Containers Workshop
How to build a space that allows for cultivating meaning (/creativity) and not only transaction?
Most spaces (communities, collaboration rooms, Slacks) operate on an invisible contract of transactionality. A community, for example, has a goal (/culture fit). Its members introduce themselves and exchange respective utility until outcomes.
The opportunity not often taken is to be creative together.
We cannot be clear when we think of a new idea (/are creative). We don't yet know what we want to say or where our thoughts would lead. These frequent moments ask for open-ended affordances. We need to be allowed to pause in a space that does not have a ticking to-do list.
Interpersonally, we can't be transactional while being creative. We need to hold space for creativity. And use the energy 'creative confusion' allows.
I experimented with a few such containers. Thirdness was a paid members community where a weekly prompt allowed discourse in what I call band practice for solo artists. Critical Business School was a series of monthly workshops (between Aeon and Harvard Business School) where members meet for four 1-hour-long sessions, in prompts and discourse, but no introductions until the last 10 minutes of the final session. The most recent container is On creativity. A book that will never be published, which I am writing as a body of ideas the community can discuss and build on.
The goal of a container is to tend to the air (/energy) between the members, as opposed to program what is said or done, where we can decide if we want to 'add another log to the fire' or 'open a window.
I recommend this workshop for community builders, innovation consultants, managers, and coaches.
Living Ideas Workshop
How to describe a frame without drawing a picture?
The prompt workshop left behind a realization: it is necessary to prompt oneself when asking for creativity from others. Prompting is a subset of questions that frame/reframe and act on the energy from pulling on interests. It is a unique form of communication that shares meaning before anchoring it in stories.
Personally meaningful but not yet clear, these creative ruminations are malleable and open to interpretation. Carrying them along asks for a particular container. The Living Ideas workshop is one such container. Participants will write practices to articulate and develop ideas that grow in meaning as they grow in scope.
We will use the container to model, communicate, and articulate practices that we can take with us to nurture our living ideas beyond the workshop.
Living Ideas is a ten-session workshop limited to ten people and costs $1000.
Examples of living ideas:
Who could benefit from articulating living ideas?
- Coaches and facilitators who don't prescribe their spaces
- Innovation writers looking for new tools to describe a non-existent future
- Change agents looking to inspire and individuate their ideas
- Writers looking to move away from productizing themselves
More on living ideas, generative writing and forms of communication.
Nitzan
Prompts Workshop
Source
For example: what bores you?
We can't collaborate on what bores each person, only to ask why and discuss the meaning behind it.
A 'brief' always leads to collaboration (with another person or knowledge). It is anchored in gravity (situation) and points to convergence.
For example, what is the secret of a work-life balance?
Subject matter experts will approach this from different angles, but the conversation will inevitably lead to a joint meeting point on *the same page*, where everyone's opinions will be edited.
I have been using prompts in different group settings and coaching, and I have coached others to use them to open space in their coaching, innovation practice, or leadership.
You're welcome to join a 10-session workshop where we will learn and practice writing prompts.
Format
In-person
As part of Typographics festival
June 11th
10 AM - 5 PM
FAQ:
What are some examples of prompts?
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What bores you?
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Do you see something no one else does?
- What do you wish you could measure?
More in this Prompt Archive.
When are prompts helpful?
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Education
- Developing spaces for new/unexpected conversations: change management, workplace culture, on-boarding
- Facilitating communities
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Coaching
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Interview Questions
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Prepping for an interview
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Conducting one
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HR operations
- Personal growth
Building a Doing Space
For 18 months between 2021 and 2022, I spent every Friday in Critical Business School (CBS). A new format operates similarly to Thirdness, a co-creation space where people learn together but different things, where intellectual fencing is not allowed. The focus is on the range of conversation rather than any outcome.
No introductions
When we introduce ourselves, we tell who we are and communicate who we are not. By doing so, we are limiting the range of conversations we let into the space. We become sculptor of ourselves and converse with our in their sculptured way.
More on no introductions: https://www.being-in.space/p/8136c3ac-f3f8-4c38-90a1-859968328694
Finish on a Cliffhanger
Sessions end sharply. The idea is to use the time together, consistently tending to the space more than to any outcome. Prompts take place in breakout rooms. Once back, we shared what came up in the discussion and what stayed in the week that passed. The purpose is to take the energy we built with us and let it grow during the week.
Confusion is Energy
Our natural inclination is to mitigate abstract ideas, ignoring that they might grow in the direction of legibility and need time and space (container). In such containers, we can start putting language on intuition, build on it, and make it accessible.
More on high-context confusion: https://www.being-in.space/p/82419dfb-f5f3-486c-8ba9-a32bb46839ee
Early examples of prompts (2021):
More recent prompts (from Generous Design, 2023):
- How to love what you don’t know?
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When does action become learning?
- How do you measure knowledge?
Prompt Archive
A prompt is a question that is impossible to collaborate on and fosters open-ended conversation and high context confusion in a space that allows for it.
2021
Written as part of Thirdness
- What is a word in your practice that is misunderstood elsewhere?
- Which person (/studio, firm) speaks the same 'creative language' as you do? It can be alive or dead (/defunct)
- We all need to fit in a box, but all boxes have six planes. What are the other five labels you can use for yourself?
- Who are your peers, and what do they call themselves?
- What would be the opening paragraph to a user manual for yourself?
- What is your reputation?
- What is your spirit age?
- When are you misunderstood?
- Are you an artist?
- What was the last domain you bought?
- Describe a song or a piece of art with words, gestures, or a drawing.
- How are you oscillating?
- When do you think about life?
- Do you see something no one else does?
- What can we wish you?
- Are you successful?
- What do you know but can't explain?
- Do you see something no one else does?
- When do you think about life?
- Where do you log change?
- What moves you?
- Who Controls your time?
- What annoys you?
- When are you asked to be ceremonial?
- Who are you trying to help?
- When do you perform?
- Who do you perform with?
- How big is the audience you're performing for?
- What bores you?
- What do you wish you could measure?
2022-2023
Artwork from the Weekly Prompt email; read the prompts at being-in.space
Artwork from the Weekly Prompt email; read the prompts at being-in.space
Critical Business School
In the space between Harvard Business Review and Aeon.
Principles
No introductions
When we introduce ourselves, we tell who we are and communicate who we are not. By doing so, we are limiting the range of conversations we let into the space. We become a sculptor of ourselves and converse with our in their sculptured way.
More on no introductions https://www.being-in.space/p/8136c3ac-f3f8-4c38-90a1-859968328694
Finish on a Cliffhanger
Sessions end sharply. The idea is to use the time together, consistently tending to the space more than to any outcome. Prompts take place in breakout rooms. Once back, we share and discuss what came up in the discussion and what stayed in the week that passed. The purpose is to take the energy we built with us and let it grow during the week.
Confusion is Energy
Our natural inclination is to mitigate abstract ideas, ignoring that they might grow in the direction of legibility and need time and space (container). In such containers, we can start putting language on intuition, build on it, and make it accessible.
More on high context confusion: https://www.being-in.space/p/82419dfb-f5f3-486c-8ba9-a32bb46839ee
2024
Quarterly topics
$400 a month
Every Friday noon ET, 60 mins
Starting January 5th, until December 27th
Jan, Feb, March
Experiments in Belonging
April, May, June
Place and Value
July, August, September
TBD
October, November, December
TBD
2021
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Jan: What does studio culture mean without a studio?
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Feb: What is the role of speculative design, and forecasting, when living through speculative times?
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March: Coaching Skills for Non Coaches
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April: Purpose or Paycheck
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May: Where is the Metaverse?
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June: Value and Utility
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July: Programming and Knowledge
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August: Science, Creativity
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September: Performance
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October: Complexity, Prompts, Resilience
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November: Media, Mediation
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December: Consistency, Persistence
2022
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Jan: Expectations, Feedback, Aesthetics
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Feb: The Marketplace of Ideas
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March: Practice and Collaboration
- April: Living Ideas
Generous Design, 2023
Year-long circle between coaching and Critical Business School. We will use the Principles of Generous Design as a focal point for our exploration and discourse. In hindsight, I realize this manifesto articulated personal philosophy in a time of change (from corporate innovation to coaching).
Each member will produce an artifact embedding a personal philosophy, and practices to support it.
More on the concept of personal philosophy in this image.
January: Interests
Ask yourself what you are interested in at least once a month.
Feb: Answers
Never try and learn answers. Always reflect on how you ask questions.
March: Challenges
When someone challenges you, take it as a compliment. They could have kept their mouth shut. Silence is the biggest offense.
April: Order
Order is overrated, and so are rules. Machines do both best.
May: Learning
Learn to identify moments of discomfort. That is learning.
June: Looking
Look at everything upside down.
July: Dance
Learn to dance with your words and thoughts.
August: Traveling
Be a traveler, not a conqueror.
September: Actions
Don’t think about the cause and effect of actions, focus on the design of environments.
October: Knowing
Love the unknown.
November: Caring
Always Care.
December: Feeling
Listen to Feelings.
Timing:
Fridays in 2023, noon ET, for 60 minutes
Cost:
$500 per month, $400 when subscribing (10% off when signing up before 12/1/22).
On Creativity, 2022
Circle on creativity and complexity – ran through 2022, and closed down at the end of the year.
On Creativity is based on Thirdness and Critical Business School.
$50 a month
On Creativity is based on Thirdness and Critical Business School.
$50 a month