Morda Training Day Notes

9/10th Sept 2021

Workshop – creating a context

Steps:

• Helen invited into full role – puts on the gloves and then stands hands on hips, looking into the distance, head to one side. 
• “If I was to say to you this is a photograph on the front page of the Financial Times.” (Convention)
• “Who might be the readers – the bankers – thinking?”
• “What they read underneath the photo is, ‘Woman inherits Maclean fortune.” 
• “You do realise what this means, the Clay family has got one of the biggest tracks of land in Scotland.”
• “If you were a banker, what are the implications a change like this would have? Of course we would all have connections with the Clay family.”
• Luke talks to Helen in full role: “Do you have any connections?” Role, “With the Saudis.”
• “If we put a foot wrong with the Saudis… She’s in charge now. If the Saudis go, would they make any difference to you?” – Implications.
• Helen talks… Luke stops her… talks to the bankers… Luke is operating as a go between… implications – oil, natural resources…”
• Luke asks the bankers to discuss their concerns about the change.
• “Can I ask, what the concerns of the banking community are?” Implications.
• Discussion.
• Luke brings Helen (role) back, “We have the banking community here with us… they have some questions… If you have any questions to our colleague here, from a banker’s view point.”
• Function of the role: “I want to get this place back to what it was… I want to introduce wolves.”
• Luke, “Let’s just stop it there.” Pause for discussion.

• “There must have been a moment when…” implications
• “Got come back for a sec…”

• “Somewhere in Canada there is a pack of wolves… can I ask you to find yourself looking through a pair of binoculars at these wolves.” [Enactive]
• “Can I ask you to point at where you are and say where you are… for example, I’m right next to a large rock and I’m…” [Symbolic, spoken]
• “Can I ask where you are now…?” Participants describe where they are.
• “Can I ask you to stand and imagine you are a wolf, looking at the humans, they are rather obvious… Find a place and represent a wolf…” [Enactive]
• Luke holds half of the room in role and takes the others out of the fiction to look at those representing the wolves.
• “What do you notice?” Observation.
• “I’m reading…” says Luke.
• “Here’s one…”
• “What have you heard about the humans? What experiences have you had that tells you to afraid of humans?”

• Question: “Who’s right and who is wrong? – the wolves or the people? [Reflection]

• “Could you just stand up for a moment.”
• “Just for a moment think about what job you would like to do on the estate.” [Point of view, developing the context].
• “Position yourself somewhere in the room where you would like to work.” [Just stand, not enactive]
• “I’m just going to ask where we are at the moment.” Luke goes round the room asking what people do on the estate.
• “Talks to folk about their responsibilities. Any concerns…” [Building engagement]
• “Could you sketch out a quick map?” [Dramatic mapping; if it was drawn it would be Iconic]

• Ask Helen, “Have you got your gloves on?” [Brings the role back].
• “Who would you expect to be mentioned in the will? Is there anyone in this room that would expect to get something?” [Tension] [Investment]
• “You will all, I suspect, be hoping for something… the solicitor is on his way up the drive.” [Narrator’s voice]
• “If you could, staying in the role you are currently in, just bump into someone… have a little natter… ‘I don’t think he would ever think of me’… Are you ready, just for a second or two… off you go”
• Participants in role, talking to one another. [Convention 1]
• “Could someone tell us about the family history.” Rumours about the daughter…
• “Can I just ask the tenants if they are worried?”

• “Let’s have a think about the room where the will is going to be read… I’m going to ask you to represent the room… you don’t have to be alive to be present… you could be a picture… or something else…” [Enactive] [Setting the scene]
• “Could you make yourself known. Are you past or present. We’ll just go round the room…”
• “I have the last will and testament of David Maclean…” [Full Role as the solicitor] “I bequeath everything to my daughter…” [Continue in Convention 1].
• Luke and Helen go off to the side.
• “You can have a conversation while we’re out of the room.” [Facilitator]
• “So, ladies and gentleman… can we hear from the portraits…” [Facilitator]
• “What about the photographs?” [Facilitator]
• “Any thoughts from others who are here?”
• “Did anyone pick up on that word wolf… anyone going to challenge her… let’s go back and reply that mention of wolves… this will be the first time the people in this room will have heard of wolves.” [Luke draws attention to a specific area of inquiry.]
• “And hold it there…” [Stopping the fiction]
• “How authentic are the responses here?” [Reflection]
• “Could you just find another partner… someone new… A = represents Helen trying to persuade (she’s in consultation mode); B = represents someone from the community. All the A’s come and gather round Helen and discuss a reasonable strategy. B’s gather round Luke. First of all what roles have we got here…”
• [Inquiry question] “Will the consultation make a difference? It’s about finding a way, it’s not about conflict…”
• “Where might this consultation happen?” [Location]
• “Could I ask the lands people to be somewhere in the room… Please just declare where you are at the moment… [Characters, location, event, time, tension].
• Participants discuss, in role.

• The magic of… “Could you just stand up for a moment… let’s go round… If magic is here where might it be seen… [Dramatic imagination] think of the landscape, where is the magic? People might say, “the magic of…” [symbolic… like a poem] [the representation of magic thru language].

• “So this morning there is a job to be done… and the job is to collect a whole load of wild animals from another part of the world and release them into the wild. So, I’d like to ask you what kind of people do we need for this sort of job… we’ll just go round the circle and hear what kind of people they are… People who…” [the generation of the Team]
• “People who have experience and training of tracking animals…”
• “What might the team in Scotland be worried about the wolves coming over?” [Inquiry: developing potential tensions]

• “Have you had any thoughts about the sort of person you would like to represent from this team? Remember these are the sort of people we need for this team? If you wouldn’t mind, I’m going to ask you to represent yourself in a five second video… This is where the job was both exciting and dangerous… represent a five second video… on your own… no one is going to be staring at you…” [protecting people in; convention 2: video]
• “Could you take up an initial position, somewhere in the room… start your five seconds video… now. Keep going, it keeps repeating and repeating…”
• “Right, thank you. Would you mind getting with two other people… your two colleagues are going to decipher what qualities we need… not ‘what are they doing’. [Dramatic – enactive mode]

• “Could you just put your notebooks down… I’d just like to give you a glimpse on the horizon… How she created tasks… seven point scale of tasks… 1. The task is to view significant objects on the floor; 2. purpose to draw people into a fiction; 3. Activity – to discuss how these objects are connected; 4. Devices – for example, a ‘reveal’; 5. Resources – objects: gloves; 6. Demands – imagine, make connections, observe, etc; 7. Outcomes – we met the role, and learnt about her place in the story.