Human to Human

Don’t we live in an amazing time. Initiatives that once would have required careful institutional authority, extensive deliberation, and massive coordination and management can now be accomplished by most anyone, and with immense speed through utterly simple actions. Let me refine that. If not “accomplished,” “offered.” It is quite a thing to see offerings picked up at sometimes massive levels of scale.

Consider Charlie Simpson, or “Little Charlie Simpson” as he is referenced in the news broadcast I saw. Charlie is seven years old. He lives in Britain. He had been watching news coverage of the Haiti earthquake and the need for help. This darling little boy knew he needed to help. His offering — a “peddle power” ride around the park, perhaps sponsored by some friends and family that might earn him £10 to offer to the people of Haiti. His mom helped him to create a sponsor form. They decided to put it online. Friends and family helped, and, they sent it along to others. It went viral. Beyond institutions and managed strategic plans. LIttle Charlie has now surpassed £100,000 in sponsorships.

At one level, this is a feel-good story. Not every cute seven year-old will be so successful. But some are. And couldn’t have been at anywhere near this scale in years gone by. Similarly, not every community organizer or system reformer will succeed in convening a movement for a good cause. But some will. And in ways that weren’t possible before. In broad issues of healthcare and wellness or education. And in local issues like establishing community gardens or ecovillages.

Why?

Charlie and his mom, perhaps unknowingly, were hacking into a system. Rather than waiting for someone else to do something, they offered what they could. Or they offered what was in front of them. Rather than deliberating for months or years on a strategy, they started with the step in front of them. They didn’t design a movement. Their offering, and the amplified feedback loops, created a movement. No grants were written. Funds and support were crowd-sourced. Charlie and his mom, again perhaps unknowingly, worked from principles of self-organization. They offered what I know from my Open Space colleagues to work from passion and responsibility. And from a living systems perspective, they offered the beauty of redundance. A spark of life that, even though it already existed in the system and could well have been ignored, ignited a mass movement.

These kind of stories are coming more and more to the forefront as how we get things done. I don’t suggest a complete letting go of grander, coordinated efforts. Yes, keep doing that. To create enough of a container for coordinated action. But let’s not lose site of this crowd-sourcing. Self-organization. Starting where you are. Offering what you can. These are approaches for all of us that give hope. For those of us who recognize the need for movements, this is all encouraging news. For more information on such approaches, Clay Shirky is one that I’ve found helpful.

Last week I participated on a team call for those organizing, calling, and hosting and upcoming Art of Hosting in Kariskrona, Sweden. We were towards the end of our call. We asked each other about harvest. What harvest would be helpful? What could we plan on? What tools might we want available as resources? Not having enough time to respond, these questions stuck with me over the weekend. I could hear the voice of my friend Chris Corrigan reminding me to give this full attention. So here are a few resources and thoughts on harvesting that feel important with design teams.

1. What you intend to harvest influences tools you use. If the intention is a report, then that will influence how we gather information. If the intention is relationships, then that will influence the design choices we make.

2. Pay attention to portability and visibility. For those not at the event, what are the forms of harvest that can be shared as further invitation? Are there particular mediums that the system can hear and see better than others? And for those of us at the event, what forms activate the energy that was felt? What can help move an “event” to next levels of scale?

3. Pioneer new forms. I’ve written before about four forms of harvesting: content, process, relationships, and energy field. The most common tradition is content. Reports. The least is energy field, that rewiring that happens for us. Yet, it is the most lasting. See this blogpost from work with a community health organization (the last part) for more.

4. Harvest in partnership with sponsors. Sometimes we have sponsors and organizations that just go along with us. They offer support and partnership for new efforts. They accept our invitation to work with emergence, yet still operate within a planned outcomes political climate.

See also this blogpost inspired by one of my conversations with Chris, his framing of interior and exterior harvests.

This week I was able to connect with Diana Smith. She is among other things, a consultant in Victoria, British Columbia, through Ecosol and The Ginger Group Collaborative. She is also an educator. A great thinker. Soulful. Practical. Integrated. Diana and I have known of each other for about ten years, meeting through a Berkana Institute event that I co-created. We’ve touched in with each other a bit over the years. Yet, in a way that feels just ready, within the last year, have been participants together at a conference on Leadership in a Self-Organizing World, co-designers for a recent Art of Hosting on Vancouver Island, and now designing together again for an upcoming Art of Hosting in Edmonton, Alberta. It’s been a good year with Diana!

Our conversation this week was about what it means to steward the Art of Hosting. I appreciated Diana’s starting point. Stewarding is a strong word. She doesn’t take it lightly. She had several questions about what it means to do so. Together we also had many questions. What is different between hosting and other forms of leadership? In other words, what needs to be stewarded? What is the importance of brand and integrity of brand? What does brand mean when it is held by an amorphous network of people rather than trademarked or copyrighted by an organization? What is accountability in a network? Like it is with many great conversations, we found insights and many new questions.

One of the most helpful insights that I carried away from our call was the notion of “fluency.” We explored what it means to be “fluent” in a language. How fluency is a concept — is anybody really fluent in any language. How fluency comes from a presence and experience within a culture. Beyond words is meaning. Just as beyond methods for hosting is meaning. We explored “dialects” within a given language. I asked Diana to say more about what fluency with the Art of Hosting means to her. “Sensitivity to the field. Multiple sensitivities. Enough understanding to make design decisions.” Just as it is with enough fluency to recognize choices of expressions rather than one simple way. I further found myself aware of commitments to “crowd-sourcing” and “self-organization.” Of commitments I know with colleagues at Berkana: “emergence,” “healthy and resilient communities,” and “life-affirming leadership.”

We both became curious about this. What could become clear at the next level of helpfulness if we were to look at Art of Hosting as a dialect that requires fluency? How would this help all of us — from stewards and pattern-keepers to new people wanting to apply learnings? What if the broader language is something about participative leadership or engagement? And the dialect is Art of Hosting? This helps me to think more clearly about the many people I know who know a ton of stuff and have extensive experience in leadership and the like, yet don’t yet have the dialect of the Art of Hosting. As it was with Diana, we were talking about a lot more than the meaning of words or the translations. There is indeed a dialect to learn. A cultural experience, multiple times. Something to learn to develop proficiency in. As will a language, to practice, practice, practice so as to come to embody the dialect.

Thanks Diana. Lots of sparks as always.

Earlier this week I talked with a good friend in Utah. A colleague. A fellow traveller. A deep heart. One who can journey. We were reconnecting for the third or fourth time in the last couple of months after not seeing each other for years. It was a kind of connection that was so easy. So simple. As if the aging over the years has made it just right now.

She gifted me with a story that changed her life. Some of that story includes a meander in the forest near Haines, Alaska. At a time in her life when she had suffered the loss of some close to her. She was a person open to extraordinary experiences. Attracting them really. She walked further into the forest. Alone. Becoming aware that nobody really knew where she was. Yet, entranced by the beauty she was seeing and feeling. She was being changed by it. I sensed it was a kind of home for her.

She became aware of a danger. A bear. Didn’t see it. Just felt it. She stopped suddenly. She decided to return to where she began. Her rational mind told her to move toward safety. Yet as she began to return, a significant and life-changing impression came to her. “Don’t allow fear to stop your heart from seeing what it desires. Risk all. Go to beauty.” She continued into the forest.

My friend later learned how close she was to a mother bear and her cubs. The danger was real. Impactful. Yet, the impression to go to beauty was even stronger. It changed her life.

I appreciated this story and the related messages that I felt my friend sharing. Walk through fear. Walk to what we love. To play. To telling stories with each other. To laughter. To magic. To beauty. All beyond what can feel like an impenetrable barrier of fear.

All of these stand out to me because of the many messages of fear that are so easy to give ourselves to. In industries. In teams. In families. In society. And because of the much more compelling invitation to move to beauty. Something about beauty that is an invitation to create or potentialize. Whereas fear seems to shut down or lock into reductive vision.

A couple of instances that have my attention:

• This week working with a planning team for an upcoming art of hosting, we were sharing with each other the lack of registration. Some frustration. Some puzzlement. Some disappointment. We explored why. “People are afraid. They don’t have money. They treat the training as a luxury.” I felt our conversation and invitation process shift in tone as we invited ourselves to consider what is beyond fear.
• Last week meeting with a beginning community of practice on healthcare reform. It was a phone meeting to meet each other deeply. All good people. All inspiring leaders. All with awareness of how difficult it is for people who joined the healthcare profession because of their desire to help, yet are struggling and hurting through layoffs, mandates, cut budgets. We were all aware of the fear. One participant, Dan, said, “I want to know what is on the other side of fear. What is the story on the other side of fear?” Again, a shift and spark as we welcomed that question.
• Yesterday meeting with a group of local community leaders. Twenty people that welcomed the invitation to learn more together about participative leadership. Community organizers. Faith leaders. HR leaders. City planners. Activists. And from a great check-in circle, where people were invited to speak the 2nd answer, the one below the first, hearing this awareness of fear. Hearing our own struggles with fear. Yet also feeling a healing that comes from being able to even just say it out loud. And then turn our attention to what might be possible on the other side.

Walk through fear. Go to beauty. It is one of our choices. As individuals. As teams. As community. Gratitude to my friend for making it clear in another way through sharing her life. Gratitude to the many I work and journey with that can trust enough to just speak the truth and the tremble, to feel freed to move to the other side.