A Kawa about Vera F. Birkenbihl

Today, April 26, 2021, she would have turned exactly 75 years old. Unfortunately, she passed away at 65. Far too soon. I will never forget the day of her funeral in Osterholz-Scharmbeck. I still believe that our society will only much later understand what a personality left us in December 2011.

HOW I CAME TO VERA F. BIRKENBIHL

How I came to know the grand dame of methodologists is a true story. I was sitting in one of her seminars, where she railed against our education system and teachers resistant to advice. She never minced words on such occasions, because as a diagnosed autistic person, she had Asperger's Syndrome. After this late diagnosis, she suffered less from having problems with social contacts. At the end of the event, I approached her with a purchased book and asked for an autograph. She gladly gave it to me. I took the opportunity and said to her: "By the way, I belong to your hate group. I am a teacher." She immediately replied: "Yes, but you are here." Then she waved to Dr. Dieter Böhm and asked him if there was still space in the Birkenbihl group. With that, I was accepted. Today, Dieter and I are good friends. We regularly met as Birkenbihl pilots in her living room for pilot meetings. It was incredible what knowledge the woman had absorbed, how far-reaching her thoughts were, and how she had background knowledge on all things. She had read two shipping containers of books and seemed to know the content of all of them, including the page numbers: "Frau Birkenbihl, what do you think of this book?" I had randomly taken one from her overflowing shelves. "The author has very interesting approaches. Turn to page... There should be a quote highlighted at the bottom. The first part is outstanding; I have my own opinion on the second part." Smiling, I put the book back on the shelf after reading the quote and her remarks on it. Here you can see how the KAWA came into being:    

What does KAWA actually mean?

KAWA according to Vera F. Birkenbihl is an acronym and stands for: Kreative Ausbeute von Wort-Assoziationen (Creative Exploitation of Word Associations). KAWA is easier to remember, however. KAWAs can be made on all topics that interest you.

How about creating your own KAWA and why does this technique work?

First, you write the topic in the middle in large letters. By the way, I always use the sheet horizontally for this and draw the letters so that they can be colored later. In our Mindmap template ring binder, KAWAs are drawn on the left white page. Now you let your thoughts wander and consider what comes to mind about the term and what would be important enough to write down. The rule of the game is: what is written down must begin with one of the letters in the middle. The smaller the term, the fewer letters you have available, and the more you have to think. The lack of letters ensures that you have to think more intensely about a topic. By the way, it is not mandatory to use every letter. And: there is no right or wrong in KAWA. An example: Suppose you want to create a KAWA about your best friend Eva, then you only have the three letters available. However, you can use these multiple times. Perhaps E stands for elegant, successful, eloquent, for V you find her trustworthy, crazy, and in love, and for A you have associated silly and single. If your best friend had been named Hannelore, you would, of course, have had more letters available.

KAWA becomes KAGA

If you also clothe the whole thing in many pictures, your KAWA becomes a KAGA, and the G then stands for Grafie Gestaltung (Graphic Design). I myself often take notes in KAWA form during meetings. That keeps me awake, no matter how unimportant or boring a meeting is. And I catch everything. Here is an example on the topic: Have fun Jens Voigt