visuals in os

Mon Aug 14 03:46:06 PDT 2006

We fully understand that OS people see visual facilitators as addendum, while we see OS as one of several possibilities to work with people. That might be the base for mutual understanding.

Your idea, that people themselves should draw, picks up the discussion you and me had at the lake of Starnberg  I think in 1998. The idea is brilliant. Since then we developed several methods of drawing actions, like 800 union delegates drawing 72 pictures simultaneously in a conference in Vienna. Like our friend David Sibbet we work with templates, like Nacy Margulies with mind maps, we combine story telling with images, espacially in a group exercise we call "Story Painting", a group split into writers and drawers inventing a story, with an observer of the group process and a story teller at the end. 

Like all with other methods, it is worth while to follow some rules, not just to jump into drawing, and to honor the results. At BMW in Munich there hang pictures in the corridors 300 IT engineers drew 5 years ago - before the meeting they thought of throwing the results away immediately ...

Philosophers and Brain scientists tell us, that there is nothing like an objective perception of the world, everybody forms his/her picture of it. So some (most) people transfer this picture into words and talk, and the listener transforms the words into his pictures, and some work directly with pictures as a means of communication ....

Bur I think in OS people are used to communicate with words, and more often are totally busy with their topics, so if possible some external visualizer might be helpful to increase the understanding.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
best regards

Reinhard

VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmüller & Stifel

tel +39-0566-88 929
www.visuelle-protokolle.de

________________________________

Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Im Auftrag von Harrison Owen
Gesendet: Freitag, 11. August 2006 22:31
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: Re: Working with visual artists at an Open Space

One caution about visual artists and other such addendum. There is no question that visual reflection of the conversation can add a powerful dimension to the understanding of all the people. And the caution is -- the visual artist must be part of the conversation and not The Show. The good ones I know manage this juggling act very well -- which makes them good. But there are some others, and a serious conversation prior to the gathering about "place and role" can be very helpful. For me the real art is the people and the conversation. Everything else is just a supporting player. The same would go for technology. Over the years I have been approached by any number of bright techies who have created what they think would be the "perfect" addition to the OS bag of tricks. In one case the folks were peddling "Computer Based Decision Making." Everything passed through a computer by way of large screens. They were incensed when I declined their offer -- but I pointed out to them that I thought it was entirely possible that the folks could handle a conversation face-to-face. :-)

One of the early folks in the "Visual Facilitation" arena, David Sibbet, is an old friend. He may in fact have been the originator, but in any event he created something he called Group Graphics. In fairness, the product was marvelous -- but I did tease him a bit by suggesting that if he really wanted to do Group Graphics, then everybody should get in the act -- in whatever way they felt useful.  And actually in the First International Symposium for Organization Transformation we did just that. All 250 delegates were offered crayons, paints, magic markers, whatever and confronted by yards and yards of butcher paper. At the time nobody had a clue what Organization Transformation was and even less ability to talk about it intelligently -- so we drew it. Collectively. Seemed to work.

Harrison

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
best regards

VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmüller & Stifel

tel +39-0566-88 929
www.visuelle-protokolle.de

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