Gamestorming – by David Gray, Sunni Brown & James Macanufo

We’ve recently read and appreciated Gamestorming): The cover states it’s ‘A playbook for innovators, rule-breakers & change makers’.
This is a good toolbox type book of structured group processes, tools and techniques for group work, collaboration, innovation and problem solving. It’s nicely laid out, easy to read, understand and apply when working with groups. There are well over 50 different tools listed in this book, with a good explanation of each and how to apply them. It has several well-known ones like brain-writing, cover story, fishbowl and dot voting and lots of others I had heard of but not used, I shall definitely give some of them a go though!

O’Reilly Media. ISBN 13 – 978 - 6596804176

Welcoming unexpected workshop participants

Many of the people we train ask us about good ice-breakers and energisers. Justine recently experienced her most unusual one yet in the shape of a very affectionate and bouncy dog that stayed for the whole workshop. It wasn’t a stray that just came in from the street…one of our clients has a ‘bring your dogs to work’ scheme (it’s nothing against cats, just that cats tend to do their own thing…) and one of her participants did just that. Whilst the workshop treats and goodies (for the participants) had to be locked away our canine friend certainly added lots of good energy and laughter trying to use one of the large marker pens as a stick to be thrown and fetched and offering doggie woof insight at certain parts of the session. Perhaps not an appropriate energiser to be used on every occasion it certainly was a new workshop experience.

headrooms opening

On Tuesday 22nd February headrooms in Clerkenwell officially opened and circleindigo were pleased to be there to celebrate with their friends.
The people at headrooms are passionate about seeing people improve, create, innovate and do things better. They believe that people need stimulating environments hence they have created space in a great location offering a range of services from fully equipped meeting and training rooms, support from highly experienced management consultants, open development events in collaboration with People Tree and external support from facilitators including circleindigo as their best friends!

Establishing a Internal Facilitator Resource Pool

Over the past 2 years we have been working with a children’s charity to set up a sustainable internal facilitation resource. We initially delivered a two day core facilitation skills training programme to senior managers followed by a practice period where they had the opportunity to facilitate internal sessions using their new skills. Six months later we delivered a further two day high performance facilitation skills for this first cohort. Then followed a consultation period and over a time the facilitation team was firmly established and a process was agreed for developing more facilitators. It was decided that staff from across the organisation should be invited to apply to attend the next round of training stating their objectives and identifying their skills. Successful applicants then formed the 2nd cohort and they too went through both the core and high performance programmes.
This programme of work has had a positive impact on both individuals and the organisation and this February several members of the first cohort successfully completed their International Association of Facilitator’s Certification (see http://www.iaf-europe.eu/ and http://www.iaf-world.org/) .
The charity now has a professional internal resource that is being used regularly throughout the organisation. The outcomes organisationally include increased capability and capacity, effective and productive meetings and significant cost reductions.

Witherdens Hall opens new workshop and meeting space

If you want a secluded place to work, rest or play then explore what Louise Chester had created at Witherdens Hall www.witherdenshall.co.uk in Wingham, Kent. It is an intimate space to hold awaydays with food locally produced and sourced. You can arrange your own event or draw on her network of skilled coaches, facilitators and business leaders to apply some Breakthrough Business Coaching and Consultancy; arrange some holistic pampering at The Retreat or simply take a walk through the surrounding countryside. It’s an inspirational place and has innovative events on offer if that’s what you’re after. It’s also great news for those of us based in and around Kent. A real gem I’m not sure we should be letting you know about in case we can’t book it when we want to!

Project Management - APM Conference

A productive place to run workshops is at key points through the project lifecycle: to bring the project team together to make qualitative decisions; achieve buy-in from the whole team to the way forward; and build commitment to achieving the project outcomes. For this reason we like to keep up to date with the latest in project management and recently attended the annual Association for Project Managers conference at The Brewery. www.thebrewery.co.uk

As I sat in the large Porter Tun room for the conference opening my heart sank as I saw that we had a one hour ‘Opening Speaker’ presentation and a huge screen that signalled powerpoint! I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Stephen Carver from Cranfield University www.cranfield.ac.uk was introduced to talk about Project Partnerships: Past Present and Future.
What followed was a master class in creative presentation and effective use of powerpoint! From the opening visuals of David Cameron and Nick Clegg symbolizing a new partnership the audience were engaged. There followed a whole narrative with visuals about the construction of the Pyramids and what type of project management was happening throughout. We were then treated to a short film clip from the Gladiator and subsequently tasked with a related activity to work on in table groups. And so it continued the whole presentation alive with visuals, quotes, stories, humour and activities and not an overcrowded, wordy slide to be seen! It was an excellent start to the conference. For more about the conference go to www.apm.org.uk

Facilitation Camp

Sarah spent two days at FacilitationCamp in Vauxhall South London hosted by www.decisionlab.org.uk and www.LondonCreativeLabs.com. The venue was Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre. Originally an old bed factory it was recently rescued and reclaimed for community benefit and provided a unconventional urban conference space. You can see the team of visionaries who rolled up their sleeves to make it happen, if you watch this short film about it: http://s.coop/2l8

FacilitationCamp was described as an ‘unconference’ where participants could co-create the agenda on the day as well as co-create the experience they have. It was run using the BarCamp model based on Open Space Technology www.openspaceworld.com so that we as participants could design the agenda and convene sessions. It was an energetic and exciting two days with lots of interesting ideas generated.

Sarah convened two sessions on Saturday 21st Open Space 2: Mapping & Exploring your facilitation practice and Open Space 3: Visually Recording FacilitationCamp. To see more visit http://barcamFacilitationCampWhatHappenedp.org/

Up and coming IAF Europe Conference: Paradoxes in Facilitation

Gary is currently the IAF Europe (acting) Conferences and Professional Development Lead and in a few weeks time he will be participating in the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Europe conference 2010, 15th – 17th October, being held this year in Helsinki, Finland with the theme of ‘Paradoxes in Facilitation’; where we will explore paradoxes, magical tools, myths and rites in our facilitation practice.

The conference is on the picturesque peninsula of Kallahti, in a beautiful wooded area a few steps from the shores of the Gulf of Finland – it looks a fantastic place to spend some time catching up with old and new friends active in the field of facilitation.

The conference programme is offered by Facilitator colleagues from around Europe and beyond and contains over 30 concurrent sessions and 4 pre-conference sessions.

There will be formal networking sessions under the heading ‘Punainen Lanka’ (Red Thread) where people can organise gatherings of like-minded folk around a common topic of interest and more informal get-togethers as suggested by the local team; including a range of Finnish activities and offerings to try, as well as time to meet, network and socialise with Facilitator peers; sharing facilitation experiences, stories, tools and techniques with one another.

Have a look at http://www.iaf-europe-conference.org/

The first ed.space…watch this space!

Since my early twenties I have cared deeply about the educational experiences of children and young people. Over many years this was reinforced by my experience of working with many young people whose creativity had been stifled in an educational system that somehow alienated them. The breakthrough question that ed.space is posing ‘How do we create a learning experience that fully engages with the hearts of children and young people?’ has a particular resonance for me.Also I have a firm belief that gathering together with other people to share conversation, time and space in relation to issues that matter we can begin to change the world. That may sound a grand statement but by promoting connectedness in this way we can listen, dream, explore, sense and be present to greater possibility.

Being in ed.space felt different from the start; the virgin martini’s, just an olive in a glass gave a flavour of what the evening was going to be like! Held in the inspiring Engine Hall of the People’s History Museum in Manchester (http://www.phm.org.uk/) there was an excitement in the air.
Mark Hodierne and the ed.space team created an evening that had the perfect balance of input and varied activity. There were video clips of Sir Ken Robinson, opportunities to play with music technology using ipad, small group work and a systemic constellation to explore the wider education system. There was a high level of engagement, great conversations and some powerful ideas emerged.

ed.space is definitely a new venture to watch to learn more visit http://www.edspace.ws/

Engaging Parents

Recently Sarah was asked to design and deliver a workshop for parents in a South East London borough. The parents all have children attending schools in a particular part of the borough and form what is called a school cluster group. The Local Authority Extended Services team were keen to engage with parents in relation to increasing participation in family learning as well as ensuring that parents had a voice and an opportunity to contribute their ideas for a large scale parent’s conference that would be held in July 2010.
Sarah worked with local practitioners to design a workshop that would encourage participation and inclusion. It was important to make the workshop activities accessible to all parents. Things for consideration were the wide range of cultural backgrounds and varying levels of literacy as many participants had English as a second language.

Sessions ranged from: a creative market place of information; a dot voting and marble voting series of activities; large graffiti walls that the parents could contribute their ideas to using words, images or symbols and small group conversation sessions facilitated by local practitioners.

There were high levels of participation, lots of great ideas for the conference in July and positive feedback from the parents plus a desire to be involved in the future. It was a wonderful session to be a part of.

Volcanic ash enables virtual IAF...

Having been asked to facilitate an observed (goldfish bowl) keynote workshop on ‘The Future of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) at the Chicago 2010 North American IAF conference, Gary’s plans, and session, were suddenly in disarray due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which put paid to flying to the USA!

With a few days to go before the session and no let up on the volcanic ash cloud, Gary along with the conference design team decided that as leaders in the field of facilitation, the IAF should be doing something different and so it was decided that Gary’s keynote workshop would be run virtually with facilitation support from a fellow IAF colleague and friend, Nadine Bell, who would be in the room in Chicago.

So come the day, 16 participants and 12 observers in a hotel conference room in Chicago, Nadine Bell co-Facilitator in Chicago, a five hour time difference and Gary in his office at the bottom of his garden back in the UK, the workshop took place.

Having chosen to do this over Skype and Skype video calling, which all stayed up and connected, with the fantastic help of Nadine Bell in Chicago, a web cam, frantic note taking on post-its stuck up around Gary’s office and a webcam in the room in Chicago, 3.5 hours later virtual facilitation workshop completed, session went really well and feedback very positive.

Now to find more ‘virtual opportunities’ and good online tools and software to support it!

University of Westminster – Resilience Research

Following many years of supporting client groups and individuals manage change and transition and building on our three year plus relationship with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster, London, this year we sponsored two research projects on resilience during major change.

The first was a theory based research project, researching the many (if not hundreds!) of resilience models and frameworks out there and identifying if there were common themes and characteristics, this project was carried out by Irene Xanthaki, a business psychology student at the university.

The second was a practical based project which researched how people handled major change well, what they did and what characteristics did they display or use. This project was carried out by Katie Roth, also an MSc student at the university and involved interviewing our client’s cross-sector and cross-industry and then reviewing and collating the findings.

Both research projects have now been finished and dissertation reports handed in!

Through reviewing the two reports we have built a ‘key characteristics of resilience’ framework that we are now using to inform our work to support both individuals and groups develop and build resilience to enable them to survive and thrive in turbulent times!

We already have a number of clients who are keen to take and extend this work further with us, and we thank both Irene and Katie for all their hard work and effort.

IAF Europe Conference – 2009

This year the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Europe conference was held in September in the hallowed halls of Keble College, Oxford, England.

Attended by over 170 Facilitators from not just Europe but all over the world, from afar as the USA to Africa, to the Philippines and New Zealand, as well as the usual strong contingents from the UK and Sweden.

It was a great weekend, having the conference in a venue where the sessions, the eating, the celebrating and the accommodation were all on the same site definitely helped build and foster a strong sense of community and being in the heart of Oxford itself meant visitors were able to see the historical beauty of the city of Oxford. The conference sessions were generally of a high calibre and conference participants could be found networking in the collegial surrounds of Keble College, sharing their learning’s from the various sessions they had attended.

And we ate in the largest college dining hall in Oxford and it was all very Hogwarts and Harry Potter!

circleindigo ran a conference session on ‘Building Resilience in Turbulent Times’, based on our recent research with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster. The session was well attended and much appreciated with participants gaining insights from both an individual and group perspective.

For more information on our resilience work please contact us.

“In between client workshops circleindigo had the opportunity to experience the ‘wow’ factor again at Turner’s Point as we spent a glorious 3 days together over the course of running our facilitation skills training programme.

The weather was perfect with balmy views across Whitstable Bay while the odd sailing boat bobbed up and down which provided the backdrop to the training event as we went on a learning journey together with our participants…
As we shared workshop tools, techniques, models and concepts alongside extending our own self-awareness as Facilitators the environment gave us an inspiring light and airy space to work and relax in. Lunch was taken on the upper deck: lots of delicious food; much of it local produce…with homemade cakes for afternoon tea to boot!

We will be running another public facilitation skills training course there again between October 5th-7th and are hoping for some Autumn sunsets!

If you’re interested contact our Jen: jennifer.austin@circleindigo.com

Leadership in Tough Times – Wavelength100 Day

On Monday, I participated in a one day workshop event titled ‘Leadership in Tough Times’ hosted by Wavelength100 www.thesamewavelength.com/pg/leadership.php and attended by approximately 100 people from diverse backgrounds and organisations, cross-sector and cross-industry.

This was an engaging, useful and timely event which included brief (20 minute) insightful ‘key note’ speeches by four session leaders; Martin Narey, CEO of Barnados and former chief of the UK prison service, Garvis Snook, founder and MD of ROK, the UK’s ;largest local builder, Sophi Trenchall, CEO of Divine Chocolate and Gerald Ratner, founder and former CEO of Ratners the Jewellers and Gerald online Jewellers.

The day encompassed four key themes under the Leadership in Tough Times heading; holding it all together, turning it around, holding on to your values and rising from the ashes. The day was an engaging mix of speaker led sessions, small group discussions, conversations in pairs, a world café type session and a ‘Tough Times’ clinic with a panel Q&A, it was energizing and thought provoking and I have pulled some key points and conclusions together on ‘Leadership in Tough Times’ as follows:

Don’t lose sight of your organisations primary purpose and vision even if you have to put in place some short-term reactive strategies, strategies must always connect with and support your purpose and long term vision

Remain visible and accessible, regularly and consistently communicate where you are going, what you are doing and why

Remain true to your company values, they are what you are, your company DNA and not to be abandoned to serve a short-term need

Ensure your people have a voice and can be heard

Wanting things to be ‘how they were before’ may in itself be limiting – new models and ways of working aren’t bad, it doesn’t have to be how it was before!

It’s ok to ‘not be sure’ and to ‘know you do not know’

And finally the only limitations are the ones we impose on ourselves

I came away with lots of nuggets, thoughts and questions to explore even further….

Research in to resilience begins

For more than three years circleindigo have had an ongoing relationship with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster, this is one of the country's leading academic bodies for Business Psychology programmes and is home to Stephen Benton, the UK’s only Professor of Business Psychology.

This relationship has seen circleindigo as part of the visiting lecturer team on the Business Psychology MSc programme, delivering sessions on managing change and transition, building resilience in individuals and teams and facilitation skills.

This year circleindigo have sponsored two research projects as part of the current MSc student cohort’s end of programme dissertation work. One of these sponsored projects is a client facing research project on ‘What makes individuals (and teams) resilient or adaptive to major change?’ and during this project the student will carry out qualitative research through a short face to face structured interview with a small number of circleindigo clients in each of the sectors we support. The 2nd is “Investigating individual/team resilience & adaptability models/frameworks”.

We are looking forward to seeing what emerges and using the outcomes and conclusions of final report to support our clients in the current tough climate, to help build resilience and to manage major change.

Whitstable Surprise

“Just before the Easter holidays circleindigo were working away at Turner’s Point – an exceptional workshop space overlooking the sea at Whitstable. Nothing can prepare you for the spacious workshop room with a wall of windows to the sea and sky. I had a feeling of uncertainty on arrival as it looks just like residential house from the entrance but it was like a double whammy of ‘WOW’: the main room being ideal for group working and the view just breathtaking with the outside space to take in the sea air almost as big as the room itself!!! The space itself enabled a relaxed and meaningful dialogue to unfold and the coffee was pretty good too!! We’re so enamoured with the place – we’re running our public training course there at the end of June…”

The Dinner Party.

On Thursday evening I attended an Inspiring Women’s Dinner organised by Carole Pluckrose, Artistic Director at Arc Theatre. It was inspired by Judy Chicago’s piece called The Dinner Party which represents 1,038 women in history.
There were around 70 women who attended the wonderful dinner ranging in age from 15 to 84! The 15 year old was Eliza Rebeiro who founded Lives not Knives in 2007 and has recently been awared Croydon Community Champion. The 84 year old was Helen Bamber who has worked tirelessly in human rights for over 60 years.
Helen Bamber (www.helenbamber.org ) was the speaker for the evening and was incredibly inspiring and humble. She shared stories of her both her recent work and her time in Belsen afer the liberation of the concentration camp. I was moved by the lessons that Helen had learnt in Belsen about courage, resilience, humanity and cruelty. One very vivid image was of a Belsen survivor who very near to death had held on to Helen’s arm and said “tell, tell, tell”. Helen said this taught her how important it was to people that their stories were heard and told and how important it was to bear withness to the pain of others. www.livesnotknives.com

Revived UK Facilitator’s Network

“On Friday, a regeneration meeting was held for the UK Facilitator’s network to explore in what way a ‘community of practice’ for Facilitators based in the UK would be of value and if yes, in what format, style etc. This meeting was attended by nearly 30 UK based Facilitators and there were at least another 30 who wanted to come but could not make the date.

It was an interesting and fruitful day, where a number of processes were worked through to identify what was required of such a network, what style and format it might take, what was needed in this day and age to support UK Facilitators.

This event was hosted by Keith Warren-Price at the Pinpoint Centre in Chalgrove, Oxon and all present were looked after with extraordinary care, right down to the small tin of food and refreshments we were each given for the journey home; much appreciated and a great touch!

The day was organised and designed by our Gary, and the process itself allowed for two content/process sharing sessions, one facilitated by Keith Warren-Price drawing on the well established Pinpoint technique and the other by Gary who ran a poetry based introduction exercise.

The good news is there are people now on board, willing to help design and shape the UK Facilitator’s network of the future, watch this space for more details as it unfolds”.

A big thanks to Etc venues

Our group size up at the last minute and the booked client site room shifted overnight from workable to inappropriate physical proximity of participants (let alone the ideas than would have been demoralised and crushed)…we were able to use Etc Venues www.etcvenues.co.uk space (Prospero House) close to Borough tube at very short notice. Even though it’s on a busy main road the first floor rooms overlooked a tree or two and lots of natural light came through to support the nicely sized and well-equipped room. The staff were fantastically responsive and a good supply of both fruit and biscuits next to an ever-flowing drinks machine made for happy brain-working conditions…