My grandmother made fabulous cakes and cookies. Her recipes were mostly in her head. Some were written down, yet difficult for the novice to translate: “In the oven for 20 minutes” didn’t include the temperature, which she just knew. Such is the depth of her tacit knowledge about baking – I had to be in the kitchen to learn from her. Sometimes I had the chance to write my own instructions of what she did and said, so now the recipe exists long past her death and I can easily share it with others. Some recipes are still part of my personal collection of favourite things to bake.
Professionally I recognise the value of the recipe meme. In many sessions or programs I facilitate, I often need a good activity that fits a particular need and context. Over time I have amassed a collection of documented activities – things I’ve learnt from others; things I’ve created and tested myself; and things I created or adapted that I’d like to try when I have scope to be experimental or playful. Some of my recipes get written up after the fact because others liked what I did and would like a reasonable chance of copying it effectively. An example is the ‘Fly Away’ recipe for an activity I created and delivered for a Go-Live staff engagement.
Here’s a new recipe below that is waiting in the wings to be used. You can see the format which you might use to document your own professional recipes (aka Activities). I’m still working on what is the best format – however the essence is Why do this (Purpose/Intention/Objective), How to do this (Method), What I need to do this (Ingredients or Resources), How long it takes to do this (Time), and Where to do this (Context) plus any other useful things to know (Key Factors, Tips).
Wishing you good cooking!
Photo Portfolio Competition
Application Context
- For a stakeholder engagement activity on a particular program or project
- Good for a group of people situated across dispersed locations
Intention
- Provide a fun creative way to gather and distribute knowledge about activities happening across the realm of the community, following a particular topic/theme.
- Provide a focal point for whole community participation in a common activity.
Key Factors
- Members can pair/group up to do this activity and submit a Pair/Group Submission.
- Competition is run for a defined and limited period of time, e.g. 2-3 months.
- Submissions follow a requested format for ease of digestion and peer-judging activity.
- Submissions are voted on by peers for the best submission, which wins a prize (e.g. $500 to a charity of their choice) and bragging rights.
- The IP of the Portfolio remains the property of the members who created it, unless where otherwise credit is attributed for the things photographed.
- This activity is a based on a method from Design Research, given various names like Photo Studies; Cultural Probe; or Photo Voice. The approach is to invite people to highlight and share what goes on in a particular context-of-interest with photos generated by prompts. The photos and explanations can be a powerful source of fresh insights for researchers (and practitioners).
Resources (aka Ingredients)
- Template + Details for Portfolio submission [1], [2]
- Web-page to post submitted Portfolios for all members to view
- Mechanism for members to vote on Portfolio submissions
- Competition Manager (to receive and post submissions; to run voting process; to publish results of voting process)
- News article on website to showcase the winning submission
- Champions to amplify news about the competition in their local network
Method
- Prepare the resources to launch the competition.
- Recruit champions to promote the competition in their own networks.
- Announce the competition to all members of the community.
- Post Submissions to website which all members can access.
- Announce the closure of submissions and commencement of voting.
- Collate voting results.
- Announce winner and distribute prize.
- Close the competition.
- Showcase the winning submission on website.
Tips
- Treat all submissions as survey/research input and harvest for fresh ideas for action. You don’t even need to tell people they were participating in a ‘survey’. A creative way to overcome the hurdles from “survey fatigue”.
- Members might do this as a fun team-development activity.
- Encourage members to forage for things not so obvious and thus create really diverse portfolios.
[1] Portfolio List – Some sample prompters
A series of photos (with accompanying text to explain choice) on:
- A billboard or poster that you think …
- A person you admire for …
- An initiative that would benefit from …
- A product or object that …
- Song lyrics or poem that inspires …
- A book or video that …
- A educational program that …
- An experience that …
- A moment in time when …
[2] Submission Requirements – Example
- A4 size (for printing)
- Landscape orientation for viewing on devices
- PDF for standardised viewing, created using provided PPT template
- Cover page that names all people who were involved in the creation of submission
Author
Helen Palmer is Founder and Principal Change Agent at Questo. Once described by a colleague as “gloriously eclectic”, Helen likes to mix delight and whimsy into very practical activities that attend to a range of human factors. What gets her jumping out of bed in the morning, is the opportunity to make a meaningful difference to a person’s life-at-work.
One response
I like your recipe meme blog! I have had similar interests e.g. Masters focussed on Change management,formerly a lecturer in Business/computing, human resource consultant, Dip Digital media, gardener, cofounder of a poetry group now 40 years old..