[Dialogue] Question about Imaginal Education these days

[Lawrence Philbrook via Dialogue]

I did a workshop over the weekend on a process called Service Design which is creative process for helping an individual or group invent or innovate a new service.  There were 5 from the library and 11 students and professors from the Service Design Institute 

I used imaginal education in a new way for me which was not as a change process but as an assessment /perception process.  What are the images, values, beliefs, or assumptions that are affecting the way I am approaching this Service Design Topic?

Then I asked them to approach this individually from four perspectives
1) What question am I listening for?
Evelyn usually listens for why and I listen for what needs to be done.  Both are great questions but being aware that I am tending to focus is helpful

2) What images, values, beliefs, or assumptions are affecting the approach to our topic?
In yesterdays session the topics were related to a university library and so I mentioned my image when I came was of big stacks of books yet the first floor of their library was open and airy mostly chairs or couches with some tables with computers or just open for individuals or teams.

3) What images, values, beliefs, or assumptions are affecting your participation in our approach?
Some people had done these processes before and had experience that could be shared, could be a screen of goodness or badness, or perhaps a block or support to being here and now.

4) What images, values, beliefs, or assumptions are affecting your role in this?
We had a professor in the group the first day who obviously needed to be the professor so when questions were asked she would answer.  She was knowledgeable and it was helpful but it also affected the rest of her teams view of their task, their own roles and their options for participation

Our purpose in this exercise was to raise to consciuosness first for individuals and then the teams and the group a deeper perspective on our reality and our perception of reality.

In a longer design process we would look at ways to challenge or use these diverse viewpoints.  As it was we used them as a way for a team to help themselves check their statement of the challenge to make sure they were using the gifts they had and not being too limited by to the barriers.

With respect, Larry