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0:00 Introduction
2:21 Part 1: Recap from Feb 24 and what to expect on May 18
9:11 Part 2: Insightful quotes from book Community – The Structure of Belonging
16:52 Part 3: Interviews with Jude and Laura about their take on the last gathering
1:00:22 Wrapping up
Transcript
I hope that everyone who is planning to come to Columbus, Ohio on May 18, for our second AUG Ohio gathering, will listen to this Podcast episode. This Podcast episode is my way of giving an introduction to the time without taking up time during the gathering itself.
For the rest of you, you still might find this interesting to learn more about our gathering format and hear some insightful commentary on community from a book that I’ve been reading.
Before we go any further, I’d like to tell you my number one goal for our next gathering. My number one goal is that people will bring their laptops, take them out during Free Time, and start sharing their screen with others. More on that later.
Now, this Podcast episode is broken down into three parts:
In the first part, I’m going to recap our gathering from February 24, then talk about what to expect on May 18 at our second gathering.
In the second part, I’m going to read some insightful quotes from a book that I’ve been reading on community. I think these quotes are very applicable to Acumatica User Group gatherings.
In the third part, I’m going to play 2 interviews that I did with people who attended our last gathering in February.
Alright, let’s get started with the first part of this Podcast episode.
When we gathered on February 24, we started on time with what I called Group Time. Our gathering consisted of two parts: Group Time and Free Time.
We started Group Time by sitting in a circle and going around, giving each person 3 minutes to share something. We did this for about an hour. I started off with an introduction which was also subject to the 3 minute limitation.
I used Podcast Episode #70 to give a longer introduction before the gathering. The idea was that the attendees would listen to that episode before coming to the gathering. I’m doing the same thing with this Podcast episode for our next gathering.
I really like the 3 minute format. Later you’ll hear Jude Dille talk about how he also liked the 3 minute format and I really like the way that he described it. Later you’ll also hear Laura Jaffe talk about a 3 minute limitation in a different context which I thought was validating.
During Group Time, I used the basic timer function on my watch to start a 3 minute timer after each person started talking. When the timer went off, the person sharing didn’t have to stop talking immediately. The timer was simply their queue to finish their thought and wrap it up.
I really like how Group Time went last time so, on May 18, we’re going to do the same thing and use the first hour for Group Time. However, I’m going to make two changes.
First, rather than sit around a table, we’re going to circle the chairs without a table. This came from a suggestion in the book that I’m ready and I’ll read a quote about it later.
Second, I’d like to hear what each person would be interested in discussing in more detail after Group Time, during Free Time. I’ll share my computer on the big screen to help us all keep track of which topics each person would like to discuss further. The goal is to help people know who to connect with during Free Time.
At our last gathering, after the first hour was up, most people stuck around for another 1.5 to 2 hours for Free Time. Since this was our first gathering, we just talked. There were 10 of us who attended and we probably had about 4 separate conversations going on as we continued to sit around the table.
The idea that I proposed in Podcast episode #70 was that everyone would bring their own food. But that was a big failure because no one brought food. That didn’t feel right so I quickly ordered pizza from downstairs.
In addition to this being our first gathering, it was also shortly after the holiday COVID surge so I think we were all just happy to be at a gathering with other people.
For our gathering on May 18, I have two changes that I’d like to make to Free Time.
First, we will have food. I’m going to bring in Panera Bread. A big thank you to PaceJet for sponsoring the food. PaceJet makes shipping software for Acumatica. In addition to paying for the food, a couple of people from PaceJet are going to attend the gathering.
Second, I’m really hoping that the laptops come out. I mentioned this at the beginning of this Podcast episode because I didn’t want to “bury the lead”. This is my number one goal for our gathering on May 18. Laptops. I want to see those laptops. So, please bring your laptops.
Back in 2013, I attended the world’s first Power BI User Group in Cleveland, Ohio. After the official user group meeting, some of us went across the street to a restaurant called Mavis Winkles. I took out my laptop at the bar and a few of us huddled around it. I showed something that I was working on and another person came up with a great idea for a function called CONCATENATEX which eventually made it into the Power BI product.
What’s the point? The point is that good things happen when the laptops come out.
I would go as far as to say that laptops coming out is the goal of the gathering. That’s why we do a “no presentation” Group Time in the beginning, to help everyone know whose laptop they want to huddle around during Free Time.
So I really hope to see those laptops come out during Free Time.
Alright, that’s it for the first part of this Podcast.
Now for the second part. I’d like to read some quotes from a book that I’ve been reading. The book is called Community – The Structure of Belonging. The author is Peter Block who wrote the book Flawless Consulting. Checkout the links in the Related Links section on this podcast episode page for excerpts from Flawless Consulting. You’ll see that Peter Block is really good at making insightful observations.
So, I’d like to read you some excerpts from Community – The Structure of Belonging. This book is about community in general, but I selected excerpts from chapters that I think are most relevant to Acumatica User Group gatherings.
Community – The Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block
There is growing interest in building community. At best we convene a social event, a block party, or a reception, with food and music. All good things to do, but people most often huddle with like-minded people, and strangers remain strangers.
Professional conferences continue to be designed around inspiring keynote speeches and content-filled workshops to attract attendees. Presenting data in this way becomes a weak substitute for learning and education.
Belonging is best created when we join with other people in producing something that makes a place better. It is the opposite of thinking I must do it on my own. That wherever I am, it is all on my shoulders and that perhaps I would be better off somewhere else.
The structures in this book—both the thinking and the practices—can be chosen and implemented regardless of personal style, or lack thereof. We can create structures of belonging even if we are introverted and do not like to make eye contact.
CHAPTER 1 Insights into Transformation
Social fabric is created one room at a time. It is formed from small steps that ask “Who do we want in the room?” and “What is the new conversation that we want to occur?”
Most sustainable improvements in community occur when citizens discover their own power to act.
It is when citizens stop waiting for professionals or elected leadership to do something, and decide they can reclaim what they have delegated to others, that things really happen.
Peer-to-peer interaction is where most learning takes place; it is the fertile earth out of which something new is produced.
How we structure the gathering is as worthy of attention as grasping the nature of a problem or focusing on the solutions we seek.
CHAPTER 9 The Small Group Is the Unit of Transformation
We change the world one room at a time.
The way we structure the assembly of peers and leaders is as critical as the issue or concerns we come together to address.
The small group is the structure that allows every voice to be heard. It is in groups of three to twelve that intimacy is created. This intimate conversation makes the process personal.
In the small group discussion, we discover that our own concerns are more universal than we imagined.
Something almost mystical, certainly mysterious, occurs when citizens sit in a small group, for they often become more authentic and personal with each other there than in other settings. Designing small group conversations is so simple that it rarely receives the attention and importance it deserves.
Every large group meeting needs to use small groups to create connection and move the action forward. As obvious as this might seem, it amazes me how many events and gatherings do not do it. How many conferences, summits, and events have we attended where the small group discussion is relegated to the breaks and thereby left to chance?
In gatherings where there are more than twenty people in the room—which I am calling the large group—we need to move back and forth from the small group to the large group.
CHAPTER 10 Questions Are More Transforming Than Answers
The right small group conversation releases aliveness and intention into the community… It is only within this context and communal aliveness that our skill at problem solving will make the difference.
Questions are the essential tools of engagement.
Most leaders are well schooled in providing answers and remain rather indifferent and naive as far as the use of questions goes. How many PowerPoint presentations have you seen flooded with answers, blueprints, analyses, and proposals? How many have you seen presenting questions?
Questions that trigger opinions, argument, analysis, explanation, and defense have little power. It is significant that most of the meetings we go to, and the conversations we engage in, have these qualities.
Our answers to the questions do not matter. The questions have an impact even if the response is to refuse to answer them.
CHAPTER 14 Designing Physical Space That Supports Community
Physical space is more decisive in creating community than we realize. Most meeting spaces are designed for control, negotiation, and persuasion.
Community is built when we sit in circles, when there are windows and the walls have signs of life, when every voice can be equally heard and amplified, when we all are on one level.
Meeting rooms are traditionally designed for efficiency, control, and business as we know it.
The circle is the geometric symbol for community, and therefore for arranging the room. No tables if possible.
The ideal seating for a small group is a circle of chairs with no table. Put the chairs as close together as possible, which forces people to lean in to one another.
Alright, that’s it for the excerpts from the book. Pretty interesting huh?
Now, for the third and last part of this Podcast episode. I’m going to play two interviews that I did with people who attended our AUG Ohio gathering on February 24. Here we go…