Scribing to help generate a network of attention in Zoom
In a Zoom-based practice group for Systemic Modelling, participant Kyoko Kusama pointed out that Zoom did not allow us to replicate the in-person experience of arranging our chairs in a circle. This circle arrangement is visualized and presented as a necessary condition in Caitlin Walker’s book From Contempt to Curiosity. What happens when the constraints of technology force us to do without it?
When the number of participants is relatively small, Zoom allows for one of the most often cited benefits of arranging chairs in a circle — visual access. Every participant can see every other participant. The headshot screen views are lined up grid style, and so they do not feel like a circle, but as long as the number of participants is small, all of the headshot screen views can be seen and they stay in fixed locations. For me personally, these fixed locations help me to remember what a person has said, and as long as those headshot views do not move, I do not feel a significant difference from sitting in chairs in a circle.
What I do notice in Zoom is that we do not have physical reinforcement of “the shape of the network of attention” that we are trying to create. Sitting in a circle encourages the generation of “a lovely star shaped network around the themes.” As shown in Caitlin’s book, the question / theme under consideration is understood to be placed in the center.
How do we get something going on “in the center” in Zoom? How do we “place” our question / theme there for joint attention and consideration?
After one of our online sessions, I created a visual based on the metaphors that had been shared. I wondered if something like this would “help” and I shared it in our group’s Slack channel asking for feedback. Zero response. I can guess at some reasons for this, but rather than do that, I can say that I personally could sense that this wasn’t Clean enough for the way that I was hoping it could be used. It was a doodle that helped me to remember and think, but all of the drawings were my own, and there were inconsistencies in whether I showed “the group as it is” or “the group as someone wanted it to be.” We had discussed both, and my drawings mixed the answers.
Drawn following online Sys Mod session in Sept 2019. “This group is currently like what?” 1) spaghetti and meatballs; 2) puzzle shifting constantly; 3) improv dance class; 4) playground; 5) dancers hearing different kinds of music. I noticed afterward that the puzzle pieces in the drawing are not shifting; they reflect a desire expressed later for the puzzle pieces to fit together.
I knew that something produced in-the-moment in the presence of all group members and open to immediate feedback would be best. Learning from Catherine Madden, I tested sharing my screen while writing on my iPad. I asked fellow group member Mark Sheffield if I could try scribing while he facilitated a process called Clean Setup.
While prepping beforehand with Mark, we realized that arranging the information spatially as if we were seated in a circle with the questions / themes in the center might help to generate the desired network of attention.
Writing live during a Zoom session with the group member who had agreed to lead Clean Setup. This is where the idea emerged to arrange the information spatially in a way that would reinforce “a star-shaped network around a theme.” We debated whether or not to include the names of the group participants. Did their names matter, or did we just need to see the information? At this point, we decided not to use names and to emphasize the information. I reconsidered this later, and during the actual session, I used names.
The image below shows the results of the live scribing with the circle of contributions around the questions in the center. I cut the video feed of my face so that my looking down at a screen would not be a distraction, and shared my screen so that everyone could see the words being written in real time. Because we then had this artifact, we could share it again at the end of the one-hour session to allow members to reflect on whether or not the session and their own behavior had matched their expectations. Notably, it was during this reflection period that the interaction became most star-shaped. People related their experiences to the metaphors of others as well as to their own. In the past, there had been many calls for “clarity” and “structure. This time, there was explicit mention that being able to see the writing was giving individuals what they needed.
Final screenshot of information written and shared live in Zoom practice session.
For this session, I did the live scribing only for Clean Setup. All members mentioned feeling a difference when we moved on to considering a theme without words being produced live in the moment for all to see. We did wonder how the scribing might work when a theme is being discussed at length and the writing might not fit within a single frame. This is something to try in the future.
Overall, I felt that both the live quality of the scribing and the spatial arrangement of information with the questions in the center brought us much closer to a desired network of attention. I am eager to continue experimenting under different conditions and to learn from others who might be trying similar experiments. For now, I feel that I have to limit myself to writing the exact words that are said. I would be interested to find out if someone is doing something closer to graphic recording and if/how they are staying Clean in their choices.
