​​DandDTrans Inquiry News
​​A "community of inquiry and action" regarding the role that dialogue and deliberation can play in addressing the mega-crises of our time
​​Image courtesy of www.NewStories.org
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​Main Menu: ​+Welcome​ | ​+About​ | ​+Intros​ | ​+World Cafe​ | ​+Bohm ​| ​+Open Space ​| ​+Resources​ | ​+News​ | ​+Calls​ | ​+Help​ | ​+Harvest​ | ​+Index​

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​What's Happening in DandDTrans? Updated 2/1/15

​​The DandDTrans dialogue is now "complete," and we are moving into a harvesting phase to think together about what we have learned, what future inquiries might be, and what next steps we might be taking individually, in small groups, and perhaps as a collective. On Feb 7, these hackpads will be "frozen" as a record of what has taken place, and will remain accessible to all who wish to access them.
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​​See the ​+Help​ pad and the ​+Site Map​ for more on how to navigate these hackpads. Below are some highlights of what has happened, and information on the harvesting process.
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​Share Your Personal ​+Harvest​
​​The primary invitation now for harvesting is to write something about your "DandDTrans journey" via ​+one of the hackpad templates available here.​ The focus of this narrative can be whatever you wish, and all who have been engaged in the process--yes, that includes you "lurkers!"-- are invited to participate. There are three suggested themes that the hosting team is inviting you to consider:
  • ​​What you gained
  • ​​What you experienced
  • ​​What's next
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​Join The "Harvest Team"
​​A team is being formed by ​@Nancy Glock-Grueneich​ to dig deeply into these hackpads. Please email Nancy if you would like to participate, as a reader/harvester and also, if you wish, as part of the team that designs the harvesting process. and identify things such as:
  • ​​Sources
  • ​​Inquiries 
  • ​​Actions
  • ​​Answers
  • ​​Themes and patterns
  • ​​Think pieces (existing hackpads that are sufficiently well-crafted to stand on their own, or nearly so)
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​Just Browse Around
​​Please feel free to browse around if you simply curious about what was discussed here, but not necessarily interested in actively harvesting.  And if you find do happen to find something of particular interest or value to you, consider posting a comment on the general reflections pad within the Harvesting section.
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  • ​​Here are some interesting places to browse:
  • ​​The ​+Harvest​ pads are already seeing some "action"
  • ​​Read about some of the people who were "here" via the ​+Intros​ pads. 
  • ​​The main online ​+Open Space​ pad links to eleven topics, many of which have detailed discussions via hackpad. 
  • ​​The main ​+World Cafe​ pad links to some online conversations, as well as the pads for each of the live calls (also listed below).
  • ​​Each plenary call and each Bohm dialogue has extensive notes on what was said. In the plenaries, these notes are often on subsidiary pads corresponding to breakout groups,, the links to which can be found within the main pad for each call. Here's a basic index:
  • ​​The main ​+What's In Motion​ and ​+Resources​ pads each link to many subsidiary pads where various items of interest have been compiled.
  • ​​The ​+Group Works Deck Card of the Evening Conversations​ were a delightful series of impromptu small group gatherings, each of which was based on a randomly chosen card form the Group Works Deck. Notes were scribed from the live discussions, and in some cases, post-call comments were also added.
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​Update from the Hosting Team (1/26)

​​We're in the home stretch of what, for me, has been a fascinating, inspiring, and at times challenging journey. Looking back on the four "intended results" for this "community of inquiry and action," it strikes me that we are likely to have fulfilled all of them to some degree, even as many participants may feel that their expectations or wishes have not been fully met. Then again, we're not finished yet!
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  • ​​The intended results of our time together (though January 31) include:  
  • ​​To engage in deep dialogue around our calling question.
  • ​​To connect to build community and share resources, information and strategies.
  • ​​To elicit inspiring, actionable possibilities and support the emergence of collaborative   teams to work together on bringing them forth in the coming year.
  • ​​To have the inquiry process itself be a prototype that can be iterated upon in service to systemic transformation.  
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  • ​​Among the highlights that I can see thus far are:
  • ​​A very positive response to the prototyping of virtual approaches to dialogue, leaving most participants with a sense of great potential. Much learning has taken place on ways to do this, and there is also a sense that there is still much that we can learn.
  • ​​An in-depth inquiry by our inspirational "thinking partner," Tom Atlee, into the ​+Strategic Use of Conversation​, spanning hackpad and the two Open Space calls, and resulting in a list of twelve approaches that might prove quite valuable to the planning of further work at the intersect of D&D and systemic transformation.
  • ​​Many new connections made between participants, including an intense journey for the six members of the "hosting team."
  • ​​Much rich thinking and exchanging of ideas across the many hackpads that have been created. It appears fragmented to many, though I see clear patterns and learning. And there is a consensus that this record can be mined in many useful ways.
  • ​​Some deep dives via Bohm dialogue that also showcased the potential for Zoom, including an impromptu dance party at the end of the 1/20 call!
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​​There are plans for initiating a "harvesting" phase that will coincide with​+ the final plenary call, a World Cafe, this Thursday, 1/29 at 2pm ET.​ The hosting team has spent a number of hours contemplating, and wrestling with, various approaches to this work. A number of participants on the Open Space call offered support as well, A survey was contemplated, in addition to an invitation to harvest via hackpad and the 1/29 call, but at this time, it appears that that will not be forthcoming dues to concerns that not enough people are likely to respond. 
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​​An email list will also be compiled for all those who wish to have their contact information shared with other participants in DandDTrans. Opt into this list by contacting Nancy Glock-Grueneich.
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​​Ben Roberts, on behalf of ​+the hosting team​.
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​​Contact Ben or Linda if you have questions, or are interested in joining ​+the hosting team.​
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​Previous Posts
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​​[1/10] We had a the first Bohm Dialogue via Zoom yesterday. Notes are here. Twelve of us gathered, and were delighted by how well the tech worked to give us a real "face-to-face" experience. That strand of our inquiry will continue on two more calls and the group looks forward to it deepening. Contact Linda Ellinor if you are interested in participating. 
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​​The Open Space is getting going with six topics now posted, and active conversation taking place online in some of them--most notably ​+OS Topic 3: Reviving Congress District by District​. Please consider ​+participating, or initiating your own topic​.
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​​The "dance" between the live virtual conversations and this online space is challenging many of us. It's new territory, and we're not sure how to use this hackpad platform, or if it can "do" what we want it to. I remain confident that it can, and is, providing us with a rich place to have the conversations we want/need to have, and to experiment with new processes for asynch dialogue. 
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​​The ​+"What's Possible?"​ conversation (please add your voice there too!) is a good example of the richness that has already emerged. I am now inviting us to deepen and build on that with ​+an Open Space session​ where we can process what is posted there. This goes to a concern I am hearing about how we take all the various threads and pull them together to make meaning and look for opportunities to cohere around action.
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​​I'm also wondering if it might make sense to make this News section a collaborative effort, inviting each of us to make updating entries about any activity that we are finding valuable and want to alert others to. That would be much more in the spirit of traditional Open Space. I invite you to post your thoughts on that to the ​+Questions, Comments, and Feedback​ pad.
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​​Ben Roberts, on behalf of ​+the hosting team​.

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​​[1/7] Our Jan 6th World Cafe is now behind us. ​+Notes can be reviewed here​ (be sure to click through to the various "Room" pads for notes from each of the small groups over the three rounds. Two things struck me as I reflected on the call last night:
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  1. ​​This is hard work! Both grappling with these BIG questions and managing an unfamiliar and multi-layered use of technology required significant effort. My reframe on this is that it is at least in part a reflection of the deep challenge of thinking about what might “make enough of a difference to make a difference.” Asking you to go there can bring up pain and grief and frustration and anger. But since we didn’t invite the direct expression of those feelings, perhaps they emerged as “being tired?” AND many of you really did work your butts off participating and scribing and holding space, etc. for two and a half hours, which was certainly a lot! 
  1. ​​Despite whatever challenges it may have presented, many of you really appreciated the meta-level process experiment with virtual convening, and are inspired by the potential for what we are prototyping here to be applied “out there” in powerful ways.
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​​For me, that is a great start. And yes, although many of us have been in this inquiry together since October, this did feel to me like the start of something new. We got confirmation of this from “the invisible realms” via the Group Works Deck card Tom pulled on the call (Closing) and then again on during ​+the Card of the Evening conversation​ when Heather pulled “Opening and Welcome!”
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​​Ben Roberts, on behalf of ​+the hosting team​.
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​​Contact Ben or Linda if you have questions, or are interested in joining ​+the hosting team.​
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