August 20, 2013
The following pst has been reblogged from our dear friend Adrienne Maree. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Adrienne Maree Brown outlines core principles to live by. I find these powerfully resonant and I continue to invite us into greater intentionality in our practices for creating a new world. Read More
August 19, 2013
The following blog post is Part 3 of a series dedicated to Race and Social Transformation. We encourage you to share and comment!
Transforming racism is hard work! The complexity doesn’t automatically mean current efforts aren’t working. Still, many are searching for new ways to deepen their effectiveness. At IISC, we see focusing both on content (what can we do about racism) and process (how we engage with one another) as a powerful way forward. Consider a few examples that flow from our practice.
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July 2, 2013
Regular readers know that facilitating for the Barr Fellows Network has been among the most rewarding work I have ever gotten to do – here is why, part 1
July 1, 2013
Thanks to our friends at Colorlines.org for calling this post to our attention! Read on and ask yourself, what does it take to be able to create this kind of a “teachable moment” with such poise, grace and clarity.
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June 25, 2013
I’m sharing another great piece from my dear friend Adrienne Maree Brown. I am absolutely moved by the way she speaks of emergence. She is spot on. As you read, I encourage you to remember that evolution “transcends and includes.” There are aspects of our industrial paradigm that can and should be included as we move towards working with emergence. How can you apply what Adrienne is talking about?
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June 18, 2013
Beauty matters, nature nurtures us, this year’s “Social Change Institute” was a remarkable experience and a real privilege to facilitate. Get people with passion together, in the perfect setting, careful design and good facilitation, and good work is bound to happen.
June 3, 2013
This deceptively simple diagram delineates the first step in any collaborative process. Unless you are defining a strategic plan for your personal development, you can safely assume that successful strategic planning is collaborative by definition.
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May 21, 2013
In January of this year I was privileged to design and facilitate the first ever International OPEN Summit. Today I’m on my way to facilitate the first ever OPEN Summit US. The leadership of our nation’s “Online Progressive Engagement Networks” are coming together to support the development of an informal network by strengthening relationships among the people doing this work. Read More
March 26, 2013
In the early days, when “normal” people first started using the web, we saw websites that looked just like our pamphlets. We used the new technology to do the same thing we always did – until we dared to experiment.
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March 18, 2013
A big shout out to our colleagues at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Their recently released report “State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2013” reviews what science can tell us about what implicit bias is and how it works, why it matters and how to reduce it. Here’s a quick recap:
Implicit bias results from the way our brains process data and experience. We’re wired for pattern recognition and our brains use lots of shortcuts to make sense of the world around us. In and of itself, this isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing. But, so many of the implicit associations we make are laden with stereotypes—say, between women and family, vs. men and careers. (Check out the Project Implicit to explore your implicit biases.) We absorb these associations from the world around us and they become part of our unconscious “operating system.”
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February 11, 2013
Twelve year old Adora Svitak called for mutual respect and reciprocal learning between adults and kids. Her TED bio calls her a “child prodigy” but I think that exceptionalizes her talents and perspective and implies that she is very unlike her peers. I think she models a poise and wisdom that is all around us if we just look for it.
Here’s a little taste of her talk.
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