Do you facilitate conversations? And, do you work virtually, or want to, yet need some convincing as to why virtual facilitation skills matter? Here is my logic case for why and how you should invest some personal learning equity in social technologies. Communication is about sending and receiving messages. Living beings communicate their message […]
Independence or Interdependence: What’s your default when calamity hits?
November 18, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Disasters happen. The people of the Philippines know this acutely, right now. Typhoon Haiyan was a mega-storm. It had no precedent. How do people survive in a situation like that? What will they rely on for survival, in the storm’s aftermath? Reliance on family Well, it didn’t surprise me to read in this weekend’s Globe […]
Infusing a Culture of Mediation into your organization
November 16, 2013 by · 1 Comment
Organizations with long-standing success often have difficulty in shifting their members culture, when the need arrives. Bridging the old and new ways requires skilled facilitation and ‘bridging’ skills. Mediators are specialists in facilitating conversations and building bridges between people. The need for mediation The attributes associated with mediators are often the attributes in short supply […]
Timeboxing, Collaboration and Personal Time Management
October 15, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
It was (Canada) Thanksgiving Day yesterday. Food, family, relaxation… Well mostly, relaxation. I was still feeling time pressured to get some “work” done. Timeboxed! Time is our cue to act. We all know that feeling: the baby is due in one month, the project deadline is tomorrow, Dad just entered palliative care… Better focus your […]
Webmind: Data mining 24,000 TEDx talks
September 27, 2013 by · 4 Comments
Ecologist Eric Berlow, founder of Vibrant Data Labs (“Data for Social Good”), and physicist Sean Gourley collaborated to map the spread of ideas using TEDx talks and YouTube data. They mined the data associated with 24,000 TEDx talks, from 147 countries, in 50 different languages, and share their findings in their own 7 minute TED talk. (hat […]
Cultural diversity in virtual conversations?
September 9, 2013 by · 2 Comments
Last month, I did a cross-cultural conflict management workshop for the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria. The participants were all immigrants. Their time in Canada ranged from weeks to years. The content focus was the workplace and employment. Culture and conversation patterns One of the concepts I touched on dealt on was cultural differences in […]
Funny Bones: Street Collaboration
August 8, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
We can learn a lot from good buskers. Take Funny Bones, a Japanese and UK duo, who performed at the Victoria International Buskers Festival recently. They were my favourite act. I love summer festivals! Here’s a Funny Bones promo clip (5 minutes duration): (Can’t see it? click here to watch on Youtube) With my business […]
