From a fictitious conversation that Dave Pollard hosted between two competing sides of his personality – the expert and the generalist – comes this gem on invitation and teaching:
Your job as an ideator is just to articulate the idea, as coherently and compellingly as possible, which is generally best done by telling a story. It’s not your job to research its plausibility, to become enough of an expert to know whether and how to make it happen. You just tell the story. Then the responsibility for implementing is left to each person to accept, or not. If the idea has wings, then people will do what they must to make sure it is implemented. No lists of who will do what by when. The experts will show up if the invitation is well-crafted and well-offered. And they’ll be open to new ideas if they sense, among the invitees, an appetite for it, a hunger. In which case, if it can be made to work, they’ll make it work.
Share:
Was listening on the beach yesterday to a good talk by Joseph Goldstein about four reflections that bring the mind to dharma. These relections are used by Buddhists to become mindful in everyday life. Mindfulness – individual and collective – is a resource in short supply in the world. A lot of the hosting work I do is about bringing more mindful consciousness to what groups are doing. These four reflections are useful in that respect.
From a dharma perspective, the four reflections are:
- Precious human birth
- Contemplation of impermanence
- The law of karma
- Defects of samsara
On their own these are esoteric terms, especially if you are not familiar with the Buddhist world view. But in practice they look like this:
- Be aware of possibility. What is possible right now? What is the gift of the present moment? If we were to think about what we could do right now, what would be the most valuable thing we could do?
- Everything changes. What we are experiencing right now will pass. We cannot know what will come, so we must prepare to be agile rather than prepare to be stable. Can we be as flexible as the changing nature of the world around us? If no, we risk being locked in an old operating system.
- Action brings results. And in a complex system, cause and effect cannot be isolated. Therefore what matters is awareness, and consciousness about what we are doing in every given moment. What are the things we do habitually that get us into trouble? If I intervene in a group now, what effect might that have over the long term? Be aware of motivations and try to stop acting habitually.
- We keep ourselves locked in repeating patterns. What are the patterns and behaviours we need to let go of to free us up for creativity, innovation or real change? What are the things we are doing now that limit us from doing anything differently.
In some workshops I have used these concepts to bring a deeper set of questions to work we are doing. For example, with a group of Native radio stations with whom we were trying to determine their impact, we kicked off a conversation with the question”If you were to disappear tomorrow, what would your community miss?” This dealing with one’s death is a great way to determine the impact you are having now, and it truly leads to a deeper reflection on what is going on.
Share:
My friend Tenneson Woolf sent along a glimpse of the wholeness that is an Art of Hosting gathering. Tenneson and I work a lot together doing these things, and this is the best version of what happens over four days:
1. Arrival. Coming Present. Feeling Shared Purpose.
The intention of this first time, often in an evening, is to help people arrive. Show up. Begin to see each other. Begin to see more of themselves. To open participants to being in the event context, in the learning space, and in the community for the next period of time. To begin to feel, beyond words, a sense of shared purpose. Some of this is letting go of what participants bring to the room. For many, we carry pretty big to-do lists wherever we go. We are committed to speed and efficiency. The intent in this first period is to find another way into the accomplishment that we want. It has the feel of slowing down, so that we can speed up. It is about moving deeper so that from that depth, we might work faster and in more sustainable ways. It usually involves a welcome by the sponsor. It usually involves overall sharing of context – the process we will be in over the next days. It usually involves a question, “Why did you choose to come here?” I’ve seen it work very well with a circle. I’ve seen it work very well with a world café. I’ve seen people at the end of this first evening delighted and surprised by how close they feel to other participants in such a short period of time and by how clear the purpose is.
2. Deepening In. Dreaming. Indentifying Questions.
The intention of this second time, often a full day, is to deepen in. To begin to note the many layers of assumptions, questions, and beliefs that are part of the work we do. It is increasingly rare for any of us, individuals or teams, to take time to imagine what our work could also be. And yet it is increasingly common for us to need better ways to do our work. Many of us are accountable in our doing within very demanding deadlines. Many are without time to pause and look more broadly at the purpose and the practicalities of our work and how we must innovate our working together. Or what new insights we have learned through our experience. Or what conditions have changed in the world that require us to adapt some of our previous plans. I have seen this work very well, again in circle and café, and also in appreciative inquiry. I have seen it work well in open space, particularly when the invitation is to stay conceptual rather than tactical. It is a time to ask questions like, “What is going on in the world that makes this work important?” Or, what are the core questions that if given attention would further strengthen our ability to do the work that we know matters and that we care about? Or what are the images of the future that we can see that we want to begin building in the present? I’ve seen people in a mix of places by the end of this day. Some are full – without any plenary speakers, there is a lot of information that has been shared and created. Some are tired – listening in conversation is hard work. Some are elated – they feel the quality of learning, work, and relationships that is beginning to spark new images of possibility. And some are frustrated – to let go of a personal viewpoint amidst a sea of other viewpoints can be a real challenge to individual or shared identity.
3. Listening. Letting Come. Doing the Work.
The intention of this third time, often another full day, is to roll up our sleeves and get to work. It is the kind of work that many crave, and that some arrive ready to do on the first evening. However, doing the work on this third day is very different than if done on the first night. Work on this day comes from a greater sense of community, and thus sustainability. It comes from a greater sense of colleagues who have come to see each other at more rich and more whole levels. Work on this day comes from the process of seeing our own opinions and beliefs change as we have been actively learning with others. It comes from a sense of shared story, of enriched sense of purpose. It comes from a place of shared commitment rather than obligation. I have seen this work very well in open space formats. People name the topics that they most care about. Others self-select into joining them, and they get to work. I have seen teams uniquely united on this day. The response I often here from participants is surprise at how quickly things moved and how detailed and practical they were. Whereas the previous day felt more conceptual, this day is more tactical and leaves people feeling a great sense of tangible outcome.
4. Taking it Out of the Room. Action at Home.
The intention of this last time, often a half or two thirds of a day, is to further solidify what participants take with them to apply in their local settings. For some it is asking a few more questions. For some it is setting a clear intention. For some it is connecting with a few more people. For some it is listening to one more teaching or model. I have seen this work well with knowledge cafes, circles, and action open spaces. It is a time to help people clarify their next first steps, whether in content, process, relationships, or strengthening fields. It is also about taking the surprise, the reawakened memory or strengthened sense of community and applying it. Practicing it. Doing the work in our local places of work and community. It is about a commitment to action, wise action that is simple, clear, and sustainable. And it is a time to close well, often with simple ritual, to seal the learning space that we have had together. I have seen many people share heartfelt expressions of love and appreciation here. It is what happens when we realign with our deepest sense of purpose.
Share:
Day zero here at the Shambhala Summer Institute here in Halifax. The staff of the ALIA Institute have been working hard to get everything ready for us, and today people started to arrive. Over the past could of days the faculty have been meeting in a little pre-institute retreat, building our own field and grabbing the chance to have conversations with one another. We’ve been getting a little taste of each other’s modules, playing with some of the creative process that is going on and generally catching up with each and getting a sense of our field.
Today we held a little open space and one of the things we were invited to do was give some thought to what is alive in the field of the Institute this summer. Sensing like this helps us to be able to pay attention to the collective experience and gives voice to what is showing up, and what we can serve. At the conclusion of the Open Space, we checked out and I harvested a little poem that captures something of the flavour or what we’re in. Part of the set up for this poem is knowing that today the weather has been wild with high winds and driving drizzle, and even though the air is warm, there is a sense that the winter/spring part of the year is keen to leave its legacy on the summer/fall part.
Here’s the poem:
What’s alive in this field
We’re going to be at home.
The depth of passion that we own
expands out to connect
the alternatives that sing, circumspect,
from the hill tops,
that reach the ears of the young
who stand in the storm, sung
songs of drenched longing,
wanting to tap creative energy
to quiver with the joy that
lives in the edge of death and life
the light that redraws the breath of summer.
The directions are called,
the integration invites a falling into place
a space of compassionate embrace
of all we are related to.
My daughter – an image held in the hand,
at arms length, on a touch –
there is much that is held here,
much that isn’t here.
What is clear is not-knowing –
uncertainty growing like the clouds
of drizzle that shower our container
Can you feel the wind?
Can you feel the breath?
Settle down. Then step.
Share:
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 than thou effect that this kind of stifling aloofness has on groups of people. And Euan names the price that it takes:
- Every time someone is faced with a pompous response to a suggestion or idea they take one step back and become much less likely to ever offer their heartfelt thoughts again. Imagine the impact this has on the creativity and innovation that organisations depend on.
- Many, many meetings could be done in less than half the time if there wasn’t a need to feed the ego of the chairperson or more vocal participants. How many times have things gone on way too long because someone likes the sound of his own voice?
- How many millions and millions of pounds have been spent because someone was too pumped up and full of themselves to admit that perhaps the major project they are sponsoring should be aborted?
- How many fledgling social media projects get squashed by IT departments because “professionals” have had their nose put out of joint at “amateurs” thinking they know better?
- How many bright, committed and intelligent potential senior managers have failed to step up to the mark because they couldn’t face the antler clashing and ego massaging that goes on in the boardroom?
I have recently had the experience of people saying to me that the work I do would never work with such-and-such a group of people. My response to them is nothing will work with people if you don’t believe them capable of doing something different or trying something new. I have been responding to these kinds of limiting beliefs with two questions:
- How do you show up with a group of people when you believe they are not capable of something?
- How do YOU show up when something thinks YOU are incapaable of something?
That tends to take care of the holier than thou attitudes. A little empathy, a little creative tension, a little mutual compassion for the other helps makes designs for new and difficult things easier. These questions force us to really consider whether we are more capable than someone else. It forces a conscious awareness of the choice you are making when you adopt the pompous stance.
I choose to believe that people are capable of engaging in all kinds of things, from sitting in circles (the scariest thing in the world, if you would believe some) to radically letting go of huge projects they were working on because they weren’t going anywhere.
Lately I have been making an explcit request of clients that we create design teams for events and processes that DON’T include cynics. That is not to say that we don’t need people bringing concerns and challenging questions to the work, it’s just that when you have someone in a design team that does not believe in the possibility of what you are trying to create, so much energy gets taken up catering to the unhelpful pomposity of the rightous skeptic that the design suffers and in the worst case scenario, the result is a design that just serves the status quo. I have, in the last couple of years actually “fired” a client who wanted me to help create the illusion of a participatory event but who could not allow himself to actually let a participatory event unfold. He was completely unwilling to let go of control and unwilling to trust people. He even described the people he was working with, government employees in First Nations communities, as “children that need to be shown the answer.” There is a huge cost to this kind of stance in time, trust and the ability for groups to actually hold the real fears and concerns that they have. What do you think is possible when you work with someone who considers an important policy gathering to be like a daycare?
So start with possibility and create the space for inquiry, curiosity and yes even judgement to arise. But if you start with these things, you will not be able to create creative spaces of possibility because you will get mired down in the energetics of unhelpful politics, posing and pomposity. Staying in possibility is hard, but it is the only way we get to new places. More of the same is too deceptively simple.