>Kinesthetic Modeling

By: Eris Weaver | Date: March 22, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized

>I spent Saturday in a workshop on Kinesthetic Modeling (KM), a right-brain, hands-on, 3-D facilitation tool. Like a child with a new toy or a craftsperson with a new tool, I am itching to play with it some more!

I first heard of KM from my colleagues Andrea Saveri and Leslie Salmon-Zhu; we used it with participants in a three-day international R&D meeting. It was a great way to get some very cerebral, left-brain types to interact with each other in a completely different mode and really think outside their boxes.

It was great to meet KM originator John Ward, play with some of my Fabulous Facilitator friends, and get ideas of more ways to use this tool.

OK, OK, I know that you are now wondering, what the heck IS this process, and how do you do it? Like Interplay and other embodied tools I use, it is much easier to demonstrate than to describe. But I will try:

Think with your hands.
Communicate without words.
Manipulate, arrange, doodle with everyday objects: popsicle sticks, rocks, figurines, toys, paper clips, etc.
Make models and maps – the images of your dreams and thoughts made concrete.
Then step back and look.
No, really, just LOOK.
See with the eyes of a five-year-old, pictures in the clouds.
Move from image to meaning.
New ideas and understandings emerge when the two sides of the brain play together!