Author: Tenneson Woolf

Dialogue poems are one way to harvest. There are a growing number of us that are catching the words spoken in circle, and with a bit of jazz-like play with them, turning them into poems written by the group. It is quite a thing for people to hear themselves through captured words and integrated images. This week at Arnprior AoH, Chris Corrigan, Esther van Gennip and I each offered some of this. For Esther, I think they were her first — and it was total standing ovation!

Here is the one that I harvested. It was some sharing from participants after being hosted by Jane Lindsay on the work, developed by the ADIEWA Centre, of finding our deep, grounded, belly voices — resonant voices.

And with thanks to Lorraine for her encouragement to me to further share harvest through audio files.

The written text is also below. Or download it here.

Additional Harvest
– a few of my photos (my favorite, Harvest Faces from an OS group)
–photo collection / movie (Diane King)
-Esther’s dialogue poem from a cafe on Preparing the Ground
-Esther’s dialogue poem from a closing circle on commitments and declarations, Hobbits Rising

 

 

Last week I co-hosted a Berkana gathering, “Weaving the Web.” Held in upstate New York, near Rosendale, this was a gathering of immensely inspiring people from around the world, each part of initiatives connected into the Berkana family. Manish and Reva from India and Swaraj, a progressive university of unlearning. Jackie from Zimbabwe’s Kufunda Learning Village. Edgard from Brazil. Mabule and Nomundi from Southern Africa. The Berkana Board. Art of Hosting and Berkana Exchange colleagues and friends. It was for me, overall, a place of coming home. It was a place of deep ease and appreciation. It leaves me remembering a deep sense of belonging that I feel with Berkana.

One of the learnings for me in this time was a few next levels on communities of practice that are feeling particularly helpful now. A bit on the “what” of that follows. The “why” is easy to seen in many places. People are yearning to form into more deliberate groups with ability to improve them and offer themselves in a way that is helpful. It was so true working earlier this month with labour educators and the Canadian Labour Congress. It is apparent working with participants this week in Arnprior at the Art of Hosting.

The what…

-With Aerin Dunford and others during an open space session on some of the differences between networks and communities of practice. We were talking about how the term “communities of practice” sometimes feels prematurely imposed on a group that, though they may want to become a more deliberate community, aren’t. Communities of Practice agree to particular steps, sometimes very simple, that are shared and practiced (implemented, expressed) by the group. Our example that we spoke of in South Africa was one of parenting. You can form a group of people who are committed to parenting. This is important work, connecting in to a network and building relationships. But Communities of Practice agree to particular steps together — in parenting, to be together at particular times of the week. And then, they agree to return together to share their learning, experience, stories, and in so doing, discover next shared practices.
-As many of us are now teaching with a model that grounds Berkana work, there are key leadership acts. Naming pioneers. Connecting in networks. Nurturing communities of practice. Illuminating systems of influence. The leadership act is to help the group begin. To host and participate in conversations that help a group choose its minimal steps together. For example, in my local practitioners circle we agree to three things: 1) meeting in circle once a month for two hours, 2) the focus of each gathering is on applied use of participative leadership in a project, and 3) we harvest and share our learning.

Gratitude to Berkana friends.

One of the things that I found most helpful last week working with the Canadian Labour Congress was an appreciative interview process — “What do you do when you don’t know what to do?” It is an important question for any of us working with and facilitating groups. Particularly so when when I think of the kind of new learning that most of us are experiencing and inviting as we use collaborative processes.

Colleagues, Esther Matte and Kim Yardy lead us in this process. The invitation was first to meet in pairs and tell a story of a time working with groups when we didn’t know what to do. And from there, notice what were some of the practices that we counted on to help us get through that time. Then from their, join with two additional pairs to hear the gist of the stories and notice together the collective insight of practices.

I was very moved by these stories and our inquiry together. Stories from the five different unions. Everything from working with a group that had evolved into very violent, gang-like

behaviors to helping to support retired workers with pensions. The stories were rich. Personal. Examples of times when each of us were stuck.

There were three practices that felt very strong and clear for me, that I offer here as a topic that I want to continue to explore.

1. Welcome Fear as a Teacher — Thanks in particular to my colleague Kai Lai for this one. Kai was helping me to learn again about leaning into fear, whether it be nervousness, or insecurity, or just complete never-been-seen-before newness. I appreciate Kai’s depth to be able to see the unique learning that is available in the moment if we move towards the fear rather than away from it. It is learning for that moment, teaching. It is certainly learning for the next times, leading groups also.
2. Ask for Help — I had shared a few stories about times when I have not known what to do, and that in the best of times, I simply asked for help from the group. It is a shift from an infallible facilitator (or as Meg Wheatley calls it, leader as hero) to a shared commitment to learning and hosting. I also like the indigenous teaching on this shared by my friend Chris Corrigan — “it is kind to ask for help.”
3. Count on Intuition and Experience — Mike Powers in particular helped me to see this one because we had more time together. But I found it as a common thread across the six of us in the group. Counting on experience, or trusting in it, is to welcome insights to show up. The insights may not make complete rational sense, as we are often looking for, but they are a form of another kind of knowing. Promptings that I sense many of us are learning about as we continue to face new glimpses of the future.

There was so much to love in these labour leaders. I particularly loved the sense that they can take what we learned together and apply it across so many contexts in which they work. With them it feels like a movement is not only possible, but probable. That networks can grow into powerful communities of practice. That a shift in culture is well-supported and in reach, and that can make a huge difference on how labour education happens in Canada, and how social justice is supported.

A few photos from this event are here.

Also a poem created by Barb Saxberg of responses from this exercise is here.

– Just completed AoH with Labour Educators. A gift to be part of such movements and with friends who are learning at edges.

– Great ride from Toronto to Port Elgin with Lynn (CLC) and Esther. Talking about “democracy deficit” and the case for organized labour.

– On my way to Port Elgin, Ontario to begin a week of work with Canadian Labour Congress. And I hope a piece of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

– Living this — We project meaning upon symbols, and in so doing, come to understand more of our inner condition that creates outer reality.

– Cafe Zinger Bowen AoH — Thomas Brackett on stretching: “What would it take for us to experience the chasm stretch of not-knowing as dance?”

– Cafe Zinger, Bowen Island — Chris Corrigan on emergence: “When everybody takes something that nobody came with.”

– People arriving on Bowen for AoH. Beginning tonight with a cafe on the stretch of today that makes it important for us to learn together.

– Headed to Seattle, then Bowen Island to host AoH. Feeling quite excited to see friends on the participant list. New learning here we come.

Twitter: TennesonWoolf