I’ve been on the road lately … facilitating lots and lots of conversations with lots of lots of people. Big groups and small groups, mixed and unmixed groups. The conversations have been about learning from our past and working out ways to ‘do it better’ in the future. When you accept the offer to facilitate day after day, there is such a great opportunity to practice the art of being present … to enter a space with purpose yet being able to ‘let-go’ of how/what/when and respond to the group’s needs. With each workshop I got better and better at …

What’s Tiger Woods’ win at the 2008 US Open got to with high performance under stress? Allow me to share a quick story first … Recently I facilitated a workshop when in the onset phase of ‘Gastro’. As participants arrived I suffered from weakness, nausea and waves of stomach cramps. If I was at home, I would have curled into bed, shut the door and placed a bucket by my side. I disclosed my discomfort to my client and we decided to press on … 50 people had given up their evening to contribute critical thinking. The stakes were high. …

Created at Wordle.net Viv McWaters and I chatted with Gil Brenson-Lazan about the role of facilitators in disaster recovery. Gil has 35 years experience in this area and a background in social psychology. He is a co-founder of the Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC). You can download the podcast over here at Winkipod. Gil Brenson-Lazan Cheers Geoff

In my year of ‘letting-go’ in 2009 … here’s a quick anecdote from a workshop I facilitated this week. I was confronted by a workshop participant who challenged the ‘core’ reason we had come together as a group.  My plan, not surprisingly, didn’t prepare me for this … responding in the moment was all I could do. I called on an Improv principle of ‘accepting offers’. The offering was ‘the challenge’ and I found it a struggle to ‘let-go’ of a strong urge to respond with an equally strong challenge of my own – that would have been easy for …

Over at Winkipod, Harrison Owen launches his new book (at the 2008 OSonOS) and in this Winkipodcast, Harrison explores a metaphor that links surfing at Mavericks … Open Space Technology and Self Organising systems. Given Viv and I named our podcasting blog (Winkipod) after another famous surf break (Winkipop) … it has added significance. Here is Mavericks … where the surfer is not in control of this wave! Here is Harrison Owen’s Mavericks metaphor (from the podcast above) … Mavericks is a world class surf break (with incredible power) that comes into northern California. Surfers show up when Mavericks is “on” and …