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Recent thinking on participatory engagement

September 21, 2010 By BC, Collaboration, Community, Design, Facilitation 8 Comments

I recently wrote a white paper for a First Nations organization on participatory community engagement.  The paper outlines several models, principles and processes that I am mcurrently working with as I help groups design and implement longer term community engagement processes.

Here is the most recent version of the paper for your reading, in .pdf format. The paper talks about mental models and comes from a perspective of decolonization.  I’d love to have your thoughts in the comments so I can refine it further.

“Every little nuance counts when you’re on the edge of what’s possible.”

September 20, 2010 By Being One Comment

What it’s like to fly with  Peregrine Falcons & Gos Hawks:

Purpose

September 20, 2010 By BC, Leadership One Comment

Lovely report here on the use of the Art of Hosting apaproach, Theory U and others of our social technologies in health care renewal in Nova Scotia.

Within the report is a lovely little quote from My dear friend Toke Moeller: “Purpose is the invisible leader.”

Given some of the work I’m doing in the next couple of weeks, that is a very good motto for me.

The week’s tweets

September 19, 2010 By Notes

  • Good steady rain fills our creeks with whispers that will bring our salmon home. #
  • RT @JustASpur: The most bizarre penalty ever? And it resulted in the keeper's team being knocked out of the Cup! http://youtu.be/0MaLGdC3als #
  • Arrived in Kuujjuaq…very warm here in this dusty northern Quebec town. Busy place and lots of blackflies around too. #
  • Eating hummus and rice crackers at the Kuujjuaq Inn while designing a meeting with polar bear hunters. Incongruous is how the North does it. #
  • Stunning morning in Kuujjuaq. No wind and a bright blue sky with a hard sun to warm the inukshuks around town. #
  • Facilitating a meeting in Kuujjuaq which is happening mostly in Inuktitut is an interesting thing to be doing on a Tuesday morning. #
  • Strained my neck staring up at the northern lights tonight in Kuujjuaq. Stunning bright curtains of silent light twisting around Jupiter. #
  • Just back from a morning picking berries on the tundra, eating bowhead muktuk and listening to hunters talk about polar bears. Good meeting. #
  • Another clear and sunny morning in Kuujjuaq. Heading to Montreal this evening, 900 miles south and a world away. #
  • Back in cold and rainy Montreal for the night before heading home tomorrow with a bunch of crowberries and a song about picking them. #
  • Back to Vancouver but missed the ferry cutoff by 4 minutes so stuck in Horseshoe Bay for 2.5 hours. Grrr. #
  • Back home on Bowen. Is it raining? Yes it is! Dripping from a flat grey sky. #

On my way home

September 16, 2010 By Uncategorized

Our meeting ended well today.  The hunters continued to deliberate this morning and true to their pattern they drafted a couple of resolutions and presented them to government.  The meeting was considered a success in that it was the first time polar bear hunters came from Nunasiavut, Nunavik and Nunavut to connect and share stories and work together on their issues.  A unified statement came from the gathering which was the result of their deliberations together.  As it went yesterday, I did very little “facilitation” today except to simply hold space and observe the dynamics.

I’ll have a little more to write as a result of this meeting, especially with thoughts on the preparation and planning and design that went into making this meeting work on one level, while at the same time I was able to completely let go of the plan and the process.

In the meantime, here is a song I wrote out on the tundra as I was picking berries:

Chorus:

Blackberry crowberry growing low down
Blackberry crowberry growing on the ground
Blackberry crowberry growing low down
Growing low down on the tundra

Land all covered in pinks and green
Low bushes, low bushes picking them clean
And high in the sky on a clear northern night
Pinks and greens in the northern lights.

Chorus

Koksoak River flows both ways
Tide flowing in from Ungava Bay
Rocks on the ridge and little larch trees
Crawling around on my hands and knees

Chorus

Bugs in the north ain’t like bugs in the south
Blackflies crawling in the corner of your mouth
Swarming your face, getting stuck in your hair,
Breathing in more bugs than air.

Chorus

You’ve been sneaking some berries I can see it on your face
Crowberry juice all over the place.
Purple stain all around your chin
Now get back down we gotta fill this bin

Chorus

Getting late in the day and our picking’s done
Sweating like a bog in the midsummer sun
Settling down to some bannock and tea
And a little bit of muktuk for you and me.