Viv McWaters has been my mentor, colleague, co-conspirator and friend for many years now. Viv has a knack of seeing beyond the ‘established norms’ of facilitation and create new ways of working from out beyond the horizon – its quite inspirational. Viv is a pioneer of Open Space, action methods and in the application of Improv Theatre to facilitation (and life). In recent times, Viv and Johnnie Moore have been breaking new ground in world of facilitation and facilitation training. Together, they have been working at the edge and applying lessons from improv theatre, neurological sciences, psychology, systems biology, design …

I am sitting in the corner of the room whilst a workshop makes it’s way to a close. These people represent the polarity of an organization – people in strategy, others at the edge working with community and others who cut across the 2. Their intent is to build strategy that has a clear purpose, is co-owned and provides a framework that is flexible enough to cope with the unexpected. In this line of work we are dealing with community and natural systems, so the unexpected will happen … Often! They are building this strategy in both a top-down and …

My last post described a game called Werewolf that I hosted for a group of people who, collectively, comprise an organisation. I worked with this team of people for 2 days. Day 1 was playful and Day 2 allowed the group to reflect on it’s own purpose and principles of working together. Here are a set of resources that informed my processes and some of the thinking skills I brought to the group. On Day 1 we played applied Improv games and learnt through a process of immersion in direct experience Direct References – these ideas were shared directly with …

Monday night was dark, stormy and 20 people witnessed the demise of a 6th century village, gruesome attacks by 3 werewolves, public lynchings and arguments between friends. Everyone was looking out for themselves and trust had evaporated. At times it was tense … but mostly laughter pierced the cold night air. Werewolf is just a game, but it’s so much more than a game … it immerses players in a world of experience. Playing Werewolf takes some to the edge of their comfort zone. Others revel in the uncertainty of a world that, in many ways, mimics real life. Viv …

I am re reading some of Tim Gallway’s Inner Game insights and I liked this from Peter Block’s forward on the book … “We learn fast when we pay attention to what is happening now – the present moment and for what the world really is and not what it could be. Learning becomes a function of attention and noticing more than instruction. It’s about noticing what is going on around you without judgement, fear or the need to control.” As Tim describes it, there are 2 games going on when playing tennis, facilitating or just about anything. There’s the Inner …