People have often told me “there’s a book in you.” I have always suspected that is a polite way of trying to stop me going on about something for too long.
I’ve always felt that even if there is a book in me, it would be agony to get it out. I know that just writing a chapter for a book felt like the worst kind of homework… you know the dreaded summer project created especially to ruin the last days of August.
The worst part of this is the linearity of the book form, which always feels at odds with my non-very-linear mind.
And quite apart from writing it, I’ve always felt a bit wary of the effect of being the person with a book to promote. Which is, sadly, the stage I am about to reach.
This is entirely the fault of Viv McWaters. A year or two ago, recovering from ankle surgery, she drafted a manual to go along with some training for facilitators we were doing in some exotic destinations. She invited to me to help and thereby share in the promised glory.
It’s taken us a long time and endless re-edits but we’re just about ready to release it into the wild as a book, called (imaginatively) Creative Facilitation. In a parallel universe, there is punchier version called We Can’t Go On Meeting Like This.
I think it survives my limited writing skills thanks to Viv’s incredible persistence and some really nice design from Mary Campbell.
We’re just tinkering with final details but our plan is to make it free as a pdf file and find some print options too.
