Subscribers to the 15-minute FOTO Dropbox may have noticed a new ‘ v12 BETA’ version of the cue card. 15-minute FOTO is our Clean Language-inspired coaching game, the name being short for “From Obstacles to Outcomes in just 15 minutes”. We’ll be testing this updated version – twice! – at the London workshop early next month (and while we’re here, note that early bird pricing expires tomorrow).

Changes:

1. Dropped the question “Is there a relationship between X and Y”. Quite simply, this question was more trouble than it was worth. That it needed health warnings was already a strong indication that it should go, and learning that this question seems to have few defenders among expert Clean Language users clinched it for me.
2. Added “Where does X come from?” as an alternative to “What happens before X?”. I’m taking advantage of the space relinquished by the first change to add a question that I find useful. You can use it to follow system flows upstream (from Right to Left, so to speak), and also to explore abstract outcomes – “Where does that collaboration come from?”, for example (see also My favourite Clean Language question).
3. The two questions “What would you like to have happen?” and “And when X, then what happens” are highlighted more clearly than before. In the game, when presented with (respectively) an obstacle or an outcome, these are the default questions to use, the former to ‘flip’ obstacles to outcomes and the latter to generate more outcomes, going deeper into outcome space.
4. Additional visual cues: a boundary between the obstacle and outcome ‘spaces’, along with a reminder (the curved arrow) to use the WWYLTHH question in the event that the conversations lingers unproductively inside obstacle space.

For the time being, you can download a PDF here. For the source pptx file, the facilitator’s deck, and for continued updates, subscribe here. You’ll find a video there too.

Questions or ideas for improvements? #cleanlanguage in the Agendashift Slack. And see chapters 1 and 2 of the Agendashift book, where the exercise is described in depth and in context (twice).

Upcoming Agendashift workshops

See also the recent blog post: Agendashift workshops in Seattle, London, Boston, and Berlin, which includes a detailed description of the 2-day workshop. Workshops facilitated by Mike Burrows (yours truly) unless otherwise indicated:

• 29 March 2019, Seattle, WA, USA:
  Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change with Agendashift
  (Core, 1-day workshop, Julia Wester)
• 4-5 April 2019, London, UK
  Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation
  (Advanced, 2-day workshop)
• 16-17 May 2019, Boston, MA, USA:
  Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation
  (Advanced, 2-day workshop)
• 22-23 May 2019, Berlin, Germany:
  Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation
  (Advanced, 2-day workshop)
• 3-4 June 2019, Stockholm, Sweden:
  Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation
  (Advanced, 2-day workshop, Mike Burrows and Kjell Tore Guttormsen)
• 6-7 June 2019, Oslo, Norway:
  Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation
  (Advanced, 2-day workshop, Mike Burrows and Kjell Tore Guttormsen

Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter