WinkiPod

Via Twitter, Viv alerted me to this interview with Sir Ken Robinson at ABC’s Radio National. Sir Ken’s presentations and writing has been a source of inspiration for myself, Viv and many others around the world.

Direct link to mp3 download here

Here’s what they said about Ken at their website:

British creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson believes we’re all born with creative capacities but we lose them the more time we spend in the world.

He says the school system often discourages creativity by favouring
academic measurement.

Sir Ken is an internationally recognised leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources.

He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland.

The resulting blueprint for change, ‘Unlocking Creativity’, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province.

He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.

cheers V & G

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I had the pleasure of speaking with Nick Sweeting, Producer, Improbable Theatre Company, London about their use of open space with the theatre industry in UK and Europe.

Nick was in Australia to facilitate the open space day at the Australian Theatre Forum.

Hope you enjoy!

Winkipodcast with Nick Sweeting - Improbable Theatre Co.

Tags: Facilitation, Improv, Open Space Technology // Add Comment »

Geoff Brown and I chat with Nicole Hunter who is currently a freelance facilitator based in Dubai, U.A.E. Before shifting to the desert she was the Manager of Community and Stakeholder Engagement at EPA Victoria. And before that Nicole worked as the Manager Community Engagement, Fire, at the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Nicole’s core expertise includes facilitation, community engagement and project planning and management.

She shares her experiences and wisdom from working with rural communities following the Grampians bush fires a few years ago.

Download and Listen to podcast here (40 mins)

Tags: Bush Fires, Facilitation, Resilience, Sustainability // 2 Comments »

Created @ Wordle.net

Geoff Brown 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).

Download and Listen to podcast here (32 mins)

Here’s an overview of what we covered.

Gil’s experiences of disaster responses – good and bad. What happened when 26,000 people were killed in Columbia.

Why it’s important for people to participate in their own future.

Training facilitators in psycho-social recovery: personal (psycho) grieving processes and building community (social) resilience.

An aid mentality compared with a facilitative approach to disaster response.

Thinking like a facilitator.

Role of Community Fireguard in building resilient communities.

The power of participating and dialoguing instead of being ‘talked at’ by an expert.

Secondary crisis – not dealing appropriately with the loss and turning to ‘escape’ behaviours.

The problem of staying in the aid mode for too long and building dependency. The ladder of participation.

When is the right time for facilitation after a disaster?

GFSC resources for facilitators

Arnstein’s article about the Ladder of Participation

Tags: Facilitation, Improv, Status, Sustainability, Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

I came across the Applied Improvisation Network five years ago when I was searching for the uses of Playback Theatre in business settings. Little did I know when I went to my first Applied Improv Conference in San Francisco in 2004 that I would unearth a whole swag of new learnings, approaches, ideas and inspiration. And, make some really good friends. If I could go to only one conference a year, this would be it - for the generosity, the connections, the friendship, the fun and, of course, the improv. What a gift, to me personally and to my work.

I was delighted to be asked to open space for the final day of this year’s conference in Chicago. And sad too, that I would not be able to stay until the end. Those pesky flight schedules between the USA and Australia meant I had to leave early. So I employed the ultimate ‘invisible’ facilitator role, advocated by none other than Harrison Owen. He takes a nap. I left the country! But before I left I recorded some comments about the conference.

Thanks to Joey, Alan, Yael, Bobbie, Rita, Sven, Kathryn, Andrea, Jodi, Sue, Paul, Leif, Zohar, Alieke and David. There’s about 20 minutes of comments from these insightful folk. At about 12 minutes in there’s an absolutely delightful piece from Jodi Cohen. 

 Listen here; Reflections on the AIN Chicago 2008 Conference

Tags: Improv, Open Space Technology // 1 Comment »

At last week’s Applied Improvisation Conference in Chicago I managed to snatch a few minutes with Simo Routarinne, an expert on the use of status. Simo is from Helsinki, Finland and is an improviser, facilitator, teacher, trainer, actor, writer, director and stuff…

Listen here - Simo Routarinne on the use of ’status’

We chatted for about 20 minutes. Here are the ’show notes’:

00.00 Introduction, shift from prof acting to impro + applications, on making your partner look good

03.10 What is status? About what you do, not who you are. Dynamic status. Use of space

06.43 Value of high/low status

08.29 Moving status and why we should be aware of it? Saving the world. Status fights.

10.56 Debate and verbal violence, friendly discussion and the hidden status competition, reactions to status challenges

13.50 Consequences of not reacting, passive aggression – avoiding conflict by not reacting

16.07 Counter-attack and conflict escalation, bullying

16.35 Language status, skilled at recognition, hard to verbalise

18.15 Status awareness in groups, adapting to be close to the status of the group

19.53 Building trust and rapport, status of the facilitator

21.33 More info

Keith Johnstone Impro

Daniel Wieiner Rehearsals for Growth

Contact Simo Routarinne sroutari@welho.com

23.30 Ends

Tags: Facilitation, Improv, Status // 1 Comment »

Preworkshop Devotions & Singing in Zambia #1

Preworkshop Devotions & Singing in Zambia #2

Tags: Facilitation, Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

Viv’s off round the world on another facilitation journey! Here’s some extracts from her blog about the Taiwan leg of her journey … and the podcast for your downloading pleasure is below!

First, I’ll be in Taiwan at the China Facilitation Conference - doing a one-day pre-conference workshop with about 30 people on ‘facilitating in the moment’. Many don’t speak English so I’ll be working with a translator. The following day I’ll be facilitating a two-hour workshop on ‘improv gifts for facilitators’, and then taking part in an open space on the future of facilitation in China.

Podcast - Reactions (in Taiwan) to the China Facilitation Conference

During the Open Space I took advantage of an opportunity to record a podcast of people’s reactions to the conference. There were themes of growth, experimentation and exploration and a suggestion that such conferences provide ’space to connect to self again’. There were many new faces at this year’s event, indicative of the growth of facilitation in this region. An interesting comment from Evelyn Philbrook: “Facilitation provides the tipping point of how we’re going to create a new society.” Sounds like something worth being a part of.

Enjoy!

Viv and Geoff

Tags: Facilitation, Open Space Technology // 3 Comments »

Who would be on your wish list for us to have as a guest on Winkipod?

Here’s some of our ideas - let us know if you’d like to hear from these people. Who else you would add to the list and what is one question/topic you would explore with them?

Harrison Owen on his newly-released book Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self Organizing World. (We quite like the link to our surfing metaphor)

Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

Kat Koppett, improviser and author of Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership and Learning

Thiagi - creator of a zillion training games

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations

Lee Lefever - Founder The Common Craft Show and master at Explainations (of the complex) in Plain English.

Dave Snowden, Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Cognitive Edge

All Bloggers ‘crave’ feedback and comments … so don’t hold back, let us know who and what you want you to hear!

Cheers

Viv & Geoff

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We were delighted to have a conversation with Patti Digh over Skype last week. We chatted about Patti’s new book ‘Life is a Verb‘, her blog ‘37 Days‘ and the Diversity Training work that she does with David Robinson as ‘The Circle Project’.

Patti Digh Winkipodcast download here

Who is Patti Digh?

Podcast Summary

0 - 20 mins … all about The Circle Project & diversity training

20 - 34 mins … all about Life is a Verb (Patti’s book) and 37 Days (Patti’s blog)

34 - 39 mins … connections through social media and Web 2.0

Enjoy this podcast!

Geoff and Viv

Tags: Facilitation // 3 Comments »