Simple conditions for shift

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 their pursuit for change to the better.

Simple eh?   Right.   The shifting power one is especially interesting to me.   Working with leaders to move control and power to their people is the most challenging aspect of working systemic change.   Without this shift, only constrained action is possible and sustainability is difficult.   With a shift, many things can unfold and the people themselves can take responsibility for the results.

Where this really hits the ground, it seems to me, is in the process of invitation and calling.   Leaders who are callers must be willing to let go of power and control if new levels of work and being are to emerge.   They also have to shift the culture of the organization or community from an answer-based one to a curiosity-based one, where inquiry and co-sensing becomes a normal way of working.   Communicating this in an invitation to a gathering is difficult and not adequate.   We look at many more ways to invite that builds a field of inquiry, an appetite for curiosity so that when people meet together it is simeply one phase in an ongoing project to change the way things are done.

So what are your experiences in shifting power and generating curiosity, especially in large groups?