The NODES model is an ethos and method for conversational learning and social collaboration. It involves individuals connecting with others through sharing ideas and taking action as part of a network. The key aspects of the model are opportunities to share ideas, deepening understanding through conversation, enriching the network by amplifying others' ideas, and taking solutions and learning from the actions. The goal is for learning to occur both individually and socially through participation in open-ended conversations and collaboration within a network.

1. NODES model of conversational
learning & social collaboration
John Rogers
GTN – Global Talent Network
www.gtnworld.net
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2. 2
The NODES model of
conversational learning
& social collaboration

3. The NODES model of conversational
learning & social collaboration
The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the
NODES model of conversational learning and social
collaboration
My interests are in the practice of learning,
especially management learning; something that is
embedded in everything we do both individually
and with others, continuously
I write regularly about learning in my blog Learning
in Practice http://johnrogers960.blogspot.co.uk/
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4. What is a node?
Nodes plural of node (Noun)
A point at which lines or pathways
intersect or branch; a central or
connecting point.
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5. NODES
An ethos and method for learning
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• NODES is both an ethos and a method for learning
• It’s for learners, coaches and leaders
• It connects with a shift in management thinking that is
moving away from hierarchies towards networks
A note for coaches - the conversational element of the
process is underpinned by the Solutions-Focused
approach

6. NODES
NODES is about a shift towards an
integrated view of learning and working
As a leader, coach or learner:
• I cannot sit outside of any interpersonal communication
process regardless of whether I am coaching , leading or
doing something else
• I cannot separate myself in terms of time or space from it
• I can only exist in relation to the other person and my
experience of the interaction in that moment
• My task as a leader &/or as a coach &/or as a learner is to
develop the capacity for self-reflection and owning my part
in what is happening, my skill in facilitating free-flowing
conversation and the ability to articulate what is emerging
in conversations
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7. NODES model of conversational learning & social collaboration
Ideas Action
Social
Individual
Opportunities
Reflections,
thoughts, ideas,
concepts
Deepen
Free-flowing
conversational
learning
Solutions
Action and learning
Enrich
Becoming a node
in a network;
increasing
innovation
Network
Making
connections
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John Rogers

8. Network
• Network is the work of:
– making connections between ideas and action.
To think, reflect and join the dots
– collaborating with others through free-flowing
conversations and information sharing
– generating energy from making connections to
people, ideas and information
– using feedback from actions to drive individual
and social reflection and new ideas
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9. Opportunities
• Taking seriously one’s
own experience
• Thoughts, ideas,
reflections, interests,
concepts, daydreams
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10. Deepen
Free flowing conversational learning; working ‘in the
moment’ to articulate what is emerging
What are the skills and competences required? (Ralph
Stacey, 2003)
• Capacity for self-reflection and owning one's part in
what is happening
• Facilitating free-flowing conversation
• Ability to articulate what is emerging in conversations
• Sensitivity to group dynamics
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11. Enrich
Becoming a node in a network
Sharing interests, contributing ideas
F2f, online, linking to and amplifying ideas of
others, blogging, micro-blogging…
…increasing innovation
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12. Solutions
Responsibility for action and
Capacity for self-reflection and learning
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13. What do you have to do?
• NODES is about participation in ideas – yours and others – through
the process of Network
• In simple terms it’s about learning by doing and sharing what you
are learning
• Its premise is that as humans we can’t exist in isolation. We are
interconnected. These connections are both local and global,
strong and weak, direct and indirect, inter and intra personal
• What’s common is that in taking action (Solutions) or sharing our
ideas (Enrich) with others, both will be sources of individual and
collective learning
• Participation will sometimes be conversational (Deepen), often f2f,
with people with whom we have strong ties, like a friend or
colleague, or with a coach or mentor or line manager
• At other times the ties will be weaker. Participation (Enrich) will be
with people who we may not know or have any direct connection
with and may be done using tools like Blogger, Wordpress, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Yammer and so on.
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14. 14
Influencing ideas

15. Ubuntu
‘My humanity is your humanity’
Ubuntu speaks particularly about the
fact that you can't exist as a human
being in isolation. It speaks about our
interconnectedness. You can't be human
all by yourself, and when you have this
quality – Ubuntu – you are known for
your generosity. We think of ourselves
far too frequently as just individuals,
separated from one another, whereas
you are connected and what you do
affects the whole World. When you do
well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of
humanity.
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From a quotation by Desmond Tutu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28philosophy%29

16. Community-ship vs. leadership
Isn’t it time to think of our organisations as communities
of cooperation, and in so doing put leadership in its place:
not gone, but alongside other important social processes.
What should be gone is this magic bullet of the individual
as the solution to the world’s problems. We are the
solution to the world’s problems, you and me, all of us,
working in concert. This obsession with leadership is the
cause of many of the world’s problems.
And with this, let us get rid of the cult of leadership,
striking at least one blow at our increasing obsession with
individuality. Not to create a new cult around distributed
leadership, but to recognize that the very use of the word
leadership tilts thinking toward the individual and away
from the community. We don’t only need better
leadership, we also need less leadership.
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Henry Mintzberg, 2006

17. Action and learning
• "Without actions, the world would still be an
idea.“
Georges Doriot, 1899 – 1987, Venture Capitalist and Founder of INSEAD
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18. It’s all about networks
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It’s all about networks.
Understanding networks that
is. This is the shift our
organizations, institutions, and
society must make in order to
thrive in an always-on,
interconnected world.
Harold Jarche 2012

19. Collaboration pyramid
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20. E-Flow Model
The Learning Company
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From The Learning Company: A Strategy for Sustainable Development, 1991
E= Energy
Feedback from action
& operations is the
source of individual &
group learning

21. Complex responsive processes
...the main implication of the complex responsive processes perspective
is the way in which it refocuses attention, not on what members of an
organisation should be doing, but on what they are already, and
always have been, doing.
If there is a prescription, it is that of paying more attention to the
quality of your own experience of relating and managing in
relationship with others. This is a reflexive activity requiring each one
of us to pay more attention to our own part in what is happening
around us.
This requires a reflective development of self-knowledge. It means
taking one’s own experience seriously. The reward, in my experience, is
to find oneself interacting more effectively, not only for the one’s own
good, but also for the good of those with whom one is in relationship.'
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Ralph Stacey, 2003

22. Inspirations, references, resources and
acknowledgments
• Berg, O. (2012) The Collaboration Pyramid (or iceberg), The Content Economy,
Weblog (online) 14th Feb. Available from www.thecontenteconomy.com [accessed
2/5/13]
• Garfinkel, H. (2002) Ethnomethodology’s program: working out Durkheim’s
aphorism edited by Anne Rawls. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishing Group.
• Jarche, H. (2012) It’s all about networks, Life in perpetual beta, Weblog (online)
23rd May. Available from http://www.jarche.com [accessed 25/4/13]
• Lima, M. (2012) ‘The Power of Networks’ RSA Animate, You Tube (online) 21st May.
Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJmGrNdJ5Gw [accessed
2/7/13]
• Mintzberg, H. (2006) Community-ship is the answer. Business Education
Supplement, Financial Times 23rd October 2006: 8
• Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J.G., Boydell, T. The Learning Company: A Strategy for
Sustainable Development, McGraw-Hill, 1991 (E-Flow model)
• Stacey, R.D. (2003) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The
Challenge of Complexity. Harlow: Pearson
• Western, S. (2012) Coaching and Mentoring: A Critical Text. London: Sage
• Picture credits – Deposit Photos http://depositphotos.com/home_buyer.php and
Photobucket http://photobucket.com/
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23. John Rogers – Learning in Practice
john@gtnworld.net
http://johnrogers960.blogspot.co.uk/
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