Whilst I have successfully invited many different groups and individuals to explore the use of fairy tale in areas like:

• Chartering the journeys of facilitators – leading to our collection of Facilitator Fairy Tales
• Safer ways to explore culture and undiscussables
• Providing opportunities for people to learn about each other and their community in different conversational ways
• In a client briefing meeting exploring expectations/outcomes for a leadership development program
• Ways to re-story your own individual experiences

There are some important emotional reactions to the fairy tale to consider. That is, with fairy tale providing an opportunity for individuals and groups to encode their life experiences with metaphor and symbols there is a warm-up to emotions and feelings. I’ve often heard people comment on how cathartic the experience felt. Personally I can vouch for it too. Emotional warm-up isn’t itself an issue – though you might want to consider how you will handle any difficult places that you might find yourself with individuals and the groups supporting them.

Reflecting on the very real experience of ‘process challenge’ one of the more troubling items with the fairy tale is individual reactions and resistance to it. You might even be feeling a personal reaction to the word “fairy tale” – yes – right now! Some common participant struggles might see thoughts or statements like “That was a complete waste of an hour”, “Whats this childish stuff got to do with anything”, “I’m not creative and this is just kids stuff” or even after engaging in the activity feeling a sense of guilt about the process being fun but what was it all about anyway?

Now – not that I’m a freudian but I can’t help wonder whether such a strong adult reaction to the fairy tale genre might relate to the notion of having a wounded child. That is, some part of childhood not integrated – or some wounded part of our childhood sitting raw under the surface just waiting for the opportunity to regress back. Interestingly, if learning is about growth, then this form of personal resistance and ‘process challenge’ actually provides a real opportunity to explore and develop. Though I’d question the appropriateness of this within a typical ‘workshop’! 

I believe that the role of a facilitator is to help the group and its individuals move forward to whatever outcomes have been agreed. But – sometimes – maybe we can’t move forward until we can let go of the past that might be holding us back. So – as a facilitator – how can you start to appreciate the ‘process challenge’ more? How does it provide some real richness to the interaction? And, as a participant – have you reflected on your resistance? What’s holding you back? What are the things that push your buttons? How can they help you learn and grow?

Maybe a relevant quote is: “Resist that in you which Resists”.

The books currently on my desk are:

• Psychology for Screenwriters - Building Conflict in Your Script
• Comedy Writing Secrets
• Net Work - A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Networks at Work and in the World
• Sitting in the Fire - Large group transformation using conflict and diversity
• On Being Certain - Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not

And, finally, if you’re looking for a great book on journalling and being reflective, a great find that my wife gave me was this book: Creative Journal Writing - The Art and Heart of Reflection.

“I can’t answer the question of what I’m to do until I know what story I’m part of”

It’s our birthday! To celebrate ODA’s 10 years of moments, highlights and achievements we will be embarking on a journey of creative storytelling. This creative form of storytelling will see us working with a specific genre of story - that of the fairy tale.

Led by Andrew Rixon, Director of Babel Fish Group, we will explore how the humble fairy tale provides opportunity not only for creative coherent story telling in safe and humourous environments, but also enables exploration of meaning and interpretation within groups in often surprising and insightful ways.

The evening of creative story telling will help acknowledge the journey of ODA and its’ many contributors over the last 10 years. At the same time, it’s a night for all of us who have a passion for OD, and developing our practice. We’ll learn more of a new creative approach to story telling and what it can bring to life for ourselves and those we work with. Come and join us for a memorable night - and some fabulous cake, of course!

Event Details
When: Tuesday, July 29
Time: 6:00pm - 8:30pm, refreshments provided
Where: Fawkner Park Community Centre
65 Toorak Road West, South Yarra (parking available on-site)
Cost: Members free, non-members $25 (includes GST)

It seems to me that today we have forgotten that when we meet and learn about colleagues at work, what we are actually getting used to is the ‘them-at-work role’ that they are playing within their business or organisation. It’s almost like our notion of them-as-a-person shrinks to fit the ‘them-at-work’ role that we see them playing. Maybe this explains how when in conflict with a colleague we tend to look at the conflict in terms of a personal conflict rather than a role conflict.

This relates to recent work on Social Network Analysis I have been doing where it became clear that what was really going on in the organisation was a natural conflict between roles – not people.

For example: In a collaborative environment you can say there many roles at play  – but two clear ones are that of the envisioning leader and that of the organising leader. The envisioning leader has a talent and skill in being able to articulate and mobilise people around a vision or direction. The organising leader on the other hand has talent for looking after budgets, timeframes, costs etc.

Can you imagine, with the envisioning leader being interested in opening up creative options, and the organising leader wanting to focus on control, framing and boxing how these two roles may come into conflict?Are you aware of how these roles may be constructed socially? What if everyone considers you to have the talents of an organising leader and you don’t?

Next time you find yourself in conflict – ask yourself – what and how are roles in conflict here?

I feel that I have to agree with Thomas L Friedman who claims that the world is flat. See, you don’t need six degrees anymore, two will do!

In my travels, certainly here in Australia, I’ve found that many people are connected to John Batros – and in very unusual ways. That I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say, if you know – Me or Brian Bainbridge or Nita Cherry or Trevor Tyson then you are 2 degrees separated to John Batros, and that’s just as a starter. I bet it wouldn’t take long for you to find some other common 2 degree pathway to John Batros.

Have you ever thought about the degrees connected you are in your workplace? What does it mean for you to have a thriving social network? How do you use your social networks to influence or persuade? Are there holes in your social networks which could provide you with interesting new opportunities? How are you supporting your social networks – and how are they supporting you? What meaning do you attribute to your position within your social networks? How does structure and space play a role in successful relationships?

If any of these questions interest you, then take a look at a new program we are offering called Social Network Analysis - Exploring space and relationship for change.

Or you could also take a squiz at my Squidoo lens on Social Network Analysis

Having a wife who is doing her PhD in linguistics sure tunes me in – to language.

The other night – I was watching a movie called “Stranger than Fiction”. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend it.

 Anyway – there was a great scene where the protagonist, on meeting with Dustin Hoffman (who’s playing a Literary expert) says a phrase of:

“Little did he know”

Well – this grabs the attention and interest of an otherwise uninterested mentor figure and helps the movie move forward. 

For me, there have been a few different phrases that I’ve found myself becoming aware of, for whatever reason. A couple are:

“To be honest” -  My internal response: “Uh oh- somethings going on here”.

“For what its worth” – A personal learning: A hostile phrase.

Have you got any phrases that you hear, or keep hearing that puzzle you? Or that seem to have ulterior motives to them?

If this has got you thinking, you might enjoy having a read of a paper we wrote called Exploring the Language of Facilitation.

First – some questions for you to ponder:

How often do you get a chance to reflect on your facilitation practice?
Are you interested in the archetypes and roles we play as facilitators?
How often do you get the chance to share and reflect on the success stories and the war stories of facilitation? The miracles and nasty surprises?
Have you ever found yourself “stuck” either before, during or after a facilitation gig?
Are you looking for new ways to nurture and develop your facilitation practice?

If you’re looking for ways to enrich and deepen your facilitation experience, come and join Simon Kneebone (cartoonist extraordinaire!) and I on Friday August 22nd as we guide you through a day of story, visual genre and archetypes – all focussed on the age old oral tradition of how we can learn from story.

To register – simply download the easy-fax-in brochure for Becoming a Better Facilitator: A day of Guided Reflective Action.

My wife and I just arrived back from a beautiful 10 day trip around New Zealand’s north and south islands. Very refreshing. I must admit, work still found a way to creep in with the appearance of signs and quotes in often unexpected places. Like this saying “Drive to the conditions”. I reckon I should print a few of these up and post them around workshops and other group meetings that go on. Helping people to become present and arrive back in the room and to journey from where they are, based on the conditions that they are finding, both within themselves and their colleagues around.

If that fails, I’ll have at the ready a few of another sign we chanced on – just before lunch one day – “Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity”.

In our recent workshops Journeying with Story we explored how there can sometimes be resistance to working with story and some of it’s genres, especially fairy tale! A learning for us as we ran the workshops in Melbourne and then Brisbane was how using rationale first then experience can be a way to help negotiating the way into ‘play’. As opposed to diving in big splash with experience first then rationale.

For those who missed our Melbourne Journeying with Story program we’ll be running it again on October 9th and if you’re one of our newsletter subscribers we’ll be keeping you posted as well as providing discount registration rate codes.

And, finally, I’m looking forward to spending about 10 days in New Zealand chilling out with my wife and seeing where we end up. More when I return – And – Remember – Even Polar Bears Play!

What do all these have in common?

The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary

On the Technique of Acting

Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship

The Sociometry Reader

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain