FRACTAL_VERSING

WORKPLACE FEEDBACK AND REFLECTION

In this example we're going to apply FractalVersing to workplace feedback and self-improvement. Many jobs these days require facing new challenges, learning from feedback, and growing as a person, just to survive in the job. There is a lot of pressure on people to continuously improve themselves. Using FractalVersing we can meditate on a situation in a way that helps us to see things from a different perspective, to challenge some of our assumptions, and to find things we can change in our behavior.

Presentation FractalVersing

IDENTIFY ENTITIES

Employee, presentation, audience, room, laptop, slide deck

IDENTIFY DIFFERENCE-DIMENSIONS

Experience, duration, style, size, function, quality

IDENTIFY BOUNDARIES, ENVIRONMENT, CONSTRAINTS

Career, expectations, time

IDENTIFY ACTIONS AND VERBS

Talk, present, convince, listen, absorb, show, style, inform, ignore, project

TRANSFORM ENTITIES AND NOUNS INTO VERBS

Deliver, receive, talk, present, convince, listen, absorb, show, style, inform, ignore, project

CREATE A MULTI-SCALE VERB HIERARCHY

CREATE INTERPRETATIONS

COMPOSE VERSES

INTERPRETATION

Now imagine I gave a really poor presentation, can the fractal ontology give us some guidance or reflection?

When we deliver, it is necessarily to a receiver, even if we are ourselves the receiver

It's very hard to listen to yourself during a presentation, as you're typically wrapped-up in the moment. However, a few practice run-throughs beforehand gives you a chance to see your presentation from the perspective of the audience, especially if you record it and watch it back. Not doing that is a missed opportunity to give yourself feedback.

An audience needs more than just to listen, they need to be convinced

Did I think about the audience's needs when creating the presentation, or was I just writing down what I wanted to say? What key takeaways were I hoping the audience would leave with, and did I structure the presentation in a compelling way to ensure those were the points that came across most effectively?

We talk to inform, but we are always projecting from our limited perspective

Was the content and delivery trapped in my limited perspective? For example, did I assume the audience knew more about a subject than they actually did? Did I use jargon without explanation? Did I present in a style that I am comfortable with (such as reading bullet points) but that isn't a comfortable experience for the audience? Getting input from somebody else while writing and structuring the presentation helps to ensure you aren't missing important blindspots or assumptions.

A presentation is more than just showing a slide, it is about bringing an audience on a journey

Even if the presentation content itself was fine, and I am a confident speaker, did I present in a way that told a relatable narrative, or was it really just a disconnected sequence of facts? Storytelling has been at the heart of human communication since we learned to talk, and it remains one of the most powerful ways of sharing knowledge. Did I use anecdotes and concrete examples to make abstract ideas more tractable? Was there emotion in the presentation?

The style we use is an integral part of what is shown, and what is seen and heard. Form and substance are hard to separate.

Was the style of my presentation and delivery appropriate for the topic and audience? Did I use the work-provided presentation template, or create or use a less professional one? Did I try to use humor in an inappropriate way, for example by using memes in what should have been a serious presentation? Did I speak with certainty and authority on the topic, or was everything open-ended and confusing?

CONCLUSION

FractalVersing gave us some points and perspectives to reflect on. We'd probably want to spend more time identifying actions that would allow us to improve next time, but this was a pretty good start. In this case it was me that both created the FractalVersing ontology and interpreted it, but there is no reason why this couldn't be done with multiple people; either between a manager and employee or in a group setting. This would be in effect a form of subject-specific reflexive coaching.

This is one way it could be done: