Mark Holmgren, CEO of the Bissell Centre, will deliver the Saturday AMA Conference 2015 Keynote Address on Upside Down Thinking. This method of thinking utilizes unconventional propositions to force us to redefine how we think and how we see our organizations. In anticipation of his upcoming keynote presentation, David Ridley, Executive Director for the Edmonton Heritage Council, met with Mark to discuss his work with Upside Down Thinking. Click here to read Part One of this interview.
DR: Some of these premises
that have emerged from your thinking are provocative and intended to prod
thinking. But there’s also a potentially demoralizing truth for those committed
to the work. The museum sector, when we’re being honest about it, has its own
counter-intuitive realizations that point to less than desirable results. How
does one go about Upside Down Thinking without hitting a personal or
organizational dead end?
MH: We have a lot of people in a lot of organizations that are
already demoralized. It varies depending on what field you’re in, but all of
the pressures of non-profit sector are no different: resources, talk about
transformation, and the need to reinvent ourselves. A good number of people are
already wondering - what is so wrong with what we are doing? For me, I am looking for tools to help people wrestle
with that. A series of wicked questions would help other people develop
dialogue strategies. Dialogue has a structure to it - it’s not just
communicating. So I’m really into how to develop tools to help people have
those difficult conversations.
