Free Graphic: Values > Culture > Performance
Free graphic: How shared Values contribute to Culture and Performance This is a graphic I created for a client; I was facilitating a workshop where we were exploring organisational values, how they might inform people’s work on a daily, practical level, and helping them choose the top three for internal use (inducting new staff and […]
Brexit & Shift: How can we transform the workplace together? Thurs 14 July, London
In response to the shock, division and disaray unleashed by the Brexit referendum, we feel it is essential to make space for people to come together. This is a participant-led ‘Open Space’ event, so the experience and discussions you have is up to you. But with many people distracted from fancy notions of reinventing work by very real and immediate worry, fear, anger, despondency this is your time to let off steam, ask big questions, get support and support others, or get constructive.
Mindfulness For Smarter Living 9-15 Sep 2016, Greece
Week long learn and play retreat, with plenty of time for snorkelling and hiking around the stunning Mt Pelion coastline. Buddha’s Top Tips For Bringing Your Life Alive: Mindfulness has become a popular practice in the West, and embraced in business and medical settings, as well as in the growth in services focused on wellbeing. However, in going mainstream, much has been lost of the context in which mindfulness has arisen. To go deeper and learn more, commonly people will encounter teachings which are part of a vast and diverse web of cultures and ancient wisdom, and it is easy to be put off by language and something very different to anything we usually encounter in Western cultures. However, it has been said that while the Buddhist teachings and scriptures are like a mighty forest which one can explore for a lifetime, all one needs is contained within a handful of leaves…
Building Enthusiastic Teams with Sociocracy, Greece, 2 – 9 Sept 2016
Want to solve many of the problems commonly faced in the workplace? Want to be more self organised and collaborative? Feel like you’re not getting the best from yourself or your colleagues? 1 week learn & play retreat at the stunning Pelion Centre, Mount Pelion, Thessaly, Greece – part of the Kalikalos holistic education network. Just €400 including food and shared accommodation, and plenty of time for snorkelling and exploring.
Tues 10th May 16: Building Enthusiastic Teams With Sociocracy
Tue 10 May 2016: Building Enthusiastic Teams with Sociocracy – a workshop with Martin Grimshaw, central London.
Get the basics of using and implementing tools for working smarter together: collaborative decision making in which everyone can participate and that harnesses everyone’s ingenuity, innovation every day, continuous improvement, fixing the hierarchy, transforming differing opinions into a resource, and more efficient meetings.
Thurs 29 – Fri 30 October ’15: Deep shift and radical innovation with Open Space
An experiential 2 day co-learning workshop: Brighton, with Martin Grimshaw and Francois Knuchel. The art of hosting participant-led unConferences, solving complex problems, accelerating action, leading change in organisations, and hosting conversations that matter. #OpenSpaceTech
Shift: Why aren’t organisations shifting? unConference, Tue 21 July ’15
Caterfly presents: a 1 day event exploring the need for transforming the way we work together, the move toward more collaborative, responsive workplaces, for businesses that place the customer at the centre, with respect for people and planet, the reality, complexity and barriers to change, and ways to move forward.
#OrgShift
Thurs 20 – Fri 21 August ’15: Deep shift and radical innovation with Open Space
Experiential 2 day co-learning workshop: Brighton, with Martin Grimshaw and Francois Knuchel.
The art of hosting participant-led unConferences, solving complex problems, accelerating action, leading change in organisations, and hosting conversations that matter.
Do you want a way to rapidly launch new projects, bring participation, engagement, equality and inclusion to your organisation or event? To harness collective ingenuity for problem solving? To lead transformation that is real and lasting? To drive innovation?
Learn how to organise and facilitate gatherings using Open Space Technology, a method by which a large group of people can organise themselves into a conference….
Friday 12 June ’15: Unleash the people with Open Space
Workshop: The art of hosting participant-led unConferences, solving complex problems, accelerating action, leading change in organisations, and hosting conversations that matter. An experiential co-learning workshop: London, one day, with Martin Grimshaw and Francois Knuchel. Do you want a way to rapidly launch new projects, bring participation, engagement, equality and inclusion to your organisation or event? To harness collective ingenuity for problem solving? To lead transformation that is real and lasting? To drive innovation? Learn how to design and facilitate gatherings using Open Space Technology, a method by which a large group of people can organise themselves….
Beyond hierarchy: Sociocracy, responsive organisations and creative authority
Response by Francois Knuchel to Tom Nixon and Charles Davies’s interesting blog Beyond hierarchy & holacracy: Truly responsive organisations love authority, explaining Sociocracy’s approach to creative authority and empowering people to get on and do stuff.
Mindfulness For Smarter Living 11-18 Sep 2015, Greece
Week long learn and play retreat, with plenty of time for snorkelling and hiking around the stunning Mt Pelion coastline. Buddha’s Top Tips For Bringing Your Life Alive: Mindfulness has become a popular practice in the West, and embraced in business and medical settings, as well as in the growth in services focused on wellbeing. However, in going mainstream, much has been lost of the context in which mindfulness has arisen. To go deeper and learn more, commonly people will encounter teachings which are part of a vast and diverse web of cultures and ancient wisdom, and it is easy to be put off by language and something very different to anything we usually encounter in Western cultures. However, it has been said that while the Buddhist teachings and scriptures are like a mighty forest which one can explore for a lifetime, all one needs is contained within a handful of leaves…
Sociocracy For Dummies 4-11 September 2015, Greece
While the word Sociocracy may be unfamiliar, its roots go back to philosopher and founder of Sociology Auguste Comte, via Quaker peace activists. Today it is used in businesses and communities looking to work more effectively and enjoyably. You might think of Sociocracy as what comes after democracy; a deeper, more genuine form of democracy, that can help us do a better job of working and relating with each other, whether at work, in community or at home. In this workshop you will experience and learn for yourself that beyond big words and ideas, the essence of Sociocracy is simple and elegant, that it can easily be applied to improve many aspects of your life…
What is Open Space?
Open Space Technology, commonly Open Space, is a social technology, a tool for helping people to rally around a shared challenge, with minimum obstacles and maximum efficiency. It is used to organise meetings, gatherings, conferences, problem solving and summits in which everyone has the opportunity to participate on their own terms…
What is Kaizen?
Guest post by Francois Knuchel. Originally posted at Caterfly’s Smarter Working blog What is Kaizen? Kaizen is a philosophy that has transcended its development in Japanese car manufacturing management, where it was a critical component of the country’s post war economic transformation. Today, Kaizen is used across the world by life coaches, fitness and martial […]
Why coercion doesn’t work
As any parent knows, as soon as a child starts to develop a sense of identity, they start to assert their boundaries and free will by saying No. Human nature being what it is, we have an innate hardwired resistance to change and to being told what to do. In the workplace getting others to do what is wanted of them, and getting them to engage, care and want it, is known as ‘achieving buy-in.’ It is the classic and everyday challenge faced by leadership…
Sociocracy – the Permaculture of organisations
Sociocracy – the term means ‘collaborative governance’ – hard-wires ‘People Care’ and ‘Fair Share’ into the fabric of an organisation by ensuring that every member has an equivalent voice in policy. Like other living systems a sociocratic organisation relies on cyclical feedback processes to stay in tune with its members and its environment. Some call Sociocracy ‘organisational permaculture’…
Organisational metamorphosis Haiku
From storms, renewal comes,
As dreams whisper tomorrows,
Metamorphosis is born.
Sociocracy: revolution, chocolate, peace, work
Sociocracy: revolution, chocolate, peace, work – a history. Little known in the UK, sociocracy is more widely practiced in mainland Europe, after being developed in depth in the Netherlands several decades ago. First proposed in 1851 by philosopher August Comte, founder of sociology and the Religion of Humanity in response to the French Revolution, and further developed by Lester Frank Ward, prominent early environmentalist and advocate of equal rights for women, and Kees Boeke. Boeke was influenced by the Quaker movement in Britain and married Beatrice Cadbury…
4 Tweaks For a Healthier Team
Dysfunctional organisations cause stress that impacts on 98% of UK employees. Here’s 4 simple tweaks to help your team enjoy work more.
Deep Shift: An unManifesto for Community CoLearning
Written primarily for a Transition Towns audience, this article describes the joy of hosting, organising, participating in training events that seek to create a deep personal shift or equip communities with useful skills. It talks of partnerships to co-create capacity building and skill sharing. It talks of the 21st Century approach to facilitating learning rather than imparting knowledge at people.
Sociocracy – A shift toward the mainstream?
Leaders, business schools, politicians, communities and organisations around the country seem to agree that after the 2008 crash the societal system as we know it no longer works, and our way of living and running our organisations is not sustainable. All seem to be grappling to find new ways of doing things, yet in the vacuum everything seems to revert to the status quo. Of course, as Einstein said, you don’t solve problems with the same ideas that created them, so our current leaders may not the best people to ask for solutions and ideas for the future.
The fierce crucible of respectful communication
Republished in loving memory of Adrienne Campbell, who wrote this in part inspired by her work with myself and colleagues. Honest, effective and respectful communication goes much further than being nice or polite. It means learning techniques for handling differences constructively, with wisdom, so that conflict need not arise. Difference of opinion is ok, it’s how we handle that which is key.
Navigating the cross winds
Or The gulf between what we want and where we are Previously published at DecisionLab, 2012 ‘A plane is on the wrong course 90% of the time’ I was reminded of this nugget of wisdom today, while assessing where I’m at, where I’m going, where I said I wanted to go, and the habits that […]
The Good Chef
“The good chef (chief) walks around her kitchen, with a clean apron and a pocket full of spoons”. I love this quote, that my friend Louis shared with me. Apparently it came from a local chef he knows, but for me it says a lot about Facilitative Leadership and Collaborative Governance. It talks to me […]
The Miles Davies approach to facilitation
The Miles Davies approach to facilitation Co-leading a Facilitative Leadership day last week alongside London Creative Labs, I was enjoying later what we coined the Miles Davis approach to facilitation: bathe in the gaps and celebrate the words you don’t speak. Republished. First published 2011.
Leadership and Tao Te Ching
I really like this quote. I’ve been using it a bit recently while teaching and explaining Facilitative Leadership Simple. The Master doesn’t talk, she acts. When her work is done, the people say, “Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!” – Adapted, from Tao Te Ching (17)
FacilitationCamp10
An article published in IAF reporting on FacilitationCamp, a 2 day event in 2010, and a diverse gathering of people sharing, learning, practising tools for working with groups of people.
Which future?
An Overview and Resources on Scenario Planning and The Great Transition A summary of material tracing the history of the development of the Great Transition vision, from scenario planning work in the 90s, through the Transition Towns movement and New Economics Foundation, with explanations of tools and key concepts. Originally published 2010 at DecisionLab by Martin […]