Tag: Museum Of London


100 Days Of Awe: Day Ninety – Rats

Day 90: RatsIMAG5148

I love dis great polluted place
Where pop stars come to live their dreams
Here ravers come for drum and bass
And politicians plan their schemes,
The music of the world is here
Dis city can play any song
They came to here from everywhere
Tis they that made dis city strong.

Benjamin Zephenia – The London Breed 1998

I first came across the Musuem Of London a few weeks ago when I attended a workshop on story called Stories in Action workshop.   This short visit was a tantalising taster and I wanted to see more.   Back in the East End today I only had about 45 minutes between one meeting in Bethnal Green and a train to a late lunch in Twickenham but it was enough to take a very brisk way through 450,000 years of history from London Before London, through to Modern London.  Each of the Permanent Galleries are wonderfully curated full of educational facts, curious artifacts and creative displays that capture the imagination.  I weave my way through little people, in school groups or in families. For a museum it is alive with cacophony of squeals and excited voices rather than the floating silence of dusty archives.  And then there were the rats, where I least expected it in The British Fashion Council’s exhibit NEWGEN MEN – a sponsorship scheme. Featuring work by Agi and Sam, Astrid Andersen, Alex Mullins, Diego Vanassibara, Kit Neale and Matthew Miller.  It was Kit Neale’s work that got me to look again.  Yes there were rats everywhere. An intentional homage to London; Peckham and the largely run down and dated Elephant & Castle.  Food for thought if not for lunch.

Agi & Sam, Astrid Andersen, Alex Mullins, Diego Vanassibara, Kit Neale and Matthew Miller. – See more at: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/newgen-men-2014/#sthash.TesMc1I2.dpuf

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you or your business please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

Stories In Action

Stories In Action

IMAG4945On June 10th I attended Stories In Action hosted by SparkNow at the Museum Of London – a bit of a hidden gem tucked away on London Wall.  I heard about the event via The Gurteen Knowledge Letter one of the first newsletters I ever signed up to.  David Gurteen is a freelance Knowledge Manger and coach, ex International Czar for Lotus in the 1980s, founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community and creator of the Knowledge Cafe.  He is passionate about the place of conversation in the workplace and it’s effect and impact on knowledge, how it is used and interpreted and what becomes of it so it was no surprise to see the SparkNow event listed on his newsletter.

You might guess from reading my blog that I am a bit of a storyteller.  It is also a very important element of the coaching and mentoring work I do.  I find that when people are guided into the story telling space; boundaries disappear, true heart desires emerge and unique creativity is displayed as we all join the dots in different ways.  The Sparknow pitch drew me in ‘Stories aren’t just for kids.  They have a powerful role to play in organisations as a source of insight, as a vehicle for sharing knowledge, as a way of generating energy and enthusiasm, as a means of engagement’ and their invitation sealed my fate  – ‘We’d love you to participate in something that will be part experience, part challenge, part exploration, part instruction – whatever we make of it together‘.  This was a ticketed event but with an option to donate the decision to attend was an easy one to make.

It is no small challenge to bring together a disparate group of people to engage and explore but the choice to hold the event at the Museum Of London was inspired.  The Museum had engaged Sparknow to work with Caroline MacDonald and Georgina Young of the curation staff, to develop a new content creation framework.  This case study was the thread that joined all the strands of this presentation together.  I loved the registration panel; no need for a desk or staff you just looked for your name on the brown paper grid on the wall, ticked that you were present and wrote up your own badge.  Brown paper was the order of the day from the origami orientation booklets to table clothes that begged to be covered in questions, quips, comments and wisecracks. No time was lost getting the eighty or so participants conversing with a North, South, East & West ice breaker and this engagement was further enhanced by the creation of six different streams of organisational story telling of thirty minutes each.  We could pick to attend three out of the six streams on offer.  It is amazing how it concentrates the mind to choose.  All of the pitches were intriguing but in the end I opted for Philip Gibson‘s Quality of Mind, Iain Christie’s Listening Stories Out Of People and Fiona Hiscock’s Weaving Patterns From Hidden Threads.

Quality Of Mind: People learn by thinking for themselves’ ~ Philip Gibson.  A fascinating presentation on the use of stories to heighten awareness and change behaviours at a global manufacturer.  People become inured and immune in some way to pronoucements from on high not matter how carefully extolled.  By collating stories from across the business anonymous scenarios could be created for dissemination. Framing up these scenarios around discussion of open ended questions led to  quality behaviours becoming more integrated and embodied.

Listening Stories Out Of People: Iain Christie is a curious combination of Barrister, mediator and actor.  I couldn’t think of anyone better to put together this oral history project of the The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the four inns of court which have existed since the 14th Century.  Hallowed ground indeed and it looks like the oral histories may be wrapped into into that hallowed space as the powers that be have had a change of heart about making these stories public; and that of course is a story in itself.  The snippets we heard were an insight into history and hearts; The Inner Temple may be trying to hide it’s feet of clay but what a shame to deny the World the human, humorous hearts that we heard on tape.

Weaving Patterns From Hidden Threads:  I love a bit of technology me and technology that collects and patternises (is that a real word?) stories I found fundamentally thrilling.  Ancedotes are the life blood of our lives, easy to relate and share; the grumpy bus driver, the helpful teenager who pushes your car out of the traffic, the next door neighbour who always needs that cup of sugar just when you are having visitors, the friendly doctor who makes whatever you were worried about not so terrifying.  SenseMaker(R), an app used to design story capture campaigns and track experience, demonstrates the powerful patterns that emerge from pulling stories together around a particular theme.  Understanding patterns is a first step to directing change; is the grumpy bus driver just one individual or is it an endemic problem, is the helpful teenager a rarity or confined to particular areas, how can doctors become more friendly and able to put people at ease?  This is a great app just waiting for people to develop some uses.  Far more fun to engage with than the traditional dry crusts of the questions and answer surveys that are currently doing the rounds.

The finale of the event was to decide which of the streams would receive seed funding raised through the day’s ticket sales to pursue further research.  For a change of scene we convened to the Modern London section of the museum with Mary Quant, Doctor Martins and a bit of The Savoy for the vote.  The question raised by The Museum Of Lies stream, which I did not attend, won the election with the question ‘How can lies and curating lies shift thinking in the boardroom?’  On that note we repaired to the London Wall Kitchen & Bar for a civilised couple of glasses and some more of that never ending stuff called conversation.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you or your business please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

100 Days Of Awe: Day Eighty One – The Toilet Of Myopia

Day 81: The Toilet Of Myopia

IMAG4954Even The Toilets Tell Stories At The Museum Of London

Life is always life.  Ebbing and flowing, cluttered-clotted atoms, milling and bouncing, ever expanding.  Billions and billions of multi-coloured fragments of life crowding around us so I suppose it is no surprise that I can get trapped in the detritus of dark, scowling, scummy, eddies of stuff.

Monday was a slow, muggy day with a slam up against the wall before bedtime, Tuesday had an excited Jimney Cricket zest for life with a gentle, cruisey cushion of an end to the day.  By wednesday the pendulum had swung back around and my day became magnetised around the email that told me that I hadn’t got the job I was interviewed for on Monday; plunging me back into the toilet of myopia, gazing up into the bottom crack of twisted bitter self.  I struggle to extricate myself to be the observer, in fact I didn’t make it, like a spider trying fruitlessly to get traction on the sheer ceramic sides I just kept slipping back and getting more and more frantic and wound up. Everything I touched kept reflecting where I wasn’t; webinars about the gifts I wasn’t using, newsletters about the things I wasn’t doing to make money, even yoga turned out to be a standoff with a belligerent bunch of OAPs.

By the end of the day Thursday’s commitments began to crowd in on me; I had another interview and had a packed diary of trips to make best use of my daily travel pass.  I had to realise that whatever about my casual meetings my commitment to travel across London to see a friend just out of hospital would be a disaster in my current state of mind.  Stuck in the commitment of it rather than the joy I knew cancelling my trip was the best decision but I felt pretty crap about being a wimp to my emotional state.  My friend was beautifully magnamous assuring me she was having plenty of visitors and somehow I was slowly hoisted up to the lavatory seat.  I realise now that deliberately choosing to fail at this one thing resurrected me to the bigger picture of life.  Instead of fussing about my day ahead, making sure that I could demonstrate that I had read and researched for my interview, checking out suggestions for lunch, planning precise timings and details I decided that the most important thing was to be comfortable and rested.  Somehow I managed to creep to bed frayed but calm, raw but surrendered.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

100 Days Of Awe: Day Eighty – Yesterday Is So Far Away

Day 80: Yesterday Is So Far Away

IMAG4932Dog Rose, Wormwood Scrubs

There is a magic in sleep.  A reboot of the mind, a memory clear out, a releasing of resources back into the resource pool and a termination of background processes. I woke early and surprisingly bright, I could swear that I had Jimney Cricket tapping away excitedly at my should insisting that I get up to meet the day before it came and found me.  This started at 7am.  I managed to resist for 30 mins before I arose to stretch into the morning.  What a delight, a wonderful two hours of connecting with myself and connecting with my intuitive practise before strolling on the scrubs taking time for the dog roses and dawdling before forfeiting yoga for an afternoon at the Museum of London.

I had never heard of this museum despite working for a year or more withing striking distance of it on London Wall.  An event from Sparknow, the knowledge and communication consultancy, titled Stories In Action caught my attention in a recent newsletter.  I think of myself as a story teller both in the traditional sense of the word, loving the telling and sharing of ancedotes and vignettes, but also as an intuitive coach and practioner stories are the access point to truth.  I was curious to see how stories are being used in the corporate world and who these other story tellers were.  It was one of the most delightful of days, warm and welcoming and London unfolded to meet me.  The museum is walled away in the centre of a roundabout, a mini Universe dedicated to the story of London and it’s people.  Sparknow worked with the Museum to use story to elicit their content framework priorities and this case study was a core component of the event but not the only one.  There was rich layering of strands that we chose to participate in, engaging, clever and informative and shortly to be the subject of a separate blog.  It was a new audience for me, not only because I didn’t know anyone but also because the texture was unfamiliar – it was corporate, clued-in, stylish, creative, sauve and relaxed.  People stood tall and straight, were open and engaging.  I am aware that we receive what we reflect to the world and it did strike me that perhaps the change is in me not in the world around me.  Wine afterwards in the London Wall Bar & Kitchen was considered and generous.  Conversation ranged from the Appalachian Trail with the author of To The Woods, to a Jon Pawson barn conversion, memories of Crouch End, the John Deakin exhibition at The Photographer’s gallery, stories of the Inner Temple, mediation and a bit of business chatter.  Eclectic, curious and delightful indeed.  Yesterday is so far away.

tells the story of the world’s greatest city and its people. It cares for more than two million objects in its collections and attracts over 400,000 visitors per year. It holds the largest archaeological archive in Europe. – See more at: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/corporate/about-us/who-are-we/#sthash.7mBmGQOV.dpuf
The Museum of London tells the story of the world’s greatest city and its people. It cares for more than two million objects in its collections and attracts over 400,000 visitors per year. It holds the largest archaeological archive in Europe. – See more at: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/corporate/about-us/who-are-we/#sthash.aeWiQq3H.dpuf
The Museum of London tells the story of the world’s greatest city and its people. It cares for more than two million objects in its collections and attracts over 400,000 visitors per year. It holds the largest archaeological archive in Europe. – See more at: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/corporate/about-us/who-are-we/#sthash.aeWiQq3H.dpuf

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.