Graphic notes of Harrison Owen “WaveRiding” Teleconference

This morning I participated in a teleconference call hosted on Maestro Conference, a very nifty telephone and web technology that allows for very large-scale groups to come together for presentations and discussions. I’ll let you head on over to their website to check it out in detail, but in a nutshell you can use a web-based interface to manage your conference call including breaking people up into small groups then reconvening, all while attendees are connected to just one phone number. I called in on Skype and so had the call streaming through my computer speakers at first, then switched to my headset because MUCH to my surprise, in the middle of this global conference presentation, I was actually placed in a one-on-one conversation with another attendee from Toronto! (Hi Tanya).

The conference call was a presentation and Q&A session with Harrison Owen, “father” (although he’d refute that title) of the Open Space Technology. His topic was “Waveriding: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.” The two main ideas I took from the call were 1) leaders  often think they are control, but seldom truly are and 2) to be most effective, you need to be who you are, in the moment, and your contribution to the group will come inherently though that authenticity.

I took graphic notes of the call. I distinguish this from graphic recording because I wasn’t using mural-sized paper, just a notebook in front of me, and whereas in graphic recording I would have been more careful to record a balanced, even representation of all questions and answers, in note-taking I focused on what was of most relevance to me personally, since nobody was watching or looking at the work.

Here are the notes! Please feel free to download and save a copy for your own personal use, but if you’re going to post this elsewhere on the web I simply ask that you provide a link back to this post, and maybe drop me a comment or email if your site doesn’t automatically do pingbacks. Thanks!

Graphic notes of Harrison Owen's presentation/Q&A session, October 27 2009

Tags: Portfolio