I was up north on the weekend, working with a small community that has been driven apart by a large and contentious decision. It doesn’t matter what it was, or what either side wanted – the result is the same result that happens in many small communities: people who are friends and neighbours shouting and fighting with each other. The team I was working with are trying to reinvent the way this community is engaged. We used a lovely redux of Peter Block’s work to help frame our conversation about design and implementation. A few things stood out for this …
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I’m at an Open Space conference in Grande Ronde, Oregon which is a summit of Tribal leaders and federal government agencies from around the Pacific Northwest of the USA, and Alaska. The subject of the meeting is improving relations around environmental issues. As we were wrapping up our action planning session this morning, a young man walked into the room who I hadn’t yet met. He apologized for being late. He got delayed on the way in. “No problem,” I said. “What was the delay all about?” “Oh, I live near Nome Alaska and we were out hunting. Got a …
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William Commanda, an important Elder from Kitigan Zibi near Maniwaki, Quebec died this morning. I first met William in 1988 when I was doing some research at the Assembly of First Nations offices in Ottawa. He had come into the office to give a teaching on one of the wampum belts that he had in his possession. A large crowd of staff gathered around him and he spoke quietly and deliberately about the nature of the relationship between peoples on the continent. He was a powerful teacher, and could hold a room spellbound as he expounded on his teachings. He …
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Heading to Columbus Ohio today to teach at the 2011 Authentic Leadership in Action Institute with my friends Pawa Haiyupis and Tim Merry. We’re teaching a module on indigenous wisdom, ancient wisdom, universal wisdom. It’s new for me to be doing this, kind of a chance to sum up my last 20 years of learning, living and growing as a human being. I’m nervous and mindful of elder Herb Joe’s name for us: “poor weak human beings.” I always feel humble coming to ALIA and this year I feel maybe more humble than ever. Our module is fully subscribed and …
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Yesterday I had a chance to grab lunch with Dave Pollard in our local coffee shop on Bowen Island. One of the things we talked about was the supremacy of analysis in the world and why that is a problem when it comes to operating in complex domains. I have been intentionally working a lot lately with Dave Snowdon et. al.’s Cynefin framework to support decision making in various domains. It is immensely helpful in making sense of the messy reality of context and exercises like anecdote circles and butterfly stamping are very powerful, portable and low tech processes. Cynefin …