“The Icarus Deception”
Everything has changed forever. It is a time of upheaval and upheaval is not comfortable. But it is from here that we build a new world. Fly Closer to the Sun.
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Six Rules for Allies
The following post has been reblogged from our friends at Community Change Inc. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Community Change, Inc. is a Boston-based resource for people working for racial justice. Enjoy this resource from their series “Creating the Counter-Narrative, challenging the post-racial, colorblind public discourse on race and racism.” Enjoy this talk by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance and of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, Austin.
2 CommentsWhen Should We Collaborate
I like to describe IISC as a collaboration shop. We look at collaboration through three lenses. When looking through the lens of networks we are acknowledging a shift from “complicated to complex” (see image). We often rely on the Cynefin framework to encourage an attitude of exploration, a more open attitude than the quest for technical answers that obsesses so much of our work for social change.
I had not seen the overlay of complexity and collaboration that Shawn Callahan articulates so well. I love the work of our friends at Anecdote, and this blog post is a must read:
Leave a commentCollective Impact Starting with One
I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of change that’s needed and how far we have to go to realize the just society we’re working towards. It can feel daunting and on a bad day, nearly impossible.
4 CommentsOn Trojan Mice
The following post was written by Harold Jarche. An incredible and informative post, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
In Organizations don’t tweet, people do, Euan Semple talks about Trojan mice, an idea he got from Peter Fryer at trojanmice.com. These are small change initiatives, that do not require the coordinated effort of something like a Trojan horse:
Leave a commentExtraordinary
Today we often use the word extraordinary to refer to something amazing, something great. The overwhelming re-election of the nation’s first Black President through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is a truly extraordinary event.
2 CommentsStay Open
Our paradigm is our lens on everything. It is how we make sense of reality. For example, a deterministic paradigm is a lens that makes you see everything in terms of cause and effect. It gives you a mechanistic lens with which to make sense of the world. Determinism can be a really useful perspective – one way of looking at things – but it becomes a problem if it is your paradigm – THE way in which you look at things.
Leave a commentWhat is School For?
“If it’s work we try to figure out how to do less, if it’s art we try to figure out how to do more.” Regular readers of our blog know that we are big fans of Seth Godin here at IISC. And if you’ve been to anything I’ve trained or facilitated you have probably heard me rail against the dominance of an obsolete industrial paradigm.
In this video, Godin asks “What is school for?” and he clearly points to all the industrial trappings that are badly limiting how we educate our young – even in “high performing” contexts. We are in the middle of a significant paradigm shift, and this is one of our most important questions.
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What is Good Work?
“No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted.” Olive Schreiner
I couldn’t agree more! We’re fond of a related quote that “The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.” Bill O’Brien
I know that it’s hard for me to do good work when I’m fretful, exhausted or feeling insecure.
10 CommentsHow to Design Culture
The following blog post was reblogged from Emergent By Design. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we did!
*Our source was initially and inadvertently omitted. We apologize for the mistake.
I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of organizations over the years that want to shift their culture to become more diverse, inclusive and equitable. The article we are posting below is about changing culture in general. What specific applications do you see for shifting organizational culture toward greater diversity, inclusiveness and equity?
Leave a commentProcess and Culture
I’m a process junky. I believe that good process makes it possible to do things that would be impossible otherwise. Any effort ambitious enough to try and shift a system from competition to common intention is an effort that must rely on good process. Good process provides and often temporary social architecture that is designed and facilitated to maximize generative collaboration.
Leave a comment#Occupy – Year 1
I love the fact that the mainstream can’t get its head around what #occupy is all about. I am glad the movement does not fit a pre-existing paradigm.
I love the fact that occupiers themselves find no consensus on what #occupy is all about. It means the movement is still emergent and therefore most alive.
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