Folks have posted enough great links here for me to start collecting them in one place. I’ve created a new Resources Google Doc:
I put links in from @jessausinheiler and @brooking as well as a few of my own. All you have write access (if you don’t, email me), so feel free to edit away!
@brooking blew my mind with this.
Cool concept. Basically taking Pomodoro and turning it into a game by adding a notion of levels. I like it. Let us know how it goes!
It’s a little rough around the edges, but I had a similar reaction.
Yea the developer is a friend of mine and is SUPER open to feedback and really passionate about it. He’s a productivity coach and has been living and breathing this game for the last 6 months, and is in that classic developer mode of building it out with the budget he can and looking for investors/ways to have the time to build it out more and still provide for himself materially in the mean time 😉 I find it really helpful for those days when it’s hard to get myself focused – the action game is a great way to get started. It’s also fun to do ACTION PARTIES which are co-work days based in actions (just did one Wednesday in Oakland), which are great because you work and then get to chat with friends/dance etc for 5 minutes every half hr….
Hi everyone – Brooking here, new addition to bootcamp and excited to join the experience. I’m a facilitation nerd and always happy to learn from others in the field. I enjoyed the stirring the power pot in our bootcamp this week, and I think my notes on power research were somewhat of a reflection in themselves, as I left reflective on what I know, don’t know, assume and imply about power. One thing I got was that we all hold different implicit notions about this confusing topic, which have significant effects on how we perceive group dynamics and how others perceive our approach to leadership and/or facilitation (12 angry men clip got us going on that question…) So I appreciated the reminder of the power to make the implicit explicit – with no right or wrong even, just that alone can really help in group processes.
Another reflection is that being asked to reflect on power dynamics in my project was fascinating, since I’ve chosen to do a personal/internal time management & career development sort of project. I got this idea to play with internal power dynamics and to design and facilitate a half day sort of process for myself as I would for any multi-stakeholder group. I.e. the parts of self with their different interests – the voice for financial security, the voice for creative expression, community building, physical health, the voice of my parents (we all have that one right!?), etc. I left super intrigued by this experiment and plan on doing it over the weekend if I can squeeze it in, and will report back next week!
Voice of my parents! Not me! 😉
Thanks for sharing, @brooking. Hope you find the time to squeeze in your personal workshop this weekend, and if you do, looking forward to hearing how it goes!
Thanks again for a great power workout yesterday, and welcome Dana and @brooking! The power framework I mentioned in our discussion is by David Kantor. My ex-colleague, Kristin Cobble, wrote an excellent blog post about his work at:
http://groupaya.net/blog/2012/01/david-kantor-the-secret-life-of-groups/
He’s also written a book about his work:
If any of you have resources to share, please add them in the comments!
Hi everyone – Brooking here, new addition to the group. Yesterday definitely stirred the pot for me in my thinking about power (personal reflections forthcoming), and I wanted to share the main camps of influence on the topic for me. First, academic organizational behavior research, specifically French and Raven’s (1950) distinction of 5 types of power:
legitimate (i.e. role based)
coercive (ability to punish)
reward (ability to reward)
referent (i.e. charisma based)
expert (i.e. knowledge based)
That’s just a taste of one way to categorize types of power, and I can share a nerdy academic piece that digs into this more if anyone is interested, or a quick google search would probably give you more to dig into.
Secondly, I really like Arnold Mindell’s “process work” approach to facilitation w/ awareness of power dynamics. He’s got a great discussion of social rank and implicit power in his book Sitting in the Fire, which is about using conflict to create connection in groups. He has dealt with some INTENSELY heated power dynamic situations with incredible grace, and in my experience with process work it makes power dynamics really explicit in a way that often actually increases connection.
http://www.amazon.com/Sitting-Fire-Transformation-Conflict-Diversity/dp/1887078002/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381975092&sr=1-1&keywords=sitting+in+the+fire
Thanks for sharing these, @brooking! All of this also reminded me of an upcoming workshop (November 6) on power dynamics being hosted by the Leadership Learning Community, a wonderful Oakland-based organization on whose board I serve. It’s called a Star Power Workshop, it’s being facilitated by Dave Nakashima, and it’s supposed to be amazing:
http://leadershiplearning.org/blog/llc-staff/2013-10-08/register-bay-area-learning-circle-star-power
Have any of you heard of the Star Power exercise? I was told not to Google it in advance, as it is supposed to be a much better exercise when you come to it cold. If any of you would like to participate, I’d encourage you to register quickly, as they’re expecting to sell out quickly. It costs $20.
Bootcampers! I’m in desperate need of some changemaker advice. I’m running a 20 person retreat next week (once again, working with @renee) and there’s one BIG obstacle. Literally, a big, huge, board room table that despite all my attempted arm twisting will be smack dab in the middle of the meeting room.
Any advice / strategies for neutralizing the big behemoth in the room, helping attendees connect and stay focused despite the big table standing between them? Any exercises / guidelines from successful meetings you’ve participated in?
Ooo, excellent! A group physics exercise! Unfortunately, this was the workout that tanked the last session, and the new group hasn’t gotten to the revised workout. 🙂 Still, I’d love to hear what others think.
Modeling bootcamp, my first question is about the goal: What is the goal of the meeting?
My second set of questions is about understanding the constraints a bit more. How long is the meeting? Is there separate breakout space? If not, is there room around the table to do small clusters? What shape is the table? Is the room carpeted? Is there blank wall space? Are there windows? A picture of the space would be wonderful!
Finally, a question for my bootcampers, past and present: What’s been your best meeting experience with 20 people stuck in a conference room? What made it great?
I just finished my last site visit (of six) with Garfield Foundation. All of them have been full-day meetings in conference rooms with long tables. Yesterday’s had 15 people, which was not ideal, but was fine. We’ve gotten excellent feedback on all of our meetings both in the checkouts and afterward.
We’ve been using graphic recording heavily at our meetings, and we’ve employed two exercises designed specifically to get people moving. The space does you no favors in this regard, so you have to prod a bit more as the facilitator. We haven’t had breakouts, but if we needed to, we could have made it work, either by pairing people up in cases of severe space constraint or more if you have some flexibility.
So despite all of my previous ranting and ravings about the evils of conference tables, it will totally be okay. 🙂 I’ll wait to hear your answers to above before making suggestions, and I hope others will share their experiences as well.
Hi Eugene. What a great question: “What’s been your best meeting experience with 20 people stuck in a conference room? What made it great?”
Would love to hear the answer to that question!
And to answer yours, here are our meeting goals:
Shared understanding of what we’ve achieved together: organize our shared thinking
Group understands the potential and existence of “we” : The FCCP network
Catalyze collective strategy for the network
Hard for me to upload a picture of the space… but we will have a break-out room so that’s a plus!
Doughnuts and bacon down the center of the table within easy reach of all participants?
Hi, Rebecca! 🙂
Hi there Rebecca – I’m a new bootcamper starting today and just chiming in as I read all the recent posts to catch up 😉 One Idea I used to do with Adaptive Edge was to have objects to play with in the middle of the table – white sheet paper, markers and crayons for doodling, some fun finger toys that you can get at a science/discovery sort of store or a 5 and dime, and PLAY DOUGH. Play dough is magical — it actually can really help people focus and stay in creative space while they talk, especially helpful with tension diffusion. Another trick to make use of the table is to get a bunch of cut outs of images from magazines, e.g., that might relate to content, and have an exercise where folks gather favorite images from the center of the table to create a collage related ot whatever visioning you are doing. These images, the play dough creations, doodles on the paper can all end up being powerful anchors for themes that emerge from whatever process your group is diving into. I don’t have much context to be more specific but all these are creative ways to make use of that table and bring some life to it and to your group, and make it a tangible representation of the creative space that lives between all your participants. Good luck 😉
Hi Brooking! This is all great advice. I was just shopping for play dough today! I’ve decided to cover the whole table with butcher paper and provide crayons, pipecleaners, and play dough. It could turn into a fun palette!
Thanks Natalie! Nothing beats this advice. Eager to catch up soon 🙂
Hi all!
Just wanted to follow up and let you know that we had a good meeting despite the big table in the room!
One thing we did was downgrade, we chose the smaller conference room that was technically too small for us. This intimacy was well worth the distance created by the large board room table.
There was colored paper and markers all over the table, and folks started off with a creative exercise. It was a bit more touchy feely / creative then I often like, but really important in setting the tone for “this will be a different type of meeting.”
But really, what made all the difference was the PLAY DOUGH!!! Great suggestion @brooking. Here’s a glimpse into what was created: https://plus.google.com/photos/106758161096309037901/albums/5940338959027890849?authkey=CMrjmLOYpqC5qAE
Glad to hear it worked out! Thanks so much for coming back to share how it went. There was some serious Play-Doh artistry going on at your meeting. My favorite is the dude bowling.
Eugene Eric Kim is discussing. 
Brooking, 
Eugene Chan, and 
Rebecca,
Eugene Eric Kim 3:23 pm on October 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I also made it a link in the main menu above for easy access.