[Dialogue] Stick Chart Navigators

[Ken Fisher]

Cheers, Wayne.

And is it not appropriate to wish you happy birthday?

Ken




On 2011-05-02, at 10:54 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:


On 1-May-11Sunday, at 5:51 PM, Lee Early wrote:

> My friend then asked if I went digging around in an archive somewhere, or look up the answer in a book.  No, I hadn't.  I do not believe any of us, in a similar situation would have either.

I have done both, but not in exactly an 'up against the wall' situation.  One of our 'projects' at ICA in Canada has been bringing our knowledge, methods and practices into the 21st century with integrity.  We've gathered a pretty good set of archives by combining our own files with those of generous colleagues like Ken Fisher and Greg Harris.  I've been through them many times and have discovered some genuine gems as well as being able to synthesize our wisdom and articulate for contemporary use.  We were in there like moles when we wrote "the Courage to Lead", "The Art of Focused Conversation" and "The Workshop Book." I'm  down there often in working on an articulation of our methodological foundations.

The old order may well be denying death and your friend may be right entirely.  To be honest, I don't see that it matters much whether the order is alive or dead.

How many death denying order members does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- - - - Doesn't matter. They aren't looking for light anyway.

How many order members not denying the order's death does it take?
- - - - Doesn't matter. They are happy in the dark.

I don't go to the archives or look into the pasty for anything related to that process or argument or whatever it is. I go there for the future.  This world needs this approach now. As I look around at what is happening in the world of facilitation, what I see is a great deal of the processes and facilitation approaches currently active, I see mostly material that is based on individual  and organizational psychology.  That's not us and I believe our approach is significantly unique and valuable enough to carry it firmly into this century.  This ontological, participatory approach to group work is totally necessary if the world is to move forward.

We are actively working to keep our methodology alive, growing and evolving as a living approach to group facilitation that carries with it the wisdom and experience of our past and addresses the practical and existential challenges and questions at play in their real situations.

We also go to the archives and the books when a client asks for something that we just don't have on the shelf. Rarely do clients ask us for simple things any more.  I doubt we've done a simple, straight up, 4 beat strategic planning process for many years. The operational context seems to require a lot more creativity.  Often we do find ourselves out over nearly nothing and most of the time we have to design from scratch.  We strive to maintain the integrity of our methodology and innovate with them in ways that move organizations forward.

We did really hit the books, for example, when the Alberta Min of Ed asked us to facilitate a province wide consultation on distance education using RDS's Scenario Planning approach. We did it using material on the social processes from the archives and by reading Kees van der Heijden's book and a couple others. It was a massive success, involving Albertans across the province and a plenary with live video feed to and from several locations.

\\/




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