Author: Tenneson Woolf

Last week I was able to be part of an opening for the Washington State Nonprofit Conference, Shift: Learning to Thrive in a Complex World. This was the 20th annual version of this conference. Alison McCaffree, Executive Director for Washington Nonprofits, put a lot of good thought into organizing this conference and it’s tracks on Paradigm Shift, Narrative Shift, Shape Shift, and Shift Change. I love it that she wanted to have many formats for learning at this large conference — I’m told there were 450 participants this year. I was happy to be part of imagining some of those options with her, along with my partner Teresa Posakony, early in the planning process, particularly about reshaping the large conference design..

My role was in the first session, joining Quinton Morris a concert violinist, chamber musician, and Assistant Professor of Chamber and Instrumental Music at Seattle University. Really good guy. I enjoyed meeting him, playfully bantering together. He played music of his choice, show tunes for this 8:00 start. I interviewed him on themes of shift, what he loves about his music, and how artistry is needed in leadership and change work. I found it to be playful and helpful.

I then had the role of, what I would call, activating the participants. It was a simple set up about the importance of turning to one another. It was also a set up for more engaged learning during the day. I had them turn to each other in partner conversations with these questions (different partner on each one):

• How are you arriving today? (A simple question to get them started by sharing some of their inner condition, whether it was frazzled by traffic, or excited for the day.)
• In what way is artistry important in your work? (Building on the theme to help draw attention to artistry, creativity, and the spirit of innovation.)
• What is exciting to you in your shifts? What is challenging? (Some attention to where there is natural energy, and, to witnessing what are real challenges for them, rather than having those buried and unspeakable.)
• In one phrase, what is the primary shift that you are giving attention to? Why? (We harvested this on post-it notes and based on the tracks that Alison had created. Steven Wright had made for large maps of the state on which participants could place these post-it notes — one for each track. We later categorized similar shifts together.)
• What is one intention you have today to support you in your learning? (This was about an intention for the day, not for the broader picture of their work. I had them write this on their name tags so that it was visible and a could be a point of curiosity among participants later in the day.)

Glad to have been part of this event, and in particular this theme, the artistry of change. Activating the group, is part of that artistry for me.

A writeup from a participant, Jeni Craswell, Director of Philanthropy with Imagine Housing is here.

 

I learned a new word recently from reading my friend Charles LaFond’s book, Fearless Church Fundraising: The Practical and Spiritual Approach to Stewardship. The word is “acedia,” a kind of boredom that has much to do with all forms of organization. Charles is very thoughtful. I find his views on stewardship of many kinds to be very helpful — check his blog here.

Acedia or spiritual boredom is a strong poison that can sicken the most thoughtful stewardship program. Acedia is a technical term in Christian spirituality, and it signifies joylessness, weariness, boredom, listlessness and, at its worst, a spiritual depression which clouds the mind and dulls the heart.

Sounding like a fair description of an epidemic in many organizations yet?

With acedia, nothing is “bad” — exactly — it is just that nothings seems good either…. The danger of acedia is that it is so like depression that you may not know you have it. Like alcoholism, the more drunk you are, the less likely you are to realize you are drunk. Similarly, the more spiritually depressed you are, the less likely you are to see the depression.

Acedia results in a dull pain, not a sharp one. The person, family, group or organization suffering from acedia will simply become immune to the blessings around them. For a person with acedia, the sun is too bright, the water is too wet, the day is too long, the hours are passing too slowly, and the apple is never sweet enough. It is the spiritual equivalent to riding in beautiful farmland with a blindfold on.

It is the dull pain, the numbed quality that stands out to me here. I meet so many people — brilliant people — that are in pain and a bit numbed in their organizational contexts. It is my experience that many of us come alive when invited to be more real, more engaged with each other.

Fearless. Practical. Spiritual. This combination of energies matter pretty much everywhere I go these days.

Thanks Charles.

 

 

• “The right to safety is the first right. Not free speech.” Connie Rice at #WSNConf
• Gma Katie to Gov of Alaska: I want to tell you the story if this village. If we don’t have subsistence hunting rights, people die. #wsconf
• “Story is in the journey, not the destination.” Matt Echohawk-Hayashi at #wsconf
• I love the St. John’s Cathedral in Denver and working with Chris Corrigan, Caitlin Frost, Charles Lafond on congregational longings.
• On The Circle Way / PeerSpirit, some new short videos on circle Components, Legacy, and Celebration: http://callingthecircle.org/legacy-project.html …
• TAO (The Arts Organization) and my friend @taowendy are doing interesting work in Utah. Check them here http://theartsorganization.com 
• Planetary Hospice – by Zhiwa Woodbury (thanks Janice Rous). Painful article, but cogent, on earth’s condition, and we as a people on it.
• My friend @BobStilger is doing a free webinar 4/30 for ALIA – Disaster as Springboard for Thriving Community. http://aliainstitute.org/tools-for-transformation-an-alia-webinar-series/ …
• I love these apricot blossoms. Spring in Lindon, Utah. I love it again in July when these turn to ripe fruit. pic.twitter.com/Qtyd0Cf9rx
• I love the work of Thea Carlson and http://www.biodynamics.com  for their focus on health and an earth-friendly future.
• Transition US & Art of Hosting. Helpful writeup here from Marissa Mommaerts: http://www.transitionus.org/blog/hosting-toughest-conversations-our-time …. Join us 4/11-13 in Maine for more.

OK, so in the spirit of experiencing and evolving questions, here is one that is happening in Portland, ME with Rachel Lyn Rumson, Jonah Fertig and others from The Resilience Hub, good people that I met last month in an AoH training for Transition US and other Resilience Community people.

Question and Invitation from Jonah and Rachel Lyn:
How can workers own homes in Portland? Announcing the Machigonne Community Land Trust.

My response, in the spirit of deepening:
I can imagine wanting to touch the energy of belonging that comes through place.

Rachel Lyn’s next level:
How does the energy of belonging to a place, differ from finding housing?

Love it!

An article I often use for strengthening questions is here.