As I heard the news about falling share prices and failure to pass a $70 Billion bail out plan in the US, I was reminded of this clip in Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff. It involves the US Government ‘shining the shoes’ of the Corporation. The Corporation is the fat guy in the top hat here … Watch this clip and you’ll see how Annie’s message is right on the money. If the American public watched this right now they being singing Annie’s songbook. So … what’s the solution? Is the financial meltdown ‘fixable’, or is this so complex that …

I am currently writing a report for a 3 year behaviour change project. In applying 2 pieces of advice … “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook” philosopher William James & “Before you design your presentation (or report story), you need to see the big picture and identify your core messages – or the single core message. I call for preparing the presentation (or report) away from the computer ‘going analog’, as opposed to ‘going digital’ at the computer.” Presentation Zen guru Garr Reynolds This is what my office looks like as the story …

Here’s a nice post by Viv McWaters that sums up my experience as a facilitator of group workshops where Powerpoint presentations are delivered. I’ll add to Viv’s commentary and say … I agree that bullet points on slides should be banned 🙂 and … In my recent experience, the best presentations happen when the technology fails and presenters have to go back to their ‘story’ and forget the script that emerges from text-dense slides. They often gravitate to the nearest whiteboard and start to draw pictures to help explain their key points. Why don’t their slides contain the same pictures? …

I had the pleasure of working with a large group of nearly 100 people today. I really enjoy the energy that a group this large can create. This image represents my facilitation role today. In between a score of guest speakers, I allowed the participants a voice … more than the usual Q&A’s … they had a chance to contribute their own thinking. For this, they thanked me. Once you accept that the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ (at any conference) is greater than the ‘handful of keynote experts’, facilitating whole-group contribution is simply a matter of common sense. Aka ‘Unconferencing‘. …

Following on from my podcast chat about the ‘Unexpected’ with Matt Moore and Viv McWaters, this happened to me just now. I had a conference call with a client (planning out a workshop) and had my 9 month old baby in a backpack for all of it. Working from home is both a luxury and a challenge! It was unavoidable, unplanned and rarely happens. Be prepared for anything! Webcam photo taken during a real conference call By the way, my client was fine with the babbling noises in the background and applauded me for ‘taking the risk’ to go ahead …