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

More Updates

Emotional debt

Releasing the hidden costs of pent up frustrations

Aliveness

Finding the aliveness below the surface of stuck

Johnnie Moore

Group intelligence and small cues

Aaron Saenz reports research from MIT into collective intelligence. They studied the effectiveness of a series of groups of varying sizes and performing a number of different tasks. Then they

Johnnie Moore

When not to give people the answer

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work but rather teach them to long for the

Johnnie Moore

links for 2010-10-12

Can’t play won’t play | Hide&Seek – Inventing new kinds of play "What we’re currently terming gamification is in fact the process of taking the thing that is least essential

Johnnie Moore

The Corporation

Over in Beyond Branding I’ve blogged Robert Paterson [UPDATE linking me to this efilmcritic review] of the provocative documentary, The Corporation. Here’s a snippet: The Corporation is comprehensive, damning, brilliant