We sometimes call it the “best seat in the house” when we get loaded on the Bowen Island ferry on a forward facing ramp. This is my view this morning as I head into Vancouver to co-lead a workshop with my partner Ciaran Camman. We’re helping a service organization surface context specific strategies practices and principles they use to address crises across their operations.
I love a good football match. I love a semi-final in a major tournament. I do not love when an official gets in the way of a result, but that’s part of the game. Italy and England fought an epic battle yesterday in the women’s European Championship semi-final. Italy took the lead in the first half and England fought back and it looked like the underdogs had won it but the referee added seven minutes of time at at the end, and England used all of it to get the equalizer. Seven minutes. “Twas a bit much, I thought.
Extra time ensued and the Italians fought gamely (no, time wasting is not a “continental” specialty; England did it just fine too…) and late in the second period of extra time – like 119′ late – England were awarded a penally. ‘Twas a weak call, I thought. BUT Italian keeper Laura Giuliani made the save on Chloe Kelly’s penalty, BUT the rebound was poached by Kelly and England won. Cruel sport, this one.
I’m not a fan of the blog posts that begin with “I asked AI to…” but I will point to Tom Atlee’s recent conversation with an AI chatbot where he explored how AI can enable deliberative democracy to move at scale and at speed. I think there are some really thoughtful ideas here not just for governments but also for organizations or networks who are including large numbers of humans in ongoing sensemaking and deliberation. Tom’s grounding in this field and thoughtful questions helped the bot to think through some good ideas.
More from the annals of disappearing knowledge. Chris Lysy offers an incredibly detailed analysis of how evaluation resources on the web have become impossible to find. (He also has a solution for his professional field; read to the end). This is part of the bigger trend of how we find the craft knowledge to support practice fields like evaluation and facilitation. These are fields that require a pathway to proficiency that requires connection with good knowledge and good practitioners. Search engines have ruined this connection and social media algorithms on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook also bury useful stuff. And lets not even discuss the-platform-that-shall-not-be-named.
We are living in the biggest and best library in the history of the world, which is not only filled with books and videos and other delightful things, but in which you can personally connect with the actual masters in all kinds of obscure fields of knowledge. And yet, someone has stolen the card catalog, and is standing at the doorway directing you to the gift shop. You still might be able to get into the library, but it’s impossible to find anything there.
One way to look and find interesting things is to practice slow, mindful web surfing again. Get off the apps. Follow a link and see where it takes you. Maybe keep a log of the places you have visited, to share cool things with others. A “web log” if you will. You might find others who do the same, and then you have an interesting collection of sites to visit and learn from. Nadia van Holzen writes this week about the gift of slowing down. It applies to walking as much as it does to reading all of the amazing stuff people still put on the web. But you have to get out of the practice of searching transactionally, only looking for the things that are related to work or productivity. “Sometimes, slowing down is enough to open your senses and invite surprise—sparking something new in the everyday,” Nadia writes. Richard Olivier, a man I met once in London before he died, called it “Purposive Drift.” It applies as much in the virtual world as it does in the physical world. Let your brain be amazed by the beautiful stuff out there that no one paid for you to find.
“Back then” we were connected, not separated by the Internet. The Internet was a tool for that. We met real people and forged real relationships. These relationships were virtual and “in real life” and they were at times, DEEPLY meaningful and important. Until I blocked a number of local neighbours on my local Facebook page, I actually sought to AVOID certain people on my home island. Now I don’t care what they have posted there; they aren’t the same in real life. My sense of community has been restored. “Back then” whenever I met someone whose blogs I had followed for a while I discovered that they were the same and our connections were instant and deeper.
There will be many tributes to Joanna Macy forthcoming. She died yesterday after an illness and many people who know her well have been posting updates on her end of life journey. Of all the posts though I appreciate Benjamin Taylor’s because as a person unfamiliar with her work he made the effort understand her contributions and find some terrific sources which illuminate her work.
edited later to add a lovely reflection from Rebecca Solnit.
I will probably add some of these to my Facilitation Resources page in due course. Last week on LinkedIn, that page got a shout out and I’m delighted that more people have discovered this resource. It has been compiled to share tools and methods that are public, don’t require money or certification to use, and which are useful in a variety of participatory contexts when addressing complex challenges. The links occasionally rot on that page, so I’ll spend a bit of time in the next little while pruning and adding. Let me know if you find one that doesn’t work.
The view from the ferry this week as I headed into Vancouver.
This weeks notes and noticing:
- July 14, 2025: transform: transforming conflict, dialogue and community
- July 15, 2025: people doing things they are good at: handy apps, polymaths and women’s football
- July 16, 2025: seeing the treasure: local placemaking and the Golden Ratio
- July 17, 2025: I’m in awe..: complexity, constraints, governance and amazing medical science
- July 18, 2025: the threat to beauty: AI, and the threat and promise of true creativity.
Let your curiosity carry you. And if you are a blogger sharing links and little notes like this, the part of me that chases rabbit holes would like to add you to my blogroll.
A pox on the houses of those who monetize the elimination of creativity. We are increasingly living in the simulacrum of a world of human creativity and beauty. Rick Beato has been on this train for a while now but this video today makes the point that we’re all vulnerable to being sucked down the hole of a culture of barely adequate wall paper. Our sense of taste and appreciation for art has been undermined my whole life in favour of commercialized slop. The end game is upon us.
And an antidote to that: because it doesn’t mean that artists have lost the impulse to create and craft their voices. For example, there is a stunningly beautiful show on at the. Owen Island Art Gallery – The Hearth – with two of my favourite Bowen artists, Di and Guthrie Gloag. Get on the ferry and come over here and see it. It needs to be experienced in person and appreciated with lingering reflection. As does all the best art. Just go to a local gallery and linger in front of a painting. Go to a play with actual local actors. The next time you see a busker stop and listen to them. Go hear live music played by people who play instruments. Buy a book of poetry or a novel. These acts sound obvious but reflect on the last time you did them. When did you actually share space with an artist who is creating? Or held in your hands the fruits of their work?