Purchasing Coach: Advent Window 5: Blackout Poetry

25 unconventional coaching and facilitation tools to surprise and delight

Window 5: Blackout Poetry (using Frosty the Snowman)

Level of unconventionalness out of 10 = 8 (you've been warned)

NB: Conventional thinking and tools are likely to just give us more of what we've already got - which is OK if that's the outcome we're wanting. Otherwise a more unconventional means of accessing potential solutions might be helpful.

==============================

Process:

• Identify a situation you'd like more clarity on.
• Put it to the back of your mind.
• Print out or copy one page from a newspaper, magazine or a page of a book. 
• Blackout a majority of the words, leaving certain words that make 'sense' /'feel right' as a poem/prose.
• Reflect on the poem, and consider what insight it has to offer on the original situation.
• Identify any actions arising from this reflection - when will you take the first step?  
• NB: I went through 6 versions as I was too heavy handed with the black pen so copies allow for that. I also suspect starting with so few words limited my creativity - a whole page of print is much more helpful.

Festive/Holiday season example: 

The original page

My blacked out version

The Man

A soul with two eyes

Some magic placed on his head

And here, in the moment

Saying "again".

Which reminded me of the saying by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” 

A great reminder for me anyway that I need to be in the moment more, and connect with that inner Magic! 

As it's a very personal activity, I'd suggest you'd need to try it for yourself to understand the efficacy of the process. It's not something I get out of my toolkit very often.

=============================

Benefits: It's just a means of giving your left more logical side of your brain one thing to focus on, whilst allowing the more creative right brain to find a solution / insight that has been eluding you.

Uses: Coaching, Problem Solving, Creativity & Innovation

Participants: In 1:1 coaching or on your own as it's a very personal experience - I suspect if you tried to do it as a group/team it would remain at a very logic level (not that I've tried).


Alison Smith
Unlocking procurement potential - using conventional and unconventional tools
Procurement and Business Speaker, Coach, Trainer, & Facilitator
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159


Earlier in the year I applied some of the unconventional tools shared in this advent series to common procurement challenges - more here.