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Category Archives "BC"

Growing seeds in thin soil

September 9, 2009 By Chris Corrigan Art of Harvesting, Art of Hosting, BC, Conversation, Design, Facilitation, First Nations, Flow, World Cafe 2 Comments

A cafe today, with littler preparation on the ground and a tricky issue in a community, but a good result today and some good learnings about harvesting.  Here are my notes:

Before we began the chief invited us to stand in a circle to pray and to have some introductions.  I was introduced and invited the group to find beauty in the work here, identifying what they really cared about for the education of their young people.  We stayed standing in the circle for a half hour while some of the Elders talked about how hurt they had been over the past several years as the work the community had done to set up and govern the education system had gone sideways.  They expressed frustration at the lack of communication and transparency and a perceived lack of respect for the community’s voice and the hard work that the community had done over the years.  They talked about having more meetings, and more process to include people deep in the work of building support for the education system.

When people are stuck, you cannot move forward without acknowledging where they hurt.  You cannot sweep pain and feelings of injustice under the carpet.  People who are willing to stand for principles and stand for their beliefs need to be heard and acknowledged.  No amount of defending or apologizing for the past will always do the trick either.  In fact defending leads to more stuckness and no one ends up getting what they want.  Concerns need to be heard as interests and as rooted in deeply held views about how things should work.  The Elders in this gathering are talking about a process that they can be involved in and an education system that they can be involved in.  It’s clear and to avoid that or design a system that does not makes space for their voice or passion does not transcend the pain and bad feelings that are the residue of the catastrophic collapse of the education board in years past.

To get through messes, simply listen, acknowledge, suspend beliefs and assumptions and make sure you hear people clearly and that they are heard clearly.

What do we want for education in this community?

We began with this question.  The first two rounds of conversation focused on it.  From there we asked: In a perfect world, how would our community be involved in education?  We then finished in a circle again.

Part of the art of hosting is dealing with fear.  I am so sure of the importance of a strong field being in place that when I work in a place where the field is weak or wobbly I fear that nothing will take root.  But good questions are like weed seeds.  The can thrive in some of the most depleted environments.  And those first seeds that fall and sprout in depleted or barren ground make plants that make more soil.  Lichens and mosses break down rock and create mineral soils that larger plants can grow in. Likewise, sometimes you just need to work with what you’ve got – design a question that assumes the best intentions of a community and drop it in and see what happens.  People choose their engagement in cafe, they make decisions all the time about who to be with.  In many subtle ways those decisions actually work towards optimal.  During the evening, the law of two feet took over in this cafe.  Many people were visiting with the Elders to hear what they have to say and the Elders were strategically visiting with others to make sure people understood their perspective.  This is the field of good soil that is created by a good question and the freedom for people to engage.  It’s by no means a garden of rare and wonderous plants, but with careful tending, the meager harvest from tonight could at least represent a change in the life of the community around this issue.

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Back in Bella Coola

September 9, 2009 By Chris Corrigan BC, Facilitation, First Nations, Open Space, Travel, World Cafe 4 Comments

Ensconced at the head of an inlet in what has to be the most beautiful valley in BC.  My commute yesterday to get here was a one hour flight from Vancouver over huge icefields, 9000 foot peaks, high mountain lakes and deep forested cirques.  The landscape here is forbiddingly raw, and when the morning sun catches the blue glint of glacial ice in the cracks and crevacies on the icefall you are flying PAST (not over!) your heart just sings.

In this tight little valley – now rain soaked and cloud choked – a few thousand people live cheek by jowel.  At one end, where the long inlet terminates, is the Nuxalk Nation where I am doing a little work, trying to bring some hasitily organized participatory process to a couple of pressing needs in th ecommunity.  Today is basically about trying to host a community conversation that sees the good and the possible in a desperate and fractious context.  In most First Nations communities, hurt runs deep and the kinds of dynamics that are at play here are deep currents that carry away optimisim, creativity and possibility.  And yet, everyone I talk to here wants something different, a different conversation, a different wnay of looking at things.  So today and tomorrow, using Cafe and Open Space, we are going to try that.

We haven’t had much time to prepare, and there is much working against making this an ideal situation, so I truly don’t know what will happen.  I am just entering today as open as I can be to what’s possible, trying to embody what others are longing for.

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Reforming Town Halls

August 20, 2009 By Chris Corrigan Art of Hosting, BC, Collaboration, Facilitation, Leadership

My friend Kenoli Oleari on the possibility that the conversation can be changed:

We are finding that there are lots of opportunities for public meetings, town halls, task forces, etc. as well as a lot of dissatisfaction with the way things are done.  People fear new approaches, but we are finding if we don’t buy into those fears, rather working with them to stay focused on outcomes and the best way to achieve what they want, that there is some degree of receptivity.  In many cases people do care about good outcomes and let this desire assuage their fears.  There is certainly huge gratitude when they see the amazing results they had never imagined.

We are also finding that little process tweaks can have huge impacts on the quality of results.

In the Art of Hosting world we call this “chaordic confidence” the ability to stay in the heat and fear of chaos and uncertainty and hold space for collaboration and participation to unfold.

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What we can learn from disrupted meetings?

August 11, 2009 By Chris Corrigan BC, Collaboration, Conversation, Design, Facilitation One Comment

In the US right now, the health care “debate” is raging and town hall meetings being held across the country are being deliberately hijacked by those who don’t want to see reform go ahead.  This tactic is discouraging but predictable.  “Town Hall” meetings are not usually conducive to democratic deliberation, and they are never about dialogue.

Over the past few days an amazing conversation has unfolded on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv about what these events mean for deliberative democracy.  Tom Atlee has summarized a lot of the learning from these in a long blog post which is a keeper:

I want to take a look at the dysfunctional health care debate as an opportunity for evolutionary action. Not because health care is more important than other issues, but because its current dynamics exemplify the kind of transformational potentials we will face over and over in coming years, as the multifaceted crises of our time unfold. Understanding the dynamics of this currently disturbing event may help us prepare better for each new wave of opportunity.

Go have  a read:  Are Disrupted Town Hall Meetings an Evolutionary Opportunity?

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