Days like this, feeling the wind and rain in waves off the Pacific slow me down to see what wants to come through. Things slowly revealed like the importance of the interior life to a world in which we can know everything about someone except what it is like to be them. And reflecting on the poverty of intimacy that brings to spaces in which we need to be with one another deeply – spaces I citizenship contribution and creativity. Spaces of friendship and alliance. Spaces of coming and going. Location:Tofino,Canada
Ensconced in a cabin near Tofino for a couple of days with the family. It is a day of short cycles, waves coming and going, squalls of snow alternating with sunny spells, sleeping and walking, warm and cold.
All good rest
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of working with the tireless staffs of various Neighbourhood Houses in Vancouver. Most of these people are involved in the work of Welcoming Comunities Initiatives, working with refugees and migrants to Vancouver. Yesterday we were in some learning about engagement design using the chaordic stepping stones and the collective story harvest tool, both developed by the Art of Hosting community of practice. In the collective story harvest, the group of about two dozen listened and witnessed the story of two prominent members of our community who left Guatemala in the early 1990s and came …
First of all there is no such thing. Second, a friend asked me the question “What is the idea group size for collaborative process?” and in trying to answert the question I emailed him the following (please note that this is all off the top of my head, and in practice I usually go with intuition, relying more on patterns than rules): Innovation generally starts with individuals, so I like to build time into to processes for people to just be quiet and think for a bit. Small groups can help refine and test good ideas, and large groups can …
Last night in Vancouver listening to Le Vent du Nord, a terrific traditional band from Quebec. They put on one of the best live shows I have seen in a long time with outstanding musicianship combined with incredible energy. Listening to them and watching people dancing I had a deep experience of why we humans need art. It brings us into a joyful relationship which each other that we seem built to need – a kind of belonging that transcends each of our individual reservations, a sort of shared ecstasy. The cynic might say that such an attitude is decadent …