AoH Chris Corrigan: Chaordic Stepping Stones

I was in two minds whether I should publish this as a link, or as part of a more comprehensive post on my journey with Participatory Leadership. I’m a big fan of Chris Corrigan’s work and opted to let it stand on its own, as it deserves.

The talk provides a great insight into one of the ways Art of Hosting practices bring structure to the complex adaptive system that is a modern organisation, while allowing for the chaos that is inherent in our world, and that is needed for innovation and creativity to emerge.

most of the work we need to do in the world, confronting questions we don’t have answers to, is tricky because chaos is always coming in and eroding the well-ordered, predictable mindset […] this approach helps us stay in the space of bringing enough order to a project, or a meeting, or an initiative, but not so much that we choke the life out of it. We allow the chaos to come in, and we discover new things because that’s where innovation comes from.

Chris also introduces an acronym I really like, Participatory, Learning, Useful, Multi-modal, and Emergent (PLUME):

• Is it participatory? If you’re doing most of it alone, probably not. These are collaborative and collective practices.
• Are you learning? If you’re just delivering content, probably not. Ensure there is shared learning and growth.
• Is it useful? If you’re all sitting around just talking, probably not. Talking is fine, but it should be in service of, and meaningfully move us towards some strategic outcome.
• Is it multi-modal? If you’re not engaging people in different ways, probably not. Harness people’s diverse skills and abilities, and do so in different ways.
• Is it emergent? If you already know the answer, probably not. Engagement theatre benefits nobody. Have everyone leave with something that nobody brought into the room initially.

There’s plenty more good stuff in here, and I encourage you to hear it directly from Chris.

UPDATE: Be sure to also read this PDF on the process.