and more holistic social and economic regeneration in the Humber sub-region and in
Hull in particular.
Commentary: Simone picked up a lot very quickly - though I think she ‘got’ Neurological
Levels more than she got Spiral Dynamics. She was interested enough to introduce
me to some of her fellow Lib-Dem councillors (including future leader John Robinson)
and to consider seriously my offer to be an unpaid advisor to her.
Although Simone did phone me several times over the following year to discuss issues
that concerned her, nothing substantial came out of our conversations.
Humber MeshWORKS...
Jan-Feb: Delivered Spiral Dynamics-centred staff training sessions for the Garths.
Feb: Worked with Cathy Byrne on developing Spiral strategies to employ in her application
to become headteacher of the new school being formed from the merger of the Danepark
and Court Park primary schools in Hull.
Commentary: A 'graduate' from the previous
Summer's SD-NLP open workshop programme, the remarkable story of Cathy's management
of the merger is told as a case study in 'The Parks' in the Services pages.
In some
circles, there's a lot of contention about the elitism so often associated with those
who claim to think in 2nd Tier - especially TURQUOISE thinking. But I actually do
think Cathy does think in TURQUOISE at times. Her fearlessness, her ability to see
things clearly from multiple perspectives and to build towards the 'Big Picture'
would fit with the little we know about this vMEME - and she's often been way ahead
of me in her ability to understand the complexity in a situation.
Mar-April: In association with David Burnby & Associates, delivered in-house version
of 'An Introduction to Spiral Dynamics & Related Models of Neuro-Linguistic Programming'
for the Senior Management Team of Hull's Preston Road New Deal for Communities project.
Commentary:
I had inveigled former Common Purpose in Hull director David into coming on my second
open workshop programme. By its conclusion, he was one of the most enthusiastic about
the models.
Like myself three years earlier, understanding the models gave David a
certain release. He had been considering going independent for some time. Now he
couldn't find any reasons left why not to! (And he has been highly successful since
as an independent facilitator!)
The Preston Road project was one of the Deputy Prime Minister's Office prestigious
and very high-profile 'New Deal for Communities' regeneration schemes. (Both John
Prescott and Tony Blair were present at its launch.) With £55M to spend over several
years, their brief was the social and economic regeneration of one of Hull's most
deprived areas. However, limited 1st Tier thinking had placed the project headquarters
at one end of the estate - and they wondered why they were relatively successful
at communicating with people in the 'tribal areas' close to them but people in the
tribal areas at the other end of the estate hardly ever came to their HQ! (Crossing
another 'tribe's' area was - often literally! - a dangerous thing to do.)
St Mary’s Year 8 Workshops, May 2002. [all: Andrea Stephens]
Delivering at the Europarc Innovation Circle, August 2002. [all: Helen M Knights]
Through Spiral Dynamics, they began to see some of the reasons they were not being
as successful as they knew they should be and to formulate some new and more effective
strategies.
April-May: Ran Mentoring workshops for Year 8 groups at St Mary's College.
Commentary:
These were the brainchild of St Mary's teacher Lewis Lynch.
Lewis had been a participant on my first SD-NLP open workshop programme and had assisted
on the second. He was part of a team working on developing 'buddies' for students
in the year below.
It was the first time I had pitched NLP-type concepts explicitly at a group of 13-year-
olds - but they all claimed to have enjoyed it and ongoing feedback from Lewis was
good.
April-May: Working for David Burnby, facilitated the new Humberside Consortium for
Learning in putting together their start-up Business Plan.
Commentary: The Consortium
for Learning was the result of the merger of the 3 Humber training provider associations
-
The 'Introduction...' participants, May 2002
North Lincolnshire, North-East Lincolnshire and Hull & the East Riding - to give
them a stronger voice with the Learning & Skills Council Humberside.
Although there were some internal problems earlier on, working with the four directors
- Lynn McGowan, Sue Bloomfield, Audrey Dawson and Allan Wakefield - was both a challenge
and a pleasure. The quality of thinking around their board room table was impressive!
April-May: In association with David Burnby, staged third open programme of "An Introduction
to Spiral Dynamics & Related Models of Neuro-Linguistic Programming" in Hull - this
time spread over 2 days.
July: The Humberside MESH Network celebrated its first anniversary with the biggest
turn-out to date at its new home in Centre 88 in Hull.
Aug: At the behest of Jennifer Crossland, gave a follow-up presentation on Spiral
Dynamics and Adizes LifeCycle to 2001's event at the Grimsby Europarc Innovation
Circle.
Aug: Met with Hull City Council leader Simone Butterworth to discuss how the MeshWORKS
approach could stimulate faster, more sustainable
