The most recent edition of Swiss think-tank GDI‘s magazine GDI Impuls is devoted to 2 letters that have started to change business and society. “Der Boom der englischen Vorsilbe «un» kündigt einen Paradigmenwechsel in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft an”. Guess why this is no surprise to us … let us have your answer below…
“I found the afternoon we spent together exciting and I had the impression that at the end of the workshop the participants discussed and asked questions more openly than seldom before.”
“Ich fand unseren gemeinsamen Nachmittag sehr spannend und es kam mir so vor, als ob die Teilnehmer nach dem Interview-Workshop so offen wie selten gefragt und diskutiert haben.”
On 13/14 November 2008, unBla was brought in to facilitate an event at ETH Zurich, which brought together 110 students, faculty and staff to develop proposals how the university could reduce it’s CO2 emissions.
The event was co-designed by Ed and delivered by Patricia and Peter. It proved to be a good success — not only in terms of potential CO2 reduction, but also in terms of popularity of the unBla methods with the participants:
A participant survey was handed in by 48 of the 110 participants (44% return rate). Quantitative questions on the overall event, its content and the facilitation methods applied showe a satisfaction level of more than 90% (answers ‘quite a lot’ or ‘very much’ satisfied).
Even more valuable, in their qualitative answers the participants highlighted that they benefitted most from meeting other people through the networking exercise (28 answers), working on own ideas and bringing them forward (8 answers) and experiencing a large group moderation process (16 answers).
They furthermore acknowledged that their major learning gains where from other people’s expertise and generating new ideas in the area of CO2 reduction (20 answers), and also included an increase of their capabilities for working effectively in a team (19 answers).
Without having been asked for it, 11 participants affirmed their motivation to further work on their project after the event.
Patricia, in her capacity as researcher, is currently working on the detailed research results which are to be published in due course.
Ein Symposium für qualitativ forschende SozialwissenschaftlerInnen in der Organisations- und Managementlehre
Hochschule Luzern – Wirtschaft, 4.-5. September 2008
Impulsreferenten:
Prof. Dr. Eva Nadai: „Messen und klassieren. Eine ethnographische Annäherung an „Leistung“ in Unternehmen“
Dr. René John: „Funktionale Analyse. Beobachtung zwischen Fixierung und Überraschung“
Prof. Dr. Christof Baitsch: „Die Probe aufs Exempel: Bewährt sich qualitative Organisationsberatung?”
Dr. Andrea Buss Notter & Simone Schauber: „Qualitative Forschung in der Finanzwelt. Über Mögliches und Unmögliches aus der Praxis der GfK Schweiz”
Tagungsleitung:
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Kaudela-Baum, Hochschule Luzern
Dr. Jens O. Meissner, Hochschule Luzern,
Prof. Dr. Patricia Wolf, ETH Zürich
The foundations of the unBla method are publicly available here:
Wolf, Patricia & Troxler, Peter The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating—But What was the Pudding in the First Place?
A Proven Un-Conferencing Approach in Search of Its Theoretical Foundations
unBla is becoming a method — officially — in a forthcoming paper published in the online journal “Forum Qualitative Social Research”. The title of the paper is “The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating — But What Was the Pudding in the First Place? A Proven Un-Conferencing Approach in Search of Its Theoretical Foundations”. The paper will contain, of course, the theories behind unBla — but also a lot of practical video illustrations — which can be sneak-previewed from blip.tv’s unbla07-channel…
Regional Innovation – Central Switzerland
UnBla.07 What can we share what can we learn
Regional Innovation is the main theme of the UnBla.07 conference; and Central Switzerland is the field of application. This region is currently developing a Regional Innovation Strategy. The strategy will help making this dynamic, visible region more competitive and an even better place to live in.
The questions that UnBla.07 addresses are centred around this Regional Innovation Strategy. They cover three main areas:
1. Supporting a whole region to remain innovative
2. Telling the stories of regional innovators
3. The positive effects of disturbing innovation processes