J F Vernon Blog

Cryptic notes offered as pointers.

Were this a Wiki it could be added to collectively.

• Be careful with the term ‘framework’ which here means metaphors as exploration for problem solving.

Whereas methodologies are ‘methods for problem solving’ such as:

• Buffalo
• 3 stage model
• Disney (complete method, not technique).

• Guerilla activities : Covert creative problem solving. Can anyone add more to this?

START (in context)

Energiser games.

Techniques Library: 82, 86.

• Tiger Samurai Mother in law
• Tut-tut mother in law Tiger growl samurai sword

Ice-breaker

• Energy levels up
• Into the right frame of mind for finer painting etc:

Hairy Balls

(actually pom-pom, could be any item to throw and catch from a beach ball to screwed-up newspaper).

I first came across this at Youth Theatre in my teens, then used it as a warm-up with video production teams and later with ‘Mini Squad’ our futu elite swimmers, in the water and used to get names in their heads, then with ‘hot potato’ suitably warmed up.

Adjective and person’s name

Concentration game around the room

How to do the virtual version?

Describe yourself as an animal on a post it.

What you do. Guess the animal.

Perceptions of who you are. Then the two animals together.

How did this go? I should know.

I elected to be a Red Squirrel only because I happened to be thinking about a certain Management Training Centre in the Lake District where we had Red Squirrels. It couldn’t relate to my current role.

Did Super heroes and it worked by people finding complementary powers. Good at solution finding stage.

What have we got to lose? (if you are getting nowhere).

VS lots of incremental changes but not delivering, so how to reframe it and do something more visionary. E.g Charing Cross as an aircraft carrier.

Sequence of diamonds to have the problem, diverge, then draw it together.

Based on ‘systems thinking’ Jane Henry and John Martin. Trying therefore to understand in holistically.

Messy when put together e.g. Hospital, flyover and play park. P.43/44

Wicked or messy problems.

Why am I dealing with this problem? Use a technique for messy or wicked problems.

3:10 unpacking problems

METHODOLOGIES some are techniques, others are complete methods.

Eg. Buffalo.

DIAMONDS

Horse shoe and the car STORY But sales are falling … So you make increasingly better horseshoes. Trapped into doing the same thing. When the world is changing around you, you need to do something different.

1) get as much as you can, so keep converging.

E.g. Don’t close down ideas when brainstorming. You want one idea to lead to another. VS. As soon as you close down you stop the flow of ideas.

E.g Brain writing. 30secs to put ideas/answers on a pad, then quickly pass it around.

Interject a game ….

Then back to the brainstorm.

Do something different.

Then back to the brainstorm …

Converge, Diverge, Statement of the problem.

N.B. One people fully understand what the problem is the following stages follow through quickly.

PRECEPTS

Rules for the environment.

TMA2

Part 1 what you intend to do.

Part 2 What you did

Part 3 How you’d do it next time (better when it goes wrong) Genuinely real problems (nothing trivial)

N.B. Do it in a real context to convince the tutor that you did it.

Ideal, a group of highly supportive group people at work. Or virtual.

Hamburger or shit sandwich : pointing out what went well and reinforcing this to conclude.

How are you going to overcome the constraints of your organisation?

PROBLEM

Role/s required for Social Media.Agency VS. jack of all trades.

Start-up

Exceedingly well educated, but preconditioned on how to solve a problem.

HOW

What people are wearing! Dress down Friday. Different location (and time) No hierarchy, include outsiders. Morning, Afternoon or Evening. Toolkit (bag of toys)

Party facilitator Youth Leader (theatre) Swim Coach (pool)

NO IT games! (paid for and restrive)

Role reversal … In my shoes (personas) Facing the truth.

Lose the passion. HBS.

Gap analysis: where we are … Where we would like to be. Steps BACK from the end putting in place the steps. Make in convergent, divergent. Have a pack of colour discs. Lay them out to diverge, then converge. Physically walk it through. (Human sculpture) … Even as a person not the organisation.

E.g William Hague and the shadow cabinet in waiting on a yacht. Gocek. 1991/2

TMA2

Why is the group composed the way it is?

Pace Planning Dress down, especially military. Don’t think the technique will work View the technique library as a recipe book. Have back up techniques in your back pocket

See video for Facilitation.

Bring your pet to school day …

QQ what are you doing differently compared to 2011.

Insightful commentary on the decisions 5W&H to structure TMA.

If you cannot define the problem early on start by looking at the symptoms.

What to do with the dominant participant?

• Judgemental people need the rational
• Take them back to the process
• Keep it positive
• Don’t let them close it down

KAI if 10/ 20 apart can cause problems.

Email IAN for chapter on imagery.