Facilitating Breakthrough with Adam Kahane

Today I talk with Adam Kahane, a Director at Reos Partners. Reos is an international social enterprise that helps people move forward together on their most important and intractable issues. Adam has over 30 years of experience facilitating breakthroughs at the highest levels in government and society. His own breakthrough facilitation moment came with an invitation to host the Mont Fleur Scenario Planning Exercises he facilitated in 1990s South Africa at the dawn of that country's transition towards democracy and the twilight of apartheid.

He's gone on to facilitate conversations about ending civil wars, transforming the food system, and pretty much everything else in between.

He's also amazingly open and honest about his growth and transformation as a facilitator, and his own failings along the way. It's encouraging to hear him talk about feeling a little like a cobbler without shoes. Shouldn't a breakthrough facilitator be able to facilitate the conflicts in their own lives with the same ease? It turns out, it's not that simple.

Adam is also honest and open about how he looks back at his past books and sees them as not just incomplete, but sometimes dangerously incomplete. So, read Power and Love, Collaborating with the Enemy,Transformative Scenario Planning and Solving Tough problems (all amazing books) with a grain of salt while you wait for Adam's 2021 book, Facilitating Breakthrough, to come out. It's all about 5 key pairs of polarities in transformational, collaborative work and it's an eye-opener.

I've had the opportunity to read a draft copy of the book and I'm really excited for you all to read it and learn about how to, as Adam says, "Fluidly" navigate these polarities in your own transformational work.

Just a side note: The opening quote for this episode is actually two quotes that I'm juxtaposing. I loved this simple summary of the book as a fluid navigation of polarities alongside the sentiment that the only action you can take is your next one. You make a choice, and see what happens. Designing conversations can become as static and dangerously waterfall as any old-school product design team's backlog. Being agile and responsive in the moment requires clarity on your core values and principles...and Adam's book and ideas can help us develop our own core north stars as we navigate complex and collaborative change.

Learn more about Adam's work at www.reospartners.com , www.reospartners.com/adamkahane and find him on twitter at @adamkahane.

Head over to the conversationfactory.com/listen for full episode transcripts, links, show notes and more key quotes and ideas. You can also head over there and become a monthly supporter of the show for as little as $8 a month. You'll get complimentary access to exclusive workshops and resources that I only share with this circle of facilitators and leaders.

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Links

Learn more about Adam's work at www.reospartners.com and www.reospartners.com/adamkahane

Find him on twitter at @adamkahane.

Talks by Adam:

Adam Kahane at Ci2012 - "Transformative Scenario Planning"

Power and Love: Adam Kahane at TEDxNavigli

How To Change the Future - Adam Kahane

Polarity Management by Barry Johnson

Adam's Father's Favorite Book: Science and Sanity

Barry Johnson's work, which provided a foundation form Adam's new book: Polarity Management