Photo by Brad Coy

This post is a slightly edited email message from Bart Westdijk of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund (NEGEF).  NEGEF has 16 years experience resourcing the grassroots, thousands of citizen-led environmental and civic engagement initiatives around New England.  Bart spearheads some of the amazing work the Fund is doing in the virtual and social media spheres to better connect grantees, add value in new ways, and create a larger sense of movement.  Exciting new ventures include an emerging crowdfunding initative with ioby and a grassroots leadership skills building academy.  Keeping in the spirit of NEGEF’s emphasis on collaboration, networks, and partnership for social change, Bart sheds some light on the concept of scenius . . . 

Have you heard of the term “scenius”?  Not sure if the term is really going to stick, but it’s a cool concept.  It goes into the cultural awe currently reserved for geniuses.  The scenius theory says that many of our historic (cultural, economic, etc.) geniuses didn’t do it all solo.  Shakespeare had a whole team of collaborators, Elvis had Sun Records.  There are many lists of “most powerful” and “most influentia”‘ people to perpetuate the idea of these singular geniuses but it turns out they aren’t so singular at all.

Scenius stands for the intelligence and intuition of a whole cultural scene.  Examples include London’s Bloombury group with Virginia Woolf and John Maynard Keynes or writer Gertrude Stein bringing together Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Silicon Valley would be a modern-day equivalent.  Anyway, the idea of scenius, or co-creation, holds so much promise!  But it’s a real challenge to convey that message in a coherent way (i.e. not sound too floaty or spiritual, though that is a dimension to include in our work more).  Even though cooperation has been the architect for creativity throughout evolution, our culture still puts so much emphasis on individuals.  A tough meme to change.

The video you shared yesterday, Curtis, was a very cool reminder of the importance of the follower(s), of the crowd, sharing and adding their perspectives.  This is a reminder to create space for mutual appreciation, (rapid) exchange of tools and techniques, network effects of success and (local) tolerance for novelties (those happen to be the 4 factors of ‘scenius).   Seem like very good guiding principles as we all continue to build out the grassroots support model.  Who knows, maybe some day some of our biggest philanthropic institutions will do away with their genius-focus and rather than naming themselves after one individual and operating top-down, embrace the concepts of co-creative engagement.  We can at least invite them to help us all understand the process.

I’m just coming out of a mind bending, heart expanding retreat with Orland Bishop, Rachel Bagby and the Barr Fellows Network.  It was one of those experiences that is hard to put into words.  For lack of a better word, and I hope Orland doesn’t mind this, it was more like being with a shaman than with a facilitator.

Orland led us in an exploration of intention and attention as he invited us to question how we relate to reality itself.  He led with the idea that our relationships – and therefore our human experience – can be radically redefined if we make it our purpose to truly understand the other; and to do it with radical acceptance.

We also entered into a fascinating conversation about money, and the way the whole game depends on a perception of scarcity.  This part of the conversation reminded me of one of the best episodes of This American Life, The Invention of Money – take the time to listen to it!  But it also brought to mind this most relevant quote from a recent post by Seth Godin:

The scarce resources in the connection revolution are connection, attention and trust, not molecules, atoms or strawberries.

Everything is changing and very few people understand what all these changes will mean.  At least here in the Global North, we have been saturated with “stuff,” and more and more of us are coming to understand (or at least experience) that there is no happiness there.

In a world increasingly defined by the internet, what we lack is authentic connection.  In a world of one thousand facebook friends, what we lack is real trust.  In a world of e-mail and pop ads, flashing billboards, guerrilla marketing and product placement – the hardest thing to have is each other’s attention.

Connection, attention and trust – the virtues of relationship are in scarce supply in a world of stuff.  It is in this context that I become most hopeful.  For this is precisely what we are cultivating among the Barr Fellows.  Passionate, effective and purposeful leaders are ever more willing to transcend their organizational constraints and do the not always easy work of connecting with one another, giving attention to the whole they are cultivating and actively nurturing a field that is defined by trust.

Two things reminded me of the power of design and physical space this week. First, in a workshop for Juvenile Justice leaders, the 12 participants were seated at three tables. It was a cozy arrangement and the tables were useful for handling the volume of materials they were using. After a morning focused on race, class and culture dialogue skills, we brought the chairs together in a circle in the front of the room to close a segment of the conversation. I asked folks how that arrangement felt and they say “Good!!” There’s nothing like removing physical barriers and enabling everyone to see everyone else easily to foster relational and conversational intimacy!

This weekend, I was sitting on my front porch with my laptop doing my IISC “homework.” Our four year old neighbor across the street saw me and her mother later told me that she wanted to sit outside because she saw me sitting outside. Eventually, she came over and offered me one of her cookies and sat on the bench with me. Her mom was not far behind and her dad came over eventually too. We had a brief neighborly chat. During this conversation, one of our next door neighbors came home—mom, dad and two kids. They all went inside and a few minutes later, mom came back out to talk with me. I was delighted and energized by these brief conversations, none of which would have happened if I had been doing my work indoors. There’s nothing like a porch with a bench to create space for neighborly conversations!

How are you being intentional about the physical spaces you use and create for conversations and relationships that are important in your life and your work?

They say being a change agent is an inside job.  This summer, we invite you to sharpen your tools and rejuvenate your capacity for leadership through a values-based professional development opportunity in a beautiful retreat setting! Center for Whole Communities (CWC) and Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) are collaborating to offer a four-day residential Whole Measures Workshop July 10 – 13, at CWC’s retreat center at beautiful Knoll Farm in Fayston, VT.

Whole Measures is a values-based, community-oriented approach to planning, implementing and evaluating initiatives that foster healthy whole communities. This practical framework strengthens the ability of teams, partnerships, and coalitions to identify shared values and to build their work and evaluation metrics around those values.

From the Whole Measures framework, the Whole Measures Workshop was created. This workshop introduces the process design and practices to lead your organization, community, partners or stakeholders through values-based planning and evaluation. Visit www.measuresofhealth.net to explore the Whole Measures framework.

Through the Whole Measures Workshop, you’ll learn:

• To see and approach your work form a whole systems perspective
• Key concepts and tools for fostering healthy, whole communities.
• Concrete skills for implementing Whole Measures, building off of a foundation of shared values:
• Collaborative process design
• Effective convening techniques
• Stakeholder identification and analysis
• Measuring multiple dimensions of success
• Dialogue process
• Storytelling
• Facilitation
• Inquiry

The cost of the four-day workshop includes wonderful whole-foods meals, served in a rustic and restored barn, and accommodations at Center for Whole Communities.  To register, follow this link, then scroll down to the July 10-13 Whole Measures Workshop.

It’s been my pleasure over the last few years to have been of service to and learned from Antioch New England students and staff. The video above is the product of Antioch graduate student Emily Read Daniels, who has been in some of our discussions about networks.

As I prepare to do a couple of trainings for leadership in multi-stakeholder networks in the New England region (focus being on the skills of facilitation, process design, and managing decision-making), I intend to frame our conversations with some exploration of the differences between traditional organizational leadership and what is required to steward networks towards positive impact.  I begin with the presumption that network form and function are chosen strategically for the ability to accomplish something that could not be done at all or as well through other approaches.  Whether trying to develop a food system to eliminate food insecurity or change an educational system to yield more equitable opportunities and outcomes, the attraction to a network approach is likely due to a desire for some combination of the following:

• small world reach
• relative efficiency
• more distributed capabilities
• resilience/sustainability
• rapid growth and diffusion
• adaptability

I have written elsewhere about elements of network thinking that can help to leverage these attributes of a network approach.  Beyond those elements, there are certain practices that Beth Tener of New Directions Collaborative and I have identified as distinguishing a network leadership approach.  The header for this is that network leadership moves away from overt efforts to control what is too vast, complex, and uncontrollable, and takes more of an approach of stewardship and attempting to create conditions that will allow collective intelligence, will, and movement to organically develop. The call is to step back and focus on:

• cultivating shared responsibility and mutual support;
• growing diverse leadership;
• encouraging trust to take root;
• ensuring there are multiple avenues for people to connect and share information;
• helping to develop the capacity to collectively listen and learn; and
• rewarding experiments.

Surely there is more, and I encourage readers to both share their thinking and experiences here and come back to the underlying spirit and view towards potential that support actions in the name of net impact.

Racial justice work can be soul depleting or soul enriching. A lot depends on how we do the work and who we do it with.

Last week, six of us from the Boston area gathered to reflect on our experiences at Transforming Race.  Sponsored by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Transforming Race brought together academics, students, advocates and leaders of a wide range of nonprofit organizations to explore Visions of Change. We were challenged to consider: What would a generation or two of racial progress look like?  What seeds of change are in place right now?  How do we get from here to there? The theme was inspiring all by itself, and the many speakers, workshops and activities engaged our hearts as well as our and minds. All of that was very good.

Still, I was struck by one simple, common thread among our reflections. We were delighted simply to be together in “resonant company.” We recalled the fun, love and sense of community we experienced; we relished the sense of belonging. We had found “our tribe” – a community of people who care about what we care about, struggle with things we struggle with, and work for kind of future we are working for. It was great to be reminded how much human connections matter in this work. They renew and refresh us. They remind us of what’s important and guide us in times of confusion or discouragement.

As you work toward a more just world, how are you building community? How are you building relationships that can strengthen you and help you find the courage to persevere? How are you building the future that you want to live into?

I am so proud of my colleague, Gibran Rivera, for the due recognition that he has received lately in various quarters for his deep thinking and transformative work.  And I am grateful for how eloquently he captures the nature and intention of our collective work the Interaction Institute for Social Change in a recent interview:

“IISC seeks to make the invisible visible. When we are successful, people find themselves working in ways that are life-giving, generative, and unlike most of their experiences of working together.  We achieve this by paying close attention to process. Process works best when everyone knows what it is and where we are [in] it. But process is not enough. We seek to create spaces and conditions that foster connectivity at the level of authentic relationship. When we are working in authentic relationship with one another, when we learn to connect to each other in the place where our shared purpose meets, then it can feel like the work is happening all by itself. But these spaces have to be designed; they have to be held and they have to be tended to. This is where we come in. And this is how interconnectedness becomes palpable.”

Dear IISC Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

After nearly twenty years leading the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC)—and loving every minute of it—I will be transitioning from my role as IISC’s executive director as of July of this year. After a couple of months off, I will return as an independent consultant to continue doing this work that I love so much—both on my own and on behalf of IISC.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with people like you—extraordinary change agents who labor every day to make the world a better place.

IISC is now in search of someone to take what might be one of the best jobs on earth—leading IISC as it partners with organizations, communities and networks to move from shared vision to collective action toward building a more just and sustainable world. Please pass the word along. View the job listing here.

With love and gratitude,

Marianne Hughes

Photo by Amani Hasan

A blog post on the Management Innovation Exchange site has got me thinking.  In a post entitled, “Forget Empowerment – Aim for Exhilaration,” Polly LaBarre profiles Ricardo Semler of Brazil’s Semco Group.  Semco is noted for its dramatic turnaround as a business, and for its unusual way of managing itself under Semler’s leadership, as noted by LaBarre -”no organizational chart, no fixed offices or working hours, no fixed CEO, no HR department, no five-year plan (or two- or one-year-plan), no job descriptions or permanent positions, no approvals necessary.”  All of this is geared towards increasing individual autonomy and agency, participation at every level, and trust.  The results are reported to be quite astounding with respect to business outcomes as well as employee fulfillment, with a long line of interested prospects at the door.  Semler himself has even freed himself up to pursue interests in the realm of helping to reform primary education and the legal system!  So how can I not help but be curious about some of what I/we might bring into our organizational life and work at IISC?

Here is some of what LaBarre holds up as key principles and strategies of Semco under Semler:

• Trust in the basic human drive to be productive, to build toward the future, and to contribute to something larger than themselves.
• Acknowledge that every person’s rhythms is different when it comes to when and where and how they do their best work.
• Clear people’s paths of the “waste and distraction in all the logistics, the getting around, the sitting in meetings, and the overhead that defines ‘normal’ work.”
• Cultivate the freedom for people to discover their destiny.
• Always ask why – why are we doing this and in this way?  If there isn’t a good reason, don’t do it or do it differently!

Just re-reading this now, I am invited to take a slow deep breath.  Why not aim for this kind of exhilaration in our social change efforts?  What would that look like?  What might it lead to?