An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.
Niels Bohr 

What role can be most effective for experts in today's world of collective intelligence?  Most conferences and meetings still begin with "experts" talking to the listeners.  The listeners are to be learning "what" and "how" to think about a given subject.  At best, ideas are being perturbed in the listeners minds, but not made to think differently. At the end of the talks, listeners have a few minutes left to ask questions and make comments. 

When I have suggested to conference and workshop developers that they not begin with key note speakers, I am told that no one will come if there is not a draw from the experts. This might be true, or at least true for a while longer, but using an expert to attract does not infer that the expert speaks first and shares what he or she knows up front.  In many ways, this does disservice to the expert because there is little new learning required by this person. They miss out on the chance to learn new ways to think about their subject ... to grow the knowledge base around their expertise, and to have personal insights gained from wider vantage points. 

Originally posted on The Value Web blog

Victoria, British Columbia. Participants of the Transmission Global Summit were deeply immersed in their second roundtable discussion, culling together their ideas as to the characteristics of entrepreneurs, corporations and regional clusters within the creative industries that would enable them to thrive. They had been working for about 30 minutes when I began stopping by each group, dropping off a box of assorted odds and ends one may find in the closet of an elementary school art class: cardboard, straws, felt, string, rubber bands, balloons, pipe cleaners, tin foil, etc.

Continue your conversation," I instructed, "but as you do, use these materials to build a representational 3D model that exemplifies the distinguishing characteristics, qualities, structures and capabilities you have been identifying in your conversation thus far.

The conversation stops as they take in what I'm telling them, and their gaze moves back and forth between me and the box I've just deposited to the middle of their table...

Just imagine the joy of getting up everyday to just imagine.                                  
-cary


On December 14th, my younger brother, Cary, passed away.  This is a tiny slice of his story and what I learned from Cary, his wife, Glenda,  daughter, Kristin, my brother, Bill, and his wife, Emmy, and the wonderful community that surrounded him as he left us. 

The quote above is from Cary's website. He was a designer and architect. He is one major reason why downtown Kansas City has come back from oblivion.  He fought for years to have the community re-envision the downtown as a vibrant community full of life and vitality, not only during the day, but at night as well.  He has a number of signature buildings in the city that helped to turn his dream into reality.  During our Remembering Cary ceremony, I learned just how much he had contributed to his dream.