Design 21C står bag et tværfagligt udviklings- og uddannelsesprojekt i Dublin. I første uge af juli indledte Paul Natorp et samarbejde med projektet.

Sammen med Kristin Birkeland bidrog han til udviklingen af et pilotprojekt og deltog i udvælgelsen af 10 personer med baggrund i design, arkitektur og erhvervsliv, der sammen med 10 ansatte i Dublin City Council gennem en 3 måneders periode skal arbejde med udviklingen af bydelen Clongrifin i Dublin.

Projektet har til formål at skabe en ny positiv udvikling i Dublin, som er hårdt ramt af finanskrisen, ved at afprøve nye arbejds- og uddannelsessformer, der bygger på design-tænkning, borgerinddragelse og åben innovation.

Læs mere om Designing Dublin her.

Paul Natorp afholdt i marts 4 workshops for master og Ph.D. studerende på Queensland University of Technology i Brisbane.

Michael Doneman fulgte processen og deler nogle reflektioner.

Michael Doneman er forelæser ved universitetet og stifter af Edgeware, som er et netværk for entreprenører i Brisbane. Han arbejder desuden med involvering af aboriginals i opstart af virksomheder.

Læs Michael reflektioner her:

Intentionality and Creative Leadership: joining some dot-points from experimental philosophy.

I’m fascinated by the emerging field of ‘experimental philosophy’, where it seems that philosophers are stepping away from their armchairs and using research methods from psychology to tackle philosophical questions.
Like intentionality.

This is interesting enough in itself, but just recently I’ve been pondering some of the ideas I heard expressed and saw practiced in workshops here with my friend and colleague Paul Natorp, from the KaosPilots. Paul’s gigs were mainly about ‘creative leadership’, the kind of leadership that is appropriate to innovation and R&D. One of the phrases I heard him use, and one that’s cropped up elsewhere as well, is to ‘hold the space’, to indicate the idea that a leader’s role is to dynamically maintain a kind of framework or DNA in which the process can happen and which helps make it happen. This is a useful idea because the ‘creative leader’ may not know the actual destination or solution, perhaps because the code needed for the solution is not the same code used to identify the problem. There has to be structure but there also has to be elbow room – I’m thinking of a kind of suit, perhaps like Dorothy Heathcote’s ‘mantle of the expert’ .

So this ‘holding the space’ idea has me thinking, and I find myself relating it to recent philosophical experiments on intentionality. To give some idea of what that means, I’ll include two cases, the first (the Harm Case/Help Case) from Joshua Knabe, and the second (the Free-Cup Case and the Extra-Dollar Case) from Edouard Machery. Both were conducted using psychology-style surveys.

Harm Case: The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment.’ The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about harming the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was harmed. Now ask yourself: Did the chairman of the board intentionally harm the environment? Yes or No?

Help Case: The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, and it will also help the environment.’ The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about helping the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was helped. Did the chairman of the board intentionally help the environment? Yes or No?
What’s the difference?

It’s probably unsurprising that most people opt for ‘yes’ in the first scenario, and ‘no’ in the second.

Following through, on Joshua Knabe’s blog, I read that:

“Perhaps, when people are wondering whether or not an agent brought about some effect intentionally, they ask themselves whether or not the agent deserves praise or blame for that effect. That is, they ask themselves whether the person stands to the effect in a relation such he deserves praise if the behavior is good and blame if the behavior is bad.”

Interestingly, Knabe also discusses cases in which people’s concept of intentional action is conditioned by some idea of the ’skill’ of an agent. (A dart thrower can claim to be able to hit the Triple-20, but her successful throw is only deemed ‘intentional’ if she was good enough to achieve the target in the first place.)

So our moral sense (which may just be innate, though this seems a contentious point), conditions our understanding – and our practice – of intentionality, of the decision that precedes action.

Now the second of the two experimental philosophy cases, these from Edouard Machery.

The Free-Cup Case
Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that if he bought a Mega-Sized Smoothie he would get it in a special commemorative cup. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care about a commemorative cup, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie in a commemorative cup. Did Joe intentionally obtain the commemorative cup? Yes or No?

The Extra-Dollar Case
Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that the Mega-Sized Smoothies were now one dollar more than they used to be. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care if I have to pay one dollar more, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie and paid one dollar more for it. Did Joe intentionally pay one dollar more? Yes or no?

Again, it’s probably unsurprising that most people answer ‘no’ in the first case, and ‘yes’ in the second, so here we also see ideas of ‘value’ and ‘work’ and even ‘luck’ or ‘fortune’ which seem to condition our view of what is unintentional or intentional, determined or freely willed.

Whichever way we determine intentionality, it seems, the proposition in these experiments – and others – seems to be that we are always constrained in some way by our moral sensitivities and sensibilities, which are contingent values.

Now, to return to the idea of intentionality and ‘holding the space’ …

As I understand it, intentionality is a kind of ‘leaning of the mind’ towards certain kinds of action. It’s an orientation, a location of self relative to others and self relative to situation.

In the moral domain, the domain of the phronimos, this means decision-making which is as aware as possible of the moral-ethical assumptions and prejudices indicated in the philosophers’ scenarios, above, where the decisions of the Chairman of the Board and Joe with his smoothie are seen as subtle and complex and contingent, rooted in a web of signals and meanings and received understandings of the world.

By virtue of the fact that this awareness reveals (or comes closer to revealing) an actual state of affairs, intentionality of this kind (the intentionality of the creative leader) predisposes the self to action which is skilful, by which I mean, action proceeding from reality.

This leaning towards skilfull action is founded on seeing things clearly and experiencing things authentically. So the development of this capacity is, in the first place, the development of the self. This inspires the realisation of the self as a profoundly interconnected and interdependent entity, realised from moment to moment in the phenomenon of being present, of witnessing, of building a bigger container.

A Bigger Container isn’t a thing; awareness is not a thing; the witness is not a thing or a person. There is not somebody witnessing. Nevertheless that which can witness my mind and body must be other than my mind and body. If I can observe my mind and body in an angry state, who is this ‘I’ who observes? It shows me that I am other than my anger, bigger than my anger, and this knowledge enables me to build A Bigger Container, to grow. So what must be increased is the capacity to observe. What we observe is always secondary. It isn’t important that we are upset; what is important is the ability to observe the upset.

In ‘holding the space’ the creative leader operates to generate ‘a bigger container’ for herself and also for her team, through the capacity to see reality for what it is (that is, before we append our opinions about it), to see truthfully in the first place, then operate from this place, to sow seeds of insight and awareness which finally yield understanding and compassion.

Practically speaking, what would this look like? How would we know that this is going on in a group, as an outcome of the creative leader’s facilitation? I can think of six indicators.

• First, there is evidence of deep listening in the group – a sense that every suggestion, every input, is received on its merits, carefully considered and incorporated in the process. This might be characterised by moments of intense, deliberative and focused silence.

• Second, there is evidence of generative questioning, questions which take into account everything that has taken place and advance the conversation by reframing experience and operating from ‘a bigger container’.

• Third, there is evidence that emotions are recognised and validated, honouring the value and dynamics of irrational and tacit processes, but not to the extent that emotions confuse or engulf interactions.

• Fourth, there is laughter which proceeds from insight, which surprises and delights as a result of direct, authentic seeing.

• Fifth, and related to this point about insight, there are ‘aha!’ moments – instances of clarity, of falling-into-place, a sense that such-an-such was right, correct, sufficient, just so.

• Finally, there is evidence of compassion, of care and the mindfulness of others, of the integration of insight and knowledge with the profound human need to empathise, to share, to belong, to connect.

So the task of the creative leader in ‘holding the space’ is bound up with mental preparation on his part, an inward focus of attention which models self-leadership among the group and thereby generates a group dynamic operating in a ‘leaderless’ way. The creative leader becomes invisible to the group, in the same way as a basin is invisible to the water it contains, or in another way of putting it, where the basin and the water are indistinguishable, a whole.

+++

Refs
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2493436.htm
and
http://blogs.abc.net.au/allinthemind/2009/02/getting-philoso.html
(Joshua Knobe – http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/)
(Edouard Machery – http://www.pitt.edu/~machery/)

Cape Peninsula University of Technology har inviteret Paul Natorp og David Storkholm til at træne staben på design fakultetet i kreativt lederskab.

Forløbet foregår i Cape Town fra den 24. til den 26. marts og er en videreførelse af en kursusrække, som blev startet på KaosPiloterne i 2008 og har haft deltagelse fra Danmark, Norge, Sverige, Holland, Storbritannien, Portugal og Sydkorea.

Fokus for arbejdet er at træne evnen til at lede fra nuet og at skrue op for kreativiteten ved at øge tillid, ansvarlighed og nærvær.

Åbne kurser afholdes i Århus i april, maj og juni. Læs mere om kursus i kreativt lederskab

Paul Natorp ledte den 28. januar sammen med Kristin Birkeland 83 elever på Den Skandinaviske Designhøjskole i Randers igennem en dag, hvor de arbejdede med at styrke læringsmiljøet på deres uddannelse.

Fokus for arbejdet var at undersøge, hvordan eleverne gennem deltagelse og bevidste valg kan bidrage til et aktivt og nærværende læringsmiljø.

Forstander for Den Skandinaviske Designhøjskole, Mette Gadegaard, gav denne tilbagemelding:

“Paul og Kristin formåede at leve op til kravene og gjorde denne dag til noget ganske særligt, både for eleverne og jeg selv. Deres møde med omverdenen er renset for unødigt støj, det er ærligt, respektfuldt og autentisk, og de skaber derved fra første øjeblik en grundlæggende stemning af tillid og positivitet. 

I deres pædagogiske tilrettelægning er der taget hensyn til en veksling mellem øvelser, teori og erkendelser, så dagen bliver én lang erkendelsesrække og hvor ingen elev får lejlighed til at være inaktiv. 

For mit eget vedkommende er dagen god at tænke tilbage på og genopfriske, fordi den også gav mig, som leder, læring til brug i planlægningen af skolens dagligdag – og inspiration til den måde vi som personale møder vores elever på. 

Alt i alt en dag, der kun kunne gennemføres med så godt et resultat, på grund af Pauls og Kristins viden, erfaring og måde at være på, og som jeg kun kan give de bedste anbefalinger.”

Paul Natorp er inviteret som oplægsholder på en konference for entreprenører i Brisbane.

Konferencen afvikles under titlen DO WELL den 13. til 15. marts. Overskrifterne er “Make money, have fun, change the world”.

Den dybere mening er at undersøge hvordan entreprenøren kan skabe en virksomhed, som er bæredygtig (også kommercielt), som er meningsfuld at bruge sin tid på og som rummer social ansvarlighed og yder et positivt bidrag til verden.

DO WELL konferencen afvikles af Edgeware, et udviklingsmiljø for iværksættere i staten Queensland. Se programmet her.

I forbindelse med besøget er Paul ligeledes inviteret som gæstelærer på Business fakultetet på Queensland University of Technology, hvor han vil afholde en række forelæsninger og workshops.

Se muligheder i stedet for begrænsninger. Skru op for kreativiteten ved at øge tillid og ansvarlighed. Skab fokuseret nærvær og led fra nuet .

Sammen med David Storkholm gennemfører Paul Natorp for KaosPiloterne et kursus i kreativt lederskab.

Datoer for kurser i foråret er: 28. til 30. april, 27. til 29. maj og 16. til 18. juni.

Forløbet er designet til at give en grundlæggende forståelse for KaosPiloternes måde at lede teamperformance og kollektive læringsprocesser på. Det bygger på 15 års erfaring fra en udfordrende uddannelse af unge entreprenører med en kreativ kant og et globalt sind.

Målet er at give deltagerne metoder til at udfolde potentialet hos den enkelte og hos gruppen i processer, der både fokuserer på udvikling og konkrete resultater.

Deltagerne trænes i at fokusere på den store agenda og understøtte gruppens evne til at følge de muligheder, der opstår i nuet.

Det er den slags lederskab, der er grundlæggende for at skabe forandringsparate og innovative organisationer. Og det er den slags lederskab, der giver organisationer adgang til deres kollektive intelligens, som rummer kreative ressourcer og mulighed for at skabe flow i arbejdet. Sidst men ikke mindst er det en type lederskab, der hjælper den enkelte i organisationen til at vokse, udvikle sig og selv tage ansvar for at have et meningsfuldt job.

Erfaringen som deltager fra Creative Leadership kurset kan komme dig til gode, hvis du er underviser og ønsker at skabe kraftfulde læringsrum. Hvis du er projektleder og ønsker at skabe et motiveret og højtydende team. Hvis du er leder, der ønsker en forandringsparat organisation med selvkørende medarbejdere. Hvis du er iværksætter og ønsker at skabe vækst uden at blive overmandet af strukturer og bureaukrati.

Mette Margrethe Elf, Finansministeriet:
”Spændende. Anderledes. Bestemt ikke som et kursus gennem Dieu. Lærerigt på en radikalt anderledes måde. Tror jeg kan bruge det – selv i Finansministeriet.”

Kjell Morten Brendøy, Daglig leder, Puzzle Learning:
”Jeg har nå vært så heldig å få være hos Kaospilotene ved et par anledninger, og jeg kan ikke si annet enn at de leverer igjen! Opplegget var 100 % kvalitet og profesjonalitet fra begynnelse til slutt. Det var lærerikt, det var morsomt, det var engasjerende, og ikke minst, det var stimulerende! Nok en gang reiser jeg fra Århus med et smil om munnen, masse inspirasjon i bagasjen, og med en visshet om at hit skal jeg definitivt komme igjen. Mange takk for en meget god opplevelse!”

Director Ger Pepels, Academy for Leisure, NHTV Breda
“The Creative Leadership programme offers an excellent opportunity for those participants who are eager to ‘lean in’, who want to experience the creative leader inside themselves. The KP-trainers have developed an inspiring journey that really invites you to leave the comfortzone and enter your stretchzone. And here the individual and group learning process unfolds itself. The individual and group competences to lead and to be led emerge while practising. The interventions of the experienced trainers in combination with their theoretical background prove to be a powerful helix.”

Læs mere på www.kaospilot.dk
Download PDF om Creative Leadership Fundamentals