Conversaction Newsletter May 2011
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Perspective – Solutions Focussed Conversations
To solve a problem, first we need to analyse it. Thoroughly! Common wisdom requires us to sift through our mistakes and weaknesses to figure out a way forward. In teams this means a good, tough, heart to heart. Take off the kid-gloves and give it to each other in the bread-basket. We all know we need a good explosion to energise change. Well this common wisdom is false.
What we talk about, we do. Research shows that talking about a topic builds the relevant neural paths in our brain. Literally, we entrench the thinking. The issue becomes more familiar to us. We are therefore more likely to replay it. It is far better, it appears, to forget about the problem and spend time thinking and talking about what we really want to do.
Past, future, fact, fiction; its all the same to our brain. Well, to some extent. Past events and desired futures are managed in the same area of the brain. This is our episodic memory which records times, places, events and associated emotions. By retelling stories of a desired outcome, we can make it happen. Solutions Focussed Coaching builds bridges between past successes, powerful resources and a desired future. Developing rich pictures of a desired future is a step towards making it happen.
Read the full article here.
The photo comes from Gary Kapluggin. Thanks, Gary for allowing me to use this whimsical, somewhat disturbing piece. Gary has numerous sites on the internet where he presents his work. These provide an interesting, ‘wandel-spoor’. You can begin here
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Technique – Collaboration and Project Initiation
Conversation is a powerful mechanism to draw a team around a plan of action if we understand how the process works and how to harness the dynamics.
Heres is how alignment of ideas happens in conversations:
This is a stylised view. The arrows at the top show how people arrive with different perspectives. The conversation leads to a meeting of minds. It is worth designing workshop agendas to allow for this divergence and convergence and the accompanying frustration. For instance the process I use for initiating projects can be shown like this:
I like to show my clients how this process allows for the conversation dynamics that play out in workshops. I do this by overlaying one on the other like this:
Though this is schematic I see it happening all the time. In the opening sessions we work in small groups. This allows individuals to zoom off at radical tangents. What is more, these tangents can be heard and considered. Of course, sometimes they are not tangents at all and the team realises they were close to missing the point.
So I find the process works.
You can read the whole article here.
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A Small Adventure – Cedarberg
This months Small Adventure comes from a while ago. A hike in the Cedarberg and a wild, snowy night tucked away in a five star cave while the wind raged outside.
The patterns in the sky are caused by the wash freezing as I painted. You can read about this Small Adventure here.
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At StrategyWorks we assist leaders who choose to collaborate, with those crucial conversations for clarity, decisions, action and outcomes. These conversations can be frustrating when people are not heard, the team cannot make decisions or the way forward remains vague. Leaders contact us at StrategyWorks when they are ready to do something different. In the process those involved in the conversations feel understood and challenged. At the end of the intervention, the leaders and their teams feel focused and released around a clear plan of action.
Find out more from our website at:www.strategyworks.co.za or better still contact us at the email address: stephen@strategyworks.co.za to arrange a meeting with Stephen.
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© 2011 Stephen Quirke, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from this Conversaction newsletter in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read: ”By Stephen Quirke of StrategyWorks. Please visit Stephen’s web site at https://www.strategyworks.co.za/ for more resources on how to hold effective conversations in your organisation.” (Please make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)
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hey stevie
quite a challenge to focus on good stuff through not so good moments
Yes that is a challenge – this is not always that easy – perhaps that is where good coaching or therapy can make all the difference.