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 …

Euan Semple shares a fantasy at his Obvious Blog … “A business where everyone blogs. Everyone thinks about what they are doing and writes about what they are doing. From the top to the bottom, the edges to the middle. Everyone awake and bouncing off each other intellectually as they get more and more effective at whatever they do.” Just imagine any organisation, field or community of practice. Now imagine everyone openly sharing their observations, thoughts and ideas. Where everyone’s input is valued in a culture of saying yes more than no. Source: Viv McWaters Neil Perkin published the ‘blog …

William Ury offers an elegant way of looking at world peace and the role we can all play. He offers both tangible stories of ‘how’ it is being done … and a model to support it. He calls it the 3rd Side and it’s also the role of the facilitator – known in some circles as the 3rd Communication Position. The 3rd side, in the context of war, is us … all of us. As the 1st and 2nd side argue, disagree and battle with each other with a loss of perspective, ‘we’ on the 3rd side surround them and …

The most common conversation I hear my clients having is about ‘Social Media’ … facebook, twitter, wikis, blogs etc. This is in the context of Knowledge Management, project management, internal communications and stakeholder engagement. Often I hear the tension between controlling it and letting it go – do the latter as it’s not that scary! Earlier this year, Euan Semple and I co-facilitated a day of social media conversations with a few of my clients. We had a ball and our parting words were … “let’s do that again sometime”. Well, that’s probably not going to happen in Melbourne for a …

Here’s a 1 minute video featuring Jack Thompson. He has been asked the simple question, “What is your happiest moment?”. I really enjoyed his response – HT to Katie at Get Shouty for this “The future I might aspire to – the past I remember with pleasure … life’s crowning glory is the here and now” In this longer video, Chip Conley shares his story … when the dotcom bubble burst, Chip went in search of a business model based on happiness. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that …