One of the reasons I haven’t been writing here quite as much lately (well, let’s face it — not at all) is because of another writing project I’ve been working on with my friends and associates Gillian and Kimbra.

Some months ago, while sitting and talking about our individual and collective businesses, we discussed the topic of email newsletters and their value as a medium for sharing, learning and building a sense of community.

We decided to co-create and publish a newsletter for people interested in facilitation. It’s called ‘The Edge’ and it contains (hopefully) useful tools and techniques, book reviews, listings of events and conferences, snippets of information and articles from guest contributors.

I’m glad to report that things are going very well. The first issue was well received by our readers. We’re also very pleased that we’ve had a number of offers from people to contribute articles and information. Admittedly, it’s been quite an effort getting to this point, but it’s been worth it. I’m thoroughly enjoying writing and reflecting on my facilitation work, the process of editorial collaboration, and also the discipline of sticking to a publishing deadline. Being an electronic publication, it also allows me to channel my inner geek.

Earlier today, we published this month’s issue. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

If you’d like to receive the free bi-monthly newsletter via email, add your details on my subscription page.

Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I blogged. There are a couple of things that I had meant to write about, so I’m just going to get started again in 2009 by doing a quick wrap-up of those thoughts.

How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer

A must watch, ‘How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer’ is a fabulous documentary (watch it here) about network theory and testing the urban myth of six degrees of separation. Understanding networks is at the heart of understanding our complex society. Theorists in the doco argue that networks don’t grow accidentally - they evolve according to a pattern, and that this predictable power of networks is helping researchers to find solutions to problems, such as containing the spread of infectious) diseases. Fascinating.

Good to Great

In his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, Jim Collins introduces the Hedgehog concept, and with it a comparison of a Fox and the Hedgehog. The fox is a creature that know many things but lacks consistency; the hedgehog is a simple creature that knows ‘one big thing’ and sticks to it. He uses it to argue that great companies, like the hedgehog, stick to the one thing that they can be the best in the world at. As a generalist (aka as a fox), I just can’t agree. The hedgehog might make money (?), but he sounds rather dull and boring to me. I also find Collins’ criteria for determining Great Companies less than convincing (mostly financial performance). I understand why, as a research method he has chosen to do so, but it seems to reduce the social value of organisations to the economic - that being great is simply a matter of being financially successful. I believe there are other measures of greatness. It’d be interesting to see which companies (if any) rate as ‘great’ in light of the recent ‘financial crisis’.

FOC08

A few closing thoughts on the Facilitating Online Communities course. I learnt a lot. The course helped me clarify my own understanding of the role of facilitator and the meaning of community, from both an online and face-to-face perspective. I also really enjoyed the interaction with the other participants and the chance to try some new things in a ’safe’ and supportive environment. It’s nice to hang out with people who share similar interests. I also really enjoyed organising my session for the mini conference. For me, the reward was the people (including my co-host Mark Elliot) accepting the invitation and showing up, being present and willing to engage. It taught me a lot about making offers. Leigh Blackall modelled the role of facilitator to a T. He was well organised and showed leadership when needed, but mostly tried to get out of the way and allowed us to get on with self-organised and self-paced learning, which I appreciated (thanks Leigh!).

Work and Meaning

I’ve been doing some outplacement work, so the meaning of work has been top of mind. I read about a 1974 study, where Studs Turkel observed that work is about “a search for meaning as much as daily bread” — and that “only a happy few find it, the majority loaded with weariness and discontent”. ¹ Seems to me that perhaps things haven’t changed all that much in the last 25 years?

1. see: Turkel, S. (1974) Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. Link.

Okay, glad that’s done. Thanks to Chris Brogan for the virtual inspiration/kick in the pants I needed to get going again. Welcome to 2009.

Last week I had the priveledge of meeting David Gurteen. He was kind enough to spend some time walking a group of us through the Knowledge Café process.

I was interested to hear the story about how David came up with the concept. As he tells it: He was attending or running (I can’t recall exactly which) meetings with students at a University in the usual ‘chalk and talk’ manner. He wondered why most of the important and interesting conversations happened at the pub afterwards. He thought,”How can I harness that type of energy in the meetings?”. The Knowledge Café is the result.

I can’t help compare this story to that of Harrison Owen’s story about how he came up with the idea of running a conference, using what is now known as Open Space Technology.

Some years ago, Harrison had spent a long time planning a conference in great detail. He came to the realisation during the conference that participants found the ‘best’ part to be the coffee breaks. Dismayed, but also intrigued he wondered: “How can I plan a conference where the coffee break — or the type of conversations and interactions that happen during them — becomes the key element of the conference? Open Space is the result.

Strange that they both seem to revolve around drinking don’t you think? Well, it’s not really all that strange when you think about it. Actually, it seems quite natural — humans are, after all, social creatures.

And that is why techniques such as these are so important. They are conversational, inclusive, and largely unstructured. They promote dialogue over debate and harness the energy and passion of the participants for the topic. Above all — they’re usually a lot of fun!

I don’t know about Second Life — I’m quite happy with my first one thanks!

I tagged along to a meeting last week in Second Life. I’m a complete n00b to Second Life or to anything like it. I never really got into video games post the early 80’s Atari fad, preferring to play music or sport. So this is all ‘weird and wonderful’ stuff to me and I was quite looking forward to this meeting as part the course.

But I must confess that I got quite frustrated with it. One of the most difficult things was not being able to control my avatar. It was quite off-putting. I couldn’t seem to work out even the most basic of functions, like how to sit down. I persisted, but it still felt quite awkward and unintuitive. Why is it that someone who is quite tech savvy (I’m certainly no neophyte), can be so lame?

This first experience with SL reinforced an important point about the various barriers we face as participants and facilitators when we are interacting online. We should never assume that everyone is competent nor comfortable with the medium. Some of the participants of FOC08 have expressed similar feelings about blogging and commenting on others blogs. Just because all of these ‘tools’ are available in the same ’space’ (online) we’re used to interacting in, doesn’t mean that they aren’t different or have their own nuances and subtleties. We have to remain mindful and aware of that. As facilitators, patient and vigilant.

I can imagine how Second Life might be useful for facilitating events and creating online communities. It certainly provides for a more interactive space online when compared with non-visual mediums like email and bulletin boards. It brings together a unique blend of auditory, visual and cognitive stimulation, although I’m not convinced that helps those of us who find it difficult to multi-task or concentrate on more than one thing at a time.

All is not lost. I’m prepared to give it another go. I’m sure it’s not all that hard.

I’m really looking forward to the Facilitating Online Communities Mini Conference coming up soon. I will be facilitating an online discussion with a guest — Dr. Mark Elliott.

Mark completed a PhD in 2007 that developed theoretical frameworks for collective activity and mass collaboration in conjunction with a number of real-world projects and now runs a consultancy that provides services surrounding online collaboration and social media / web2.0.

The one hour session, will include a very brief presentation, but will mostly be informal and conversational. Definitely no Powerpoint.

Mark will help us to explore:

• Stigmergic collaboration as a means of explaining how co-ordination is achieved in ad hoc, massively scaled collaborative contexts (i.e. Wikis)
• How we can, as facilitators, use social media and web2.0 tools to collaborate, share and learn
• His experiences from the Future Melbourne project — the world’s first, wiki-based, collaborative city plan.

Please join us!

DATE: Thursday 6th November 2008 at 7pm EDT. Check the time in your time zone.

VENUE: Join this online event at the Elluminate Meeting Room. Beforehand, please ensure that you computer is ready to use the web conferencing software (Elluminate).

RSVP: daryl [dot] cook [at] gmail [dot] com

ENQUIRIES: For any enquiries and/or for any assistance with Elluminate, do not hesitate to contact me.

Some time ago, Robyn suggested that I try using the George Ella Lyons ‘Where I’m From’ poem as a writing prompt. I really enjoyed the process of exploration and crafting the words. It’ll be interesting to re-visit this exercise some time in the future and see what emerges. Anyway, here’s my first attempt:

I am from north of the upside-down river; from the Gray-Nicholls double-scoop, BMX bikes and Paddle Pops.

I am from the brick veneer at the top of the court, where kids, big and small, play together and laugh. The smell of fresh cut grass lingers until late in the day.

I am from the eucalypt and spitfire sawfly; the bottle-brush and River Red Gum woodlands.

I am from The Cooks and The Twynhams. George, Floss and Bert, the grandparents I call by name — uncomplicated folk; stubborn and often sharp-tongued yet loving, generous and kind. 

I am from the long road trips of happy wanderers and taking the mickey and having a laugh.

From loaves of milk and skies setting sky-blue pink.

I am from the church of sport; we worship our idols on Saturday and try to emulate their feats on Sunday, and dream of one day wearing a baggy green.

I am from the forests once inhabited by Robin and his band of merry men. From pork pies, sloppy peas and yorkshire puddings.

From grandparents who survived the blitz, one who claims the part in his hair was created by Hiawatha’s tomahawk. From parents who left everything behind to start anew. 

I am from fond memories not seen or heard often, yet kept close to our hearts. Relatives now passed live vicariously through me — and my kids. I often catch a fleeting glimpse.

Just a short post to mark World Mental Health Day — Blue Day.

Like many others, I’ve had encounters with the ‘black dog’ at various stages in my life. I don’t want to bore you with a long post about my personal trials and tribulations, so perhaps some words of wisdom from someone who takes happiness seriously:

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions —the Dalai Lama.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of depression or anxiety talk to someone. Visit beyondblue for more information, or for urgent assistance call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (24 hour counselling, information and referrals) in Aus.

Despite having worked in the field, I’ve never strongly identified with the discipline of Knowledge Management. Like many others I suspect, I find it’s a little amorphous. There are a broad range of thoughts on Knowledge Management, but there is no unanimous definition.

Interestingly, it’s listed under ‘Computer sciences’ in Wikipedia’s List of Academic Disciplines. That categorisation takes a very techno-centric view. I’ve tended to see it more as a interdisciplinary field, which as a generalist, is why I am drawn to it. But Dave Pollard recently wrote a couple of blog posts that have got me re-thinking—or at the very least clarifying—my position.

In KM2.0, Dave seems to take an ecological-centric view of KM, which sees the interaction of people, identity, knowledge and environmental factors as a complex adaptive system. I feel more closely aligned to this perspective, and with the types of initiatives he proposes:

… the seven most important initiatives of KM 2.0 are context-building, connection-building, and personal productivity initiatives — facilitating better, more informed conversations with the right people.

I also identify with, strive to become and hope to be part of what Dave elloquently identifies as the role of the facilitator in all of this:

… this network of practitioners is global, powerfully connected, and driven to be of use, to make a difference, to make the world a better place. These people are not in any sense like the old style of facilitation consultants, who took instruction from senior executives with a predetermined agenda and pushed participants to deliver on it. Even worse, these old-style arrogant consultants sometimes introduced their own ‘expert’ point of view into the discussion (usually to the detriment of all).

By contrast, practitioners of this new set of facilitation or ‘hosting’ techniques aspire to nothing more or less than to enable more effective conversations leading to peer-consensual decisions and self-selected follow-up actions.

My friend Gillian is hosting one of the world’s top storytellers and teachers of the art of storytelling, Ashley Ramsden. Ashley is the founding director of the School of Storytelling, the longest established centre of its kind in the United Kingdom and co-founder of Storytelling in Organisations, a pioneering consultancy in the application of story in leadership and change management.

Ashley will be in Melbourne in November for performances and a one-off workshop on the skillful use of stories in the workplace. The ‘Stories in the Workplace‘ workshop will be on Monday, 17th November 2008 at the Abbotsford Convent. This is a fantastic opportunity if you’re interested in the use of narrative and storytelling in organisations. You’ll need to book promptly as places are strictly limited.

For further details and booking procedure contact Gillian directly.

I haven’t spend a lot of time in online discussion forums. As I mentioned at the start the Facilitating Online Communities course, I find it difficult to follow threaded conversations online. I find them too volumous and over-bearing. I’ve also avoided them because I sense (and based on second-hand anecdotes), that there is quite a bit of postulating and oneupmanship. Perhaps a result of poor facilitation? Nevertheless, it is off-putting. I don’t have the desire to become embroiled in meaningless debates and arguments over semantics.

One of the lists I do subscribe to is the Australasian Facilitators Network discussion forum. The current archive is only available to the list members, although membership and the ’structure’ of the ”organisation’ is loose and informal.

The list is, in my opinion, brilliantly moderated by Bob Dick. He is a very good communicator – clear and concise; provides very good instructions on list management issues; and is mostly invisible as a faciliator, but very diplomatic and open when dealing with any issues that arise.

Is it a community? Using McMillan and Chavis (1986) well-regarded conceptualization of a sense of Community [1], I believe that it is. To varying degrees, I’m sure that there are:

• Feelings of membership – feelings of belonging to, and identifying with, the community;
• Feelings of influence – feelings of having influence on, and being influenced by, the community;
• Integration and fulfillment of needs – feelings of being supported by others in the community while also supporting them; and
• Shared emotional connection – feelings of relationships, shared history, and a “spirit” of community.

But I don’t think the list IS the community – a community has built around the list. It’s like Nancy said in her comments on my previous post: “the network holds the set of loose ties that allow community to emerge”. This has manifested in a number of ways for me.

I have built relationships with people I met at face-to-face events that are held regularly (State-based networks). Some of those people have become close business associates and dear friends. I’ve also done further training and personal development as a result of attending these meetings and understanding the pitfalls and personalities involved.

I am very much looking forward to attending the annual conference organised and attended by list participants and strengthening that sense of belonging to this community.

How the forum might benefit from facilitation services?

This is a tricky one to answer. Paradoxically, other facilitators can be difficult to facilitate. I think the community would benefit though, by having more co-ordinated events around particilar topics of interest or issues – perhaps in the form of an online conference or phone conference format. I know that there are currently shared resources, but I also think that the community would benefit from developing these further and developing a habit of referring to them and keeping them current – a wiki would provide a good platform.

1. Cited in Blogs as Virtual Communities by Anita Blanchard.