A short poem from Edwin Markham, called “Outwitted”:
He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.
Hat tip to my friend Janie Leask in Alaska, who posted this on her facebook wall.
Share:
Meg Wheatley on great questions to ask as we think about measurement, especially in complex living systems (like human communities):
Who gets to create the measures? Measures are meaningful and important only when generated by those doing the work. Any group can benefit from others’ experience and from experts, but the final measures need to be their creation. People only support what they create, and those closest to the work know a great deal about what is significant to measure.
How will we measure our measures? How can we keep measures useful and current? What will indicate that they are now obsolete? How will we keep abreast of changes in context that warrant new measures? Who will look for the unintended consequences that accompany any process and feed that information back to us?
Are we designing measures that are permeable rather than rigid? Are they open enough? Do they invite in newness and surprise? Do they encourage people to look in new places, or to see with new eyes?
Will these measures create information that increases our capacity to develop, to grow into the purpose of this organization? Will this particular information help individuals, teams, and the entire organization grow in the right direction? Will this information help us to deepen and expand the meaning of our work?
What measures will inform us about critical capacities: commitment, learning, teamwork, quality and innovation? How will we measure these essential behaviors without destroying them through the assessment process? Do these measures honor and support the relationships and meaning-rich environments that give rise to these behaviors?
These are great questions to consider at the Show Me The Change conference in Melbourne as we dive into questions on the implications for complexity on the measurements used to evaluate change in living and complex systems.
Share:
In May I am co-hosting a conference in Australia with Geoff Brown, Viv McWaters, Anne Pattillo and Johnnie Moore on evaluating behaviour change in sustainability initiatives. Sounds dry eh?
Well I invite you to visit Geoff’s blog to view the invitation and the slideshow he has put together that provides some context for the gathering and adopts the playful and exploratory tone of the conference we are designing: Show Me The Change is “coming ‘atcha live” | Yes and Space.
Working with Geoff is great because he has a terrific facility with all kinds of social media, including a mastery of powerpoint that shoud be a required skill for anyone entering the working world. Taken together with the conference website, he is spearheading a great invitation process tat communicates the intention of the gathering and sets the tone for participation. Just seeing how we have put together the invitation process and what it looks like should be an inspiration to others, taking us beyond the Save The Date notices, emailed brochures and static conference websites that are little more than a notice board posting in cyberspace.
Working on this conference is expanding my edges around invitation and harvesting, and I’m having fun playing into what we are doing.
Share:
Clara Hughes, one of Canada’s all time great athletes, wrapped up her competitive career yesterday with a bronze metal in speed skating. In her press conference she had this to announce:
The international media and Olympic visitors noticed the Downtown Eastside.
So did the five-time Olympian who carried Canada’s flag in the opening ceremony.
Winnipeg’s Clara Hughes won bronze in 5,000-metre speedskating on Wednesday at the Richmond Olympic Oval and donated her $10,000 bonus to the Take A Hike Foundation. The charity runs outdoor recreation programs for inner-city youths.
“I took a wrong turn and ended up in the Downtown Eastside in my little car. I will never forget seeing people suffer so much,” Hughes said in a Canadian Olympic Committee news conference.
“People were just shells of themselves and I couldn’t believe the situation, this reality, exists in Canada. It was surreal, I felt like I was in a movie set.”
Hughes said she can leave Vancouver knowing that she “didn’t just come here and skate in circles.”
I am in Seattle today with a friend of mine, Bob Stilger, and he shared a great reflection with me. He said he was amazed that the Vancouver games have not made a secret of homelessness and poverty in the Downtown Eastside, and he was impressed that the media had covered the story of Canada’s pooerest postal code and that people were out there protesting and telling their stories. He was inspired to tell that story as a way of encouraging others to take advantage of major events and festivals to talk about what is really going on. High marks to Vancouver for not burying the issue, he said.
Back during the Summer Olympics of 2004 I made a passionate argument for why we should spend public money supporting Olympic athletes. The essence of that argument was that the discipline and practice of transforming oneself towards excellence builds a remarkable capacity to see that possibility in others. Today, Clara Hughes confirmed my hunch, and in so doing challenged all of us not to skate in circles about poverty and homelessness.
After the games are over, there will be deep cuts to services and staff who work with the most vulnerable people in our society. Will you rest on your laurels or take Clara Hughes example to heart and put your money where your mouth is? If you are looking for ways to contribute time and expertise and money to good efforts in the downtown eastside, let me know. If you are interested in the issue of violence against Aboriginal women, there is an Open Space coming up in teh spring that will address that issue and we are looking for wanyone who wants to help to come out and be a part of making new solutions in a world of diminishing resources.
Way to go Clara!
Share:
From a recent Art of Hosting in Sweden comes a learning from some young leaders thinking about how to lead in networks:
1. Open and transparency of decision making process and “organizational” structure, even if it’s dynamic. No Taboos or un-written rule. The aim should be to make the system as visible as possible.
2. Empowers loads of action (systemically): What is the minimum structure needed to enable self-organizing and action?
3. Good communication culture (this is the real challenge I guess)
4. Clear process of creation and updating the leading thoughts
5. Low entrance step, it’s easy to join, accessible.
6. Inclusive, nobody is left out if they want to contribute and participate.
7. Purpose large enough but clear enough. People should feel that I want to be part of this. Purpose is container both for action and expansion. Case: 350.org brought together many networks, as did Survival Academy.
via How to lead a network well? ideas from AoH Karlskrona | Monkey Business.