LOTS OF POTS

2 days back I presented a Graphic Facilitation workshop with my good friend Julian Burton to a group of Power Engineers. A good session and not without its sticking points. At one point the discussion seized up and I intervened with this (true) anecdote:

2 pottery classes are asked to make pots. One is asked to make the best pot possible; the other to make as many as possible. At the end of the exercise, the one asked to make the most has indeed made a lot of pots. And surprise, surpise, it's also made the best.

Why this story was pertinent to the session is not significant but what the story demonstrates is profound and works at a number of levels - I'll leave you to figure them out...

THE FREEDOM BALANCE

Tomorrow I'm going to be presenting Graphic Facilitation to a group of senior engineers from the Electricity Industry. There's a lot to say and I can't say it all. It occurred to me that the balance between the freedom of saying nothing and the structure of saying everything is critical. It seems to involve the same elements as Open Space... get the freedom/structure balance right and some magic happens. I'll bear Voltaire in mind: the secret of being a bore is to tell everything