Hydrostatic lift

If I look back at the years at the really memorable keynotes, then Melbourne audiences stand out. To speak well to an audience, you need active feedback, the speech then is in a sense taken our of your hands, it becomes a co-creation. Its difficult to explain this to someone who doesn’t speak often, or those who speak to a prepared script. It doesn’t happen all the time either, but from time to time a form of physical resonance happens with the audience. Its rather like the sensation you get when a sailing dinghy (my old love, the Fireball is pictured) when it starts to plane. The direction you take is in part determined by the flow of responses from the audience. Often new ideas, new formulations come at that moment, the interaction making something possible that would never happen during private reflection. Today in Melbourne speaking to 200 members of the IPAA was one of those occasions (although my best ever remains the first time I ever keynoted at KM World). I focused on the Handy S-Curve model which is really working well to get people to understand why change is possible. That complete I moved onto the basics of complexity theory and the need to rethink the nature of Governance. Podcast and slides here. Thanks also to Frank for setting it up (one of the most forward thinking government servants I know).