These past few days, I have been in Vancouver working with Chris Corrigan and Steven Wright at the 2012 World Indigenous Housing Conference. lots of learning and having a ball over here. Chris writes here in depth about the process, the fun, the co-creation and the context – http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=3629

Last night our team of 3 looked for patterns and themes across harvests from 3 Cafe Conversations. Today we are reporting back our findings to the conference using a visual and very interactive approach.

As we burned the midnight oil, we all learned (or relearned) a lesson about the power of story processes and the quality of the harvest that comes. We facilitated 3 Cafes yesterday and the first of these invited delegates (nearly 600 from across the world!) to share stories of success about Indigenous Housing. Simple … natural and engaging. For the conference, this also produced the most fruitful harvest.

The specific stories captured have become the center point of our report back later today. We have created headlines for the stories and will invite the story tellers to join us in a participatory presentation.

As we design conversations and dialogue, it is easy to over complicate processes and the questions we ask. When our purpose is blurred by the abstract questions, the energy in the room changes. The harvest (the stuff we gather to carry forward into the world) seems to become less engaging.

In sum … remember to keep it simple and invite people to share stories.

A photo of the co-creation …

These photos represent the fun we have had in play and work …