Hello. I just returned from the IAF North America Conference in Denver. We had almost 300 people attend the conference. It was wonderful to see friends who I get to see so seldom. One benefit of the IAF are the bonds and friendship you form with wonderful people from all over the world.
I was able to attend the conference sessions this year. For the past 3 years, I was so involved in either presenting or in chair responsibilities, that I didn’t get sufficient opportunity to attend sessions at the conference. This time, I took advantage of sessions. I attended sessions on listening, process modeling, strategic planning, and improvisation. As always, I was able to leave with exciting ideas and tips to help both my training and my facilitating. It’s always great to hear what others say and do and continue to remember that there are many ways to do something. Helen Wythe and Izzy Gessell gave me a ton of ideas to work with and I thank them very much. They both managed to get my head contemplating the many ideas that they presented.
If you haven’t attended an IAF Conference, you should plan to attend one. They are scheduled annually around the world with the next one in Bangalore, India in September.
This coming week, I’m off to Indianapolis, IN to speak at the Indianapolis DAMA (Data Administration Management Association) conference.
IAF North America Conference
April 18th, 2011 by Gary Rush, CPFThiagi Class
April 3rd, 2011 by Gary Rush, CPFWell, it’s been quite a while since I last posted. This winter has been an interesting one in many respects.
I just returned from a class with Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan. It was quite an experience. It was great to be on the student side of a class. Thiagi is all that he is purported to be. We had 26 attendees from 4 different countries – USA, Canada, Korea, and India – attend the class. Everyone was wonderful and very committed to the concept that engaged, interactive education is far better than old style long lectures. Believe me, there were no “wall flowers” in that group.
The class was completely interactive and we learned an amazing amount. I gained ideas about training games that can be translated into exercises to be used by group Facilitators along with ideas on how to design group facilitation exercises. This will become an integral part of my Advanced Class this fall – especially since I am now a Thiagi Certified Trainer.
Next week, I teach the first FoCuSeD Business Facilitator class in Chicago and then I’m off to Denver for the IAF North American Conference. I’ll let you know what I learn at the conference.
Winter Fun
January 17th, 2011 by Gary Rush, CPFHi Y’all,
It’s a New Year – I wish all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
I had the opportunity to teach The FoCuSeD Facilitator Academy at a client in Hartford, CT last week. The class went well, but I managed to schedule the class during the week when a record snow fall hit Hartford – the heaviest snow fall in over 100 years! I’m used to snow, living in Chicago, but because of the amount – over 2 feet – businesses were closed – including the client. Rather than lose a day, a Live Meeting was scheduled for the day. The students dialed in from their homes. I dialed in from the hotel. I was able to display the class slides over Live Meeting and we were able to conduct the class covering everything as if we were face-to-face, including exercises.
I prefer face-to-face – it’s easier to present when you have people reacting – but in a pinch, teaching the class over the Internet worked. Using an Internet meeting tool, such as Live Meeting or WebEx, makes a big difference. I could capture ideas on the shared notes, enabling everyone to view them. We were even able to develop workshop agendas for the client with everyone participating. As more and more companies embrace Work From Home and telecommuting concepts, we are all going to have to adjust. This class gave me an opportunity to try something new and learn from it.
PMI in Pittsburgh
October 27th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFOctober has been busy with presentations. I had the opportunity to fly to Pittsburgh to speak at the PMI Pittsburgh Chapter meeting on October 14th. Sean Rush, my son, a FoCuSeD Facilitator Academy Alumni, accompanied me to meet the people and continue developing his skills in project management, business analysis, and other areas relating to facilitation.
The session was well run by the PMI chapter. They have a quite a few members and they are dedicated to improving project management and the jobs of their members.
I spoke about Project Managers needing to be facilitative – use more Facilitator skills in managing projects. The response was positive. The audience understood how important the “soft” skills are that Facilitators bring. Incorporating these Facilitator skills into their project management practice will greatly enhance their project management abilities.
WI BADD – Wisconsin IIBA Conference Presentation
October 12th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFWell, it’s been a busy month. After returning from Nigeria, Millie and I took a well-deserved vacation in Puerto Rico.
We returned and drove to Madison, Wisconsin for the 2010 WI BADD (Business Analyst Development Day) conference. What a conference. Over 500 people attended – making it the largest BA event in the country and in a down economy. The organizers did a fabulous job – people like Roxanne Miller, Dave DeBruine, Nora Medina, and the others at the various Wisconsin IIBA Chapters should be commended for the work they put into this conference. It was well handled, contained many outstanding sessions, and went smoothly. We had our booth there to show Business Analysts that gaining facilitator skills will greatly enhance their analyst capabilities and their relationships with their clients.
I attended an excellent session by Barbara von Halle and Larry Goldberg regarding Decision Modeling. The decision model, along with a process model and a data model, completes the picture of a business. Capturing business logic – what the decision model does – is very helpful and makes good sense. I’m going to be investigating this further. You can check out the ideas at www.TheDecisionModel.com.
In the afternoon, I gave my presentation – actually facilitated a workshop – A FoCuSeD Business Analysis Workshop. Along the lines of the fishbowl session in April, I asked for volunteers to be participants in a workshop to define processes and data needs for Conference Attendee Management. I set up the situation, facilitated the volunteer participants (who did an outstanding job), and closed with questions from the audience regarding the workshop. It went very well (even though I had contracted Dengue Fever and was just beginning my bout with it – it isn’t contagious).
Gary facilitating the audience at WI BADD 2010
Next year, the conference is on October 11, 2011. If you are a BA or work with BAs, you should attend. I know I’ll be there 
.
FoCuSeD in Nigeria
September 21st, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFI traveled to Lagos, Nigeria on September 4th to teach two FoCuSeD Facilitator Academy classes back-to-back to the people at Chevron Nigeria. It was quite an experience.
The news media doesn’t do any justice to Nigeria. When I met my contact from Nigeria – Ephraim – I knew that it was going to be a pleasant visit. The company bus drove me the 21 miles from the airport to the hotel (taking 2 1/2 hours due to the traffic in Lagos). I arrived at my hotel late Sunday evening, rested, then got up on Monday to get ready for the class.
I had no idea what the students might expect of me. When the students arrived, I knew this was going to be an excellent class, and it was. The students from Chevron were outstanding. They were hard working, curious, and eager to learn. They read every page of the FoCuSeD Guide. Needless to say, all did a great job.
Here is the first group of FoCuSeD alumni (left to right): Ephraim, Funmi, Moses, Ikhuoria, Yemi, Heather, Uzo, Agun, Christy, Dami, me, Onyia, Ben, Rolake, and Nathan
Chevron Nigeria Class 1
Here is the second group of FoCuSeD alumni (left to right): Obinna, Daniel, Bunmi, Mimi, Tunji, Donatus, Ifeoma, Yomi, me, Bukky, and Wilson
Chevron Nigeria Class 2
They were kind enough to take me to a conservatory sponsored by Chevron that protects the plants and animals. No human interference is allowed. The animals are allowed to live in the wild and the jungle is allowed to remain natural. It’s quite amazing and a wonderful way to protect the wild life. Next time, I’ll wear the appropriate attire. Wearing a suit in the jungle was not a good idea .
Gary in the Jungle Tree House
All in all, this was a great experience. Traveling was long – 3 1/2 hours to drive the 21 miles back to the airport and 14 hours flying time with a 5-hour layover in Frankfurt, but worth it. I wish to thank everyone and I look forward to my return visit.
Ciao,
Gary
Data Modeling & Teleconferences
July 16th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFI just returned from facilitating a data model workshop. We’ve been working on this since January with three face-to-face workshops and interim teleconference workshops. It’s interesting that the client, who is very experienced with teleconferencing, felt that the face-to-face workshops were essential to the success of this effort. I agree. The teleconferences were beneficial and worked well in developing pieces of the model, but a model is very visual. Even with good Internet tools and the ability to view desktops, etc., the group needed to see the entire model (very large) and get up and move elements around – something you can’t do as well via a teleconference. So, while I support the use of teleconferences, and they work well when properly facilitated, there are still times when we need to get in a room together and work things out. It is still nice to connect with others by seeing them in person and chatting with them during breaks – face-to-face interaction is still key.
Community Outreach Award presented by Gary at IAF Conference
May 19th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFHello,
Here is a video of the Community Outreach Award that I presented to Gil Brenson-Lazan from South America. Gil has been a member of the IAF for many years and we’ve known each other since about 1995. This was a special award for Gil’s contributions. The award was accepted by Gil’s good friend and colleague, Lenny Diamond of Global Facilitators Service Corp (GFSC).
Ciao,
Gary
Data Modeling and IIBA
May 18th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFWell, the first week of May was busy. I spent two days in Miami facilitating a Data Modeling workshop. It was difficult but enjoyable. It’s always difficult because I find that Data Modeling really helps a business think through how they’ll manage their business – much more so than process modeling does. It forces the business to think through policies and scenarios more thoroughly. This one, in particular, was tough. It was the culmination of a 3-day workshop in January and two WebEx virtual workshops so the group was finishing the model. They are the type of participants who really think things through – which was great, but required a lot of pushing to get it done. What they ended up with was very good and well thought out. It is especially gratifying because the group had never worked with a Data Model before and was now fully engaged and supportive of the modeling technique. It’d be great if groups took this kind of ownership.
After facilitating the Data Modeling workshop for two days, I came home and then drove to Des Moines, Iowa to speak at an IIBA conference for the Central Iowa IIBA Chapter. I gave two presentations – one on Data Modeling (apparently a theme for the week) and a keynote presentation about why BA’s should be facilitative. The conference went well and was well managed. There were almost 200 attendees. I gave the Data Modeling presentation before lunch. It was well attended, the attendees enjoyed it, and I may have converted some to use Data Modeling more. My keynote presentation on why BA’s should be facilitative was at the end of the conference. It went very well and I think that we’ll see more BA’s using facilitative skills in the future. I have to thank the Central Iowa IIBA Chapter for putting on such an enjoyable conference.
IAF Conference in Chicago
April 28th, 2010 by Gary Rush, CPFHi,
Well, I spent last week at the IAF North America Conference in Chicago. It was a very busy week, but met a lot of people and accomplished a lot. It was also great to see people who I don’t get to see very often.
We had our board meeting on Monday and Saturday. It was a lot of work, but we managed to make some significant progress in transforming the association to position it for the future. I’ll add more as we make the information public.
I also had the opportunity to watch, participate, and facilitate in three “Fishbowl” sessions. This was a new concept this year – live action, real client, observed workshops.
Jo Nelson facilitated the Logan Square Neighborhood Association – 8 women from Logan Square in Chicago. They developed internal guidelines about how to conduct their meetings more effectively. It was interesting watching Jo – she has been facilitating for quite a number of years.
Gary Austin facilitated an “IAF Flipchart on the Future” – a workshop with 14 past and present board members developing ideas about how to make the association more relevant to organization who hire Facilitators. What made this special is that Gary was stuck in London because of the Iceland Volcano. He had to facilitate via Skype with Nadine Bell being his “avatar” in Chicago with Bernie Fredette and Tammy Adams being the mechanical parts to move the laptop so Gary could see and to hang flip charts. It went remarkably well – both the workshop and the last minute use of technology. It will become a pattern for future conferences. The ideas from the workshop were brought to the board and will be incorporated into our planning.
Then I facilitated the IIBA chapters from Wisconsin in developing a plan for their 2010 Business Analyst Development Day (WI BADD) in October. I had 15 participants (all business analysts) define the purpose, audience, expectations, tracks, and potential topics for the event. All this in 2 1/2 hours! It was quite a session and all enjoyed it. It was also the first time that my parents were able to watch me work. I also had Sean document and Alvaro and Millie watched with my parents – just a bit of pressure! I wouldn’t have missed it.
Well, off to continue working. By the way, if you have any old pictures you wish to share, please email them to me and I’ll post them on the blog .
Gary facilitating a Fishbowl Session
Gary's Family