EDITORIAL

WELCOME to the second edition of 'Zed template, a magazine for facilitators". It was great to hear feedback from so many of you who received the pilot edition, which has encouraged this venture to continue and begin to take up your suggestions of how to enable this e-zine to be relevant to the world of facilitation.

As a result of your feedback, this edition is more global and broad in scope, yet maintains the journey into the creative which characterises the "zed template", a term first coined by Beck & Cowan (2004) to talk about the think tank of enlightened organisations or groups where there is freedom to "scan a large horizon for developing trends".  It is hoped that "zed template" will become ever more broad and global with each edition as it evolves in a generative way.

This edition has a focus around facilitative leadership and features contributions from facilitators:

* writing about events in Malaysia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia
* book reviews
* on-line facilitation techniques
* facilitation toolbox
* interesting and informative web-links in the world of facilitation.

So, I invite you to enjoy the second edition of "Zed template, a magazine for facilitators" and:

* hear from a diversity of facilitators,
* be refreshed by a highly creative environment
* experience reflective time in the dromenon, where there are no dead ends,only shifts in direction to and from the centre.

Joan Firkins, September, 2007

Warm thanks to James for enabling this state-of-the art production.

"Zed template, a magazine for facilitators" is a free service provided by "Facilitation Works."

"Enlightened organisations seek out their spiral wizards, protect them from dress codes, political games and bureaucratic constraints and allow them to scan a large horizon for developing trends. This constitutes the think tank for an organisation, what he later calls the Z template - X template involves the work that a company does, Y template are those people who can... encourage, and support the X template -- managers in the old sense." 

Z template folks can be encouraged with highly creative environments such as the:
* wild duck pond, where nonconformists can swim and
* play field, a loose and creative environment where teams wrestle with tough challenges.

Don Beck and Christopher Cowan. (2004). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering values, leadership, and change. Oxford: Blackwell. Excerpt from a summary paper by Steve Dinan, Esalen Institute based on Beck and Cowan's work, initiated by Clare W. Graves.