To explore the calling question of what we, as members of the dialogue and deliberation community of practice, have to be and do to enable our most positive transformational impact in the face of climate change, peak oil and water, profound wealth inequity, and other emerging crises which fundamentally challenge our business-as-usual habits and systems.
The following are among the intended results for this inquiry:
1. Engage in deep dialogue around our calling question.
2. Connect to build community and share resources, information, and strategies.
3. Elicit inspiring, actionable possibilities and support the emergence of collaborative teams to work together on bringing them forth in the coming year.
Ben's 12/22 Draft
Purpose:to gather through the end of January online and over the phone/video conferencing, as a"community of inquiry," around what can be done at the intersection of dialogue, deliberation, and systemic transformation to“make enough of a difference to make a difference”(h/t Bob Stilger).
Intended results:
Build supportive relationships among those of us who are committed to this work as agents of transformation
Gain clarity and insight into the ways that D&D can catalyze and amplify systemic transformation
Elicit and identify inspiring, actionable possibilities and support the emergence of collaborative teams to work together on bringing them forth
To have the inquiry[process] itself be a prototype that can be iterated upon in service to systemic transformation
As feasible, discover or develop and disseminate sources, information, and tools useful to the above.
Discussion
I'm feeling a sense of urgency in getting back to people after our Dec. 15th conversation to let people know next steps. I know Ben is also which is why we would like to talk about this tomorrow.
For me, the first two points(intended results above) happen automatically if we stay connected around a shared-sense of purpose(which I thought Tom did a great job of in his initial email that got the group going). We will be building supportive relationships whether we'dialogue', pull cards of the evening, or do more world cafes through Maestro. So, I'm not sure we need to specify this in this next round.
As for the 2nd intended result: D & D simply DOES amplify systemic transformation...not that it is the only way to catalyze and amplify, but none of us would even be in this inquiry if we all didn't know deep down that D & D is by definition, a transformative practice. So, perhaps, what I'm getting at, is that I'm sensing we need to actually extract what we all heard from Dec. 15th's call in the way that suggests we heard what people were excited about and here are some threads we heard that seem fruitful for follow-up AND here is how we are suggesting we go about that.
I do like Ben's 3rd item, but even that isn't clear enough for me in terms of how our convening team sees helping emerging collaborative teams come into being. I had thought that perhaps we could have a section on the hackpad for Open Space sessions to be initiated with times/dates specified so people could begin to self-organize around shared interests. I'm not sure I know how to make that happen with the hackpad/maestro technology, but to me, this is one of the most important things we could be facilitating. It seemed to me that there were many ideas that were being floated out there on the 15th. Now the need is to help land and root them to see if there are ideas around which people want/are motivated to self-organize. Not necessarily for them to go"DO" anything just yet, but for people to at least be able to gravitate to others with like ideas/interests for what could be done amongst us. I thought having some sort of"What's Possible" section, that Ben has already started, with this idea of a more actionable way of taking those ideas to the next step, merged would be the way to go.
As for the 4th point, I think if we are effective in framing the Dialogue in January well, we can have a very meaningful inquiry into how D & D as well as how"we", whomever"we" are(as we don't even know who all is really on the call yet), can perhaps make a difference in systemic transformation. I'm now understanding after some conversations with Ben, that we ARE also(possibly) prototyping a way of having conversations here with the technology that could be useful to others. I think having that as a"What's Possible" idea is very useful and legitimate. But, I would want to get clear on how our process is different from other processes and what are we trying to consciously prototype before naming it as such.
The 5th point for me was a very useful one...especially should we decide that we want some sort of on-going'learning organization' to unfold from our efforts here. It seemed part of the'back-bone, or consultant's co-op idea' that I keep pointing toward that came out of our prior conversations and the one I had with Ben Kadel and also with Robert. Of course we would want to share resources, information and tools between ourselves and whomever we might choose to work with. We all have client bases, so these resources would be very valuable. What's working? What isn't working, etc.
I had sent a partial'alternative draft' to Ben last week. It isn't even remotely ready to send out and it mainly broke down what I've said above...So, I look forward to our call tomorrow and other's comments here. I'm feeling that we are at a crucial turning point in what we are doing together and helping to facilitate.
Ben...how do we come back to this? It isn't clear to me how to get to the convenor notes from the hackpad.