As I slowly re enter the world of consulting, blogging and twittering, I find myself in a very different head space compared to a few weeks ago. What’s changed? For one, the end of the year brings about the annual ‘reframing’ that we all try for size. Some call it a New Year’s resolution. Last year, my wife and I decided on a New Year’s theme of “do 1 less thing”. Notice that our theme is not a goal or a target like ‘run that marathon’. New Year’s goals are futile and rarely materialise. So what’s my theme for 2009? …

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 …

Thanks to Paul Z Jackson at Solutions Focus, my approach to workshop facilitation has changed (and I think improved) throughout 2008. I have read his book and attended Solutions Focus training in Melbourne this year (thanks to Andrew Rixon for bringing it together). I wrote a post called ‘Which Conversation Do You Choose” about my observations of groups who take a solutions focused view in a workshop. Here is the picture to capture the essence of this observation … Here is a message I sent to Paul Jackson, reflecting on solutions focus and my work … Hi Paul. How are …

In Yochai Benkler’s TED talk (Open Source Economics) he says something like … “Social interaction and ideas exchange on the internet is not just a passing fashion … it’s the ‘deep change’ that is challenging our incumbant industrial systems.”  If you wonder why I bother to blog and read other’s blogs … post ‘tweets’ to twitter and join online social networks, well its because I get real value from it. Yochai goes a step further and suggests that for the first time the control of the new information age is in the hands of everyone with a computer and internet …

Today is Sunday and I was involved in a community engagement event with a government department and a community adjoining a newly announced National Park. The draft plan was the focus and topic and conversation. Learning #1 – The surf was pumping … the surf is always going-off when I accept weekend jobs! Note to self … say no to weekend work in future 🙂 I was involved in 3 of these Community Engagement events which were wonderfully orchestrated by Carla Rogers using her version of the Open House (aka iForum) event. I was in the wonderful position of being …