I’m a sucker for principles, because principles help us to design and do what is needed and help us to avoid bringing pre-packaged ideas and one-size-fits-all solutions to every problem. And of course, I’m a sucker for my friend Meg Wheatley. Today, in our Art of Hosting workshop in central Illinois, Tenneson Woolf and Teresa Posakony brought some of Meg’s recent thinking on these principles to a group of 60 community developers working in education, child and family services, and restorative justice. We’re excited to be working nwith these principles in the work we’re doing with Berkana Institute. Here’s what …
Today, the new moon rises, a time of aupicious beginnings, especially coming so close to the winter solstice. These are important moments in Nuu-Cha-Nulth culture, and the times are important in Nuu-Chah-Nulth history. Last month, five Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribes won a landmark court case that gave them the right to sell the fish that they catch. Not on an industrial scale mind you, but on a scale big enough to create small local commercially viable fisheries for communities that desperately need both the work and the reconnection to the sea. Moreover, the courta case declared this as an Aboriginal right, a …
As part of a global call to host Inner Climate Global Villages, tomorrow my daughter Aine and I will host a cafe at her learning centre with 16 young people aged 11-14 on these questions: What is it as young people that helps us feel connected to a big global issue like climate change without fear? How can we learn and contribute and make change from a place that is not based in fear? As part of the day we will be watching this video on fun behaviour change. We will try to harvest with video and photos and send …
Today John Inman had a great post on using the world cafe for a five hour strategic planning session with a non-profit. His process works as follows: First I asked that the whole system be in the retreat. We had board members, a customer, grant writer, community member, and contractors. 1. Introduction in group setting 2. Introduce the process 3. Pose the question 4. Three cafe tables with three people each, start the cafe 5. Three rounds of conversation each 20 minutes 6. Returned people to original table and asked them to capture the main themes at each table. 20 …
“My grandmother was the one that inspired me,” said my friend Liz over lunch at the Valley Inn in Bella Coola. “She said that the world was once all together, and then it came apart and one day it will be all together again. So I just try to bring things together.” Liz is a pretty remarkable woman. She worked for years in family reunification in Vancouver, bringing together First Nations kids with their birth families, reconnecting them to their culture and communities. She is at home now in Bella Coola on council, working for the Ministry as a social …