Victoria Ward

Reflections and ideas from a veteran of many culture-change wars. If you are trying to make the best of the 21st century, there is probably something here to help.

The virtues of a virtual leader

How do you lead (at every level of leading) a collaborative workplace in which power is widely distributed, and which is both productive and profound in the way it honours, encourages and demands interdependence and relationship as the vital energy of the organisation?…

Space to place new steps of change

An active hosting presence is vital in collaborative workspaces, even if it's a quiet background presence. Attention to the edges of the space and the thresholds into and out of spaces can help configure a collaborative workspace.…

The Big Sad Wolf

Here's an article that appeared in the National Storytelling Network's Storyteller magazine in the autum of 2019.…

Building a mindful infrastructure

These notes come from a conference about ‘Mindful Change in Times of Permanent Reorganization’ held in Germany in 2012.…

Go reconfigure

The LEF report 'Reconfiguring the collaborative workspace: making the most of time, space and attitude' is now published.…

Some work

Picked from work and projects since 1 November 1997. Last updated December 2019. Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC). Five year partnerships to explore storytelling as a vehicle for the transfer…

Scaffolding a place in which to collaborate

This article comes from a case study of working with the faculty in an academic institution over the summer of 2017, to help shape a manual to embed shared principles. This work…

Cultural excavations

Notes from a conversation with Lisa Hirsch about cultural assessment. First published in 2013. I first met Lisa in 2006 in at the International Storytelling Centre in Tennessee. I treasure her handout…

Following the story

'Stories from behind the scenes' tracked a profile group as part of an evaluation in 2013. Here's an inside design look. Thinking about Story the Future and the ILO Knowledge Academy I'm…

Where it begun realy

'I dont think it makes no diffrents where you start the telling of a thing. You never know where it begun realy.' Photo by Fancycrave on UnsplashThe opening quote is from…

All reports are interfaces

First published on the Sparknow blog in 2004. Editorial note. The projects being referred to are the EBRD information audit from 1999, the DTI 'Friendly Audit' and the SDC development of a…

'One great symbiotic association'

This note arises from reading 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers (2018), combined with conversation with a friend who is working on a tree disease research project. The collective power of a 'dizzy…

The rigorous humility of confusion

'A lightness in the way we hold thoughts gives us room to learn and shift perspective, and to keep a rigorous humility of confusion.' I've been reading Nora Bateson (grand daughter…