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Join our Complexity Inside & Out program

February 7, 2023 By Complexity, Featured

Our latest iteration of Working with Complexity Inside & Out” is open for registration. The program will run online from April 13 – June 15, 2023 on Thursday afternoons, North America Pacific time. For the past couple of decades, my partner Caitlin Frost and I have been helping individuals, organizations and communities become more responsive to the complexity that they face as times and contexts change around them. We do this through a variety of tools and supports including In the course of this work we have been on a learning journey through bodies of work that include: And over …

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Room requirements for participatory meetings

February 3, 2023 By Art of Hosting, Facilitation, Featured, Open Space, World Cafe 9 Comments

The Paul Klee Centre in Bern, Switzerland. An amazing room, even though it lacked natural light. Many of my meetings involve being in both a circle configuration and gathered around small tables. It is possible to move table in and out, but for most meetings (and full day or more workshops) these room requirements will be ideal: Typical materials we use in workshops and participatory events include these: For local events, I usually bring the markers and post it notes, letter sized paper, tape and bluetooth speaker, and ask the client to bring flip chart pads, office supplies and the …

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Playing on the big stage

January 31, 2023 By Football 3 Comments

Our gaffer Will Cromack moments after we won the League 1 BC Championship in August Today I’m travelling from Vancouver to Columbus Ohio via Chicago to resume an annual trip to that city I did for many years before the pandemic. My friend Phill Cass invites me to discuss complexity with physicians in the Physicians Leadership Academy he has been running for nearly a decade now. I love the trip because I get to catch up with my Columbus friends, to try some new ideas out in person and to stop over in Ontario and visit family on the way …

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The Refuge Box

January 27, 2023 By Being One Comment

Refuge Box on the pilgrim’s path to The Holy Island by Graham Robson Today I learned about the Refuge Boxes that sit on the tidal flats between the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and the mainland of Great Britain. It is little more than a platform perched above the sand, but for travelers stranded on the flats when the tide comes in, it provides temporary refuge from the sea. The Northumberland poet, Katrina Porteous wrote a lovely long poem on the Refuge Box which begins thus: All of us, pilgrims in the world, need a refuge box from time to time.

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On leaders stepping back

January 26, 2023 By Community, Leadership, Practice, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Richard Rohr has been an important and influential presence in my own spiritual journey over these past 10 or 15 years and although I have never met the man, I have visited the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, and every day I reflect on his teachings and practice through daily blog posts from the Center and through the vast library of Rohr’s works. After several years of transition, Richard Rohr now seems to be fully released from his duties at the Center as he nears the end of his life, and this little video series is a lovely …

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