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Conversations That Matter
painting “In Deep Conversation” by Irish artist Pam O’Connell When I was younger, most of my waking life was consumed in conversations. In my work life, I learned that most learning occurs, and most...
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The Qualities of a Great Story
Lest my readers conclude, as a result of yesterday’s article, that I’m down on stories, let me say again: I love stories, and find them useful for learning and imagining, and also very entertaining. So...
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Elselien Epema Interviews Dave About “Finding the Sweet Spot”
image of Elselien from her website; image of Dave by Bowen artist-photographer Debra Stringfellow I was delighted and flattered to learn, last year, that Elselien Epema, an instructor at the...
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A Discussion on The Art of Hosting and the Group Works Deck
Recently, Janaia Donaldson and Robin Mallgren of Peak Moment TV, an online ‘channel’ of insightful video interviews with leading progressive, permaculture and post-collapse thinkers, interviewed me...
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10 Ways to Help Your People Shine
image: Paul Stevenson, from flickr, Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 When the members of the non-profit Group Pattern Language Project developed the 91-card Group Works deck [download 1-page summary of all...
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Systems Thinking and Complexity 101
This is a synopsis of a talk and mini-workshop I gave recently in Vancouver. It introduces a model for identifying and dealing with both the complicated and complex aspects of issues we face in our own...
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The Power of Pattern Languages
I was recently interviewed about Pattern Languages, and specifically about Group Works, the pattern language of collaborative, deliberative and participative processes that I was involved with (I’m a...
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The Meeting Map: Making Both Process and Content Explicit
This is the first of three articles that stem from last weekend’s Next Edge Festival in Montréal. I’m grateful to the wonderful organizing team and all the participants who made the event a success and...
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The Patterns of Effective Conversation
A week ago, at the Next Edge Festival in Montréal, I made a point of paying attention to the many conversations I had, or witnessed, in both small and large groups. It was an eye-opening experience....
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A Cynical Theory of Power and Organizational Dynamics
from GapingVoid.com by Hugh Macleod I‘ve previously mentioned that the most important thing I learned from 37 years in the business world is that in large organizations of every kind, almost all...
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Being Wonder-ful
For a larger and more legible PDF version of this chart, click here. In my previous post, I presented my “play-list” — activities that personally bring me joy and delight, that I try to indulge in as...
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Community-Based Business Success Predictor
This poster, which you can also download in a larger size as a PDF, is a recap of some of the major findings in my book Finding the Sweet Spot. If you can’t even imagine starting your own...
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Networking to Find Better Work
I’m retired, and hoping I won’t ever have to return to the work world, but I know most of the world doesn’t have that luxury, and many aren’t happy with the work they are doing as employees,...
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May I Ask a Question?
Image from pixabay by Dean Moriarty, CC0 My friend Ben Collver recently loaned me a book called A More Beautiful Question, by Warren Berger, that arose from some ideas in Warren’s blog. The book is...
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Signs of the times: Zoom Edition
Translation: We can hear you eating, slurping, whispering, muttering, talking with others in the room, and/or making other unpleasant and disruptive bodily sounds, even over the sound of the person...
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There Must Be a Better Way
This is a very long article, about meaningful work and about imagining possibilities. Hope you find it inspiring, and worth the read. Calgary restaurant workers separate tables to meet new social...
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What’s the Best Possible Outcome?
I’m a member of a Meetup group that is exploring various aspects of a non-hierarchical, self-organized approach to creating and operating business and other organizations, that is casually known as...
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Ten Tips For Dealing With Complex Predicaments
Dave Snowden’s Cynefin Framework This is a bit of a screed against really bad “strategic” plans, which is to say most of the documents that go by that name. Most written plans these days are means to...
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Facing Collapse: Ten Important Questions for the 2020s
Image of Ken Ward in 2016 Valve-Turners action, from the film The Reluctant Radical. It has been a year of terrible news and terrible realizations. A year of justifiable outrage and bewildered...
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Deliberately So
image CC0 from pexels.com Lately I have been enjoying a series of podcasts from a young Toronto-based group called The Stoa. Some of their recent discussions have been about deliberative processes —...
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