Here’s a short clip from the Celebrating Story conference recently held here in Melbourne, Australia.

Sue and I presented our AQ/KQ of Story workshop and if you look closely you will see my rough head appearing briefly.

Also there is a few seconds of basic circle walking I did with a participant in our workshop.

And if you look very closely you might spot a silly looking St George the Dragon Slayer in one of the workshops. No idea who it is

Don’t blink or you will miss my performance!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last week Sue and I ran our AQ/KQ of Story at the ‘Celebrating Story’ conference here in Melbourne Australia.

During our session I introduced participants to Tai Chi focusing on the theme of relationships in regards to story telling.

We did some push hands and Chi exercises which was new to the group. And we also did circle walking.

Here are some Tai Chi photos of the day and for an overview of the conference and more photos of the various activities go to Celebrating Story conference

Sue and I ran our AQ/KQ of Change workshop the other day and used Push Hands to demonstrate the nature of healthy work relationships.

The two themes we concentrated on were ‘adherence’ and ‘listening energy.’

It certainly made our audience focus on these themes in a physical way and it was something very different with regard to their experiences in understanding relationships.

The group consisted of leaders and managers who were there to learn about change.

Adherence was used to demonstrate that you need to stay in contact if you are to develop and maintain good relationships at work.

When you let go and there is no adherence, gaps exist and that’s where problems can creep in and affect the quality of a relationship.

Listening energy was also emphasised.

From a Tai Chi point of view, listening energy makes you aware of your opponents’ moves at all times.You can sense their energy through your arms.

From a relationship viewpoint, listening energy is the ability to focus and really hear what the other person is saying.

There were other aspects of Push Hands we went into regarding relationships – but that’s another post for later.

It was a great fun introducing the group to Tai Chi exercises and concepts in a practical way.

And we had a very good response from the group.

She stood there in the middle of the gym, disengaged, as the other fifty grade 5 and 6 students swirled around her.

I tried to encourage her to join in with this organised chaos but she wasn’t interested. Her 10-year old body and tense brow indicated she wanted to be elsewhere.

I was puzzled. It was the fourth session of my ‘Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz’ program and she was still disengaged.

The theme for these workshops was on building self esteem from a Tai Chi perspective. But in this final session I began to wonder whether they’d made any difference at all for this particular little girl.

At the end of session I got all the students to sit down and it was time for Jacques the Shark, a toy I use to help students learn how to relax when they feel under pressure. It has a snapping jaw and is always a favourite with students.

As I took Jacques out of his silver-starred, blue bag, the little girl still didn’t show any interest.

I asked for two volunteers and, as usual, about fifty hands shot up in the air. I picked one girl and one boy to work with Jacques the Shark.

Well, Jacques did what he was supposed to do – bite. And the whole class erupted in laughter.

I looked over to where the little girl was sitting and saw a very brief smile that, for a few moments, erased all the worry and lit up her face.

And I smiled too.

I felt like I had achieved something.