Archive for December, 2009

Dec/10/09//Curtis Ogden//Collaboration

To Love Is To See

In the abyss I saw how love held bound

Into one volume all the lives whose flight

Is scattered through the universe around.

-Dante Alighieri, from The Divine Comedy

“What’s love got to do with it?”  This is a question that gets raised with increasing frequency in our work at IISC.  Recently, while training a group of health care reformers from around the state of Maine, I presented what we call our “Profile of a Collaborative Change Agent,” which outlines the core attributes of those who, in our experience, are able to maintain a win-win outlook even in the most trying of circumstances.  Sitting conspicuously at the heart of the Profile (see below) is “the L word.”  Nodding heads and knowing smiles, in Maine and elsewhere, are an indication of the growing willingness to seriously consider the role of love in social change work. Profile Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec/09/09//Linda Guinee//Race, Class, Power

Thinking of Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton, a charismatic African American activist and leader in the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, was killed in his sleep 40 years ago December 4th by the combined forces of the FBI, Chicago Police Department and Cook County, IL State’s Attorney’s Office. There have been some great articles written about him over the past week in Racewire and the Huffington Post.

In the days before he was killed, my dad met with Hampton and others from the Party to talk about the Free Breakfast Program the Black Panther Party had started to feed children going to school with empty stomachs. My dad was hoping to connect the food company he worked for with the Chicago program to get donations of breakfast cereal for the program. I was with my dad on the anniversary of Hampton’s death this year – and asked him to retell the story, hoping Alzheimer’s hadn’t taken this memory, though I’ve heard the story many times. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec/08/09//Gibrán Rivera//Race, Class, Power

Power, Equity, Inclusion and Collaboration

Part 2 of Three Lenses for Collaboration

Last week I started writing about the Interaction Institute for Social Change and our three lenses of collaboration.  We are talking about the sort of collaboration that is needed if we are to address the evolutionary challenges that define this historical moment.  We are talking about collaboration that catalyzes our collective wisdom and capacity to think new thoughts, the sort of collaboration that allows us to maximize our shared resources while inviting us to live ourselves into the world we are trying to build.  This is why I call this the lens of democracy, because it is the lens through which we define the best possible ways of being-with. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec/07/09//Marianne Hughes//Inspiration

Confused or Enlightened?

HafizIt is our tradition at IISC at the beginning of every year to send out one of our “classic” postcards to all of our constituents reflecting on the year past and the year to come as well as to announce our upcoming training schedule. As I was writing the introductory paragraph for this years’ I happened to stumble across what I had written last year. With the exception of last years’ reference to “renewed hope for reinvigorating civil society” (this was before the inauguration), I was struck by the similarities and the focus on the ultimate paradox. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec/04/09//Melinda Weekes//Inspiration

Renew, Recharge, Re-Inspire

Fatigued?

Delighted yet dazed by 68 degrees in December… in New England?

Feeling a sense of a long stretch until year’s end?

Counting the days before another holiday break? Read the rest of this entry »

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