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‘. …

Viv and I had a face-face conversation last week with Anne Pattillo. This chat about ‘Facilitation’ was recorded and published here at our WinkiPodcast Blog.  Anne points to the core of Facilitation and this image sums it up. Enjoy listening.   Geoff

Have you seen Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff video? You should watch it. I use parts of it when facilitating sustainability workshops to great effect. I have embedded it below. Thanks to Dave Pollard’s weekly wrap, I discovered this article by Peter Senge and others. It is a prescription for Business Sustainability: Senge says business has to do much more than just mitigate and adapt to climate change. I really liked the anology Senge drew between the short term bubbles we have seen (eg. dot com and sub prime) and the Industrial “bubble” that has been expanding for the past 2 centuries. …

In a recent post I explored applications for the visual art of Chris Jordon in enabling change. Today (hat tip to Brendan McKeague) I discovered the Paul Lussier Company. Their mission is similar to Chris’ and my own in seeking solutions to the climate change challenge. One of his projects is the creation of an online film called Blessed Unrest. Watch this! BLESSED UNREST: THE FILM is created entirely on the film’s website. The site enables users to partake in collaborative editing in micro-communities devoted to certain themes set up by our directorial and editorial team. With the full resolution source tagging …

I have long been a fan of using mindmaps to think and capture ideas. As a facilitator I use mindmaps to create a visual map of decisions and ‘outputs’ from workshops. Now I can use mindmaps to ‘collaborate’ with others by using a Web 2.0 application called Mind42. All you need is a Mind42 account and you can view and edit maps that I publish … a visual wiki! Here is a real example that I used to communicate the outcomes of the Castlemaine 500 project earlier this year.   Cheers Geoff