Draft Itinerary

I'm starting to flesh out my trip to the USA and Canada. The big undecided question is whether to go to an amazing sounding course at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Called 'Creating Collaborative Solutions: Innovations in Governance' it's as if it has been named for my fellowship and I can hear its siren call. And that all depends on whether I can bring myself to spend the £4000 for a week of intensive tuition and full-board.

So, if I don't go to Harvard, I'm planning to go to (at least) Washington, New York and Ottawa between 4 October and 26 October. Then come back to the UK to see my gorgeous children and relieve my (equally gorgeous) husband for a couple of weeks. Then I'll return, this time to New Mexico and California, between 14 November and 3 December.

India beckons too. Hopefully next February.

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust are making all this travel possible. If you're tempted to apply for a fellowship for 2011-12, the deadline's not til September. Check out their website.

Powerpoint isn't systemic?

At a workshop a couple of weeks ago, a colleague presented his recent reflections on learning about systems thinking, as a mindmap, rather than in a Powerpoint slide show. He said that he didn't like powerpoint because it was too linear. We zoomed around his mindmap seeing how different themes were connected. We learnt just as much about what he had been doing to promote systems thinking that way as any other. For me it felt less 'reduced', richer and more complex. Seeing this post on Linda Booth Sweeney's blog, therefore, struck a chord. I like Ms Booth Sweeney's argument that it's the author rather than the software who is key. "We agree with you that problem solving requires a focus on interconnections, rather than on parts in isolation."

I love NY

A colleague has put me in touch with some folk at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and they have been SO helpful in helping me track down some collaborations in the NY area to visit when I make it to NY in October. It's so energising.