Author: Tenneson Woolf

I pay a lot of attention to expressions in checkout circles. It is a great way to hear and feel some of the deeper threads of what has happened. Everything from very serious comments to very playful ones. It is quite a thing to witness to the group what has been meaningful.

Last week in Nova Scotia at the Art of Social Innovation, here are a couple of those expressions that stayed with me.

-“It has been a great privilege to be here. I feel like I know everyone here, even without talking to everyone.” (I love this as an expression of strength of learning field, feeling the whole.)
-“This is a great collection of human beings.” (Great to honor the skill in the room, the inquiry in the room, and the love shared.)
-“I feel quite renewed. I felt shaken earlier. Fragile. Our time outside with the trees helped me to feel stronger.” (I like this because it speaks well of the fragile qualities we all carry at times, and of the way place, Windhorse Farm in this case, supports us.)
-“Even when you are alone you can give yourself a big high five.” (The smile that came with this was enormous.)
-“You’re not the boss of apple sauce.” (OK, this is just plain useful. Thanks Sheila. It carries very naturally to work and family.)

-“I don’t share my emotions much. But this is what I feel now.” (I do love the cracking open that I experience in myself and that I see in others. It is such a strong condition for doing good work. Sometimes it feels as simple as meeting in our humanity and friendship. So that we can be in our a depth of work that matches the scale of our dreams.)
-“This has brought the sacred and the sabath into work such that it doesn’t feel like work.” (I do hold this work as sacred. Meeting in conversation to do what we care about is sacred to me. Important. Inspiring. Glad to hear it expressed so heartfully here.)
-“We are the sum of all relationships we’ve every been in.” (And perhaps the ones across generations also. Thanks Jerry for bringing this piece. I heard him offering it as a description of how many of us were fed in this gathering.)

Thanks to all for a powerful learning week that contributes to a field of working cooperatively at scale.

I am in Nova Scotia co-hosting The Art of Social Innovation with Tim Merry, Kathy Jourdain, and Sera Thompson. We are at Windhorse Farm. A lovely place for hosting a group in deep learning and change.

We have completed two of four days together. We have been in circle to share story and feel a sense of purpose. We have been in cafe to deep our questions around purpose. We have been in open space to witness projects in process and explore some of the uncomfortable questions we are living in social innovation. We have been in the forest for communion and inner reflection. We have played.

We are 43 people. Leaders of movements and projects. Human beings in learning. Thanks to some great stewarding by Greg Judelman, many are posting real time harvests — photos, impressions, thoughts, poetry, OS learnings, video at www.artofsocialinnovation.com.

I feel gifted by many learnings here and many friendships here. After two days, there are many that I want to have dinner with, listen with, explore with.  We hold this as a gathering of “all as teacher.” Ideas are popping for me. Each that I want to give attention to and that will live in me. A few headlines below.

From Steve Prather, a friend and colleague in Utah, with whom I am exploring a community wide wellness initiative — “Getting centered changes everything. Just being is powerful.” So glad Steve accepted this invitation to come.

From Phyliss, Jerry, Tim — the space of poetry and song that deepens my own practice of harvesting through poetry.

With Kathy Jourdain and with thanks to Sheri Herndon, working with the concept of Energetic Architecture. What is the simple that we can do in relationship together to intentionally set and work with the energy of a space and of a group. From big broad thinking to simple practices.

So much here. So much more. And breakfast calls.

OK, so I’ve long been interested in the quantum nature of experience. There is something in me that has always been drawn in. There is something in me that feels from a deeper, intuitive place, “ah, yes, here is a map that rings true with my sense of what is happening, what is imaginable, and what is possible.” I don’t speak as a trained quantum science guy. But I do speak as a trained social science person — degrees in psychology and organizational behavior. Funny to think how these formal parts of my life have taken shape around the deeper, intuitive knowing.

Thinking over the last 25 years or so, I find it interesting to notice the experiences and resources that have captured my attention. Captured. Noticeably so. There have been people. My uncle, Vern Woolf, a quantum social scientist, who first introduced me to such notions. My grandmother, Lena Ross, who practiced social transformation and wrote poetry, and, who opened my curiosity as much as anyone just because of how she lived. My friend and colleague, Meg Wheatley, who continues to live beyond frontiers of the known. There have been numerous books that seemed like isolated reads in the moment, yet continue to integrate in me and change my life. Vern’s Holodynamics. My grandma’s So Roses Can Grow. Meg’s Leadership and the New Science, and Turning to One Another. Timothy Ferris’ The Minds Sky. Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade (which my Grandmother Lena introduced me to). Fritjof Capra and David Steindle-Rast’s Belonging to the Universe. Dean Radin’s Entangled Minds. Fantastic poetry by David Whyte and Mary Oliver. So many more. These are just a few that have stayed with me that I think of this morning.

In the spirit of just noticing and naming, coming back to the fire to share journey so to speak, I’m reading from a book by Carl Johan Calleman, The Purposeful Universe. The chapter from this morning gives attention to quantum entanglements: “Quantum entanglement is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects are linked together so that one object can no longer be adequately described without full mention of its counterpart — even though the individual objects may be spatially separated. This interconnection leads to correlations between observable physical properties of remote systems.”

As a consultant, a social scientist, an intuitive practitioner, a human being — there is something in this that grabs my attention now, just as it did in my early introductions to quantum worlds. “Ah, a map that can embrace more of the whole, more of the mystery, and more of what has felt like isolated realms of spiritualism, mysticism, etc.” This level of linking, of entanglement, inspires my sense of what is possible as human beings living in this time. Yes, working in organizations — is it possible for us to link so closely around shared intention and purpose that our actions could become so entangled, or more informed and coordinated through entanglement? And yes, organizing as communities — in the spirit of massive connection that is now possible, could it be that deeply shared and co-created purpose (often now in the form of movements) enables us, in our entanglement, to move with the dexterity more akin to a school of fish? And yes, in relationships, in love. Whether familial in the way that parents entangle with their children (I have known this as a child, and as a parent), or in the love and intimacy of another, soul twins or soul kin — even though spatially separated, could it be that there is an invisible connectedness, that renders us living integrated and available to each other as a whole? It is what traditionally has been spoken only by poets. How lovely to just let that wash over us.

I hope, believe, and experience enough of each of these, that further helps me to see this map. To further make sense of what is happening, what is imaginable, and what is possible.

Quantum entanglement — yup.

Grateful. And inspired by possibility that it invites.

I’m working with Berkana friends (Debbie Frieze, Martin Siesta, Lauren Parks) to plan a learning event this fall. We’ve had a few calls now that I’m appreciating as a good beginning. Exploring together some of the heart of why this gathering matters, what we would intend to harvest from it, who we imagine as participants (Berkana Board, leaders in several of Berkana’s initiatives), and the beginnings of an invitation to reflect our calls. Specific design will come later. For now, however, it is important to know that the tone of this gathering will be sharing stories.

Berkana is doing and living what I’m hearing as a desire from so many groups now. To connect, and for a time, journey side by side to hear and share stories and learnings. It’s not a casual thing. The stories are big enough that we really need to honor them in a space of together.

I’ve loved some the harvest below from our calls: a few of the intentions and principles for the event. I’m sharing them here, aware that for many people that lead in networks and communities of practice, these are helpful names for needed strategic learning together.

-support the experience of individuals and how they are connected to initiatives and the whole of the network / movement
-connect to the vision and center of working in the network, as side by side journeyers / practitioners
-meet in different way, co-created to harvest from shared story and experience (including the harvest of relationships and energy)
– connect little fires to big fires
-see the whole and practice, as a way of living, the belief that the whole is different and more than the parts (a long held belief that arises from work over the last two decades in self-organization and emergence)

Deep principles. Important and needed. And really good to be working this with friends.