your pod? Of your general species? What species of Cetaceans are able to communicate with each other? Why do entire pods strand themselves? Are there environmental changes are that concerning to cetaceans? What are the most important things that we can do to help you? Do you have some way of preserving your knowledge, such as an …
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. …
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 …