I can’t speak for Mexico, but this fall has had a transformative effective on the other 2 countries in North America. First, Barack Obama. And now here in Canada, the prospect of a progressive coalition unseating the newly elected Conservative minority seems like a more and more likely possibility. So what gives? First of all, the general mood of both countries has shifted to the progressive side of things, although in Canada, a weak Liberal leader and a screwy representational system left the Conservative party with 37% of the vote and the majority of seats and thus the …
Prince George, BC Four years ago less a month I was running a huge Open Space event here in Prince George, in fact in the building that right outside my hotel room window. Called “Seeds of Change” the event was a kick off for the urban Aboriginal Strategy, a community driven and led process intended to begin and seed projects that would make a difference in the lives of the urban Aboriginal community in this northern city of 80,000 people. One of the participants at that event was Ben Berland, who was at the time working with the Prince …
This week in the feedreader: Alison on why the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement makes us complicit in human rights crimes. Lovely little non-verbal film on hope and traditional teachings. Doug Germann on why he is a lawyer. George Nemeth on doing small things Matthew Baldwin reviews great board games for 2008 Ravi Tangri’s blog, an Art of Hosting friend. Otto Scharmer on awakening the giant. Dave Pollard on what you can do to help Obama.
Jack Ricchiuto was writing about narrative the other day: We need to start reviving the narrative aesthetic where stories are more fields of countless possibilities than linear in nature, where the possibilities of meaning are more infinite than finite. We need to stop calling sound bites stories, which they’re not. We need to call stories the narratives that evoke a sense of wonderment more than conclusion. Stories are dear to my heart and storytelling is a practice that seems more and more about who I am. I think one way to help people become story tellers is to practice …
Tenneson Woolf from a harvest poem called How Are You Navigating in the Time of Dramatic Change?: I sound like I don’t know what I am doing, but I do know. I find my way in the immediately infront, the next simple elegant step. The next simple elegant step describes my approach to action. Recently, in our little consulting firm we have adopted a project status process that involves writing down only the next step for each of our projects. When you take the to do list and write it as one thing to do only, one elegant …