Bozos and OS facilitators

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

In a message dated 1/16/02 10:04:53 AM, ja at svn.net writes:

<< -- My favorite is the "inflatable shoes" sentence, which reminds me of
something that Joelle wrote awhile ago. I imagine us all with inflatable
shoes hidden beneath our suits as we gleefully invite staid citizens into
self-organizing chaos - and soon we all find that their shoes are
inflatable too.
 >>

Jeff, your comment reminds me of a true story.  It was Day 5 of a 6-day
creativity institute, in the late afternoon, a time when usually, "Anything
goes."  The group of four leaders were preparing four our eighth in a series
of nine workshops, outside, on a hot summer afternoon, wearing shorts and tee
shirts.  And we had some ambitious and crazy plans for this session.

As we stood together on the plaza, we were approached by a group of older
women, wearing summer dresses, stockings, and high-heeled pumps.  One (whom I
recognized as the wife of the president of the Board of Trustees) said, "Is
this session going to involve any wild singing and dancing?"  My colleague
was sending me frantic signals to scare them off with some outrageous
statement, but I just said,  "Probably nothing you can't manage."

The first activity was a game called "Camera," a variation on a Blind Trust
Walk.  The leader is a photographer and the person with eyes closed is a
camera.  As they walk, the photographer faces the camera toward various
views. At a previously-arranged signal, the camera opens his eyes for a few
seconds, "snapping a picture."  Usually an interesting exercise.  But this
time, when we went to debrief, we found that the president's wife had
misunderstood the directions and kept her eyes closed the whole time.
Nevertheless, she had seen the exact pictures her photographer had aimed at.

Inflatable shoes, indeed!

Joelle

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