​​Harvesting Pad 14: Linda Ellinor
​​Part of "DandDTrans," 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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​​@Linda Ellinor​
​​lellinor25@gmail.com
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​​Please use the this space to share your thoughts now about Tom’s original question and what occurred for you over this past month of involvement: What do 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 emerging global crises which fundamentally challenge our business-as-usual habits and systems? 
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​​Use the queries below if they help but don’t feel bound to respond to them or be in any way limited by them. Tell the stories and give the details that will make your ideas and experiences come alive. 
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​​Please write your post in the "My DandDTrans Story" section below the three prompts that follow:
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​​What you gained:  What new insights, challenges, ideas, inquiries, or actions came up for you from your participation this past month? What possibilities have opened up or been further reinforced?  
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​​What you experienced: How did you feel or change at different points in this process? Which processes did you participate in? Which were new to you? For processes you’ve experienced before, what was it like doing them online? What worked for you, and why? What didn’t? How might you use or change these processes on another occasion? What about the web tools used? Maestro? Hackpads? Zoom (if you experienced that)? Any others?
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​​What next: What are you doing, will do or might do as related at least in part to the question that brought us together and/or as a result of what we have done together? Who else would (might) you involve? 
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​My DandDTrans "Story"

​​What I gained:  Overall, I feel what I most gained was confidence and experience with using the virtual tools we were experimenting with as well as the amazing connections I made with all of you during the conference.  I also feel full of new inspiration for new projects and now have some possible collaborators I can call on to make them happen!!    
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​​As an example of what I gained from this event, I found myself leading a 3-hour demo Bohm Dialogue at a local Center for Community Dialogue just yesterday afternoon.  I spoke about how exciting it was to experience Dialoging with others half-way around the world on topics of shared interest.  I could not have said that 2 months ago.  Spreading the news about this technological breakthrough could, itself, lead to paths of faster social transformation.  
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​​I am still mulling over which specific directions/action steps I will personally take past this conference.  I'm happily now engaged with our small team of "Idea Collectors" to bring more convergence to my/our overall experience and can't wait until this phase is over so it will/may become more apparent as to next steps for me personally as I hope they will be come more apparent to others.  
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​​What I experienced:    I have to admit that there were times I felt, especially during the World Cafes, some frustration around how fragmenting and shallow some seemed.  While they did give me some sense of connection and familiarity with others active on these events, I didn't feel there was enough time to build enough familiarity with others to go deep on anything.  And, even the questions, at times, seemed to work against going deep as they tended to be fairly broad and open ended.  
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​​The Bohm Dialogues were more satisfying as they gave us more time to consider topics deeply and they  with the visuals available on zoom to get the sense of getting to know the people on the calls.  
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​​Open Space was more interesting to me than the World Cafe, though I had the same desire for more time with the people in the various break-out sessions.  
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​​I found my expderience of Hackpads to be both positive and negative.  I usually felt I didn't have clue where I was most of the time using them and thus, I didn't use them as much as I might have.  I appreciated them with respect to note taking from the various events we held and I am open as I make my way through the various hackpads that I have assigned myself to read with the "Idea Collectors", that I may have another experience of them.  But, as of right now, I would say that the Hackpad experience is one that would make me hesitate to use them again, unless there isn't anything out there that provides more coherence.  I believe Lucas Cioffi is building something that might serve as an ulternative to Hackpad.  I look forward to see what that might be. 
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​​As a host, it was an interesting experience of how to throw a large invitation out into the ethers to people I hardly knew, but for whom, our topic had an appeal and to see what might come as a result.  There was little pre-planning involved.  As part of the hosting team, we barely had the time to just show up for everything and we did the best we could to stay  one foot ahead of where we were going next.  With more pre-planning, this experience might have resulted in different outcomes.  I am still trying to sort this all out, so that should I become involved again with such an endeavor, I can take what I learned and contribute to a more satisfying design.  
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​​What Next?  As I implied in the first section, I am still mulling this over.  I had some leads for next steps that actually came out of the NCDD Conference last October that I am now following up on.  I can say that this conference has deepened my resolve to follow up on these ideas.  One idea that emerged from the conference is a possible collaboration on a survey project that might be administered to others in our field that could be helpful in lifting our entire field of practice up in higher relief publically.   I am also wondering if another survey might be administered on how end-users of our services understand (or don't understand) what it is we do in our D & D world and how we might create educational avenues for that to occur.  
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​​I am excited a possible platform for publicly aired Dialogues around vital crises/issues.  I have already investigated some avenues for this in my local, Tucson area and got good feedback.  
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​​I still think about how to organize locally in the Tucson area a pilot project for creating interconnecting dialogue circles.  I have already run this past a key contact of mine in Tucson and have had some positive traction.  So, I will be pursuing this in the near term.  
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​​The other idea I am playing with are webinars on various topics related to Bohm Dialogue in the public sphere.  
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​​Another idea which also came as a result of this event was how to better connect process people with people at the front lines of activist work so that social, environmental, and political transformation can happen more expeditiously.  Don't know exactly how to do this, but with the connections made from this event, I now have people with whom I can consult and collaborate.  This is probably the most important impact  - just hooking up with people who can help move ideas I have had forward.  Very exciting.
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​​And, I can see the possibility for future virtual conferences such as this one being held that I might want to collaborate on with others.  I'm hoping others will see this and contact me if they feel drawn to any of the ideas I'm mentioning.  
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​Comments by Others on this Story

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​Griet Hellinckx, 8-2
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​​Dear Linda, 
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​​To me your harvest exemplifies that these sort of conversations have the potential to 
  • ​​inspire and nourish initiatives that individuals want to pursue
  • ​​make people feel more confident about trying out new approaches (in this case new tech)
  • ​​contribute to global awareness
  • ​​give the impulse to create new local & virtual circles that combine deep inquiry & action
  • ​​connect circles, and make networks and their work more visible
  • ​​lift the field of practice, and connect process people with people at the front lines of activist work so that social, environmental, and political transformation can happen more expeditiously
  • ​​contribute to "saturation"
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