Keeping Fires Lit and Wells as Full as Possible: Network Momentum During a Global Pandemic
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.“
Albert Schweitzer
As a number of networks I am supporting are settling into the lingering reality of operating within our COVID19 context (“2020 still feels like it’s with us!”), uncertain of what resolution will look like or mean, we have been having more conversations about how to maintain momentum around key goals (food justice, health equity, equitable conservation, climate adaptation and mitigation) and also lead with care, supporting collective regenerative capacity. Through explicit asking and reading what is coming up through people’s engagement, here are some ideas for how to keep movement going over this lengthening haul in sustaining fashion.
- Put movement into the movement (literally invite people to move their bodies during and in-between on-line and phone meetings)
- Leverage the power of one to one conversations (they can often be more nimble and dynamic, including having people walk and talk to one another)
- Keep some meetings agenda-free (and follow the emergent energy)
- Share stories, music, recipes, jokes, games
- Stay open to spontaneity
- Lean into humor!
- Do a meditation, be silent together
- Give grace – “It’s okay to not be okay”
- Make space for teach-ins and knowledge sharing
- Invite people to not look at screens, and to look out windows
- Offer different kinds of conversation models – Six Conversations model, for example
- Use flexible and asynchronous means/tools for moving work forward (Google docs, MURAL, etc.)
- See, appreciate and “amplify” one another
- Use more visuals to focus on tasks and be less presentation-oriented
- Bring in pictures and sounds from the natural world
- Keep more personal meetings shorter
- Stay focused on what is essential and let the rest go (see the urgent/important matrix)
- Schedule long meetings as multiple meetings with a shared agenda over time to break it up
- Remember this is not ours alone to do or solve and that there are others out there, including those we do not know
What would you add?
“We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it’s never a question of ‘critical mass.’ It’s always about critical connections.“
—Grace Lee Boggs
