The most recent edition of Swiss think-tank GDI’s magazine GDI Impuls is devoted to 2 letters that have started to change business and society. “Der Boom der englischen Vorsilbe «un» kündigt einen Paradigmenwechsel in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft an”. Guess why this is no surprise to us … let us have your answer below…
“I found the afternoon we spent together exciting and I had the impression that at the end of the workshop the participants discussed and asked questions more openly than seldom before.”
“Ich fand unseren gemeinsamen Nachmittag sehr spannend und es kam mir so vor, als ob die Teilnehmer nach dem Interview-Workshop so offen wie selten gefragt und diskutiert haben.”
On 13/14 November 2008, unBla was brought in to facilitate an event at ETH Zurich, which brought together 110 students, faculty and staff to develop proposals how the university could reduce it’s CO2 emissions.
A report on the event (in German) is linked here: http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/081119_ecoworks_go/.
The event was co-designed by Ed and delivered by Patricia and Peter. It proved to be a good success — not only in terms of potential CO2 reduction, but also in terms of popularity of the unBla methods with the participants:
A participant survey was handed in by 48 of the 110 participants (44% return rate). Quantitative questions on the overall event, its content and the facilitation methods applied showe a satisfaction level of more than 90% (answers ‘quite a lot’ or ‘very much’ satisfied).
Even more valuable, in their qualitative answers the participants highlighted that they benefitted most from meeting other people through the networking exercise (28 answers), working on own ideas and bringing them forward (8 answers) and experiencing a large group moderation process (16 answers).
They furthermore acknowledged that their major learning gains where from other people’s expertise and generating new ideas in the area of CO2 reduction (20 answers), and also included an increase of their capabilities for working effectively in a team (19 answers).
Without having been asked for it, 11 participants affirmed their motivation to further work on their project after the event.
Patricia, in her capacity as researcher, is currently working on the detailed research results which are to be published in due course.
Ein Symposium für qualitativ forschende SozialwissenschaftlerInnen in der Organisations- und Managementlehre
Hochschule Luzern – Wirtschaft, 4.-5. September 2008
Impulsreferenten:
Prof. Dr. Eva Nadai: „Messen und klassieren. Eine ethnographische Annäherung an „Leistung“ in Unternehmen“
Dr. René John: „Funktionale Analyse. Beobachtung zwischen Fixierung und Überraschung“
Prof. Dr. Christof Baitsch: „Die Probe aufs Exempel: Bewährt sich qualitative Organisationsberatung?”
Dr. Andrea Buss Notter & Simone Schauber: „Qualitative Forschung in der Finanzwelt. Über Mögliches und Unmögliches aus der Praxis der GfK Schweiz”
Tagungsleitung:
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Kaudela-Baum, Hochschule Luzern
Dr. Jens O. Meissner, Hochschule Luzern,
Prof. Dr. Patricia Wolf, ETH Zürich
Ausschreibung: http://www.hslu.ch/w-ibr-qom-symposium
Ab sofort kann man sich für das Symposium vom 4./5. September 2008 anmelden.
The foundations of the unBla method are publicly available here:
Wolf, Patricia & Troxler, Peter
The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating—But What was the Pudding in the First Place?
A Proven Un-Conferencing Approach in Search of Its Theoretical Foundations
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(2)
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802614
More on blip.tv’s unbla07-channel
The IRE Network reviewed the unBla.07 conference … the report is here:
News from the IRE Network Members
More detailled impressions from unBla.07 can be found on the unBla.07 video blog page courtesy of Roger Lévy from kulturtv.ch
Other reports include:
Regional Innovation is the main theme of the UnBla.07 conference; and Central Switzerland is the field of application. This region is currently developing a Regional Innovation Strategy. The strategy will help making this dynamic, visible region more competitive and an even better place to live in.
The questions that UnBla.07 addresses are centred around this Regional Innovation Strategy. They cover three main areas:
1. Supporting a whole region to remain innovative
2. Telling the stories of regional innovators
3. The positive effects of disturbing innovation processes
KnowledgeBoard hosted Contactivity at the University of Greenwich on the 10th and 11th April in partnership with The London Knowledge Network and The Gurteen Knowledge Network.
Contactivity was a very practical two day gathering of 64 Knowledge Management (KM) practitioners, academics and consultants, modelled within a Community of Practice (CoP) framework across both the virtual and physical worlds. It was the second event in a series – the first was held at KCC Europe in Amsterdam, November 2005.
KnowledgeBoard hosted the ‘Fringe’ track at KCC Europe in Amsterdam on 7-8 November, 2005. We enjoyed 8 workshops from different KB members and partner networks, all of which were in response to our call for workshops earlier this year.
All of the workshops were different, interactive and stimulating; we had only one ’sit back and listen’ presentation at the end as a ‘digestif’ and thought leader. Workshop attendance ranged from approximately 10 to 60.