A colleague sent me a message today with this story at the end 'to make you smile' he said and it did indeed make me smile. In Edinburgh, this last week, it feels like autumn and summer has ended. With the darker evenings, the autumnal feel to the air and the ending of the Festival fun, a certain gloom is in the air and on people's faces. My colleagues story was timely and I notice that communications and people who make me smile are more likely to be read/listened to. I hope this makes you smile:

A nice variant on the hot air balloon joke.

A man in a hot air balloon, realising he was lost, reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended further and shouted to the lady, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees latitude north and between 59 and 60 degrees longitude west."

"You must be in IT," said the balloonist.

"Actually, I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct but I've no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, in fact you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know that?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's all my fault

As the wind gusts in Edinburgh today, mild tho' it is, I happen across some photos taken in the summer. They are of flowers and the garden at Inveresk Lodge, a NTS property in Musselburgh. A lovely peaceful spot where you can escape the crowds and pretend that you have just stepped out of the house to stroll around your garden. Many different plants to see, paths to wander,seats to rest in and contemplate.

Often when I ask people what they do to relax or switch off to the pressures of work/life, they tell me that they go out into the countryside. The natural world is a great gift to us and in many cases we have become remote from it.Our ancestors lived much closer to nature and I heard someone give a talk recently that suggested that mankind is designed for a hunter gatherer existence and has 'progressed/advanced' to where we are now. Read an interesting take on this in the book 'Mutant Message Down Under' by Marlo Morgan. A short and easy read wich is both relaxing and thought provoking.

I recall the TV series about 'Meet the natives' where a few members of a remote tribe visit England with great expectations and with viewers perhaps thinking "this will be a laugh-they are so primitive -how will they cope?" Of course the reality is that the so called 'natives' cope very well and the people who look uncomfortable are some of the ordinary folk around Britain whom they stay with or met on their travels. The natives are at ease with themselves and their surroundings and are of course very glad to get back home. Its interesting to note that when we are not at ease, dis ease can surface in many different ways physically and mentally. Ease, unease and disease are interesting words to ponder.

Remembering our roots and getting back in touch with nature and our environment can help in so many ways. Try it next time you feel anxious or stressed. If you cannot get out in nature, look at these pictures or indeed any images from nature and I am sure you will feel the better for it. It works for me and I hope it works for you. view images

It's beautiful Autumn morning here in Leith-cool but sunny. Beautiful light and great reflections in the water. On my usual walk to Newhaven Harbour, I also reflected on the months of September and October. What was the highlight of your September? For me it was the birthday celebration of a colleague and friend. I have not asked them, but I guess it featured people and a place dear to them. The celebration was a joyous affair, arranged with both planning and an allowance for serendipity.It was also arranged with generosity, with people invited to stay for as little or as long as they liked, our every need catered for. There was a bit of music and dancing which added that magical touch that music always does.

Everyone mucked in with the things that had to be done and a great time was had by all. It made me think. If I was planning a special celebration, where would I chose to have it? What place would I pick? Who would I invite? What would be planned and what would be left to chance? At the end of the celebration and our time together what would I hope that people were thinking,doing and feeling?

I came away refreshed, inspired, honoured to have been asked and included. I had fun and enjoyed talking to people from all walks of life, most of whom I had not met before, or if I had only briefly. I also noticed how we got to know each other as we lived, worked and played together. Everyone had made an effort to be there, some had travelled great distances and it worked.

I do hope my friend enjoyed the creation both in the imagination, the planning and the actuality. A great example of a participative, imaginative event which came from the heart. Who would you invite and where would it be? It helps us to focus on the people and places that mean most to us?

A1ong with a colleague Bliss Browne and with interest and support from the Scottish Centre for Regeneration, appreciative inquiry and other innovative positive processes were used to engage with the community in Pollok in Glasgow where we worked as partners with both the SCR and the Greater Pollok Development Company ( GPDC). Here is what the Chief Executive at that time John Watson said about the experience in March of this year( the work that we did took place between 2003/4) The questions I asked John are listed along with his replies.

Why did we adopt the AI approach?

There were a number of reasons that came together,

·GPDC had been set up to be different from the other 7 Local Development Companies although that did not last, so using AI after we had been made to merge and become more like the others enabled us to remain distinctive.

· A very committed and interested board member (Lesley Wilson made the connection with Margaret Wright and Bliss and took another board member and myself to Edinburgh airport to meet Bliss so we had a board champion as well as the executive. This really was very important, although I expect we would have still had a go, I think we had far more licence.

· I liked the approach as did Sandra Inrig who was my key person at Pollok. Imagine Scotland was crucial here. We liked it for the usual AI reasons.

·We also adopted it because we wanted to try and create a space in a very crowded initiative rich environment in order to try and work out what we were going to do, and also, because despite all the initiatives, there was no real vision for Pollok, adopting this approach allowed us space to develop and include people from the community in a very different way, so we were not seen as duplicating effort, although we were – from necessity.

· No one else had done it, (in Glasgow) so we could make it up as we went along – a great attraction!

· Margaret Wright, Bliss Browne, Lesley Wilson etc were great people to work with, and gave it momentum but also credibility, we were able to get Community Scotland funding for Pollok.

What Difference did it make??

Compared to a more conventional approach it gave us

· Fun

· A very distinctive approach

· It included staff from the merged organization in a way that helped develop the new organisation as being distinctive from the two merged ones

· It enabled us to have conversations which have remained as powerful board member memories, Lesley ran a number of exercises with board members, she says that one of the most memorable conversations she has ever had was when she had an appreciative conversation with the then chair. This helped the board come together more quickly (I suspect)

· A 5-10 year view of Pollok and its future which was much more optimistic than a shorter 3 year timeframe more conventional SWAT exercise would have given. I would love to use SOAR.

· Local councillors who were able to speak about Pollok in new ways, One of them stood up at a public meeting and waxed lyrically about the area and said that this had been prompted by the GPDC work.

Notes: Imagine Scotland was a large scale gathering held in Edinburgh in April 2003 where Bliss and Margaret partnered with the Scottish Civic Forum to create a participative event where people from all walks of life shared their views of the Scotland they wanted to see and to live in in the future.

SWAT- a technique that looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organisation.

SOAR the appreciative way of looking at strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results for an organisation.

A lot of the people and organisations, e.g. GPDC, SIP, Community Forum have changed over time since we did this work but the community are still there and we did lots of work with them in a series of events which all used the appreciative mind set so many seeds have been sown.