I’ve referenced Glen Lauder several times on this site. He is, among other things, a friend and colleague in New Zealand who can’t help but get to the core of things. He is one of the best I know in working with groups.
Glen offered these words below last year, which I recently shared with a group I was facilitating. I think of them as a kind of invitation to begin. They loved it. I wasn’t surprised. I post them here with Glen’s permission.
You may not get this
Straight away
The people who might get it straight away
May not be here
That might be an issue
Because they matter
And it might matter
That you don’t get this
It might matter, that you Do
The people who are not here
Who might get this much more easily might be
Women
Maori
People who are not in positions of power or analysis
People who in some way are alienated, excluded,
Or have a different viewpoint.
Or they might be off building something.
Growing something.
Unfolding something completely new.
They are our entrepreneurs.
You can be that, here.
You can be an Intrepreneur.
Someone who finds a better way inside where you are.
But not by being how you have been being.
Not the same.
Not the same doing.
And not asking to have the same stuff as before.
Not more Guidance that doesn’t work.
Not more Process that you developed for others to follow.
Not more policy that they have had no chance to own.
But as an intrepid explorer who travels with others in respectful partnership
That holds that the whole is important as well as the parts
And that all the parts matter.
Who is willing not to know
To feel lost
To admit despair
To witness profound failure and not turn away.
Because we are facing profound failure right now, and turning away.
Those who are willing to find this new way are turning to face that
Turning to one another and saying
There must be a better way.
That is
what this is.
Let us turn
to that
Now.
