I love thinking about this stuff with you – specially given the privilege that we have in actualizing these innovations through our most exciting client work. We have to look a lot more deeply into what we are each calling a network. As implied in my tweet of the Jeff Stamps quote:
“The evolution is from systems, to complexity to networks – these transcend and include each other.” Read More
Was just thinking of you, especially in light of the following tweet, which I really want to discuss with you (and others at IISC if they are interested) – The evolution is from systems, to complexity to networks – these transcend and include each other. Great stuff, and I want to explore this more. I want to understand it better. Read More
“Everybody needs an EVIL PLAN. Everybody needs that crazy, out-there idea that allows them to ACTUALLY start doing something they love, doing something that matters. Everybody needs an EVIL PLAN that gets them the hell out of the Rat Race, away from lousy bosses, away from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate. Life is short.”
My second book, EVIL PLANS launched today. Here are some notes:
“Give me the listening ear
The eye that is willing to see.”
-Howard Thurman
|Image from ky_olen|http://www.flickr.com/photos/ky_olsen/3133347197|
This past weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a Quaker-style “clearness committee” with a few twists thrown in. I have done a few similar sessions in the past, though it has been a while, and once again it proved to be a remarkable experience. The impetus for the session was a friend who, acknowledging that she is at a crossroads in her life and career, reached out for help with discernment. My wife, Emily, and I suggested convening a small group of people who know her well to lovingly listen to the core question with which she is wrestling. Over the course of the two and a half hours we were together, there was an amazing peeling away of layers that occurred as we asked questions and watched for what either brought our friend to life or weighed her down. By the end of the evening, she was excitedly looking at very real and enlivening opportunities in what she had previously perceived as being frivolous or “once I win the lottery” kinds of scenarios. Read More
|Photo by Eric__I_E|http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadling/3108258547|
The following is a post that appeared on the blog of the Kansas Leadership Center. It is inspired by and based on the work of Ron Heifetz and Kristin von Donop of Cambridge Leadership Associates. One of the greatest challenges for leadership is to distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges and to what extent solutions require focus on content or process.
Seven Ways To Know If You Are Facing An Adaptive Challenge:Read More
|Photo by Eric__I_E|http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadling/3108258547|
The following is a post that appeared on the blog of the Kansas Leadership Center. It is inspired by and based on the work of Ron Heifetz and Kristin von Donop of Cambridge Leadership Associates. One of the greatest challenges for leadership is to distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges and to what extent solutions require focus on content or process.
Seven Ways To Know If You Are Facing An Adaptive Challenge:Read More
When I walk out of my door in the morning I am forced to look at a note that I’ve written to myself – “Do the Thing.” Sometimes I will also place this note on my meditation cushion, so that I have to pick it up and move it right before I turn within. I’ve been thinking a lot about the persistent gap between “talking/thinking about the thing” and actually doing it. It is a gap that runs the gamut, I find it in my own individual life and in organizational life, I find it in our political discourse and within the social larger movement.
Perhaps the gap is inescapable. It is possible that we live through aspirations. It is possible that we think and talk about the thing in order to slowly catch up with it through the grind of real life.
And we do know that reflection is a good thing, that we learn through conversations, that it is important to articulate our vision.
I’m not trying to deny or undermine these things.
I just think that it is good to mind the gap. When we mind the gap we are less abstract. When we mind the gap it becomes harder to talk about goodness and justice while treating each other badly.
As a “process consultant,” a designer of interaction, I also think that minding the gap is what inspires me to strive for a generative experience – and actual taste of the thing we are working towards.
When aiming for transformation we must create transformative spaces. Do not have “another meeting” where you talk about social change. Design transformative spaces that give you a taste of it. Mind the gap. Live in the world you are trying to build. How you get there is as important as getting there. Do the thing.
There is some exciting work happening through the Institute of Noetic Sciences called the Worldview Literacy Project. This initiative seeks to help students understand from a relatively young age what a worldview is, where worldviews come from, and the potential for switching and/or holding multiple views. Given that fundamental change is rooted in our mindsets and preconceived notions about what is and can be, this project would seem to hold great promise. Judge for yourself by listening to these remarkable young people and future (or perhaps current) change agents.
As we continue to explore the inner side of collaboration and social change, I wanted to share a few highlights from a recent conversation with my colleague Roy Martin. I met Roy in my role as a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute for Community Health Leaders program sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. He spends his days (and nights!) intervening in the lives of young people who are caught up in the drug trade and gang-related violence. He knows them intimately, loves them deeply, and puts himself out there personally to guide them towards a positive future.
Photo by: RandomStar
