So. I enter a room looking like my old aunt, only because we both carry way too much luggage for such a short period of time. I carry two plastic bags with post-it notes, index cards, colored paper of different thickness, permanent markers, white board markers, color markers, and tape.

Yes. I know. It’s ridiculous.

In the beginning I run through all kinds of techniques in a fast pace.

“Please put on post-it notes …”
“You can write on the index card …”
“Draw a picture of …”

I observe which one is catching on. If one sticks, I keep that one.

I don’t know if this is the “proper way” to do things. But it’s the same strategy I talked about when revealing a culture.

You throw stuff to the wall and see what sticks.

I think we use the same strategy to facilitate the process of turning “what we know” into a representation of “what must be”. You know. Sensemaking.

In projects we have learned that to make it all work we need to have a couple of essential conversations. Between our team members, our stakeholders and ourselves.

Discussing things like:

• What does “done” look like?
• How do we get there?
• How do we know how far we are?
• Who cares?
• Why are you on the project?
• Why does the project take place?

Ideally these conversations “just happen”. People hear they are part of a project, they get together and turn collectively everything they know about the topic into a picture for how things must be.

Sometimes these things don’t “just happen”. They need a catalyst to get the conversation started.

What we actually are looking for are pebbles that when dropped cause larger ripples.

What we are looking for are small things that trigger a conversation and keep it going. Without having the need to keep throwing bricks in the water every morning.

We have to try different things. Different pebbles. We have to. Not everyone is responding in a similar way to the same catalyst. There is a huge diversity in human interaction.

So. We take our bag of tools: visualizations, social objects and dressing up environments, narrative structures, questions, exploration/reframing and Shrinkonian exercises.

We throw them to a wall. And see which one sticks.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Dropping Pebbles. Facilitating Sensemaking. is a post from: Project Shrink.

I love those hurricane maps. Not the hurricanes. The maps.

As I am a sucker for visualizations that include maps, I was really excited when the link between Hurricane maps and uncertainty was pointed out to me on the excellent Herding Cats blog.

For me the purpose of a Hurricane Map is to facilitate a discussion with people that are not necessarily into the Project Management profession and language as, well, PMs are. This adds to the notion of being on a Big Adventure, traveling through unknown territory, with a rag tag crew.

On a white board draw an arrow that indicates the path you plan to follow. On both sides from the this arrow, draw a line that start from the same point as the start of the arrow. This is your hurricane map. The further away you are in the future, the larger the gap between the outside lines.

Together with your workshop participants you add keywords from things that may influence the path of the project. Issues you are not sure about. The performance of a system, the acceptance of users. Try to place them as in a chronological order if possible.

This is an awareness exercise. Getting people into an “uncertainty” mindset.

For each of the issues named, you can talk about what “not being on the planned path” means. Discuss worst case and best case scenarios.

The Hurricane Map is part of a change/project management strategy focused on culture and using an “adventure travel” metaphor. For more maps and exercise, visit my list of Shrinkonian exercises.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Hurricane Maps. Talking About Uncertainty On Your Big Adventure. is a post from: Project Shrink.

The first thing I do when I visit a large foreign city is … take a Hop-on-hop-off bus. Easy and convenient way to get a guided tour through a new place. So, I wondered, why not do this for the web?

Stop 1: Stories & Organizations: Liminality And Curation.

This is an awesome article by SparkNow describing some great techniques to run workshops or facilitate processes with a strong focus on storytelling.

“We ran a small, highly participative product development process with a client and I thought it might be useful to reflect on a few of the tools used to make participation possible in a more directly solutions driven culture and see how they make a safely bounded space in which to take risks and use transition well.”

The steps described:

• take one maguffin
• add a strong beginning and a stirring close
• fold in a cup of the remembering self
• wash down with lashings of sparkling crazy

Stop 2: The Organizational Zoo.

“This well researched and developed set of metaphors will enable you and your organisation to enhance performance and reduce stress. Each animal or plant represents an intuitively recognisable behavioural style commonly encountered in organisations and social settings. By developing an understanding of the animals and how they interact, you will learn to interact in a way that secures the optimal outcomes for all parties.”

Follow this link to read more about The Organizational Zoo.

Stop 3: Territorial Games And Dialogues.

“Turf Wars occur in any organizations and within any kind of group. These behaviors are artifacts of outdated “territorial instincts.” This point of view eliminates blame so a group can stop being defensive or hiding out in denial. Everybody does it – so everybody should look for it in their work lives. Once they look for it…they can change it. The idea is to increase personal responsibility for collaborative behaviors with an “eyes wide open” personal assessment.”

Follow this link to access the resources for Territorial Games.

Image by The Value Web Photo Gallery.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Shrink Tours: The Organizational Zoo And Territorial Games. is a post from: Project Shrink.

In this interview we discuss concepts like facilitated self-organization and distributed leadership.

Ken Thompson is an former software engineer, project manager and expert practitioner in the area of bioteaming, swarming, virtual enterprise networks, virtual professional communities, virtual teams and management simulation and has published two books, including: “Bioteams: High Performance Teams Based on Nature’s Best Designs”.

You can click here if the episode isn’t displayed below.

For more information check out Bioteams.com or read the Bioteaming Manifesto.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Bioteams: What We Can Learn From Nature is a post from: Project Shrink.

The animation is 3 minutes long and you can find it here on YouTube.

Other postings that get you started:

Deviant Behavior In Project Management
Do You Know Why Every Manager Wears A Suit?
Project Sociology – Part One (video)
Project Sociology – Part Two (video)
Change Perspective: Working In Bangalore

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Starting A Discussion About Team Diversity is a post from: Project Shrink.