Principles to Get to Emergence

Debbie Frieze is among many things, Co-President of The Berkana Institute. She and Tim Merry and I co-hosted a recent Art of Hosting training in Boston. One unique aspect of this AoH was the deliberate weaving of Berkana Exchange stories, maps, and models with AoH stories, maps, and models. I was very moved by one piece in particular — the change model that Debbie shared (S-curve) and the framing of what helps us get to emergence. Debbie spoke several stories of people working with little to nothing to create vibrant local communities, and, connect into global community of practice. For me this was also a strong framing about creating systems of influence.

I asked Debbie what she has learned are some of those key principles (and the stories are really moving). I’m finding myself telling these quite a bit since our event. She shared the following:

· Start anywhere, follow it everywhere. (Courtesy of Myron Kellner-Rogers.)
· The leaders we need are already here. (Meg Wheatley)
· We have what we need.
· We make our path by walking it.
· We walk at the pace of the slowest. (Zapatistas)
· We are learning how to live the future now. (We are creating the worlds we want today.)
· We listen, even to the whispers.

Powerful Ideas

A collection of ideas / quotes that are showing up to me through readings, friends, etc. Good for lots, including inviting presence and sealing energy in checkouts.

* Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman

Interested in This

I’m at the Essex Conference and Retreat Center for an Art of Hosting called by Berkana. The theme is Taking Social Innovation to Scale — I’m really excited about it. New ground to weave Berkana and Art of Hosting. To get a sense of who was coming, I mapped the participants responses to three questions. These responses carry a lot of energy and give me a glimpse into a deeper level of purpose. Very cool to think of this mix, this group of people focused on this theme, and where this kind of work is showing up in the world.

First, the organizations…
Leave Out ViolencE, Altarum, Center for Trauma Intervention, Christian Church, Department of Mental Retardation, New Prosperity Initiatiative, Sustainable Cape Ann, Samaya Consulting, Asset-Based Community Development, Seacoast Attunement Practitioners, Common Ground New Zealand, Fleming School, Spirit Beam Writers, Generative Change Community, North Shore Community College.

Second, why did you choose to accept this invitation? A few patterns I notice…
Wanting to deepen facilitation skills to work with groups; fellowship with peers to play ideas with each other; application to particular fields like public health, nursing, sustainability; build a community of practice in the Cambridge area; to take talk to action; to practice dialogue as a potent and powerful tool.

Third, what burning questions do you have? Again, patterns…
So much here about application, tools, diving deeper into purpose, connection that transcends, developing an ongoing process of creation and learning.

Last, what projects are you using this in? I love this…
Strategic planning; working with youth; HIV / AIDS; Homelessness; 2008 Reunion on Sustainability; Meadowlark Institute for Social Change in North Dakota; Portsmouth Art of Hosting; Management Development; Nursing Screenplay and Videos; Center for Engaging Community; Social Artistry; School District; Women’s Leadership; World Cafe for 3,000 people at 2009 Assembly; Non-violent Traditions to Climate Change; Strategic Plan for Global Warming in Oceanside Communities; Generation Y; Shifting an old building to a community center; Protecting Wilderness.

One little taste of the diversity that shows up at this Art of Hosting. There are about15 people from the Boston or NE area. About 15 have come from other areas.

Circle and Ceremony Workshop

A couple of days ago, I cohosted a workshop on circle and ceremony with Ramona Sierra of Sierra Earthworks Foundation, and John Kesler with whom I co-direct the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community. We had 3.5 hours to work with. Thirty-five people signed up and participated at a beautiful location, the Chase Peterson Building, on the University of Utah campus.

We offered brief introduction on purpose. In this case, the workshop was designed to help people learn and practice circle and ceremony as methods of engaging community, of building deeper connections, or enspirited community.

We had intended a simple check-in circle for people to share a bit on who they are and a bit of why they chose to come to the workshop. However, as we were about to begin that circle, I realized I felt it served better to combine that circle with what was to be the next, which was to speak to the need that any of us were seeing in the world (community, work, family, nation) that requires us to practice the different kind of leadership, the hosting.

The circle began with Ramona selecting a talking piece, a beautiful beaded and feathered stick. I had set some time boundaries, one minute per person. This circle went deep quite quickly, yet stayed in the time framing. The words and energy that were shared were very beautiful. People shared their desire to learn, to connect, to reach out, to be in an authentic space, to slow down. Some shared stories from their respective lives and causes: a refugee community, a woman’s recovery center, a city diversity program, a character education program, documentary arts films, children, hospice work. We were a beautifully diverse group coming to sense in each other ourselves and the beauty of connection.

We took a break after this round, and upon returning asked a simple question, a time-out kind of question. What just happened here? I loved what people spoke, some of which is below.
– Hope and possibility became visible.
– There was a safe place for emotion.
– People were listening with their whole being – this was the invitation spoken by my colleague Ramona to begin – what are the other ways that we can listen with each other?
– The circle creates flow.
– In a minute we were able to say enough about what was important to us and create a container to stand shoulder to shoulder.
– The energy shifted when our stories got more personal.

I suppose it is true that we planned on these kind of things. But we did not design explicity for this. It was not a workshop on creating safe places. Though we touched some of this, I feel we just set conditions and held the space for this to be possible. The way that people entered and participated is what created the stronger impressions for people. And this led them to offer a few gems in checkout — “you’ve expanded my life; I take you with me.”

This experience of circle reaffirms what I know and have experienced from other circles:
– people want to witness each other and want to be witnessed. And even more significantly, it can happen at a surprisingly deep level in a surprisingly short period of time.
– people want the experience of being open hearted or maybe full-hearted in community. We don’t necessarily start speaking it that way, but the form, the circle, activates and reminds us of this experience.
– circle creates the quality of listening that enables us to build. It creates relationship with each other, a chance to hear a bit of story. I shared with them what has become one of my favorite lines on story — “the shortest distance between two people is a story.”

There were many gems that were shared in this circle. These are gems that I carry with me now, even if just for a season. They are bits that are embodied in the turquoise bead that each of us received thanks to Ramona.

And there was simple humor – the transparency of one participant sharing that she didn’t know anyone in the room and actually brought a book to read in case she got bored. We all laughed, relating, and yet knowing the very clear experience of not hiding in a circle. The form gently requires us to show up, which sadly, is often avoidable or not possible in many forms of meeting.

Gratitude for the simple power of a circle. It is the form, the invitation, the energy that builds that helps people feel both friendship and deep learning and that then inspires ideas to use in our respective areas of work and life. Gratitude to Ramona and John, and to the participants that support a process that very easy to feel for a long time.

Photos

Invitation

Circle Handout

Harvest Document

Design

1:15 Welcome
CEC – John Kesler

1:20 Context, Workshop Shape, and Circle Introduction
Ramona, Tenneson

1:45 Circle
Ramona, Tenneson
Who are you?
Why did you choose to come to this workshop today?
What is the need that you see in your world that requires us to meet and lead differently?

2:30 Break

2:45 Noticings From the Circle
Ramona, Tenneson

3:15 Ceremony Introduction
Ramona

3:30 Ceremony / Circle – Gift of Turquoise Bead
Ramona
What do you take with you from this workshop?

4:25 Close & Thanks
John, Ramona, Tenneson