Soft vigilance and holding

Another nugget from The Power of Mindful Learning. Langer talks about soft vigilance.

In psychological circles or when danger is involved, attention is often called vigilance. Staying vigilant is a big issue for pilots. Vigilance is considered effortful and seen to decline over time. In contrast, attention to the things we enjoy may be energizing and possible to sustain for long periods of time.

She goes on to describe how she used to ride horseback through woods in a state of physical tension, looking for tree branches sticking out too far. This was tiring for her and her horse and actually increased the risk of missing other hazards. When she became more confident and relaxed, she was able to attend to more of her surroundings. This broader context helped her spot errant branches more easily, as well as other hazards.

She mentioned pilots and I thought of my own experience of learning to fly, where it was easy to slip into hypervigilance, become too tense, and as a result have less effective control of the aircraft.

When facilitating, I often need to pay attention to the way I physically hold myself, to avoid getting into a form of hypervigilance. When Chris Corrigan talks about "holding space", I think this connects strongly to the way the facilitator holds himself.

This is not so say that highly focussed attention is inherently wrong. But an ability to flex and explore softer vigilance seems pretty important.

More mindful learning

Visting my friends here in Cable Bay, I picked up a book I left behind here 18 months ago, Ellen Langer's Mindful Learning. I'm enjoying it just as much the second time as the first. Among the nuggets I enjoyed this time was her experiment in rewriting a textbook chapter in a more conditional tone. Essentially she rewrote absolute statements as general ones... for instance, just adding phrases like "in most cases" or adding a "may" here and there. Then she tested both versions on matched groups of students.

The two groups had similar recall of content, but the group with the conditional text did much better in a test of the creative application of the material.

Langer argues compellingly againt rigid teaching systems in favour of ones that introduce elements of uncertainty so that the student truly participates in the learning process, generating their own insights. As I commented back in 2004, there are important implications here for marketing as a co-creative process.

Here's another nice insight.

When people overlearn a task so that they can perform it by rote, the individual steps that make up the skill come together into larger and larger units. As a consequence, the smaller components of the activity are essentially lost, yet it is by adjusting and varying these pieces that we can improve our performance.

This makes sense to me, and its one reason why humans are quite good at creating ruts for themselves. People like David Bohm point out that a lot of our thinking is not fresh and original, but simply the recitation of familiar arguments which we could usefully re-examine in more detail. It's why I sometimes want to challenge the celebration of big ideas; soemtimes the most effective change arises from apparently small shifts.

Quick update

You're not hearing much from me at the moment as I'm gving myself a holiday from most online contact.

On the plane, all the kiwis were bemoaning this year's winter in NZ but it's been great since I got here - lots of bright clear days and much preferable to the curent London sauna bath. I'm driving north to Nelson later where it's even nicer apparently.

Pedalling my bike at the gym this morning, who should appear on TV One but uber-blogger Jack Yan who seemed to be in his element. He wasn't allowed to finish his story about what he learnt as an 8 year old in a Wellington nurses station, but no doubt he'll blog the finale for us.....

Ooze

Just before leaving London I had a great dinner with the Macleod of Macleod and Jason Korman from Stormhoek.

I was going to blog our conversation about "objects of sociability" but got too busy rushing to the airport. No matter: Hugh's written it up lucidly.

The highlight of the dinner for me was a discussion about what Johnnie called "Objects of Sociability", a term he attributed to Juri Engstrom's talk at Reboot7.

What is an Object of Sociability [OoS, or "Ooze" for short]? "Ooze" is simply something that allows you to engage with another person. It could be anything. It could a party. It could be a bottle of wine. It could be a hyperlink. It could be a social gesture. It could be social currency. It could be doodling a cartoon on the back of a business card at a bar and giving it to the cute barmaid. You tell me.

I hadn't thought of spelling it like a glutinous substance but now Hugh has I like it: it brings in a sense of the flowing and unpredictable. On the other hand, some of Hugh's commenters point to ooze as in slimy. Well, there's truth in that for a lot of marketing I guess.

But hey, I just like the word I don't claim to decide what it means to you. And there's a moral in all this for conventional brand thinking which may do slimy but doesn't really get sociability and the flexibility and mutation it involves.

This seems to see brands as solid objects, created by "brand architecture" articulating "brand propositions".As regular readers (you know who you both are) will know, I think it's more complex than that. And more simple.

Constraints

I'm in Singapore between one long flight and another on my way to New Zealand. In my slightly befuddled state I've been thinking about why I like long flights - despite the jet lag, the relatively cramped conditions etc etc. It's not as if I do much, I usually don't feel like reading and don't watch more than one or two movies. I don't exactly sleep.

Yet I get a buzz from it all.

Partly, I think it's about the adage that creativity loves constraints. There is something paradoxically liberating about the confinement and regulation implicit in air travel. Your seat is allocated, you can't move about much, you eat more-or-less what you're given when you're given it. The flip side is you don't feel responsible for much. Your timing and everything else is largely outside your control. There's a certain liberty that comes with that - and a licence to daydream. Improv teaches that structure are not opposites, they actually feed each other.

And partly, like a lot of folks, I enjoy being taken out of my familiar enviroment. I almost always find travel abroad liberating. I think it subverts a lot of implicit rules I make for myself as an Englishman living in England. I don't even notice how my culutural norms influence me when I'm home. I can't for sure put my finger on them. But whenever I'm abroad I notice my thinking gets more expansive. I want to do more of this!

links for 2006-07-19

• Ypulse: What Teens Want
  Spotted by Declan Elliott
  (tags: marketing technology co-creation teens culture ypulse)
• YouTube - BakuTen - house of dominos
  As Euan says, stunning and bonkers.
  (tags: funny dominos youtube)

Thinking differently

I was fascinated to read about Daniel Tammet in the Grauniad. He is an autistic savant with extraordinary mathematical skills. Here's how he processes the numbers.

Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't "calculating": there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think."

It really makes you wonder what the brain is capable of, and even makes me have philosopical questions about what's really happening when we think we are doing maths.

Down Under

I'm off to New Zealand tomorrow night for a holiday. I'll be 24 hours in the air with a short stop enroute so I hope Singapore Airlines will have some good movies on my seatback.

I'm swapping summer for winter I know, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the world from down under for a couple of weeks. I'm going to be based in Christchurch, with the possibility of a stop in Melbourne on the way home.

Opening more space

I facilitated a conference for Lambeth College last week. The format was very conversational, starting with discussions structured (in terms of hosts and topics) in advance, and gradually moving towards an Open Space in the afternoon. I really enjoyed this approach and I find Open Space can work really well at the end of an event, allowing people to develop and dwell on their own responses to earlier discussions.

I worked with my friends at Policy Unplugged on this event, and we're also working on creating online spaces to support and follow up on conference themes. David Wilcox is part of the team and the picture here is from his collection.

Fireside chat with Lisa Haneberg

Lisa invited me to do one of her fireside chat podcasts the other day, which was fun. You can download/stream it here. We talk about facilitation and how I got into it; what its got to do with marketing; the idea of inviting a challenge; improv ideas like "Yes, And"; being comfortable with discomfort; the power of acknowledgement; the perils of labelling people as difficult; the control word; holding space for the inexpert.

I will spare you the false modesty - I actually enjoyed listening to this! Thanks to Lisa for making it fun and easy. I also learnt that Lisa pronounces "Haneberg" as a three-syllable word and it does sound better that way.

(I apologise for my popping microphone, I must get a better headset!)

links for 2006-07-11

• Sheraton starts an online 'social network' for guests
  Sheraton invites travelers to share trip photos, commentary, tips — and video
  (tags: opensourcemarketing opensaucelive participation marketing branding social+networks)

Polychronic (instead of just chronic)

Euan Semple blogged Teemu Arina's lucid presentation on the social web in support of informal learning.

Teemu cites Lev Vygotsky's notion that "all higher understanding is dialogic by nature".

I love it when he talks about a customised interface for World of Warcraft:

This is the best project management interface ever created. If you look at the tools in your organisation they are very primitive compared to World of Warcraft...what young people are able to achieve with this interface. And when they go to working lives, they expect to run their companies like this.

... if only because it allows to me rationalise my own addiction to WoW.

Teemu talks about people creating a Personal Learning Environment, not provided by the institution:

This is not something that goes very well, this informal learning thing, with institution(al) thinking, centralised education.

He suggests we move from information technology (where information is the core) to interaction technology where information is a by-product...

Euan focussed on this chart:

which I liked as well. You could swap the word learning for branding and reach some interesting conclusions too.

Finally, I liked Teemu's point that people want your content in their space.

Idle thoughts on Organisation

I'm fascinated by the way we use language and sometimes don't notice its impact - how its structure shapes our thinking. A lot of languages, including English, are big on nouns. (See my post on The Geography of Thought).

I was thinking today about how we casually use the word organisation like a noun; and we would call, say, British Airways an organisation but we wouldn't label this scene of fast moving traffic and people in India as "an organisation".

(Spotted by Chris Corrigan)

All of which is fine of course but it does have consequences. It leads us to treat British Airways (and insert any other brand there) as if it is some solid thing, rather than as an emerging, changing dance of a whole lot of variable things. (Oops, see how I slipped into calling them things... language so easily ensnares us!).

Next, add in our language's preference for seeing the world as objects to be operated on by subjects. (For instance, reflect on the phrase "It is raining"; what is this "it" that we linguistically imply is doing the raining?) Then you easily end up with a dubious framework for organisational change, tending to take you towards a top-down, deterministic approach...

Orange dabbles in co-creation

I got an email from Orange today, announcing The Orange Project

On July 17, 18, and 19 we'll be working on a unique project at a secret foreign location and would love your help. You will work as part of a team constructing an amazing installation in a stunning landscape. You'll be expected to get your hands dirty - but don't worry, you don't need specialist skills, enthusiasm is enough. The whole thing will be filmed and broadcast on national television, as well as reaching an international audience on the internet. If you'd like the chance to be selected for the casting session, which takes place on Wednesday 12 July in London, and to be part of filming this amazing experience, click on the 'next' button below.

Hmm, I wonder what this is about. Maybe I'm just middle aged but I'd prefer companies like Orange to engage with customers to innovate and support stuff around what they actually do for a living: ie communications technology. I suspect Doug Rushkoff would be yelling at them to get back in the box. Still, it'll be interesting to see what happens (in my case from the other side of the world as I have travel plans. Sorry, Orange.)

Open Space on Education

There's more cringeworthy footage of me in this short interview by David Wilcox.

I didn't realise my eyes darted around so much. See, I'm an introvert at heart. I try to explain how I think Open Space works. I'm not completely convinced by my own explanation here... but the "how it works" is not nearly as important as the fact it does work.

David also has some photos of an Open Space I hosted earlier this week. It was on how education is changed by social software and open sourcing. This was organised by Policy Unplugged and FutureLab.

Stormhoek on YouTube

Here's a YouTube vid of a Hugh and Jason Korman from Stormhoek which they're using to explain their marketing to folks in the US. It was done for them by Lloyd Davis, who's getting to be a dab hand at this. I like the rough cut quality of it, an interesting contrast with the production values of standard issue marketing.

Hugh:

"We weren't really trying to creat a cult brand... but that kinda happened"

Jason:

"for most wines there's this very santised, carefully crafted, view of the world... life isn't this perfectly sanitised, beautiful thing..

I turn up in it towards the end. The best thing about my appearance is probably my red shirt.

Some storytelling

Chris Corrigan tells a good story about storytelling.

After Al took his leave from us, we debated the truth of these stories and I think the consensus was that any man who still cried in public over his long lost love had to have more than a little truth in his story telling.

Waterfalls

I'm more and more aware of how non-linear most great meetings are. Some of the most satisfying conversations and facilitations I've been involved in lately have rambled around a lot, especially at the start. I've trained myself to feel comfortable with the discomfort this sometimes causes.

I think processes like open space and dynamic faciliation work by making it easy for groups of people to explore what moves them without getting stuck to the "agreed" agenda (such agreement often being fairly passive).

I went back in my archives and found my post from last year about the waterfall model of problem-solving. I have to admit I still rather like it.

Small interventions

Here's a good example of a small intervention with a surprisingly big effect, spotted by Jon Strande.

Kevin told me that he's had a problem with flamers, who come to the site and start posting angry comments about other people. They get out of hand very quickly.

Here was his answer:

He pre-filled the comment box with the simple phrase "Everybody needs a hug." Turns out that this small step reduced flame postings by a huge number.

Posted by Johnnie Moore at 11:59 in Blogs & networks , Facilitation
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