From facilitating in healthcare to producing photographic art

My photographic art website: www.robertgoodlad.com

It is time to summarize my career and acknowledge that the main thing I’ve been doing for years is now switching places with my new main thing: the art of photography. My lifelong hobby is now my main activity.

My career in a few words: learn to listen and discover listening if far more revealing than your own pontifications.

My career is understood easiest by simply saying: “the most challenging and important thing is working with people to get ideas into reality”. My career matured from technologist to facilitator, a consultant, converting ideas into something useful with groups of people. Facilitation is still more art and craft than science although some scientific progress has been made in the field of psychology which is helpful. Facilitation is the art of preparation, listening, more listening, exploring, and opening up a trusted environment in which people collaborate together so a series of epiphanies magically appear. Not really magic, just realization of a way forward influenced by good facilitation and this is not easy or obvious. During facilitated meetings, persons will discover for themselves epiphanies while working on a project and while simultaneously fitting their work into the main idea, a mission. Together this results in deliberate actions towards a common goal and maybe an experiment that turns into something useful.

This career summary is best simplified into one highlight, an example that reveals the art and craft of facilitation. Healthcare in Canada is centralizing and in Alberta, a contrarian initiative was conceived to find a way to centralize seven health regional information services. This idea proposed a common, shared, and integrated system to benefit patients and healthcare providers while keeping the participating regions autonomous, decentralized, and managing their own domains. The idea was to find a way to get an agreement between seven separately administered health authorities with 108 hospitals and health clinics to work together. This posed considerable constraints and obstacles. I was drafted to find a way to help realize this idea. Governance and working teams formed with specific purposes and through facilitated meetings and workshops a common mission and set of goals unfolded and specific actions were taken. The initiative became known at the time as one of the largest healthcare information systems projects in Canada and the USA. The initiative became reality and it grew in function and was rebranded several times in twenty years. An argument could be made that this initiative would not have become reality without the foundation being put in place through good facilitation. The players were diverse, autonomous, protectionist, competitive, yet willing to try and we did realize success: a centralized and integrated health information system while retaining the autonomous nature of each region.

I took a template of the initiative, adjusted and replicated the main attributes of the initiative, and implemented it in several large health authorities across Canada. Colleagues of mine took the template into the USA and implemented it in several large health networks. The intriguing part of the effort revealed how effective facilitation can be amplified by reducing personal egos, defining terms, and focussing on results towards one mission. These initiatives made considerable improvements that increased the reliability and trust of healthcare information systems without a lot of pomp and circumstance. Personally it became very rewarding and equipped me with life long skills which I am putting to use in my efforts developing a network of influence solidifying photography as a liberal art. Moreover, and seemingly unrelated, I am learning all things crypto and looking for a way to get involved in this space using some of my career skills. Creativity is scarce and therefore good art is not only valuable it is open for new opportunities for the artist through crypto concepts such as NFT’s and perhaps DAO’s (non fungible tokens and decentralized autonomous organizations).

This is the first post after several busy years.  A move back to the Okanagan, B.C., many house projects, reconnecting with friends, and several photography trips and four years have passed in a blink of the eye.

The photography trips are taking us to places with outstanding opportunities for finding good images.  The US Southwest, Alaska, and Australia are wonderful places for travel and exposure to different landscapes and people.

On the technical side, I’ve built a new website (www.robertgoodlad.com), learned several new software tools, and found my way back to using Phase One camera equipment.

The plan is more travel and more fine art photography and hope you enjoy some of the the new images.

 

 

A story about my work is in the latest Arabella Canadian Art Magazine. See it at a book store or an abstract of the story online:  http://arabelladesign.com/Robert_Goodlad_Fall2014.htm

Since my extended stay in the Phoenix area I have sorting and enhancing many images. However, the main news is the Sooke Art Show. It is a treat to be selected again by the jury to participate in the show again this year. It is well attended, near Victoria, and a good destination.

My image “Kwatsi Carving” drew attention and sold well. It seemed to strike an emotional chord with some and shows a strong west coast interpretation.

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I am based in Phoenix with the idea that it is the hub for nearby road trips that will open up good venues for exploration and photography. My list of potential trips is growing and the locals tell me I am only getting started. So far my guess is they are right. For every day trip it seems like it opens several more in the same area.

A short trip to Wickenburg, NW of Phoenix, took us to ranching country and all things western. “Rope’n” is a rodeo type event that attracts enthusiasts from all over Arizona and beyond. Simply, setup a steer in a corral, add two horseback riders, let them loose and give the steer a stretch from behind and in front. Yahoo!!

Walks in the desert are great this time of year. The cactus are varied and the snakes are hibernating. We have visited the White Tank Mountains and it is only a 20 minute drive from our camp.

We did a special thing for our daughter who is an aspiring architect. We took a Taliesin West tour. It was the western workshop of the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is located in the desert near Scottsdale Arizona and it full of architectural experiments. It was known as a school for apprentice architects in Wright’s time and he was a great believer in getting close to building materials and that certainly was the case for the adoring students: slave labour under a great teacher.

We spent Christmas at Sedona and it was a return trip to continue the exploration of the area. It is very touristy and in most seasons extraordinarily busy. The reason: it is extraordinarily beautiful. Another trip is already planned. One last stop on the trip was the Chapel of the Holy Cross and at Christmas is seemed like the peak of a pilgrimage. The church is perched on a steep rock hillside and overlooks the valley with a red rock background. It was loosely designed by Frank Lloyd Wright during the ’30s depression and built by another architect. The only shot in the following set of images was looking through the building at mid-day.

Happy New Year everyone and best wishes for 2014!!

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Traveling in northern Arizona gives lots of opportunities for photography. The terrain goes from 2000ft to 6000ft elevation and temperatures from 18C to 0C in short distances. Be prepared for winter as some of the areas have snow and not just a skiff.

Went on a hike to Devil’s Bridge near Sedona in snow and ice. I saw footprints on part of the bridge and that gave me the jitters. The bridge is a narrow chunk of rock that spans about 50ft over a steep hillside. The climb up was tricky and the notion of walking the bridge was not happening. No pics !!

Although I did get some shots along the way.

I am sorting and selecting images of Australia from my recent trip. While doing this I look out the window in my home to see the ocean, whales, and birds and the contrast between here and Australia is dramatic. Everything about the Pacific Northwest and Australia landscapes are different and is wonderful to have both experiences.

Working with the Australia images is fun as the colours are from the warm palette (very warm) and there is no doubt the final images for printing will be artist interpretations based on my memory of the experience. There is also no doubt in my mind a camera is just a tool and it captures its own interpretation of the scene and often very different from the final print. Fun!

I’ve chosen images for printing and my website that reveal a different view of what is typically photographed. They reach a little further into details of the landscape or situation. My home website is updated with some of the images and are in the “Recent” section.

Darwin is modern city, fast growing metro in Australia, and packed full of history. Economics are simple: mining and tourism.

This is a city which for some reason has drawn my attention. During WWII Darwin played both strategic and survival roles. Evidence of the war are everywhere and the Darwin War Museum is a must see. Darwin exists in a harsh tropical environment, cyclone Tracy levelled the town in 1974, it is the capital of the Northern Territory, gateway to the orient, and with 33 being the average age of the population it is a youthful and high energy city.

There are a couple of images of a 9″ artillery gun. It took 11 men to operate two floors of action. The gun swivelled on a turntable and commanded a great view of the harbour. By the way, two images are of GM military vehicles made in Canada!! How about the old truck retiring into the mangrove.

A friend of mine, Cy said when he visited Darwin years ago the box jellyfish kept everyone out of the outrageously inviting ocean. He remains correct and now a small more venomous jellyfish is in the area and migrating down the coasts: the infamous Irukandji jellyfish. Small, just a couple of centimetres in size with long tentacles. Deadly!! The ocean swimming is now protected by screening nets.

Good news and a bit silly. I always dip my foot or arm in one of the great oceans if I’m in the area and I think I’ve done them all now. Today, not an ocean, yet just as much fun I put my hand in the Timor Sea. Felt good. However, putting my foot into the Indian Ocean three years ago with Jill still wins. What can I say!

I really like the colour in the stone used to built some of the historic buildings. Most of these beautiful stone walls did not survive cyclone Tracy. Also, I’ve never seen bamboo colours like one of the shots will show you: red and orange?!

The Melbourne to Darwin, Never Never trip, and 27 days is finished and next time I will double the time to do the same trip! Back to Melbourne. This is where Darwin is .

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