With Social Network Analysis (SNA), the technique of analysing and exploring social networks, experiencing a resurgence. I’m pleased to announce that I will be running a 2 day workshop titled “Practical Social Network Analysis: Skills and techniques for facilitating organisational change”. This workshop will be held in Melbourne on the 22nd and 23rd March. This practice […]

Do you facilitate groups? Have you ever thought about the language that you use whilst facilitating? What insights can language give you about your facilitation? We have just had an article published in the IAF Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal titled “exploring the language of facilitation”. Some quotes from our paper: “Whilst language is […]

Almost a month ago after identifying some metaphors which described various styles of facilitation (eg. Conductor, Chameleon, Dictator) I asked What kind of facilitator are you? Following on from this, Simon Kneebone and I delivered a session at the Australian Facilitators Conference in Geelong exploring facilitator archetypes through story. We’ll be publishing more around this in time to […]

A few months ago Larry Peterson and I discovered and tested a great way to apply the Principles and Law of Open Space Technology to a “fishbowl” to create a dynamic, energized conversation with a whole room of almost 200 people in a short time frame. Some of the participants said: “I really enjoyed the openness […]

At the upcoming Australian Facilitators conference I’m looking forward to the “Facilitator Archetypes” workshop that I’m running alongside a great cartoonist, Simon Kneebone. This workshop was inspired from some work we did earlier this year exploring language in facilitation. When I asked “what metaphor describes your style of facilitation” I had no idea it would […]

Then don’t miss out on the Third Annual Australian Wellness Conference to be held in Brisbane November 30 – December 1, 2006. The feature topics will span areas of personal wellness, self-management, worksite wellness, wellness coaching and wellness in the health professions.

What is the link between storytelling and complexity? This was the theme that found me travelling over 28 hours from Melbourne, Australia to Las Cruces, New Mexico to join with 38 other participants in the story circle. It was a fantastic conference. One of the highlights for me was the socratic circle process which opened up on the […]

Like they say, life is about timing. Coinciding with the launch of our recent ebook The ultimate guide to Anecdote Circles, Chris Corrigan has released an 81 page ebook called the Tao of holding space. Definitely worth a read for all those interested in Open Space.

Since completing our Australia wide survey on the attitudes and awareness of story and narrative approaches within organisations, I have been working my way through sharing the results. So far, the analysis has surfaced interesting results around: Australian managers intuit story most useful for culture change The 7 story forms valued within organisations The 5 ways […]

Today the VPS Continuous Improvement Network experienced something unique. With Larry Peterson (a well known Canadian Open Space Practictioner) touring Australia, we had a great opportunity to try a new format for exploring and engaging conversation around “Leading complex change and opening space”. The format? A fishbowl. With Larry inside! Although not Open Space Technology the 4 four principles and one law of […]