An Expression of Humility

I found myself bowing in appreciation to someone for having me in to their home last night. Shortly thereafter, I found myself the subject of much laughter. It's a hangover from my profession. I am often making gestures with the intent of presenting my position as an unassuming servant of process.

This is a matter of simple gestures, but is also a matter of great psychological importance. I'm not convinced that the bowing low method is the proper way to go about it, but it can be a critical function that one operating in the interests of the meeting purpose make efforts not to infringe on the expertise or be considered as affronting the egos of people in a meeting.

There's no silver bullet. I may require greater lengths than many to balance the portion of my persona that is often interpreted as arrogant. I need also compensate for the appearance of youth, being that I'm often in the presence of those with much more experience and far greater credentials.

Besides little tricks, how can we work towards being authentically humble?

I would endorse a skimming of Egonomics.

Concurrent Sessions and Crowdsourcing Process

I've been facilitating sessions that comprise 1/3 of an agenda. So the entire population would be in my session at one point, as well as all of the others, but I only ever see 1/3 of the group at a time. We're working towards the same objective in every session, so inevitably we're identifying opportunities to improve on the sessions as we go, based on observation and specific feedback.

Two things here, really.

1. Design of meeting format
2. Adjustment of meeting process

1. Dividing a group into 3 sub groups that interchange is a great idea. This way there's higher participation in each session. There are of course additional space requirements, but it's well worth the investment. Instead of one didactic plenary, you get 3 interactive workshops.

2. I'm a big believer in providing the group with options. Having a plan on how to move forward in a meeting is great, but asking the participants how they think they should move forward given the current progress can sometimes yield superior ideas. Crowdsourcing the very process is a great way to bring mindshare to process, and engage people in considering meeting design as a competency. The process today is being refined through each session as well, so that the final one is a product of meeting design conducted pre-meeting, and real-time adjustments with the benefit of the Wisdom of Crowds.

...

I guess the question is, how can the Wisdom of Crowds be better leveraged in the pre-meeting phase?

Movement Tracking Follow Up

Here's the CIMIT blog with the ZCAM video that shows a motion capture camera at work. Very cool.

Thanks Mike!

Movement Tracking

Cool toy from Samsung et al that tracks motion to operate the systems (games systems, for example) within a TV screen. It's like the next generation of Wii remote, which is no remote at all - you just move around and control the software with your gestures.

Gaming is the obvious application. For some reason, it's an advertising agency that's developing and releasing the system in tandem with Samsung. I don't get it. Interactive advertising through gaming, I suppose.

What I see as being the opportunity with this technology is the possibility of groups manipulating images, documents and models on a screen using motion. The combination of visual and kinesthetic aspects of a such an approach to collaborating around a program or virtual space is promising. Much like previous surface computing and visualization technologies I've posted on, but without the nuisance of having to touch stuff, which may or may not have cooties.

Technology and Trust

This isn't going to engender any trust for technology; a new survey indicates that a full third of IT pros are snooping inappropriately through confidential information.

Is there a paradox at work here? If I'm an IT professional responding to a survey, why would I incriminate myself by answering honestly that I am violating policy and/or law. Would I not assume that the people on the other end are equally as untrustworthy as I am?

Either way, it's unfortunate. Many people don't trust technology enough to engage with it meaningfully. This evidence is a step backwards, but virtual identity theft and fraud are still small peanuts relative to the old fashioned methods of people taking your credit card off of a restaurant bill, and the other classic ploys.

As many meetings will continue to migrate to a virtual forum, it will be critical that people trust the support medium. If we're not confident making ourselves vulnerable in a meeting, then we're only ever scratching the surface. Used well, technology should help to peel back more layers. Hopefully security and other measures are always being looked into so that rogue IT folks won't spoil the possibility of trust and openness facilitated by technology.

Breaking Down Silos with Simple Questions

It seems every organization faces challenges with working in silos. I'd be suspicious of the ones that don't, in fact. Some very enlightened and forward thinking groups have difficulty thinking beyond their operating unit, division, department, expertise, or other ivory tower they have been placed in or tunnel they have dug out for themselves.

There are a number of approaches to have a group adopt a global perspective within a meeting. Presencing and Six Hats are a couple. One very basic tool to employ is the Socrates favourite, the question. Not just typical probing about the situation at hand - be it governance, communication patterns, or strategic planning - but broad, end-user questions.

So this approach requires that a moderator resist asking "where are opportunities to improve the way we communicate across teams?", and instead ask "who are our stakeholders?", and "how do we want to be viewed by our stakeholders?". From there, the way divisions interact should align with that purpose. Rejigging the current is probably necessary, but starting with it is

1. A narrow perspective, silo'd within operating instead of global to purpose (wouldn't be fitting to have a silo'd question in a meeting attempting to scatter silos, now would it?)
2. Not future focused
3. More typical and so less engaging

Flat World Knowledge

There has been a coup in the assault against one of the longest standing scams going. Flat World Knowledge is a social network driven sight that is offering customizable university/college textbooks on line for free. Typically an outrageous expense for the already burdened, Flat World Knowledge is trying to make an open source movement.

It may work, too. They've got an original and complete concept. Students don't only get the books as published, they can alter and edit as well. Medium is also customizable. There are some audio, online and print options.

How will academia react? With demand from oversea students and a retiring faculty body, great changes are coming for the establishment. MIT, Yale, and other prevalent schools have already been offering classes free online for some time now. What are the next big shifts?