What's Possible? DandDTrans Inquiry

A "community of inquiry and action" regarding the role that D&D can play in addressing the mega-crises of our time

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World Cafe Menu: +Powerful Questions | +What's Possible?

This conversation began our inquiry in early December, and has now being folded into the World Cafe space. As of 1/10, there is an invitation to process what is posted here as a whole via +Open Space Topic 6. 

You are also encouraged, if you have not yet done so, to post your individual answers to this pad. Read the "distinctions" below, then find a blank template, post your name in bold on the first line, and offer some brief answers to the two questions.

Before writing your answers, you might want to +listen to some music, +watch a video, and/or +look at some images, and then take a few moments for silent reflection.

Note: this entire page is editable! Please be careful to only make new entries and not delete what is here. To edit, you must sign into hackpad, using either Facebook, Google, or an email and password you set up. +More on how to use hackpad here.

The Questions for this Possibility Conversation

Question 1: What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2: What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

Distinctions for this conversation:

"The challenge with possibility is it gets confused with goals, prediction, and optimism. Possibility is not about what we plan to happen, or what we think will happen, or whether things will get better. Goals, prediction, and optimism don’t create anything; they just might make things a little better and cheer us up in the process. Nor is possibility simply a dream. Dreaming leaves us bystanders or observers of our lives. Possibility creates something new. It is a declaration of a future that has the quality of being and aliveness that we choose to live into. It is framed as a declaration of the world that I want to inhabit. It is a statement of who I am that transcends our history, our story, our usual demographics. The power is in the act of declaring.

The distinction between possibility and problem solving is worth dwelling on for a moment. As I have said, surely too many times, we traditionally start with problem solving and talk about goals, targets, resources, and how to persuade others. Even the creation of a vision is part of the problem solving mentality. A vision is something we must wait for to realize and is most often followed by an effort to make it concrete and practical. Even a vision, which is a more imaginative form of problem solving, needs to be postponed and replaced with possibility. The future is created through a declaration of what is the possibility we stand for. Out of this declaration, each time we enter a room, the possibility enters with us.

The communal possibility comes into being through individual public declarations of possibility. Much the same as witnessing in religious gatherings. Though every possibility begins as an individual declaration, it gains power and impacts community when made public. The community possibility is not the aggregation of individual possibilities. Nor is it a negotiation or agreement on common possibility. The communal possibility is that space or porous container where a collective exists for the realization of all the possibilities of its members. This is the real meaning of a restorative community. It is that place where all possibilities can come alive, and they come alive at the moment they are announced."

Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block, 2009, pp.125-6

Possibility Conversation

@Gerald Dillenbeck

Contact information, links, etc:

gdill52@sbcglobal.net, www.gdill52.com,

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Perhaps the crossroad across every heart and mind between ego-self-identified intent and eco-soulfood composting natural practice.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

Tellus Institute (www.tellus.org) has been looking at possible evolutionary trends, projecting 100 years forward, since the 1970s, developing large set analog trend analysis, and actually call their most optimistic hope for the general well-being of our grandkids a "Great Transition" value option, probably born out of a sense of impending crisis.

Apparently, our grandkids' best odds for sustained quality of life for their kids hinges significantly on how quickly we develop a global culture that perceives that we are all in this mess together, and then quickly realigns now overly-competitive and self-serving cultural and economic values to balance and more gently challenge globally cooperative exchanges of values and information, like language, and dialogue, and deliberation. Within this way of seeing our situation, the NCDD "neutrality" value would recommend framing this "Great Turning or Not: Crisis for Global Economic and Environmental and Cultural and Educational and Nutritional and Health/Well-Being Systems, or not so much?" BIG opportunity for public on-line discourse and large data formats, to grow from information, recreation, entertainment, communication, pedagogical functions, to further embrace ecologically cooperative communication and economic network functions.

What if we hosted a global voluntary budgeting on-line discussion. Assume we have the combined federal budgets on Earth as revenue potential. And, it would also be interesting to include all the money currently invested by philanthropic foundations, private and corporate and community foundations, with global search for potential social investment budget dollars. Then find out what "we the people" throughout the world would think would be the best way to invest that money to optimize our potential to sustain the full diversity and quality of life for the next 7 generations. One of the models for doing this involves allocating percentages of the total resources to population sub-sets, based on topographical proximity. So, for example, neighborhoods have executive control of an allocated percentage of total city revenue. Presumably our subsets could operate all the way from neighborhood to internationally shared biosystems, It would be an interesting project to do with the Tellus Institute. Maybe Jim Rough could produce an international reality TV show around this global adventure in budgeting cooperatively-held resources.

Comments from other participants:

Ben, 12/12: Well, Gerald, to your last suggestion, perhaps you're referring to the fact that, if their IndieGoGo campaign is successful, Jim Rough--along with a team that includes our own Tom Atlee and World Cafe founders Juanita Brown and David Isaacs-- IS looking to help produce a documentary film called Blind Spot about a reality experiment on the potential of Wisdom Councils in Asheville. NC. Please consider supporting them!

@Stephanie Jo Kent, 1/4/15: Wow! Looks great! Yes--let's hope it gets funded! Jim Rough will be participating here too, by the way. Ben, 1/5. It DID get fully finded! [Ben, 2/1]

Tom Atlee

cii@igc.org / co-intelligence.org / tomatleeblog.com

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

I've worked for systemic change more than full time for more than 25 years. I expect we have passed all significant tipping points on climate disruption and this, combined with the intrinsic fragility of our resource, political, governmental, economic and financial systems will result in the collapse of civilization and possibly human extinction within a dozen generations at most and very possibly within a few decades. Despite that - and luckily - I love the work that I do and the people I work with doing it, as well as exploring ideas and visions and participating in exercises that seek to put those ideas and visions into practice. So the big change for me is that I find myself detached from outcome and more willing to choose activities according to my passion about them and to let be whatever will be. I find myself curious to see how the criticality of our collective situation plays out in our collective relationship to systemic transformation. I like to hope that it will be sufficiently thorough, rapid, and wise that it will prove me quite wrong in my prognosis about humanity's destiny. It's quite an adventure to push that edge.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

Under the right conditions, small groups of ordinary people can generate collective wisdom about complex problems, possibilities, and systems - especially in conjunction with whole communities and populations (which includes having generative connections with experts, stakeholders, officials, and other "leaders"). We are at the "Kitty Hawk" stage in understanding those "right conditions", but so many experiments point in such promising directions that true progress in understanding and reliably creating those conditions is now possible. We just need to make some vital connections and to upshift our collective inquiry on this subject - and establish such groups in key places in our social systems, particularly political. I suspect an important key is to focus on diversity of perspectives, processes capable of creatively using that diversity, and wisdom of outcome. Inclusive participation is best framed as a resource for those, rather than an end in itself (since mere participation can result in folly or confusion rather than wisdom). Done strategically and well, I see this as our best source for the wisdom we need to navigate the unprecedented rapids of change into which we have launched ourselves.

In a more general sense, as I've thought about what I might say in introducing this initiative in the first Maestro call, I came up with this:

When I think about what's possible with these calls, I can imagine dozens of participants sticking it out for months and inviting colleagues to join them in clarifying a wide variety of approaches to using dialogue and deliberation to make a real difference in the Great Turning from emerging crises to emerging new social forms.

I can imagine some of us helping communities self-organize into greater resilience.

I can imagine some of us helping activists groups become more vibrant and effective.

I can imagine some of us helping stakeholders come up with creative solutions to social and environmental problems.

I can imagine others of us creating movements and institutions to transform democracy into a participatory exercise in collective wisdom.

I can imagine some of us helping despairing citizens move through their profound grief to action, insight, and/or inner peace.

I can imagine others of us engaging thousands of people in visions of how we can move - and even now are moving - from crisis through opportunity to a renewed world - and helping them come together around creative initiatives that really excite them.

I can imagine some of us living with ever greater intensity into the inquiry of what our insights and skills have to offer to our society in addressing the extinction-level issues of our time - like the disruption of the global climate upon which everything in our lives depends.

I don't know if any of this will happen, but I do know that all of it is possible.

Comments from other participants:

"What are the mechanisms by which a whole country can be intelligent?" My antennae are always on the lookout for deep questions and statements that stop me in my tracks, and this one (from Tom in the video) qualifies. I wonder if exploring this question might lead us to the most direct route for building a critical mass of civic engagement. [I've copied this over to the Questions pad as well. Ben Roberts, 12/18]

Bruce Schuman: I have been looking at Tom's three articles -- selected from among his very many -- because I think I see in them the essence of a profound and workable philosophy that could -- and I would say should -- form the basis of our "revolutionary agreements". In some sense, we are always "starting at the beginning", as though we know nothing. But in another very real sense, there is a high level of mastery and skill and knowledge available to us. Seen this way, we are not beginners. We should be bold, and in a co-creative way, inviting buy-in from anyone who cares, assert this mastery as a visionary hypothesis and activist manifesto for the world.

Linda Ellinor

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

I can imagine that we (starting with those of us called into this conversation from NCDD) first self-organize ourselves into a financially viable cooperative of service and process providers. Our mission is to utilize our unique process and organizational skills in service to other organizations working on ushering in what many are calling the “Great Transition or Shift.” We assess those projects/efforts already in motion and look at what is still needed in moving this agenda forward. We might even serve as a kind of “backbone” organization or as a network of networks in this way, providing such services as consulting, communication, strategic and tactical over-site as crises unfold that offer openings for social changes to occur. We model a form of shared leadership through how we organize ourselves. We also figure out how to encourage the creation of interconnecting circles of people all focused on how to actualize a sustainable world culture that stewards finite resources for the benefit of all. We apply our process and organizational skills in ways that help to connect everyone from the grass roots and up through every level of society so that, no matter which political persuasion, religious perspective, geographic location, or economic strata, etc., anyone all over the world is welcome, invited, and included to participate in this grand human experiment of interconnection. In fact, we figure out a way to make these interconnected circles of people so enticing that everyone in our world, no matter where and regardless of their circumstances, will not want to be left out.

Comments from other participants:

This resonates. Perhaps it is helpful to add that "how to actualize a sustainable world culture that stewards finite resources for the benefit of all", if you change the word "finite" to "natural," inclusive of human nature, is a good working definition of Permaculture Design. Then this network of networks begins to emerge as a network of eco-logical nutrient/energy value-transfer information networks. Kind of a healthy well-being yeast that forms through interconnecting circles out of a (0)-sum balanced win-win strategic economic game theory. No one wins unless all players are out of deficit. We really are all in this mess together, to figure it out cooperatively, even synergetically. perhaps even regeneratively.

Ben Levi

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

I feel like I'm surfing the wave of possibility these days, following scents of potential coming from the future, pulling us toward them. Like Tom mentioned above, my practice is releasing expectations of outcomes, instead focusing on promoting healthy expressions that my heart feels moved to be part of, like this gathering. In my Spiral Dynamics Integral work, we look at the evolution of human values, Change and all of its variations, and a 4-quadrant perspective on complex problems. I, too, look at long-term trends and their ramifications if left unchecked, and thus I hold a paradox... on the one hand the structural system we're living in must transform in order for the human experiment to get on a more sustainable footing. On the other hand, I see breakdown as the most likely way that transformation will occur. The crossroads I'm at is setting up for the structural breakdown (inner as well as outer work), and recognizing that there are conditional and unconditional goals I can do for myself, and assist others in finding for themselves, so as to foster optimal happiness during this transition.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

I see it a bit differently than Peter Block describes above... I believe that one way transformation occurs is through a 'super-ordinate goal," which is something that many people want, but that no one can achieve themselves. Thus it is bigger than any of us, and acts as a guiding star for many people to focus their specific piece of that larger goal towards. The key is to recognize that we're all working toward that goal in our own way, thus giving us the sense of "both-and", rather than "either/or". I am encouraged by the possibility that such a goal can be created that will attract not only the consciousness of people at the level that we're at, but also the consciousness of people at many other levels of consciousness (the vast majority of people)... for if enough of us move in a new direction, then the shift will happen.

Comments from other participants:

Not sure Block would see any difference between a "super-ordinate goal" and the kinds of declarations he calls for with this question, Ben. In his further explanations of the "Possibility conversation" we are engaged in here, he writes:

There are two overarching questions that point to the future but cannot

be asked directly:

What do we want to create together that would make the difference?

What can we create together that we cannot create alone?

These two questions almost define community, for community is that place where these questions are valued. The challenge is that I have never seen them answered in a meaningful way when asked within a context of isolation and disengagement. When people who do not really know each other gather, they are incapable of answering the questions in this most direct and purposeful form. That is why we need the other conversations. (Community: The Structure of Belonging, p.127)

Thanks for clarifying that, Ben. I figured that I was aligned with his thinking... makes me feel much better. =BL=

Bruce Schuman

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

"Crossroads" -- hmm. For me -- the big tension is the issue of activating a transformative vision. I have spent a long time more or less as an architect, a designer, working at the level of internet system design and development. But taking a very ambitious design and turning it into activism, where people get on board some common vision, in ways that lead to real social change -- this is much more challenging, and the internet alone is not enough. Writing theories and visions -- while important and probably essential -- alone, just doesn't get us there. Theory by itself is an unrealized potential. Somehow, we need to jump into the fire of real social change.

For me, at this point -- it seems the next steps are profoundly "spiritual". Any hope I have for broad social change, as I see it now, will have to flow from spiritual levels -- probably coordinated as a movement from the point of view of ethics, probably in ways analogous to the leadership of Martin Luther King or Gandhi...

+Click here to go to Bruce Schuman's Possibility Conversation pad, where you can read his full post, see Tom Atlee's comment and Bruce's reply, and offer your own comments

Brian Dowling

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

I am at more of a fork in the road than crossroads having only recently started on this journey compared to most participating. At this point, it is still a matter of learning the territory. The journey though has changed my views of community engagement, community building and community empowerment.

This so far has been primarily a path of learning. I recently finished a certification course in Systems Thinking, Used the course to study the possible intersection of direct democracy and subsequently obtained an introduction to Christopher Alexander's ideas on Pattern Language. I believe that to be truly effective and sustainable that direct democracy involving both participatory democracy and deliberative democracy could greatly benefit from both soft system approaches such as Appreciative Inquiry and World Cafe and hard or dynamic systems approaches such as Systems Dynamics.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community and inspire you?

My blog is called Pathways to New Community Paradigms despite knowing that paradigms is overused because I not only see the need for paradigm level changes to address wicked challenges but also the possibility. The fact the Kuhn instilled the concept into our collective consciousness means that it creates the possibility for creating new realities, keeping in mind that we need to be humble if we want to endeavor to be paradigm engineers because none of us can do it alone.

Right now my view is that we have to create the conditions for possibility. The NCDD's recent convention also had four basic questions for the organization that could also apply to the creation of possibility, two seem particularly relevant. How might we eliminate structural barriers that inhibit conditions for fully realizing possibility? A big part of the problem in my view is that much of the existing system(s) that are not working for people are nonetheless what I call 'entrenched' and we keep merely whacking at the leaves and not the roots systemically speaking. How might we overcome the lack of trust in our Democracy, leaders and one another? Without trust, possibility seems exceedingly limited but possibility opens up the channel for trust if we can demonstrate that possibility can be realized.

Comments from other participants:

Nancy Glock-Grueneich 12/19

Note: Nancy emailed the text below as a single piece, entitled "Clarifying Intentions: Hopes, Fears and Starting Points." She asked me to place it where it seemed most appropriate, and I have done so below, breaking it into two sections corresponding to the questions for this Possibility conversation. She also noted that much of what she wrote was inspired by, and in response to, Tom Atlee's post above. [Ben Roberts, 12/20]

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Needs

To know that there are solutions emerging out there, that we are not alone, and that our efforts matter to someone. Help in finding and keeping focus, discerning appropriate boundaries and maintaining them, coming back from bouts of overwhelm, despair and self-doubt, renewing joy and wellbeing.

I welcome the immediate sense of colleagues and audience; I fear taking on obligations to others that would further pull me from the work I would do; I am profoundly grateful to take on obligations to others that would further pull me towards the work I would do but often hold back from for lack of companions.

Intentions

It is a conscious and ongoing part of my own work: to identify, learn from and leverage the work of others towards the shared goal of reclaiming our future through the continuing evolution of my own being and the transformation of the systems that make up our world. As I can, I stay aware of and in touch with others, in general, and find a few in whom I invest in an ongoing effort to help them in their work and they in mine.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Considerations

This group makes solid and manifest these intentions for me at this time and I am in deep gratitude for its emergence this past week. I do not want its success to turn on whether or not we jointly take on projects or organized political action. I do not need more projects or more structured obligations to others, though others might need such projects and I’d help with these as I could. As it is, I already struggle with getting the clarity, making the time and keeping myself healthy enough to have the energy to fulfill what I feel called to do, around my particular part of the work that I see as most needed.

The group could help with that effort to discern and keep to our priorities, as we many of us may struggle with the same needs. On the other hand, there may be others among us who rather more need to find new opportunities and colleagues for actions on a wider scale and who might thus want our process, i.e. “the group”, to should some responsibility for helping to make such actions happen. I’d support that in others as I could. With these considerations in mind, I here share the list of outcomes I need at this time, ordered from most immediate, fundamental and on-going, to those more tentative that could emerge. As to the latter, I don’t need for such outcomes as I've put towards the end of the list, to make our work together here worthwhile for me at this time; I need only the things in the first part, 1-5.

“What would keep me coming back”

1. Feel the immediate presence and appreciation of others seeking to reclaim our future

2. Be able to share our work, visions, victories, challenges and melt downs, honestly and openly

3. Keep up our courage and deepen our wisdom

4. Learn from each other by sharing resources we encounter and our own experiences, insights, and creative efforts in draft or final versions.

5. Stimulate and give greater focus to each other’s motivation, insight, and action

“Possibilities”

In response to inspiration and opportunity, and within the limits of our available resources,

6. Work to discern and distill patterns, guidelines, models, etc. within this wealth of work we share

7. Discover and develop spin off efforts that emerge among people who connect through this space

8. As occasion arises, undertake manageable “whole group” projects with defined outcomes, timelines and responsibilities

9. Where there is value in it, communicate what we are up to beyond our group, and sometimes coordinate

10. Explore whether and how to engage and support others involved in this work, as part of this group’s effort

There is a healthy tension we must work with here: to stay in touch with each other and keep some shared focus of effort, some awareness of what is occurring and some mutual commitment to each other’s efforts—on the one hand—and, on the other, releasing the energies we’ve elicited in each other to take off in their own chaordic way yielding what we seek but without us controlling or even always knowing all the forms these take, and much less their outcomes.

Comments from other participants:

Thank you, Nancy. I appreciate all the various tensions that you name, e.g. between taking on new work and taking care of oneself, and between a desire among many for project-oriented action and the need to hold that lightly as an outcome. I sense an alignment with what you have suggested here, as our hosting team prepares to make a second invitation to the initial group and beyond. [Ben Roberts, 12/20]

Ben Roberts, 12/20

Per my own instructions (nudge, nudge--see the top of this pad) I watched this +video of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and then sat in silence for five minutes, before posting the following:

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

I know that internal and external transformation go hand in hand. I have struggled to adopt a personal practice of internal transformation, which I see as two fold: meditation to calm my mind and ground me in my heart, and time management to provide discipline and focus for my work. I also see the latter as offering a sense of ease because a) I would know better what my limits are, and b) I would know that I have a process to insures that priority items wouldn't fall off my radar if I don't act on them the second they pop into my head!

These personal practices feel urgently needed, as the range of opportunities for what I sense to be powerful work is expanding for me, and I want to rise to this occasion. I've been in a wonderful flow for over two months now, and I want that to be sustainable. I fear burn-out, or that I might disappoint colleagues by not following through on commitments.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Ah, so many possibilities! For this community of inquiry, one thing I declare is possible is that the process itself can be a prototype for additional iterations of convening that have the following characteristics:

They weave together live virtual and online engagement as well as in-person gatherings, in new and powerful ways

They happen in the juiciest interstices between and among various organizations, alliances, networks and movements, some of which sponsor them, primarily by supporting the invitation process.

They are convened around key strategic questions and challenges regarding the amplification of the Great Turning, and thus "make enough of a difference to make a difference."

They create "pop-up gift economies" that facilitate exchanges via money and other "currencies" at a level that supports the hosting team and those participants who are looking for ways to make a living giving their gifts fully in service to the Great Turning. As a result, we don't have to go looking for funding in order to begin the convening process. We can act as soon as a small group of us is aligned as hosts, based on our highest inspirations and best sense of the +adjacent possible.

I declare that it is possible that, when we are complete at the end of January, I will have found a team of co-conveners and we will have aligned on an inquiry that we want to bring into being, that has the basic characteristics I have described above.

I also declare that it is possible that other teams will have similar success in self-organizing, and that we will do it all "+in a sacred manner and in celebration," prioritizing our relationships with one another, grounded in deep and open inquiry, and holding off on action planning until that deeper work feels "complete" and we know we are in "right relation." As Peter Block suggests:

Possibility occurs as a declaration, and declaring a possibility wholeheartedly can, in fact, be the transformation. The leadership task is to postpone problem solving and stay focused on possibility until it is spoken with resonance and passion. The good news is that once we have fully declared a possibility, it works on us—we do not have to work on it.

Community: The Structure of Belonging, p.125

Comments from other participants:

Bruce Schuman, 12/20:

Dear Ben -- this is a beautiful statement, inspiring. And for me, it feels very much in resonance, and fulfilling some "promise" that is out there in the aethers, or somewhere in our souls...

This morning, I want to write -- probably by email sent to our small group, but maybe something that could be posted on hackpad as well -- a little statement regarding some "conjunctive" possibilities. Your attunement with "sacred" feels very gracious, and draws me into what you are doing, and your declaration/affirmation of what you would like to see emerge seems feasible and realistic.

As the energy keeps breathing here -- I am seeing ways we could create many interconnections and alliances around these themes, if we can find an initial starting point with real vital force. For some reason this morning -- I sense this can happen. So -- we await "the birth" of these possibilities. We can't force anything, or make anything happen, or make anybody do anything -- but something is congealing -- and for me, your 12/20 statement here is part of that. Thank for making that statement, and for hanging in there and convening this process.

Stephanie Jo Kent, 1/4/15:

Hi Ben.

I've been enjoying myself tremendously with this space and the Hackpad technology. Everywhere I see your name, creating, crafting, calling into being. This is a phenomenal tool which you're wielding in beautiful fashion. Thank you. Sure hope I'm able to be part of some of the live phone calls too!

Stephanie: thank you for that appreciation! I enjoyed "picking up your trail" this morning as well. And as I have some concerns about being to "strong" a presence in these pads, rather than making space for others, it is nice to be validated in that way. One thing I've learned about over the past five years doing both virtual and in-person hosting is that the former requires a more pro-active presence. that is even more true of these "asynchronous" spaces. versus live virtual conversation like our upcoming calls. Still, there's a balance to be struck... Did you find the +Site Map, by the way? [Ben R., 1/5].

Rosa Zubizarreta

Note: Before writing your answers, you might want to +listen to some music, +watch a video, and/or +look at some images, and then take a few moments for silent reflection. For more context, please browse +What's In Motion? and +What Else?

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

John Abbe, 12/25

Note: John created the two pads linked to below on 12/25, as part of this DandDTrans inquiry. I have linked to them here as they strike me as fitting into the framing of this Possibility conversation.

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Please see John's full post here: What is good work on existential crises?. An excerpt:

Another pad, on taking action forces the question of who counts as "people doing good work on existential-scale crises"? In the context of the climate crisis, I have some ready answers: Rising Tide, 350.org, Our Children's Trust, and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Foundation (and even moreso the local, state and national community rights networks they have catalyzed). Reflecting on that list for even a moment I realize I also want to include things like permaculturists, local food hubs, and utility activists, but would need to do at least a little research to find out exactly +who to reach out to.

I realize that the framing for my answers so far holds D&D separately from the answers. Incorporating D&D's implicit perspectives might shift the question in new directions, such as "Who is working on bringing together the different groups working on a given dimension of climate action, or groups working on different dimensions of climate action?" Or, "Who is already hosting conversations that include climate action folks and the people who have the power to make the desired changes?"

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Please see John's full post here: Taking Action Now. An excerpt:

For at least some of us in this inquiry, a key component that will make continuing it compelling is an external action component that we can begin fairly quickly. In my small group on the first call, such action was at first seen as being in contrast with conversation, but we quickly reframed action as a sort of "statement" one makes to the rest of the world. However the world responds, we do our best to "listen" to it, reflect, and iterate. Thus action, rather than being in contrast with conversation, becomes an integral part of the larger conversation between those taking action and the rest of the world.

Here are a couple of things we can do in this larger conversation, as soon as we like:

1) Learn from already-engaged D&Ders...

2) Offer our services...

Action steps

If anyone would like to interview me (John Abbe) on what I brought in the realm of D&D (or process arts generally) to the Great March for Climate Action I would be happy to put time into that. Similarly, if anyone would like to work with me to draft an ask for NCDD, or to reach out to any of the groups I listed as being of interest to me, let me know, I'd love to work with you.

Comments from other participants:

Hi John: Your post left me thinking, yes. I would like to hear more about what you brought to the Great March for Climate Action and what possibilities you might imagine when you say to "Offer our services". This was one of my possibility declarations as well. You also mentioned finding "an external action component" that we could get going and funded rather quickly. I also think this is important and was why I suggested forming some sort of 'cooperative structure' whereby, the sub-set of those of us who have D & D services to offer might mix with those (perhaps not part of D & D) who could benefit from such services (those at the front lines of the work "of the great turning".

Such a "cooperative entity" could help spread the learnings of what is and isn't working. It would be self-selecting, self-sustaining, and operate as a learning organization and back-bone around social transformation. We all feel the fragmentation that is occuring in the many change efforts out there - some of which you named on climage change. The question is 'who is holding all of these efforts together'? Who is synthesizing and coordinating and learning from all of the lessons that have been experienced so far? How can all of us, both those in the D & D community and those at the front line of transformation work, work together to take advantage of the collective wisdom that is there, but perhaps not consciously processed formally as a broader community?

What got me into this conversation from the beginning was this realization that we in the D & D community have some wisdom about 'process' and 'self-organizing around possibilities'. How can we join with others who are perhaps focused on creating an alternative future in the so many ways they are doing it so that things are more coordinated and collective learning thinking is being applied?

The cooperative idea comes from a trip I took to Mondragon, Spain, about 6 years ago. Cooperatives have been around for some time now (certainly since WWI, I believe). They offer a model of organizing economic activities that are democratic and employee/worker owned.

I would love to see some of us model this structure around social transformation work. We wouldn't have to go out for outside funding (unless, later we felt called to do so), we could immediately get started by inventoring the skills, expertise, knowledge and various commitment levels of those of us who want to jump on board. We could fairly quickly begin to invite participation from some of the same organizations that you mentioned who are out doing the work of climate, or other social change efforts. As they become members along wth us, we on the service provider end begin to inventory what is working and how we (service providers) might support what is working to work even better through some sort of consulting engagement. For how we are remunerated, it is negotiated. If you are a member of the cooperative, then you have already paid in to be part of the larger learning organization and will receive such benefits of blogs and other resources that communicate what others are doing in the field. Probably our services are offered at a somewhat lower amount because those of us wanting to jump on this bandwagon are also committed to a larger/idealistic vision and willing to give of our time and efforts in a less-than marketplace rate. I could go on....these are only initial thoughts. I would enjoy hearing from others who might resonate with this.

But, I think it fits with what you say abou needing something we can get right out and do in terms of an external action component. Clearly, many other projects could arise from such an entity by our combining our expertise and skills and weaving them together with others doing social transformation work. Many of the ideas that Tom Atlee has suggested, what Ben Roberts suggests, Gerald, Nancy and others (from our first call and the list-serve conversation) all could be achieved under this form of an umbrella organization.

Thank you for your post. [Linda, 12/26]

Tom Christensen (Tom C.)

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Crossroads? Intersection? Choice? Opportunity? Direction? My work is essentially to find the new leading edge cognitive (heart/mind) capacities emerging in human being and upon distinguishing these provide a narrative mirror in which the reader can recognize these capacities as their own. See www.integralworld.net/christensen1.html and www.integralleadershipreview.com/7693-game-is-over-you-are-enlightened/ (The list is growing). My assumption is that our new LIfe Conditions have emerged just the capacities we need to resolve our highly complex problems. We have the capacities, they just must be recognized. Crossroads? The road forward requires I shed my doubt and fear and share without hesitation. Ok, done.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Past this intersection, my stance in this matter: Those with highly complex (heart/brain) cognition distinguish and claim their newly emerged capacities (the very capacities required to resolve the problems of core interest here).

Comments from other participants:

Mark Spain

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

My crossroad is continuing to learn to live hospicing the death of the old economy and midwifing the birth of the new economy. This also invites me to learn to be deeply personal and spiritual as well as systemic, integrated and communal. I seek to be relaxed and present as well as urgent and passionate whilst having fun doing this work. This means being mindful of both love and fear when they arise in me at different times and continue to learn to be authentic and connected.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

There are two possibilities from this inquiry that could be transformative for me

Helping co-create and prototype a local and international platform, tools and process for taking collective wise action and sustaining thriving local and international communities of change agents and citizens.

To share learning, insights and models for local community transformation projects in energy, food, water, finance, housing, well being and self governance. (I could list some of the ones I am involved in in my community if it helps. I'll find a place to do this.)

Comments from other participants:

The set of +What's In Motion pads is one place where we are compiling lists of initiatives we are involved with (or would like to be). I would be great to have you add to them. At some point, these entries might be converted into a proper database, especially if this inquiry gains momentum and the group wants it to continue in a new iteration beyond January.

Stephanie Jo Kent

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Rather than a crossroads I perceive an intersection, a promising intersection between two movements: permaculture and social justice. Simultaneously, I'm working a regular full-time job as a healthcare interpreter in a system where I hope to contribute to organizational level culture change that may possibly ripple into widespread social practices that are more friendly to interpreted interaction as a powerful means to level stratified differences. Meanwhile, some friends and I are beginning to envision a prototype small village-type homestead for 22nd century communities.

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

This communication process is alive!

It is real now as you read just as much as it was/is as I type. Because our communication is real, we can connect. Because we can connect, we can fuse our energies into a larger collective force and contribute to humanity's great turning - we can write our evolution into something more, creating with these very words a new story to catapult us through the resistance of entrenched "civilization" and the corrupt inheritances of contemporary political economy.

Comments from other participants:

[Ben Roberts, 1/5]

I love the connection being made by you "here/now," Stephanie! Yes, it is indeed alive, as you read our words, reflect them back, and add to these online spaces in unexpected and delightful ways. some members of our hosting team have been wondering if the idea that there is/will be a meaningful exchange on these hackpads, and have found them to be disorienting. And even I (their principal architect and lead host) "get lost" sometimes, even though we've only just begun to have our conversations here. What I'm getting from you is that, as Block (from Alexander) says, it's the aliveness that counts the most,

Speaking of aliveness, and Alexander, the creator of the idea of "pattern languages," I hope you will join us for +the Card of the Evening conversation sometime soon! Here's the +scheduling pad, which you can check from time to time, as things tend to get organized at the last minute.

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

Your Name

Question 1:

What is the crossroads where you find yourself at this stage of your work in service to systemic transformation?

Question 2:

What declaration of possibility can you make that has the power to transform the community [gathered for this inquiry] and inspire you?

Comments from other participants:

What's Possible? DandDTrans Inquiry
Main Menu: Welcome | About | Intros | World Cafe | Bohm | Open Space | Resources | News | Calls | Help
World Cafe Menu: Powerful Questions | What's Possible?
This conversation began our inquiry in early December, and has now being folded into the World Cafe space. As of 1/10, there is an invitation to process what is posted here as a whole via Open Space Topic 6.
The Questions for this Possibility Conversation
Distinctions for this conversation:
Possibility Conversation
@Gerald Dillenbeck
Tom Atlee
Linda Ellinor
Ben Levi
Bruce Schuman
Brian Dowling
Nancy Glock-Grueneich 12/19
Intentions
Considerations
“Possibilities”
Ben Roberts, 12/20
Rosa Zubizarreta
John Abbe, 12/25
Please see John's full post here: What is good work on existential crises?. An excerpt:
Please see John's full post here: Taking Action Now. An excerpt:
Action steps
Tom Christensen (Tom C.)
Mark Spain
Stephanie Jo Kent
Your Name
Your Name
Your Name
Your Name
Your Name
Your Name