On not knowing and not blogging

Johnnie Moore

Johnnie Moore

I’m Johnnie Moore, and I help people work better together

2015-02-22 09.48.57I’m enjoying Not Knowing an interesting book by Steven D’Souza and Diana Renner. It’s got some great quotes and sound bites – I really like the one pictured about the shadow created by knowledge. They do a good job of naming all the difficult emotions that come with not knowing, and especially with feeling that we ought to know, or need to fake knowledge to maintain our status.

Yet some of the most interesting things happen at the boundaries of our knowledge.. the region they call Finisterre, where the land gives way to the ocean.

I made a promise to myself not to do much “blogging about blogging” but I’ll make an exception today. I notice I’ve fallen almost completely silent on this blog for the last few weeks. It wasn’t a policy decision, but I think I’ve been through a period of not feeling I want to put too much in words. The internet is awash with words and information, I get a bit weary of it and I’m not sure I want to keep adding to the excess.

There’s more aliveness in the space at the edge of the known. When I slip into a “teacher trance” this easily diminishes the energy of groups. Now there’s money to be made in the repacking and retailing of the known, in playing the expert. Divesting yourself of that mantle is to risk being naked. With all the associated risks and excitements, I guess.

Share Post

More Posts

Bunny Bunny

A funny game illustrates what we may be missing in many of our meetings

Leading from the clown

I shot this in a single eight-minute take, which is in the spirit of an experience of Ralf Wetzel’s workshop, Leading from the Clown. Clown training is probably the deepest and most challenging work I’ve done. Enjoy.

Noticing

The power of small gestures and noticing

Small p presence

Getting away from grandiosity or solemnity. small p presence is about being open to the life around us

Small i improv

Facilitation is often about small, subtle acts of noticing and experimenting

More Updates

Emotional debt

Releasing the hidden costs of pent up frustrations

Aliveness

Finding the aliveness below the surface of stuck

Johnnie Moore

A deeper appreciation of Antonio Dias

Antonio Dias asks two great questions in the comments to his post on drowning (which I blogged the other day). The first is: How do we engage with people who

Johnnie Moore

Process, schmocess

May I share an abiding frustration of mine with you? Thank you so much. The question “What is your process?” is becoming the bane of my life. Yet the received

Johnnie Moore

Wave Rider

I’ve just been reading Harrison Owen’s Wave Rider. He explores the notion that human systems are fundamentally self-organising with some interesting implications for how we view formal organisations. He refers

Johnnie Moore

No escaping conversation

Hugh observes Writing about marketing without losing all self-respect is harder than it looks. Couldn’t have put it better myself, so, there, I’ve let Hugh do it for me. He