I started with MG Taylor as a gadfly and itinerant wall scribe in 1984. When it came to facilitation, I was pretty timid, so I needed a little push. During a DesignShop in Washington, D.C., Gail found me in the hall during a break-out session. I was waiting for the reports to come so I could scribe. She walked over to me, looked me straight in the eye and said firmly, "The participants in one of the breakout areas need your help, now get in there and help them!" Which I did. I don't know what the participants thought, but it must have been clear that I was on a mission. I scribed for them and did a little facilitation.
That's when I first began to learn my unique skill in facilitation. I could be so confused about what was going on, that I just asked question after question so I wouldn't make a fool of myself. By the time I was done and understood the situation, all the participants also had a good sense of synthesis and we could go forward.
The first Journal I produced by myself was from a four hour meeting. I drew the graphics myself, put the text in Multimate on an IBM PC (heaven forbid--this was before the Macintosh days), photoreduced it and then assembled the pages by hand with glue and tape (what a mess). It took me almost a week to get it done.
I have prided myself on being a generalist, a jack-of-all trades in the organization. That was until I read an article in a business magazine recently that said the era of the generalist was dead. Now I'm still a generalist, but I guess I'm a dead generalist. I guess that means there is life after death after all...
I've documented, scribed, process facilitated, facilitated, handled production of Journals and Work Products, produced plates using markers and colored pencil, designed ANDMaps, handled logistics, and was even once a Center Master for the Orlando Management Center.
My favorite work in the organization is the creation and production of synthesis and exploratory work products in a variety of media. I love taking a DesignShop's Journal and looking for hidden structures and themes, and then bringing these to life in illustrations and words.
I also love going into smaller DesignShops with a very small team and doing dynamite work for the client.
I have a working knowledge of many types of software including Photoshop, Pagemaker, Extreme 3D, iThink, Lotus Notes (application development), Freehand, and others.
Links:
OK, real pictures of me...
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