I - along with 20 others - have just spent a wonderful day with Linda Rising, co-author of Fearless Change. She did a days training for us here in Scotland covering retrospectives and "fearless" change. I am impressed. If you ever have a chance to hear Linda speak then take it.
Although Linda and I cover a lot of similar ground with respect to change and influence, I'm absolutely wowed at how well the patterns work as a frame work and I'm going to start using them in my own work. I'm not going to do the pattern thing justice by saying this, but simply naming something can make a big difference. Go check out Fearless Change book.
The most useful thing I learned from Linda was probably the simplest: she framed the patterns using a (deliberately) simple scripted play which was read by "volunteers" from the audience. The play started with The Evangelist telling The Innovator about his desire to try out this agile thing he has been reading about; Linda then explained how these two roles (Evangelist and Innovator) were also patterns and elaborated on each of them; they then discussed the idea of having a brown bag lunch, which is another pattern; Linda described it and a few other related patterns in more detail; and so on. The play worked remarkable well as a training device. I am so impressed that I am going to steal the idea (the thieving bastard pattern) immediately and claim it as my own (the never leave a written confession to a crime unless you want to get caught pattern.
(From my Blackberry - and then completely rewritten on my desktop)
