The big posting from the Systems Thinking in Action Conference on a session with Juanita Brown, Nancy Margulis, Nancy White and Amy Lenzo on conversation as a radical act. There are days, and this is one of them, when I pinch myself at how lucky I am to be able to call these women my friends.
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Just back from an amazing Art of Hosting in rural Pennsylvania. Found this in my email box upon my return, send to me by my friend Toke: Not just any talk is conversation Not any talk raises consciousness good conversation has an edge It opens your eyes to something It quickens your ears And good conversation reverberates It keeps on talking in your mind later in the day; The next day, you find yourself still conversing with what was said The reverberation afterward is the very raising of consciousness Your mind and heart have been moved Your are at …
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My young friend Dustin Rivers nails the difference between the old system and the new system.
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Today I ran into an interesting situation. I was in a conversation about a community process I have been designing and a potential participant took me aside and said that she would love to participate but that one of the people who had already agreed to also participate had committed some serous abuse against her partner. She wondered how I would do to resolve the situation. That was a good one, a little bit out of the blue and somewhat unexpected. I thought for a moment and then, putting my best collaborative principles into practice said “I …
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Diamond graphic by Darrell Freeman at Colour Within the constellation of design tools I find especially helpful in creating spaces for conversation, Sam Kaner’s Diamond of Participation has been very influential. About three years ago my friend Myriam Laberge pointed out to me the possibility that all learning conversations take place along this flow of thinking and since then the model has been an important part of my life and work. The diamond is a map that points to three phases that groups pass through as they move from questions to insights. Groups begin with divergent thinking, sit for a …