Michael Herman started thinking through the practices of Open Space again and yesterday we had a good conversation about the not-practices of Open Space. He has blogged about them here and here, trying on different words and language and making a case (:-)) for various iterations. Briefly, these not-practices, or anti practices are: Analyzing as the opposite of appreciating (and opening) Protecting, defending and facilitating as the opposites of inviting Problem solving and fixing as the opposites of supporting (and holding) Accounting and making a good case as the opposite of making good (grounding) For me these are important because …
Here are a number of bits and pieces that have been waiting around for ages to get posted: Donella Meadows on being a global citizen and dancing with systems. From Bill Harris at Making Sense with Facilitated Systems. Getting Started with Action Learning, also from Bill. Dave Pollard on indigenous capacities for learning and discovery: The word indigenous* means ‘born into and part of’, and by inference ‘inseparably connected to’. We are all, I think, indigenous at birth, born into the Earth-organism and connected in a profound and primal way to all life on the planet, even if we are …
It was a rainy day here on Bowen Island, so I pushed around some pieces of my blog. Readers familiar with the evolution of Parking Lot over the past four years will remember that I once devoted a great deal of time to reading poetry and collecting the work of poets I admire. I have reset those collections, and you can find them on the sidebar in the “Collections of poetry” page. The Denise Levertov collection is still one of the most popular pages on this whole site. Also in the sidebar is a restoration of a page that has …
This past week, the Conservative led Parliament in Canada voted to extend Canada’s military commitment in Afghanistan until the end of President Hamid Karzai’s term in office. In so doing, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the following: Together, diplomats, workers and soldiers from 35 countries are working with the government of Afghanistan to rebuild that country. We are providing knowledge, financial assistance, security; security that allows the Afghan people to build a justice system, develop and grow their economy, construct schools, hospitals and irrigation systems, and yes, ensure that the rights of the Afghan people are protected. [Translation] I am …
For those of you that read in newsfeeders you won’t have noticed that I changed the template of the blog again. I think it’s now a little easier to read, but let me know. At any rate, light blogging this month. I have been involved in some incredibly draining work of late, the most recent of which required me to be substantially bigger than I normally have been. I was holding space for a day long circle dialogue on Aboriginal child welfare in British Columbia. It was a full day with many important people from throughout the system who came …