Change catalysts Chris McGoff, John Kenagy, Stephen Thomas, Mary Boone & June Delano shared tales and findings from their experiences. Here’s my take in the form of visual notes, with a few reflections. Thanks to the catalysts for sharing their brilliance!
CHRIS McGOFF
Chris McGoff, founder of The Clearing Inc. and author of the Primes, shared how he uses three particular primes: the perimeter prime, dynamic incompleteness & the locker room. (Wait, but what are Primes? Primes are “’eureka’ moments experienced by teams driving major change initiatives” which McGoff has captured as sketches. A sketch which when shared can help a group work, if not with perfection, at least within the same frame of mind.) This conference was a month ago, and I find myself still talking about ‘red dot moments’ and the ‘swiss cheese I’m going for’ in my everyday conversation. (A red dot moment is one which is a truth shared that’s outside the normal safe realm of conversation with a particular person or group. It expands the realm of possible change. The swiss cheese Prime is a frame for thinking of your goal, vision or big idea as swiss cheese. In other words, you won’t know everything from the beginning, there will be holes that others will help you with or that will in time become clear and that’s ok! You don’t have to have ALL the answers when you start.) Anyone can use these simple sketches of the primes to help people better understand. (Sweet! This is visual communication at it’s finest!) As one who has witnessed many ‘red dot moments’ in my time facilitating with Outward Bound and whose message is about drawing to better communicate, all I can say is THESE ROCK! Thanks so much for sharing Chris! (And a shout out for those born in Scranton, PA!)
JOHN KENAGY & STEPHEN THOMAS
John Kenagy (@johnkenagymd) & Stephen Thomas presented different perspectives on companies. Kenagy talked about disruptive innovations making a case for adaptive design, asking us to consider companies who are ‘old story’ and ‘new story.’ What did it take [for companies to evolve and stay relevant]? Perhaps the ability to adapt? Thomas shared his own experiences and personal history and talked about why history matters within cultural context today of African Americans & beyond. His talk highlighted some of the differences in typical White and African American cultures. Part of this included discrimination in healthcare. (Yes, this still exists, even today.) One of the things I learned was about the culture of the barber shop and beauty salon – these places are safe African American cultural hubs. (One can see this in the movie Coming to America too since the main characters often find themselves stopping by the barber shop for information.)
MARY BOONE
As a catalyst for ‘high performance collaboration and engagement’, Mary Boone (@maryboone) encouraged us to design instead of plan out meetings. She’s hoping to “revolutionize the meeting industry” by providing foundational ideas for treating meetings differently. Boone shared principles, design ideas, personal experiences and made a case that when you put the energy into the design and work with those who know how to design well, you will see results.
JUNE DELANO
June Delano delved into the complexity of diversity as she shared stories from her experiences working with many different cultures. Her tales held real world truth where her own assumptions and judgement took a back seat to the environment she finds herself in each present moment. She shared her learning about laughter – some cultures laugh when something is painful, heavy or uncomfortable in hopes that laughter will lighten or relieve while in other cultures it may be considered insensitive to laugh at a tragedy. These differences are not just on the surface, rather they are deep and profound differences leading her to ask questions. Who’s weird? Do we really know anything at all about human norms? Something like 96% of social science research has been conducted with Westerners, so what does that research actually show? Her experiences around the world have taught her to truly listen as she strives to be curious and be present. “How do you be curious?” she asks. “You Practice.”
June, thanks for the GREAT visual slideshow! I definitely found myself taking in your amazing photographs instead of drawing! I love the visual of the world and the human eye overlay at the end of the presentation . (Find a link to June Delano’s presentation at the end of this blog post.)
As one who loves color and travel, I truly enjoyed hearing about Delano’s organizational experiences. I think one of the reasons I feel a particular affinity to these stories is the acknowledgement of our sheer humanity. International spaces often ask us to consider the assumptions we generally ignore, to see new perspectives, to tolerate and appreciate other’s traditions. When we are able to put ourselves aside to learn, to engage, to collaborate, then we grow in ways we didn’t know possible. Sometimes there’s pain involved – it’s not simple. Although anytime humans are involved you could say that it’s not going to be simple.
LINKS
- PPT presentations by John Kenagy, Stephen Thomas & June Delano via the Plexus website.
