Archive for December, 2010
Burn Baby Burn
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
-Leonard Cohen
Life and work certainly have been burning of late, and while I have been thankful for the opportunity across the board for full engagement of mind, body, and spirit, I am also missing some of my reflection and writing time. And now I hear the voice of Mr. Cohen again - “Forget your perfect offering, there’s a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in.” So here is my little offering of light as the seasonal darkness grows, in the form of a few questions that continue to smoulder throughout my work.
- When was the last time a public engagement process failed because of too much participation?
- Can anyone be process-averse? (Kind of like being allergic to the air we breathe?)
- Has one ever really gotten it done?
- Is there really such a thing as certainty?
- What isn’t a work in progress?
- If we know what we are doing isn’t working, what will it take to try something different?
- How are we going to thrive if we don’t get at least a little crazy?
Like
[6]
The Apprentice
Last month we were graced by the presence of Kathy Sferra, who was on loan from Mass Audubon. Kathy took the initiative to approach us about spending one month of her six week sabbatical apprenticing herself to IISC, observing and contributing to our work and taking the lessons back to her home organization. She began contributing instantly as a thought partner, often making keen observations and asking good questions that her relative outsider perspective afforded. As her parting gift to us, Kathy offered up the following reflections and take-aways, specifically with respect to designing and facilitating meetings and other convenings, that I wanted, in the spirit of the season, to re-gift and pass along: Read the rest of this entry »
Like
[1]
Theory U – The 4th Proposition
Click here to see The 1st Proposition
Click here to see The 2nd Proposition
Click here to see The 3rd Proposition
The 4th Proposition of Theory U is:
The most important tool in that leadership technology is the emerging Self – the leader’s highest future possibility. Theory U is based on the assumption that each human being and each human community is not one but two: one is the current self, the person that exists as the result of a past journey; the other is the Self, the self that we could become as the result of our future journey. Presencing is the process of the (current) self and the (emerging) Self listening to each other.
Like
[4]
Human Sized Social Change
My friends at the Engage Network recently asked me this provocative question:
What does it mean to create social change that is “human sized” and prioritizes people and relationships, rather than prioritizing large email lists, or campaigns, or raising money? What does that mean to you and YOUR work in the world?
Here is my first take at an answer: Read the rest of this entry »
Like
[2]
RSS Feed
Join our mailing list
IISC tags on Delicious
