How Linked In am I?

This is going to surprise you, but in writing this I do not want to convince you to join any cause, attend a training event or sell you anything that you wouldn't already be convinced to buy. Nor, am I going to offer you advice on how to best find a job or trying to recruit you for one.

My only concern here is to understand how Linked In keeps us socially engaged and this can be measured by how popular the most popular contributions can be. These normally include best selling authors and public influencers that are followed by a majority of us, the common LinkedIn members.

Yet, there is no such thing as 'common' users on Linked In. Each individual member can be a uniquely distinct universe, as each one of us is producing some sort of contribution to the overall result of LinkedIn as a business, acquired by Microsoft on 13 June 2016, my birthday.

We are all important to Linked In's bottom line

This is a funny thing I have discovered about this social network. Every one of us, the common members on Linked In, become as important as the best selling authors and thought leaders you may be following. The value of LinkedIn's entertainment and social engagement is created by the diversity of content posted by all other Linked In ordinary members that are relevant to you. These can be your teammates, your clients, industry colleagues, including your competitors, all are part of this 'infotainment' that Linked In perfectly segments in our professional lives when compared with other social networks preferably focused on news, leisure, family and friendships.

According to a recent Bloomberg article, year after year, people are spending more time on Linked In because they are more engaged, whether it’s because of the content on the platform, messaging features, or more relevant connections to other professionals.

Don't spend too much time writing blogs on Linked In

Among the widespread mix of social profiles on LinkedIn, there are a few of us, like me, that blog for the pleasure of sharing ideas with like-minded individuals. You can imagine my dismay when I discovered that the effort spent in writing an article like this here on Pulse, is not in the least rewarded by LinkedIn's algorithm. The number of views is desperately low when compared to the views I get when publishing a much shorter post in the mainstream social feed.

Applying my latest book methodology

Recently, I have come across a colleague facilitator here on Linked In - Emanuele Manzatti - that was an inspiring source for my blogging. Emanuele has a wonderful set of articles on Pulse and follows a set of principles established by Seth Godin to help us think more clearly, to make connections, share ideas, start building a narrative to make an impact and becoming change agents. I have noticed that every once in a while, he publishes an article that summarises his previous posts and I thought about doing the same here.

Curiously, this is the same technique I have employed with my latest book - Fieldnotes on Meetings, Workshops and Group Facilitation. Except that, instead of collecting my Pulse articles, I will be publishing in this article, my most popular LinkedIn posts. The end result should be a Pulse article that will become more relevant to more people.

A new reading experience

I am going to start from oldest to newest and will include on each one the number of likes, comments or views to help you decide if it's worth reading or not. I hope you enjoy this new type of article and please leave your comments below.

As Emanuele Mazantti wrote, we can all influence by giving value, significance and attention to others. We only need to reach a few, the smallest amount of people we can serve, engage with. Be generous enough: it is worth the journey.

#1 Elected member of the IAF Board (49 likes + 22 comments)

So proud to have been elected to the IAF Global board as Director of Conferences and Events. This is a calling for a job that I hope to fulfil joyfully and with honour, starting next January for a 2 years term.

I am excited with the learning opportunities by team-working with the other Directors related to the strong arm of "IAF events" Gary Austin CPF M, FRSA (Communication), Jeffer London (Marketing), Materne Boussou (Membership and Chapters), Gerardo de Luzenberger (Professional development) and, of course, all the Regional Leaders, and other recently elected Board members, united under the leadership of our Chair Trevor Durnford and Vice-Chair Vinay Kumar.

Here is the link to the original post.

#2 Expanding the boundaries of facilitation (36 likes + 6 comments)

This diagram depicts an interesting observation on how to expand the boundaries of "group facilitation" something I had the privilege to witness last week with the national Think Tank on the sustainability of the national healthcare service and digital transformation. https://lnkd.in/gARG7Zm

The quality of the interactions and outcomes was simply amazing and made possible by the powerful principles of serendipitous conversations and self-organization, not just the process design that was co-created with the organizers.

"Expanding group facilitation boundaries" the theme of an International Association of Facilitators (IAF) conference in Oceania, where my dear colleague Peter Beck and I co-hosted the first-ever remote workshop in the history of the IAF events as part of the official program of a conference.

Again last week, albeit in a different sense, we have once more extended the boundaries of facilitation.

Pictures of this incredible session held in the beautiful venue provided by Microsoft HQ in Portugal available here. https://lnkd.in/gApdK2N

Here is the link to the original post.

#3 The world as a global village (11 likes + 4 comments)

Is the world becoming a global village or it's just a myth?

In my last online workshop "How to lead and facilitate remote work teams", we started with an ice-breaker activity consisting of a world map where participants could pick the place where they were and this was the result.

We experimented with a number of group activities whilst virtually connected with a videoconferencing platform. The overall results were positive.

Yes, some participants dropped due to connectivity issues. It seems we are still in the dawn of a new era.

Would #5G technology make seamless videocalls a reality? If so, this kind of gatherings will become a driving force for group decision-making and organizational agility. Let's get ready!

Thank you to all attending: Ray Guyot Karen D3 (Denise DeCuir-DiNicola) Penny Walker Bogdan Grigore Helen Gillman Jeremy Lu and so sorry Susana Grau Rahola and Rachel Malek Rosanna von Sacken, M.Sc., CPF could not join us...

Next event will be 15 January: https://lnkd.in/g-E9jeF

Here is the link to the original post.

#4 The value of meetings (167 views)

An interesting angle on the value of purposeless meetings.

A leader that hosts a meeting is also creating a space for people to express their frustrations and venting their dissatisfactions.

Ancient Greeks have actually invented a word for this:

Catharsis (from Greek κ?θαρσι?, katharsis, meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") refers to the purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—through art[1] or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.

What should you do in such cases depends on a number of factors, namely:

- If you have an executive coach she might tell you to hold on to your values as a leader and be the better version of yourself and the group will find it's way to support you no matter what.

- If you are on your own, by simply exerting your authority as a leader you can say "enough of complaining and whining, let's get back to work".

- Yet, if you strive to have a better meeting culture in your organization regardless of you being or not the host of a meeting, think about talking to a 'meeting therapist' and contact the IAF Global

Thanks, Marta Nunes de Abreu

Here is the link to the original post.

# 5 The Holy Grail and the round table (8 likes)

It's so curious that the highlighted member in the round table is not King Arthur, but Sir Galahad who is renowned to have found the Holy Grail, that shines on the centre.

What if this legend correlates to modern times and the Holy Grail represents true collaboration and harmony within a team, and Galahad to be the group facilitator you are looking for the meetings you host as a king?

If you work with teams and live in Portugal, you can learn more about the skills to manage effective meetings and to become a group facilitator, by joining this training course next 20 December, in Lisbon --> Conduzir a Inteligência Coletiva https://lnkd.in/gxByRbq

And, if you work in the Healthcare sector you can read the latest editorial in Fórum Hospital do Futuro --> O Santo Graal e a Távola Redonda https://lnkd.in/gCKFiHh

Here is the link to the original post.

#6 Health Data Forum (17 likes + 2 comments)

The role of doctors and nurses, careers in medicine, and the future of publicly funded health services are all going to dramatically change.

The only doubt is the pace of change for the day when digital technology and health data will become predominant fields in medical and nursing schools.

I am so honoured to have two of the most distinguished medical innovators as Guest Speakers in the next Health Summit I am going to host in Cascais, Portugal Rafael J. Grossmann, MD, FACS and Augusto Ernesto Ittig

Health Data Forum --> https://lnkd.in/gWtNXJv

They are the forerunners of the way Digital Age is already impacting on the way medicine is already being practised today and the amazing results it can bring for both patients and professionals.

Here is the link to the original post.

#7 Group facilitation as process management (13 likes + 7 comments)

In a participative organization or community,#groupfacilitation is pure 'process management' and should not to try to influence anyone or anything.

You can hold the space for leadership to naturally emerge in the group and express itself by whoever dares to lead and provides direction to the group.

In a facilitated meeting, the 'leader' ceases to be a person and becomes a role that fluctuates and can be shared by all group members.

Exactly, in the same way, a facilitator must be totally agnostic in relation to any type of managerial effort.

It's up to the group to decide in which management level they should be empowered to be working, once the 'content' of the task is properly established and agreed upon.

I have borrowed from this interesting model made by the Barrett Values Center --> https://lnkd.in/gUY4Cfd

If you want to learn more about Group Facilitation in #Portugal, please join our next Level 2 course on 16 & 17 January. https://lnkd.in/gxByRbq

here is the link to the original post.

#workshops #meetings #facilitationtraining #facilitation

#8 Growth strategies (20 likes + 1 comment)

he soon to become 10 billion population of Sapiens on this planet is strong evidence of our success as a species.

Yet, according to Simon Sinek’s latest book, there are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.

What's probably true is that the forces of natural selection will be favouring people and companies with a community maximizing success strategy.

This is great news for group facilitators who will be busy creating this collective intelligence mindset either within organizational contexts or in the society at large.

Read the whole story here: https://lnkd.in/gHCnnaj

#facilitation #workshops #challenges #purposematters #infinitegame

Here is the link to the original post.