In the last few weeks, I have been involved in several collaborative planning processes, at various levels of public importance -- from planning a sermon to planning a course to planning for the future of an educational institution to rearranging parish committee structure. In each process, it seemed that progress got made largely by saying it right, or saying it more right. This had a couple of aspects. A good formulation of what we were about was, first of all, real substantive work: it opened some possibilities of action, closed others, sent people's research off in particular directions. But also, maybe more important, the right way of saying what we were about was memorable, catchy, repeatable without distortion, without long explanations. There is an interesting link between "a feasible solution to a problem" and "an memorable and easily communicable solution to a problem." In human affairs, there's a premium on elegance.
Posted by shea0017 at April 18, 2005 10:47 AM