Thank you Euan. Now, there is a time and a place for judgemental skepticism and cynicism (I suppose) but somehow there is a widespread sentiment that associates these two stances with expertise and prudence. Now I don’t want you to think that I am all about squashing opposition or creative tension, but I have to say that when I am working with groups of people to create processes that will help take people out of their comfort zones, there is a particular cynicism that does not help. Euan Semple calls this “pomposity” and that certainly seems to capture the holier …
Back on my home island from a short trip down to the Warm Springs reservation in central Oregon visting with the staff of radio station KWSO and the community members that rely on the station. This was the second site vist for a project I am doing with Native Public Media and Public Radio Capital looking at how to measure the impact of Native community radio stations in the US. Really struck with the role the station plays in the community. Most radio stations, at least mainstream commercial and public radio concern themselves a lot with reach – are we …
Harvesting things from the RSS fields: Rob Paterson begins a series on The Natural Organization which uses a model of systemic change that is very similar to the one we are using with the Berkana Institute in Art of Hosting learning events. Geoff Brown‘s new blog design looks great, and his link to Kaki King is a bonus. Euan Semple finds a film that describes what it’s like sometimes to be a consultant. Time on how twitter can be used in conference settings.
Really interesting gig this week. Steven Wright and I are working together here in Vancouver at an international conference on restorative practices, the kinds of things that people do to bring relationship and community to the justice, education and community systems that more often than not drive us apart. There are some real heros here and leaders in the field including Howard Zehr, one of the founders of the restorative justice movement, and many leading practitioners from around the world. The conference itself is a pretty standard set up with plenary discussions dotting a schedule of concurrent sessions. …