Some short notes about various things: Friends of mine in Estonia have started the White Tulip movement to bring peace to a deep seated ethnic conflict that is flaring up there at the moment. In the Ukraine, the 15th annual OpenSpaceonOpenSpace has just concluded and the photos are online. I was reflecting on how much easier it is to harvest from these gatherings now than it was when they began, or even six years ago when we hosted OSonOS in Vancouver. I haven’t plugged Redwire Magazine for a while. Redwire is published by indigenous youth in Vancouver, and it captures …
I’m back from Bella Coola, and reflecting on the remarkable three days of learning and Open Space we did there. Saturday, we held a small community Open Space gathering around the issue of what the community needs to do to prepare for assuming full responsibility over child and family services. This is a provocative question in the Nuxalk Nation. The Nation is a strong and independent community and putting children and families in the centre of any conversation brings heart, passion and commitment. We had a small group of people present for our Open Space. 20 people began the day …
Over on the other coast of Canada, Carman Pirie is documenting the transforomation of his PR firm, colour. Back in August last year, I met Carman who sat with Toke Moeller, Tim Merry, Sera Thompson and I and apprenticed in the Art of Hosting. Now he is helping his firm adopt AoH as the operating system for the organization and for their work with customers. Go friend!
You know how it is when you are so busy that you don’t have time to even think about your blog much less compose an erudite post about everything you are learning? That’s me right now. But here’s a bit of what I have been doing and some things I’m thinking about: Deepening our work with the Vancouver Island Aboriginal Transition Team including a board strategic planning retreat this weekend where we have asked board members to bring one or two people that support them in their work to contribute to the wisdom in the room. How cool a design …
I wasn’t at the Nexus for Change conference although I was there in spirit. I had a few lovely long design talks with Peggy Holman, Gabriel Shirley and Tracy Robinson who were hosting various parts of it. I also followed it online a little and even from a distance it was possible to pick up a thread and extend it a little into my own learning. What stood out for me was this emerging identity as a process artist. John Abbe brought this to my attention with an update to his weblog in which he announced a Nexus project involving …