Stuff

This morning I received an e-mail from "Rikki - Australian Ambassador for Gimme Your Stuff" asking me to link to their site "the cultural exchange blog where you can swap items of significance to your area with items from others around the world." Normally I would just bin such requests but when I had a look it struck me as a mad but interesting idea - mostly because of the following story.

A few years ago I attended an event designed by the artist Peter Reder and hosted by LIFT (the London International Festival of Theatre). The event was intended to bring together managers from various businesses and an equal number of young people just out of drama college to help us all get a different perspective on our respective worlds.

We were each asked to bring to the event 5 things which we felt had meaning for us or said something about us. After an initial welcome presentation we were asked to sit in groups of around six people, to tell the story of the things that we had brought, and say why we had brought them. As a result we found out about each other through stories and metaphors rather than through our job titles or names. We also shared a vulnerability as the things that we had brought had deep personal meaning for us. We were each worried that the other people in the group would laugh at us or not like the things we had brought - they might even drop them. This was a very levelling activity which brought the groups very quickly to a high degree of understanding and trust.

Next the combined group (about 30 of us) were asked to lay all of our things out on the floor at one end of the hall, then step back and stand at the other end. The image of all of those people's personal things laid out on that church hall floor in north London has stayed with me ever since - it so reminded me of photographs of the personal belongings left behind by people killed in the holocaust - poignantly tatty looking but full of meaning.

We were then instructed to step forward one by one and move an artefact next to something else we felt it was associated with.

One by one, almost reverentially given the fact that we were touching and moving other people's very personal belongings, we began to move things next to things we felt they were associated with. Patterns began to form and reform (we were allowed to move things more than once) as we silently stepped forward one after the other. Around 20 minutes passed until it became clear that we were telling four predominant stories with our patterns, one around familes, one around work, one around entertainment and the last around nature.

What was fascinating was that although we didn't articulate why we were moving things at any time, nor were we instructed in any way other than our original simple instructions, yet we were able to carry out a complex process in a very short space of time with no fuss at all.

Our desire to see patterns in our actions, to make sense and in effect to tell a group story, was almost overwhelming.

This event had a profound effect on me and the lessons from it informed a lot of what we did at the BBC and my views about the web more generally - namely:

We can tolerate a lot of apparent messiness and our ability and desire to make patterns allows us to get real value from it.

Dave Snowden was right when he said if you have a complex environment you need to have simple rules. Complex rules just result in a mess.

One mans rubbish is another man's gold dust.

We can work together on complex activities with minimal directions.

Comments

[rikki]

Thanks for the mention, we appreciate it and I enjoyed reading your story. It's quite interesting to see your perspective on our idea.
Thanks again,
Rikki
Australian Ambassador for Gimme Your Stuff

[Johnnie Moore]

Euan: Great story, one that makes me think about the Hive mind stuff that's going around at the moment. (BTW your Dave Snowden link needs fixing)

[Euan]

Thanks Johnnie - sorted.

[andy]

Fascinating story Euan, and thought provoking in many ways. I wonder if everyone saw the same pattern in the objects, or whether perhaps people's perceived patterns also formed a pattern? Or is that being too complex? ;-)

[Jon Husband]

I think what you are describing is essentially what some people do with blogs .... you have to decide what you are going to write about, and what you write about can become the "thing" (or things) that has meaning for you. Then, with links, either those the author uses or the ones that reach out and connect whatever the "thing" is with other expressions of what other "things" are, patterns are uncovered or created, and some other "thing" takes some shape. Subsequently, "it" may grow .. .or not ... but it's there on the floor for all who look and for those who care to "move" it closer into connection to some other "thing".

And around those "things" we tell stories, talk to each other, listen to each other, and sometimes, but not always, grope together towards some additional meaning.

At least that's how I see it.

Thanks for this.

[Sue Wittenoom]

Euan - wonderful story - has sent me back to notes from a Dave Snowden seminar last year on cynefin and complex facilitation:

- Never ask direct questions; approach problems indirectly through probes or disclosure points ( ...cant ask for much better disclosure than treasured object)

- work for multiple perspectives, descriptive self-awareness

- socially construct models

- as a facilitator, allow meaning to emerge; don't suggest patterns - no matter how helpful you think you might be.

What did the group of people do after the event?

[Euan]

The group continued to meet and to take part in similar events for a number of years. It gradually waned in terms of energy and I am not sure what will happen as LIFT are going through a bit of a re-invention at the moment.