I’m a long-time project manager, working with college students and media professionals. We run boot-camps for students, giving them a sense of the skills they need to land (or keep) a job.
I read in Fast Company magazine many years ago that in order to facilitate better conversation and (idealistically) better, more effective decision making. Over time we went from a top-down, classroom style set-up to an open space with “managers” sitting in the middle of the room and reporters and producers sitting around them in specified areas. Even when doing presentations, I changed from classroom style to a circular style with me walking around in and out of the circle.
Now, try and get hotels/cconvention centers to understand this. Still, they only understand “theater style” or “classroom style.” We end up moving stuff around unless the hotel or convention center union objects lol!

Also, on our training projects…my retired university professor father told me years ago that if we were going to have effective projects, I should shoot for the best teacher/student ratio available 1:1. I started that ratio in 1996 and still do that today. Our learning by doing philosophy and 1:1 teacher/student ratio were key decision to the success of these boot-camps. Time is short (we’re in a newsroom after all) communication is crucial. Changing the layout of the room and design of the boot-camp overall heightened our ability to get the work done. These days in media, companies want more content from the same person. Structured, top-down management is there but I think we have reduced it from being a crutch to an acknowledgement. I’m the leader and still take responsbility. We have designated deputies and sub-managers. But, in each of the six or seven project I do a year across the US, the forum is open and we of experience can see issues coming before they hit because we talk to one another all day in, for the most part, non-structured communication. And, we can bring in professionals who are new to this process because of it’s openness.

Great read! Thanks for this…

Doug Mitchell
Knowledgewebb.net

good point about reflection
ian
but i spend plenty of time out of busy loops
and i take it as a vital opportunity when we meet

actually
once we comprehend the vitality of coming together
such gathering will release our mutual collective – yet distributed – action

and yes
lloyd deserves some money for setting this up

firstly getting things done, no I didn’t have that expectation – I think we need other events at other time for that – I picked up on frustration though that talking about what we have done, in the forms that we’ve talked about them isn’t a very satisfying thing to do.

I’m sorry I missed the food circle too – but the question is, if one were looking for experiences like this at rebootbritain how would one have known they were there?

I’m not saying though that everything should be one way or the other, I’m after a diversity of experience to meet the needs of the diverse population that we are. That’s why I spoke of “augmentation” I was trying only to add to, not to replace.

Yes! reflection and keeping quiet – look out for something even nearer to water next time.

and thank you for confirming that you have a big but – ha ha!

Sorry to miss your ‘intervention’ in many respects, especially simply to understand the format more. I am almost as fascinated by different formats as you.

One of the more interesting sessions I attended was the ‘open-sourcing food’ one, which put us all in a circle (about 15-20 of us – people came and left). The conversation was guided by experts in the field who laid the groundwork and exposed the issues, but the meat (or veg) was collaborative.

Like you, I find being engaged in a conversation more stimulating than being talked at, much of the time.

At the same time, I have a big but.

But… conversation all the time leaves little time for reflection. And without that time we make poor decisions, I feel. (I have a similar disdain for the people who think Twitter is all we need. No, 140 chars is not enough for nuanced thoughts).

So ermm yes. Reflection and keeping quiet and being talked at and being in conversations all have their place. And we all have different learning styles, after all.

As to getting things done. Did you really have that expectation of the day?