an interview with Leigh Farnell

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

On December 7 and 8, 2000, a group of about thirty leading promoters of optimal personal and organizational performance gathered at the luxurious Safety Harbor Resort and Spa in Tampa, Florida. The occasion was the first "Megaperformers" Conference devoted to “performance realities” to be held in the United States.

Four previous Megaperformer Conferences had been held in varied cities throughout Australia, but this was the first time that business and health care facilitators assembled for this purpose in America. I was pleased to be involved as an organizer/facilitator in what proved to be an exciting event. In the next few weeks, I’ll highlight a few of the presentations for you, supplemented by follow-up interviews with and profiles of the best presenters.

I’d like to begin my interviews with a summary of a conversation I had with the master of ceremonies, Leigh Farnell of Perth, Australia. I asked Leigh to describe what happened over the past two days, as he experienced the conference as MC? With typical Aussie humor, he replied: "How would I know? I was only the facilitator! For two days my brain was stretched from one side of my worldview to the other.”

Leigh then went on about his delights with the beauty treatments and healing waters (he was being facetious), the meals, the environment, and flattering remarks about his hosts, but I finally succeeded in getting him to tell me his impressions of the presentations!

Leigh said that every one of the participants and speakers struck him as committed to making a difference in the health and well being of others. He revealed that the songs of Deb Gauldin moved him from laughter to tears in a single verse (Leigh is a pretty emotional guy). He seemed particularly struck by the challenging philosophy of John Bailiff, the humor of Izzy Gesell, the culture change models of Judd Allen, and the transformation implications for companies and communities in the change projects described by Daniel Hale, Buck O’Connor, and Tom Allerton.

Leigh was impressed with Richard Keelor, who described his personal journey from “fitness warrior to community change agent” and his seriousness about making a difference on a national scale. Leigh noted that fellow Aussie Grant Donovan challenged us all to become disturbed about our own complacency, to end the handholding, to get on with real change, and to become focused on being “MAD!” MAD stands for “make a difference.” Grant’s passion is to challenge the structures and systems we sometimes don’t even know exist in our organizations and communities and to be organized and systematic about the journey to self-management, true teamwork and community.

Leigh believes we are all change agents, whether it in the health care system or in Fortune 500 corporations but we must dare to question (challenge) the experts. Leigh concluded that the conference provided a safe place was to share a huge diversity of views and many approaches to change and making a difference, but also gave us a forum where we could have our views and approaches gently challenged and prodded. "We were forced to think outside our own paradigms and to modify or reshape where we were coming from. As change agents, often we are 'doing' the change to others. This conference was an opportunity to bathe in and be a participant with high-level peers."

The challenge before us, said Leigh, is to share this kind of experience with other leaders, coaches, and catalysts of change, optimum performance, and lifestyle artistry. In Leigh’s words:

“Invite them to come and play. To share their ideas, their models of success, their projects, and their paradigms. It is the diversity of the gene pool that maximizes our ability to adapt, change, and thrive. It is the diversity of the intellectual gene pool that will help our companies, our communities, our hospitals, and our countries move forward. Amongst it all, it is also the fun; the laughter, the love, and the levity that makes us want to stay together -- to keep working towards our common goals together. That is what I think this conference was all about.
The reality of performance and the performance reality is 'lets have fun learning, growing and working together to make this life the best it possibly can be…for all of us.”

Lee’s observations provide a pretty good introduction to this series of interviews. I hope you enjoy the chats to come.

Leigh Farnell is the head of the consulting firm of Performance Development Consultants (PDC) of Perth, Australia. He can be reached at PO Box 1509, West Perth, 6872, Western Australia or through his website. December 2000