Story of the NIRES Water Sustainability sandpit

© Rondon 2013 All Rights Reserved 1
NIRES - Alnwick
18 - 19 June 2013
Facilitated by:
Ron Donaldson
knowledge ecologist
The Story of the workshop ...

Water Theme “flow” sandpit
for Early Career Researchers
NIRES – The Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability (NIReS) coordinates research across
traditional discipline boundaries to deliver practical, engaged solutions to real-world issues,
under the banner of Enough, For All, Forever.

A knowledge ecology approach entails:
● Creating the starting conditions for
new relationships and collaboration.
● Exploring the narrative landscape.
● Removing constraints and disrupting
linear thinking, to allow an anticipatory
awareness of the present to emerge.
● Seeding, triggering and encouraging
creative thinking.
● Amplifying the positive and dampening the
negative, by way of feedback.
● Promoting storytelling as a way to
share knowledge and ideas.
The location
The Youth Hostel at Alnwick,
Northumberland

The 8 Global water challenges explained
as a backdrop to this 'sand pit' event ...

A different room, light, airy, buzzing with enthusiasm.
Minimal instruction, maximum self organising,
self realising and experiential learning.

An energiser to get everyone started...

Purposefully leading the witness into self-realising the
failings of human problem solving...

Experiencing the problem of human, pattern matching
and embedded linear thinking

Future Backwards
A 'Cognitive Edge' Method

In relation to Water and Sustainability:
What is the current situation ?...

The facilitator uses only light constraints to keep the exercise on track ...

Other marker pens are available ...

The past is plotted out, by key event, decision and turning point, but always backwards ...

What if, in five years time,
everything that could go
wrong, does go wrong ? ...

What if, in five years time, everything that could go right, does go right...

A volunteer storyteller from each group prepares to share their story ...

Once upon a time ... sharing the story with the other groups.

Three stories, three different perspectives...

Having made sense of the current situation by way of the three stories.
New collaborative groupings discuss creative ideas to tackle each of
the Grand Challenges

Then rotate and build on each others ideas...

Co-creating ideas and deep thinking...

All the creative ideas are
shepherded into an 'Idea Park'

86 Creative ideas collaboratively emerged
from under two hours of facilitated activities.

Ideas are considered and sponsors invited to pitch for a collaborative,
inter disciplinary team on an idea that attracts or intrigues...

We have crossed the bridge from divergent
creative thinking with new colleagues to the
convergent development of ideas by
connected and committed collaborative groups
One of two local excursions to take
participants minds off the challenge,
allow new ideas to form and more importantly
opportunity to chat and connect with each other

The newly formed groups develop their ideas,
roles and relationships ...

© Rondon 2013 All Rights Reserved
CHAOS SIMPLE
COMPLEX COMPLICATED
One outcome
certain and predictable
One Outcome
takes time but repeatable
Many outcomes
make sense
in retrospect
Outcome unpredictable
Cognitive
Edge
Project
or bring in an expert
Safe to Fail
Experiment
Take control
Move situation
into another domain
To Do List
… diagnosed using the CYNEFIN FRAMEWORK
contextualised using material from Future Backwards

Pitching and receiving feedback
In response, everyone completes a yellow
“Things that I would amplify” and an orange
“Things that I would dampen” post-it and
gives these to the group as feedback.
Initial thoughts are pitched to all the
participants and tutors as a peer review.

Embedding the feedback
Participants make their own sense
of the feedback and adapt their project
and pitch accordingly.
The idea improves and its
weaknesses are minimised
Benefits increase, costs and
harms are reduced.

Deadline for submissions
Finally the proposal is captured
in a pre-determined format and
submitted, digitally, to the Tutors,
for assessment against pre-determined
and published criteria.

A Dragons Den style pitch of the ideas
then follows

Time to relax with a drink while decisions are made...

The proud winners emerge triumphant
and pose for publicity shots

36
Ron is a very experienced trainer and facilitator.
He has worked in Change and Knowledge
Management (KM) for more than 15 years.
He is accredited in Cognitive Edge
(narrative and complexity based methods)
Knowledge Associates KM Methodology and
TRIZ (the Russian Problem Solving method).
He has brought together the best methods
currently available into an ecological
approach which focusses on (and amplifies)
the flow of ideas through communities
(not individuals) within a wider 'ecosystem'.
Facilitated Workshop
Satisfied clients include:
BAE Systems, Oracle, MOD, Mars, MBDA,
Dept of Health, Pfizer, Girl Guides Assoc,
Envision, Peterborough Racial Equality Council
Lead facilitator: Ron Donaldson

37
FEEDBACK
So thats 100% then...
So if you know of anyone
who might benefit
from a workshop like this
please get in touch ...

Ecology of Knowledge
Narrative – Complexity - Community
Based: Peterborough, UK
email: ezrond@gmail.com
mobile: 07833 454211
twitter: @rondon
blog: rondon.wordpress.com
Ron Donaldson
knowledge ecologist
Accredited Knowledge Associates, Cognitive Edge & TRIZ practitioner

Story of the NIRES Water Sustainability sandpit

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