So it’s been more than thirty days that I have been on my 30 day learning journey, but here is a harvest from some significant conversations. Consider this the tender early sproing greens. There is more to follow. I began this learning journey leaning into thinking about what role I can play in taking change to scale. My reasons for this inquiry have to do with the fact that I am increasingly working with systems, beyond organizations and beyond groups. Also, some of us in the Art of Hosting community and the Berkana Institute are deep in this inquiry as …
I had a lovely conversation the other day with Rob Paterson and Johnnie Moore as we discussed three videos that are lovely examples of living systems in action. It was all recorded and uploaded at The Phoric, and I encourage you to go there and have a look and listen to our conversation. Thanks to Rob and Johnnie for the invitation. What fun!
From a conversation with Tenneson this morning, we were playing with a pattern of shifting systems that flows from skilfully hosted conversations. A simple pattern emerged, which is about bringing people together, shifting power and developing and hosting emerging beauty. In a linear form it goes like this: Gather people together from wholeness, including inviting the deeply personal into the work. Understand and work with a willingness to shift power. Cultivate curiosity: what could we really do together? Harvest what our Navajo friends call “the beauty way” a way forward that serves life and keeps people engaged in …
Two good friends of mine, Roq Gareau who works for the Canadian Border Services Agency and Orlando Pioche who works for the Indian Health Service in Shiprock, NM. Men doing serious work who work together as deep friends. From Wendel Berry: Good work finds the way between pride and despair. It graces with health. It heals with grace. It preserves the given so that it remains a gift. By it, we lose loneliness: we clasp the hands of those who go before us, and the hands of those who come after us; we enter the little circle of each other’s …
From Nancy White, a brilliant video of Tom Sparough juggling cigar boxes and talking about courage. And from Jon Husband, with whom I had a lovely conversation today related to my 30 day learning journey, an mp3 from Ben Zander about possibility.