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Ten participants came from the worlds of Primary and Gifted and Talented education, public and private sectors organisations, independent consulting and philosophical enquiry.

This brief report summarises proceedings and links to profiles and, where applicable, the various exemplars and expert input of participating practitioners.

Purpose
See here for an outline of the aims and intentions of the day and future dates

Overview
Participants convened at Bennett’s building, High Trenhouse for a 10am start. Brief introductions were followed by a series of presentations from LVT Practitioners, each followed by a review with the intention of peer appraisal, consolidating learning and surfacing links and parallels across sectors and domains. There was a terrific, informal and mutually appreciative atmosphere and a real flow and momentum to the day, starting off with a hands-on interactive session run by John McKellar, Director of East Cleveland Education Action Zone and ending with an expert input from Lead Practitioner Anthony Blake.

Reviews
Review points were noted according to a loosely structured PMI framework –
1) what was good
2) scope for development
3) ideas, connections, parallels. An LVT board was used to cumulatively gather the feedback points, as raw material for subsequent exploration/development by interested participants. Click here for a Visual Concept model. If you want to post back any developments/insights arising then please do so!

Inputs
Participants were requested to prepare in advance either a 50minute interactive session or a 15 minute presentation that evidenced their application and learning with LVT. Here is the running order, with each presenter’s name being linked to their LVT profile where available, and further links to summaries of their inputs, again where available.

John McKellar
John had a 50 minute slot in which he first talked us through the needs in Primary Education and the fit of LVT and the thinking skills agenda, with the aid of a simple mind map. We then participated in a classroom exercise which cleverly dovetailed the development of collaborative skills, thinking skills and surfacing of questions of choice and values with analysis of narrative. The review drew out insights about the pathways from the concrete to the abstract and the scope to extend from LVT into, for example, a Community of Enquiry; the cross-sector generics of creative process and the universal importance of Talk and Story.

Laurie Prowse
Laurie talked us through some examples of questions he poses teachers in order to give them hands-on experience in using LVT, and some simple lesson starters and ender’s that he gives them so they have practical ideas of use that develops their confidence. The review surfaced insights into how elements of process can be used in isolation, and questions around the importance of rigour in conveying and building meaning.

Jan Crabtree
Jan presented the process by which she evolved a course design with an internal client using Visual Concept software. Jan emphasised the value she got from using colour to badge differentiations in the type of ideas gathered before clustering. The example illustrated the amazing clarity often achieved with LVT, and stimulated some really interesting discussion about differentiation/categorisation as a pre-cursor to clustering. See Jan's Innovation Accelerator PowerPoint

John Thacker
John shared a process he developed and facilitated for a team review day in which LVT was used for appreciative enquiry and SWOT analysis. The review discussion reiterated the earlier point about using elements of process, not being constrained by rules, the value of organising structures (visual tools) for constructing and sharing meaning and the scope for discovering and exploring patterns and new meanings within them.

Christopher Varley
Chris shared a workshop process used to engage a variety of stakeholders with often conflicting agenda in agreeing priorities and actions. The example used was for the preservation of heritage sites, and illustrated how much could be achieved using tight processes and pace. The review emphasised the distinction between pace and speed, and stimulated some discussion around transferability of process to larger groups and the factors that needed to be catered for in so doing.

Chris Heathcote
Whilst Chris didn’t share an actually example of his use of LVT he initiated an interested discussion on risk, ownership and responsibility. This centred on a scenario of an organisation merging immensely complex information systems, and the need to take the plunge in terms of leading change in a risk-averse culture. The distinction between the leadership of process and the responsibility for content and outcome was a useful one.

John Varney
John shared two exemplars. One illustrated how, in an open forum, he had got a large group engaged in storytelling and dialogue from a ring composition. The other was more of a downstream strategic planning review with a large senior management team, using a market plaza style carousel of presentations, referred to as ‘jigsawing’ in the world of education. The reviews of these inputs drew parallels with education and the universal value of structure, story and emotion in learning and Knowledge Management.

Anthony Blake
Tony provided an extended expert input on aspects of LVT process and how each can be extended and further enable its own specific mode of thinking. Tony drew references from a recent interaction with a learning group exploring feelings about death, and engaged participants in a more considered and structured process for forming clusters.

Wrap up
The event closed with a similarly conducted review of the event itself, which concluded that the format and pace of the day had been really excellent, and that it would be best not to be any more prescriptive about it.

Comments in correspondence in the 24hrs since have been:

thanks for an enjoyable day yesterday - a very fine bunch of people!

Many thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating day. Please convey my thanks to all the team that made it possible.

I can say, without any second thoughts that I came away with "my batteries recharged for LVT" and some interesting thoughts about how to use LVT to develop some business.

Well done; what a great meeting.

I think the general consensus was that every one had a very productive and enjoyable day so thanks for the efforts of all your team.

As before, time seems to evaporate at these occasions.