Our Ideas

In my last post I said I would take up five principles that might help make strategic planning more creative. The first of those was the proposal to embrace emergence. Much current writing about leading and managing within organisations talks about emergence. Definitions abound and can be wildly different depending on the authors’ background and area of expertise. Most seem to use the term, however, to refer to the idea that something might be more than the sum of its parts. When emergence occurs, some form of ‘self-organisation’ is taking  place. The emergent activity is therefore characterised by unpredictability and non-linear forms of causation. Since the …

Recently on the Australian Facilitators Network Forum there has been an interesting discussion about strategic planning. As her contribution to the discussion Viv McWaters drew attention to a Youtube video from visual storyteller, Sarah Moyle. Sarah’s point, among many, is that we can learn a great deal from creative people about how to operate in situations that are highly complex and unlikely to remain stable for very long. In the video she draws out (pardon the pun!) five principles to guide working like this: Embrace emergence Nourish ensemble Design skilful rehearsals and adaptive performances Tap into source Do more than talk Over …