USING MODELS

MODELS

Don’t mistake the map for the territory:

MODELS

Don’t mistake the map for the territory:

MODELS

Don’t mistake the map for the territory:

MODELS

This picture shows

what your eyes see

at a facilitated workshop

This sociogram is one model (one of many)

of what happened

at the same workshop

MODELS

What does the eye see?

What does the model ‘see’?

What can the eye not see?

What can the model not see?

WHAT IS A SOCIOGRAM?

Sociograms show interaction patterns for a group of people• Each circle represents an individual.

Should you label the circle with their role? or name the individual?

Does the seating plan influence how people interact?

• Each line represents a ‘speech act’.The direction of the line indicates who was talking to whom.

PHENOMENOLOGY

Behaviourists model (make models to explain) what people do.• Behaviourists demand observable evidence• So behaviourists reject everything but observable behaviour.• Do different observers see the same actions?• Can observers see an action without attributing meaning to it?

Phenomenologists model (make models to explain) what people experience.• Intentionality = purpose, be it conscious or otherwise

• Embodiment = body structure, skills, affordance(e.g. chairs don’t have affordance for flamingos, or in 18th century Japan)

• Worldliness = a model of the world as previously experienced

IS IT REALLY THERE?

Two people watch the same video• One person sees something odd.• The other person did not see it.Was it there?• Behaviourists say ‘No’. We must replicate our results.• Phenomenologists say ‘Yes’.

We only access reality through our perceptions. If one person perceived it, then (in some sense) it was there.

IS IT REALLY THERE?

Watch the video at:http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39199153/ns/today-books/

Count how many times people in the white tops pass the ball.

MERLEAU PONTY

Merleau Ponty’s ‘Phenomenology of Perception’ is difficult (like Sartre).What follows is just what Isobel got from it (right or wrong)

In a workshop, we ‘see’ many different realities:• A simple exchange of knowledge and expertise• Genuine attempts to collaborate• Emotional reactions (empathy, fear, helpfulness, embarrassment …)

• Exercise of power (or resisting power, or desisting from the use of power)

• Hard-nosed negotiation

MERLEAU PONTY

In a workshop, as an event unfoldsWe seem to have many possible responses to choose fromBUT:• We perceive so many different realities• Each reality gives a different meaning to the event• Many realities demand different responses• Must our response be acceptable to all meanings?• Does one meaning have priority on this occasion?• Suddenly it’s full of complexity, subtlety and dilemmas • Whenever we deal with people, we navigate through all this