Every year my pals at On Your Feet send me a fun Christmas gift. It tends to arrive in the bleak of January, when I appreciate it even more.
Yesterday, I got their package of goodies built around the theme of noticing more. It includes lots of simple examples of the value of paying more attention. I especially liked the tiny lapelpin… I think that might prove an excellent example of a social object.
I’d build on this and adopt the idea of Notice More, Change Less.
I think that captures what I’ve been practising in facilitation work. I find it helps me develop a richer sense of connection to what is going on. It’s also helps me limit my interventions so that I’m not playing the role of outside expert trying to make stuff happen. I like the notion of supporting what is emerging from within the system, not operating on it as the cold outsider.
James and I talk about a similar idea in our Co-Creation Rules manifesto at Change This. Under the heading of Be Changed, we say
When you set up co-creative relationships the most exciting thing that happens is not that your product or service gets more famous. The most exciting thing is that you are changed by the experience.
In the world of improvised theatre, which inspires a lot of our thinking, the player who tries too hard to drive the narrative is accused of scriptwriting. The one who tries to tell jokes is encouraged to stop gagging. The real skill in performance is to fully take on the offers of the other players and be changed by them. Then what you offer back is likely to develop the drama.
Incidentally, we’ve taken the text of the manifesto and put it into a wiki. We’re slowly adding pictures, YouTubes and links to bring it more to life.
