Human to Human

Design
– The Agenda that Emerged

Article
– Principles for Practicing Conversational Leadership — A few thoughts I wrote on what emerged from the group

What is Arising in Me? Us? This Community?
– Notes
– Wordle Me
– Worldle Us
– Worldle Community

Scenic Photos and Videos
– The South Island
– The North Island

Colleague Glen Lauder shared this with me this week. It was framing that he spoke to the New Zealand Land and Water Forum. It was offered in the context of framing a structure for a years worth of engagement processes that would include 30 people. It was spoken to offer clarity of invitation and purpose. It is one of the clearest I have seen in some time.

1. Wellness — It is important that we focus on what we are doing well. It is important that we notice when we are working well. This links nicely to the appreciative approach and the reality that “what we give our attention to grows.” It is also a nice invitation to notice what we already know. Thus, the invitation is not to start over, but rather to build on what we know and ask what we could also know, including what we could also let go of.

2. Pratice — The learning that we are in comes largely from a field of practice. There are now practitioners all over the world who are sharing what works. It is learning from engagement. It is story. It is methods. It is invitation for us to be practitioners and pioneers of social methodologies and apply what we learn at scale.

3. Theory — Though we do not speak as theoreticians, there are several aspects of theory that feed these practices. It is an invitation to notice the most clear gems and world views. And example is self-organization. Another is systems theory. Another is chaos and complexity theory.

4. No Shit — This was a warrior’s call into clarity of purpose. If the work is about preserving water and land availability — some of NZ’s most important issues, then make sure this is at the center. If the work is about preserving rivers that our children might swim in them and feel expansive in spirit, then make sure this is at the center. It is the invitation to show up with the realness of issue, despite any obstacles in the past be they political or otherwise. It is the invitation to think beyond planning meetings.

5. Personal — For us to work in wholeness, we must show up personally. Very often I hear the distinction that people make about showing up personally versus professionally. Sharing stories of home, of family, of emotions often are not the pattern for professional work. And yet, the learning is that we can’t not show up personally. We must be willing to take that personal journey and not fear the integration.

6. Offer what is Above — Each time, can we be deliberate to notice what we know now that we did not know before. Or feel. Or intuit. Stand with each other in a commitment to innovate and to notice what is emerging. Earlier in the week we asked people to notice what is arising in the group. This was a question about noticing patterns. It is the invitation to see what is unfolding. To see what is beyond what we know as individuals. It is further invitation to trust that those noticings give us the wisdom we need for the next steps.

I’ve just spent the past hour or so in a pub / restaurant, The Honest Lawyer, in Nelson on the south island of New Zealand. The wind is brisk, howling past the window and through the trees. A cozy fire burns next to me.

I’ve learned and loved much on this trip. Though only four days since arriving in Wellington, much has happened that I feel very grateful for. Learning. Experience. Feeling the energy of this place. An immediate meeting with Glen Lauder my colleague and good friend. A short flight to Picton and a drive down the coast to Kaikoura, where the sun was shining and the views of the Pacific and the Seaward Kaikoura Mountains was spectacular. I love the experience of staying at an Inn. Homey. Friendly. Welcoming. The Pier was our first overnight stop. From Kaikoura, the next day we found our way across Lewis Pass to Maruia Springs for a good soak in the hot pools. From there to the west coast through Greymouth and down to Hokitika – very wet and very rain-filled. Back up for a night in Murchison and then to Nelson. I am filled with a newness and rush of feelings that only come from first time adventures.

This last stop in Nelson has been delightful. It has included a visit with Glen’s father, Alistair. Alistair is a former engineer who migrated from Scotland with his family 40 or so years ago. I think he is in his 80s. He is slower in his step and speech, yet quick in his mind and joyful in his heart. Quite a thing to meet a friend’s parents and see a few of the root – these quick minds and joyful hearts.

Today’s conversation with Alistair was particularly a gift. He and I were to sit for a bit by the fire. We’d met yesterday so we had some sense of each other. I joked with Glen as he was off to meet his colleague Peter – “go change the world.” Alistair was gentle as he shared with me, twinkle in his eye, “maybe it isn’t changing the world, but instead, changing the way we think about the world.” Ah, a good start.

We each shared stories with each other over the next hour in what felt like one of the exquisite moments of deep connection with an elder. He told me about participation (yes, Glen and Peter were have a similar discussion with different content). Alistair’s story was of migrating. Sitting with his wife, daughter, and Glen as a 7 year-old to talk about what they were doing. They asked the kids when they arrived if they should stay in Auckland or go to Wellington. Alistair was sharing a version of participative leadership, of co-creation. “We were pioneers together.” Yup, that feels like the work of leadership and hosting today.

I so much appreciated Alistair’s wonder in being able to talk about choices and freedom in this era. He lives with an appreciation that is palpable and sweet. He thanked me for bringing my light, for carrying light. This too, deeply moved me. And one last kicker and twinkle – “You know what I’ve learned today?” he started as we were finishing our conversation. “Metaphysical discussions and umpteen cups of tea make me go to the bathroom.” We belly-laughed together.

Thanks Alistair for your light. And for just what I needed as I carry forward from four days on the South Island to a couple of weeks on the north island, and to the work of leadership that is crystal clear from our sit by the fire.

Much of the work that I’m involved in is to see systems. To learn, even relearn or remember, how to work with a broader level of connection. There are always the parts. Yup. And there is always the collection of the parts. Yup. Like most, I have spent a lot of time trying to work with more complex arrangements of parts.

There is something more, however, that is not just working with broader compilations of parts. It is, instead, working with the wholeness of the system that has “no parts.” This is quite a mind-teaser. The science of the last 300 years has taught us well, engrained in us really, the world view that to understand complexity, we must see those delightful, measurable parts. Any of us in western world live in this as a fundamental cultural medium. Yet, a growing practice is to let go of even seeing through the “lens of parts.” Seeing systems. “Seeing wholeness” is the invitation.

I noticed a simple way to see this recently. It became apparent as I worked through a crashed computer (fried motherboard) that then required me to work on a new laptop. Beyond the loss of some data and the frustration of reloading programs, searching for updated drivers, etc., I loved the sense of a “clean” laptop. It didn’t yet have too much junk loaded on it or defaulted onto it. It’s performance was as advertised. It felt faster than my old laptop — the boot process was one minute rather than 10. Feels good, right.

As I added programs, as well as some updated versions of programs, it didn’t take long to feel my new computer start to slow down and feel clunky. Granted, I’m not computer guy, so my attention and wisdom might be a little low here, but I found it incredibly frustrating to notice that many of the programs, the parts, that I wanted to add to my system, couldn’t seem to be in good communication with the other parts. All of them were indiviudally good. And I live with the assumptions that each of them, if the only program on my computer, would work swimmingly well. However, with each there was a background level of technical hocus pocus that didn’t seem to be in full communication with the whole of the system. Each seemed to have built into it defaults that place it in startup menu or that sometimes replaced existing defaults. The short of it is that my new system, with its great spiffy new components and programs, doesn’t work in such a spiffy way.

To get to the bottom of it through each of the parts is to hear repeated claims that amount to “our program works well; it must be one of your other programs.” Does that sound familiar? Departments that actually are telling the truth, yet not able to see the outcome of interaction with other departments and programs. It is the pattern that often results in great blame of the other for a characteristic that we just don’t see enough of — more of the system.

I’m grateful for a computer that works. Let’s be clear. I’m also greatful for what I assume is intense research and development into the next level of integration and seeing systems in computer world. Let’s be clear on that too. And I’m aware of the operating mode of our time that does fascinating things with parts. Cool. But oh how the invitation of our times is to see more of the system, and even come to see it as “no parts.” Well beyond the realtive insignificance of my computer, does this feel familiar in our major societal systems — health care (what a raging debate these days in the US), education, energy…? Feels like a huge invitation and challenge that many of us need to be in now.