Sheila James is a longstanding member of the Aberdeen group:
“I’ve enjoyed AMED in the past mainly for the local meetings which were always worth while. For me they were the spirit of AMED – a safe environment where people could say provocative and controversial things and really have their thinking challenged. Meetings were not always comfortable but made me think.
Not sure about the future and how things might develop for AMED. There might always be little pockets of like minded people who choose to meet (as we did) but with so many other sources of information available now, the journal might no longer have a market.”
Iain Graydon joined during a brief revival of the large group which ran for many years in the Central Belt.
Iain appreciated the AMED network, people with understanding of process work and group interaction. We had a “slightly sad conversation” a month or so ago, about what had been and might have been and he kindly offered a presentation he’d delivered in Stirling – more than a decade ago but just as relevant today and steeped in AMED spirit.
Positive Deviance describes an organic approach to change, based on identifying the creative outliers who have found novel solutions which are invisible to other members of their own community.
He also proposed a system of ‘Buddying‘ to make sure that new members were thoroughly enrolled and engaged so they didn’t drift away.
Like so many of us, Iain is easing towards retirement but still up for an interesting assignment, if you have one! People Development and Growth