September 3, 2009
Colleague Glen Lauder shared this with me this week. It was framing that he spoke to the New Zealand Land and Water Forum. It was offered in the context of framing a structure for a years worth of engagement processes that would include 30 people. It was spoken to offer clarity of invitation and purpose. It is one of the clearest I have seen in some time.
1. Wellness -- It is important that we focus on what we are doing well. It is important that we notice when we are working well. This links nicely to the appreciative approach and the reality that "what we give our attention to grows." It is also a nice invitation to notice what we already know. Thus, the invitation is not to start over, but rather to build on what we know and ask what we could also know, including what we could also let go of.
2. Pratice -- The learning that we are in comes largely from a field of practice. There are now practitioners all over the world who are sharing what works. It is learning from engagement. It is story. It is methods. It is invitation for us to be practitioners and pioneers of social methodologies and apply what we learn at scale.
3. Theory -- Though we do not speak as theoreticians, there are several aspects of theory that feed these practices. It is an invitation to notice the most clear gems and world views. And example is self-organization. Another is systems theory. Another is chaos and complexity theory.
4. No Shit -- This was a warrior's call into clarity of purpose. If the work is about preserving water and land availability -- some of NZ's most important issues, then make sure this is at the center. If the work is about preserving rivers that our children might swim in them and feel expansive in spirit, then make sure this is at the center. It is the invitation to show up with the realness of issue, despite any obstacles in the past be they political or otherwise. It is the invitation to think beyond planning meetings.
5. Personal -- For us to work in wholeness, we must show up personally. Very often I hear the distinction that people make about showing up personally versus professionally. Sharing stories of home, of family, of emotions often are not the pattern for professional work. And yet, the learning is that we can't not show up personally. We must be willing to take that personal journey and not fear the integration.
6. Offer what is Above -- Each time, can we be deliberate to notice what we know now that we did not know before. Or feel. Or intuit. Stand with each other in a commitment to innovate and to notice what is emerging. Earlier in the week we asked people to notice what is arising in the group. This was a question about noticing patterns. It is the invitation to see what is unfolding. To see what is beyond what we know as individuals. It is further invitation to trust that those noticings give us the wisdom we need for the next steps.
Showing posts with label Invitation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Invitation. Show all posts
Invitation -- Women Circle on Local Food
September 19, 2008
An invitation I like that came from Maggie Wright. I love the simplicity. An invitation to gather. Naming it's existing forms. Naming purpose of local food.
Dear You,
I want to invite you to join in an experiment. This experiment has been going on for thousands of years in many cultures, and is alive today in so many forms in our own culture. It shifts and changes with time, circumstances, and the needs and vision of the people involved. It has been known by many names: a talking circle, a roundtable, a speaking-round-and-round, a support group, a base community...
All of these names point to one truth: the power of gathering intentionally and intimately to know one another, and to understand a problem together. A small number of people, gathering regularly over time, to share the joy, challenge, and hilarity of our very ordinary lives, is immensely powerful and creative. It creates the glue that allows us to courageously and critically examine issues that affect our quality of life together.
We are Michigan women who recognize our land's potential to nourish our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelihood. We have made it part of our work and our celebration to love the food that we eat, to be aware of where it comes from, and whose labor, whose care and intelligence bring it to our table. We brainstormed a constellation of strong women in this community with a creative commitment to local food and agriculture, and we spoke your name.
We are so grateful for your work and your spirit! If you'd like to drop in on a talking circle, please call or email ______________ to find out when and where we will meet.
May you be happy!
May you be healthy!
May you be at peace!
Thank you!
An invitation I like that came from Maggie Wright. I love the simplicity. An invitation to gather. Naming it's existing forms. Naming purpose of local food.
Dear You,
I want to invite you to join in an experiment. This experiment has been going on for thousands of years in many cultures, and is alive today in so many forms in our own culture. It shifts and changes with time, circumstances, and the needs and vision of the people involved. It has been known by many names: a talking circle, a roundtable, a speaking-round-and-round, a support group, a base community...
All of these names point to one truth: the power of gathering intentionally and intimately to know one another, and to understand a problem together. A small number of people, gathering regularly over time, to share the joy, challenge, and hilarity of our very ordinary lives, is immensely powerful and creative. It creates the glue that allows us to courageously and critically examine issues that affect our quality of life together.
We are Michigan women who recognize our land's potential to nourish our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelihood. We have made it part of our work and our celebration to love the food that we eat, to be aware of where it comes from, and whose labor, whose care and intelligence bring it to our table. We brainstormed a constellation of strong women in this community with a creative commitment to local food and agriculture, and we spoke your name.
We are so grateful for your work and your spirit! If you'd like to drop in on a talking circle, please call or email ______________ to find out when and where we will meet.
May you be happy!
May you be healthy!
May you be at peace!
Thank you!
Reflections on Invitation
September 19, 2008
A nice little piece here from Chris Corrigan that we are including in a workbook for an open-enrollment training. Chris speaks something very important here for me. I have noticed in many events that there is a tendancy to think of the invitation as a checklist item. "Just get it done so that we can get on with planning an event." The invitation actually is one of the first doorways into planning an event. When done well, it brings all of the planners into a deeper sense of possibility. It opens the creative space with each other. I particularly like the reference below to beginning with a conversation on the need, on the purpose. It is also my experience that this focus helps get to the real juice of why this meeting matters and what possibility it holds. It helps move the process from one of "selling" to one of "attracting in" because people share the basic sense of need and don't want to miss it. This feels particularly important in the meeting-full context in which many of us live.
A nice little piece here from Chris Corrigan that we are including in a workbook for an open-enrollment training. Chris speaks something very important here for me. I have noticed in many events that there is a tendancy to think of the invitation as a checklist item. "Just get it done so that we can get on with planning an event." The invitation actually is one of the first doorways into planning an event. When done well, it brings all of the planners into a deeper sense of possibility. It opens the creative space with each other. I particularly like the reference below to beginning with a conversation on the need, on the purpose. It is also my experience that this focus helps get to the real juice of why this meeting matters and what possibility it holds. It helps move the process from one of "selling" to one of "attracting in" because people share the basic sense of need and don't want to miss it. This feels particularly important in the meeting-full context in which many of us live.
Reflections on Invitation
Chris Corrigan
When we think of invitation, the first thing that usually comes to mind Is simply a notcie sent out by email or appearing on a buletin board. Invitation as a THING,
Over the years I have come to realize that invitation is not a thing but a process, a lifestyle and a practice. When we host the call of inspiration, we do well to pay attention to how it generates the urge to invite others. Invitation is a process that brings us alive. Compared to compulsion, invitation results in people choosing to show up and being open, curious and enthusiastic. Compulsion results in closed, defensive, judgemental and apathetci participation.
In our work, developing invitations to gatherings is becoming more and more of an art. And the process starts well before the formal “invitation” is issued. As a design principle, it pays to remember that the meeting begins long before the invitation is issued.
The goal of invitation is to attract people fully to the event. So invitation begins very early on in the planning process and continues to build up to the event and beyond. Typically when I am working with a group, we follow something like this workplan:
* Work through the chaordic stepping stones and harvest the need, purpose and people. This becomes the basis for the invitation process.
* Create an invitation list of people who are needed for the meeting
* Begin contacting these people and hosting little conversations to find out what quality of invitation would attract them to this gathering.
* As the design progress, issue small invitations to the growing list of inviitees. Let them know when the dates are chosen, where the location will be, the clarity of the need and purpose as it arises.
* Try to send out more than one invitation. The more important and deep the gathering is, the more information I like to send out before hand. With some communities, setting up a web site, blog, forum, or wiki before hand can begin the converstions before the participants arrive. The more engaged you are with the participants before the meeting, the more engagement arises in the face to face space.
* Within the meeting itself, frame everything as an invitation. Using language that invites people to choose to participate so they participants are aware that the quality of the experience is up to them.
* Support follow up by inviiting participants to connect to one another and continue to find each other. Keep websites in place, send out follow ups and invite connection until the energy wanes and the project moves on.
It's a lot of work, but it is essential because the quality of any gathering depends largely on how the participants show up. Be creative, be dilligent and make sure the invitation process works well.
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