Mon, Jul 19, 2004
Learning Dougspeak: The Importance of Shared Language
#
I worked with DougEngelbart in various capacities from 2000 through
2003, and I often retell lessons and stories from those experiences.
My favorite -- untold on this blog so far -- is how I almost wrote
Doug and his ideas off early in my exposure to him. It's a tale of
one of my most significant transformative experiences and of the
importance of SharedLanguage. (1VF)
I had known of Doug's inventions for many years because of my interest
in ComputerHistory?, but my first exposure to his ideas about
bootstrapping and organizational improvement occurred in 1998, when I
attended a
talk he gave at BAYCHI. I was hoping to hear stories about working at
SRI in the 1960s and his perspective on usability today. What I got
was an abstract lecture on organizational knowledge processes and
cognitive frameworks. I walked away very confused. (1VG)
A year later, InstituteForTheFuture organized a day-long
seminar at Stanford to mark the 35th
anniversary of the mouse. It consisted largely of testimonial after
testimonial from people whose lives and work had been touched by Doug,
as well as hints of his larger, more humanistic goals. I was struck
by the tremendous intellectual and emotional impact he had had on so
many people's lives, many of whom had gone on to do important work
themselves. Both the speakers list and the attendees list read like a
who's who of the history of SiliconValley. (1VH)
In 2000, BootstrapInstitute? organized a followup
colloquium at Stanford. It was
a 30-hour (over 10 weeks) seminar on Doug's ideas, taught by Doug
himself and featuring an impressive list of guest speakers.
Naturally, I enrolled. (1VI)
The first week's session was great. Doug outlined his big picture,
which was mind-blowing in and of itself, then marched out several
guest speakers who provided some real-world context for Doug's work. (1VJ)
The second and third weeks were not as good. Doug began drilling down
into some specifics of his framework, and it was starting to feel
redundant and irrelevant. I was also getting the feeling that Doug
was unaware of what had happened in the world over the past 30 years.
"We know all of this already," I thought. I wasn't gaining any new
insights. (1VK)
After the fourth session, I had coffee with my friend, GregGentschev?,
who asked me how the colloquium was going. I told him I was going to
stop attending, that the content was worthless, and that Doug was a
kook. Greg, knowing little of Doug or his work, asked me to explain. (1VL)
So I did. I started describing Doug's conceptual universe. I
explained his larger motivation regarding the complexity of the
world's problems and mentioned scaling effects and where humans and
tools fit in. I translated some of his terminology and threw in some
of my own examples. (1VM)
As I talked, I had an epiphany. I had learned something significant
over the past four weeks. I had spent 40 hours mentally processing
what I heard, and when I finally had the opportunity to describe this
stuff to someone, I realized I had a rich language for describing a
powerful conceptual framework at my disposal. Doug wasn't teaching
new facts or force-feeding his opinions. He was rewiring our brains
to see the world as he did. (1VN)
That conversation with Greg convinced me to stick out the colloquium,
which led to me getting to know Doug, which eventually led to what I'm
doing now. (1VO)
I recount this story here not out of nostalgia but because of the
value it reaffirmed. Language is critical to learning, and
SharedLanguage is critical for collaboration. (1VP)
The first phase of an MGTaylor workshop is known as a Scan phase.
It often consists of explorations of themes that have seemingly
nothing to do with the topic at hand. Even worse, those explorations
are often kinesthetic and quite playful. People don't feel like
they're doing work at all, much less the work they think they're
there for. Many people get upset after the first third or half of an
MGTaylor workshop. (1VQ)
That usually changes in the end, though. That first phase is all
about developing SharedLanguage. Once that language has been
developed, the work (or "Action" phase) is highly accelerated.
People are more productive working together than ever before. (1VR)
Every effective facilitation technique I've seen incorporates this
SharedLanguage phase at the beginning. AllenGunn's
tends
to be more directed. JeffConklin's is entirely about developing
SharedLanguage -- he comes in for a few hours or a day and facilitates
SharedLanguage via DialogMapping. MGTaylor's is particularly
effective with large, eclectic groups. However, it's also critical
that people stay for the entire event, despite their frustration.
Otherwise, they miss out on the epiphany. (1VS)
People get frustrated with meetings when they're
all talk, no
action. The problem is that people then think that meetings are a
waste, that they want all action, no talk. This type of thinking gets
you nowhere. The problem is that the talk phase is not effective.
People are not going through a conscious SharedLanguage phase. Once
you develop SharedLanguage, you are now capable of acting
collaboratively. (1VT)
/collaboration |
Posted at 4:14pm
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