….getting easier by the day! Yup, things are slowing down for the summer, and I don’t mind. I totally love my work — but I also love my holidays, and have never quite gotten over the idea that July and August are supposed to be Summer Holidays. So here’s to long, lazy days, sunsets on the beach, reading juicy novels in sidewalk cafes, and catching up with what’s really important: friends & family. OK, OK, and a bit of work, just to keep my wits about me.
Today I’m posting a couple of pieces I did for the BC Healthy Communities conference last month. BCHC was one of my first graphic recording clients and I’ve continued to work with them on several projects. I love their holistic approach to healthy development, which draws heavily on Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory and its 4-quadrant model of consciousness (intentional, behavioural, cultural and social). (I make it sound like I know something about this! But I’m still at the steep end of the learning curve. But it’s really interesting stuff. Check it out.)
Here is the chart from the first presentation, on — wait for it — integral capacity building (remember to click on the image for a larger view):
It’s interesting looking at these pieces after the fact, since I feel I hardly know what I’m doing while I’m doing it. I often think this work must be like being a simultaneous translator, except that instead of translating people’s words into another language, I translate them into images. But you’re really ‘in the moment’ as you’re doing it — not much time to reflect until later. I’m quite happy with the pieces I did for BCHC. I feel I’m beginning to develop a style of my own, and am also (gradually) beginning to organize the material better.
Next up is a fun piece. I’m attaching an unretouched photo here, as the poster had streamers attached to the bottom, which don’t clean up well in Photoshop.
The idea of the streamers was that people would write their ideas for the ‘imagined culture’ on each one, and in the final session of the conference we were going to have another exercise where people ‘wove’ their ideas together. In the end we wound up jettisoning the final session, so these ones wound up as a standalone. I like the effect, though. And I like that people contribute to the artwork.
Finally, I include a chart I did for Robert Kegan’s keynote presentation on Day 2 of the conference. This was one of the best presentations I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, and I am thrilled to have made Bob’s acquaintance. Aside from being absolutely brilliant, he is also funny as hell, and his presentation was liberally peppered with witty stories and wry observations.
As you can see from the chart, the subject was Understanding and Overcoming the Immunity to Change. He presented a really interesting theory about this, which I’m going to quote a bit below, just because it’s really interesting.
“We think we have discovered a powerful dynamic that tends to keep us exactly where we are, despite sincere, even passionate, intentions to change. A recent study concluded that doctors can tell heart patients that they will literally die if they do not change their ways, and still only about one in seven will be able to make the changes. These are not people who want to die. They want to live out their lives, fulfill their dreams, watch their grandchildren grow up—and, still, they cannot make the changes they need to in order to survive.
“If wanting to change and actually being able to are so uncertainly linked when our very lives are on the line, why should we expect that even the most passionate school leader’s aspiration to improve instruction or close achievement gaps is going to lead to these changes actually occurring?”
What this implies, says Kegan, is that more knowledge is needed about the change process itself, and more understanding of the “immunity to change.”
“Our work pays very close—and very respectful—attention to all those behaviors people engage that work against their change goals. Instead of regarding these behaviors as obstacles in need of elimination, we take them as unrecognized signals of other, usually unspoken, often unacknowledged, goals or motivations.” The countervailing tension between these two sets of equally sincere motivations creates the “immune system,” and sustains the status quo.
What I also loved about his presentation was that it was highly interactive. He didn’t just stand there and talk — in fact, I’d guess that he only spent about 1/3 of his time talking. The rest of the time he had people pairing off and doing the exercise he lays out in his book. The buzz in the room was palpable — so much so that I drew it into the chart because the energy was a presence in itself!
My only complaint was that because I was recording his session I couldn’t do the exercise myself. But never mind: Ali has promised to do it with me some time over the summer. Can’t wait!
These are some more images from the plenary sessions of the PNCIMA Forum to add to the one I posted just below. For the two charts above I worked alone, but for the two below, I joined forces with the volunteer graphic recorders who helped out at the forum. This was a group of young women with artistic ability but no previous training in graphic recording. I gave them a 2-hour basic training a few days before the conference, then left them to their own devices to record the breakout sessions. They did a stellar job on their sessions, and for the breakout updates and final plenary I asked any of them who wanted to help me map the conversation. Can you tell where my work leaves off and theirs begins?
