Seth Godin on meetings and conferences
May 21, 2008Seth Godin writes an interesting piece: The new standard for meetings and conferences. In it he argues that the standards, along with people’s expectations of face-to-face meetings and conferences have changed significantly.
“if you think a great conference is one where the presenters read a script whole showing the audience bullet points, you’re wrong”.
I couldn’t agree more with what he is saying. The standards have changed, and people should expect more from organisers. This is one of the reasons I started etching out a career as a facilitator. Let me tell you how it all started …
Early in 2005, I was asked to host the technology stream of a software user group conference. I had attended a number of preceding conferences, and felt that they were staid and boring, and followed a far too ‘traditional’ format which focused on sales and marketing. They didn’t really provide the opportunity for dialogue or the type of engagement that customers were seeking. So, knowing that customers were going to sit through three days of powerpoint slides, I decided to go out on a limb and try something a little more dynamic and engaging. I ran a session based on Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats method. I had never done this before, and did so with some caution. However, my instincts proved to be correct. The session was lots of fun and we had some great conversations. Afterwards the participants thanked me for trying something that was, for them, so different and unexpected.
This was a moment of clarity for me about just how important it is that we discover more productive, creative and innovative ways for people to work together — ways that engage people, that ignite their passions and harness the collective wisdom of the assembled group.
There’s a bunch of passionate and committed people out there doing lots of good work to improve the way conferences and meetings are run. It’s often underestimated, but it truly is important work.
The Answer is 42
May 13, 2008Sometimes, it’s not explicitly asked and sometimes it is, but I’ve lost count the number of times when working with clients I hear “so, what’s the answer?”. I confess that most times I’ve had to bite my tongue to stop lashing out with a cynical and stern reply of “42″, or “what’s the question?”
In most cases consultants or facilitators are called in to help organisations to solve a problem(s). They often do so in the hope that someone ‘external’ will have the right information and is able to give them the right answer. The old ’silver bullet’. Invariably, this approach isn’t very effective. That’s because it’s a cop out. It’s too easy to put someone on a pedestal — a guru who says that the answer is in this or that.
In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a giant computer is able to calculate the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. The answer was 42. Easy. But this answer is on its own is meaningless. What was needed was a proper question.
It seems that some people are reluctant to take a more holistic approach where they ask questions, explore, and make their own meaning through dialogue and the stories they tell both themselves and others. Why is this?
Lies, lies and statistics
May 9, 2008I loved this Dilbert cartoon today. It points to the danger of taking a purely qualitative approach to problem solving. It also reminds me of some of my own very funny stories presenting data in planning sessions.
Musings on Modern Pedagogies
February 12, 2007I’ve had occasion to be thinking a lot lately about schooling and the type of education I believe that my kids should receive. I consider myself fortunate to have received both public and private high school education, and I can see the advantages and disadvantaages of both. I still can’t help wondering whether the whole education system itself is in tune with the real needs of my kids? I have a nagging feeling (intuition?) that it isn’t. This line of questioning led me to some Montaignean wisdom on the subject:
I gladly come back to the absurdity of our education: its end has not been able to make us good and wise but learned. And it has succeeded. It has not taught us to seek virtue and embrace wisdom: it has impressed upon us their derivation and their etymology.
Come to think of it, this statement sums up my feelings about my own education. I’m working hard to correct the imbalance on that score.
Aside: the definition of pedagogy?: from paidagÅgos, slave who took children to and from school.
Time To Think
February 9, 2007Dave Pollard is musing about our lack of time to think: to think deeply …
Not only are too many of us becoming too unpracticed at thinking, I believe many of us no longer have the breadth of useful information, or the generalist experiences and competencies of our ancestors, or the diversity of experiences, or the introspective, meditative, peaceful, uneventful moments, or the unhurried and pensive conversations to draw on, all of which comprise the raw material that effective thinking depends on.
There are a couple of reasons why this post piqued my interest:
- It calls for us (the royal we) to become more generalist. Now clearly here is a voice of reason!
- I’ve also advocated for a long time, the move towards business models that are more open and cooperative and for organisations to treat their staff more like adults than angst-ridden teenagers (inspired by Ricardo Semler).
- I’ve recently been implementing GTD (more on that later). There is some real synchronicity here. From my reading of the book, what David Allen advocates is a method for dealing with the ‘firefights’ and everyday issues SO that we DO have time to think. Is that not the whole point of GTD? From my own experience facilitating strategy and planning sessions, this bottom-up approach to planning is essential. You are never going to achieve the required level of introspective thinking or any productive thought unless the day-to-day is under some level of control.
I agree with Dave’s postulation that the solution lies in approaching management with a completely different mindset–one that empowers individuals to take responsibility, encourages them to act and most importantly, treats them like human beings.
