​​Books
​​D&D and Systemic Transformation
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​​Use this space as a "parking lot" "bike rack" to post anything that seems relevant or inspiring in support  of this inquiry. Find a blank slot, format a header in bold on a single line, then add content  immediately below. # plus a space creates a ruled line.
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​​Peter Blocks' "how to" manual for transformation.
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​​An excerpt:
  • ​​Conventional thinking about communal transformation believes that focusing on large systems, better leaders, clearer goals, and more controls is essential, and that emphasizing speed and scale is critical. The conventional belief is that individual transformation leads to communal transformation. Our explorations to this point lead instead to the understanding that transformation occurs when we focus on the structure of how we gather and the context in which the gatherings take place; when we work hard on getting the questions right; when we choose depth over speed and relatedness over scale. We also believe that problem solving can make things better but cannot change the nature of things.
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  • ​​Community transformation calls for citizenship that shifts the context from a place of fear and fault, law and oversight, corporation and “systems,” and preoccupation with leadership to one of gifts, generosity, and abundance; social fabric and chosen accountability; and associational life and the engagement of citizens. These shifts occur as citizens face each other in conversations of ownership and possibility. To be more specific, leaders are held to three tasks: to shift the context within which people gather, name the debate through powerful questions, and listen rather than advocate, defend, or provide answers. (p.73)
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​​Comments?
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​​Otto Scharmer's outline of the dimensions of systemic transformation and a process roadmap for bringing them about.
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​​From the Introduction:
  • ​​Finance. Food. Fuel. Water shortage. Resource scarcity. Climate chaos. Mass poverty. Mass migration. Fundamentalism. Terrorism. Financial oligarchies. We have entered an Age of Disruption. Yet the possibility of profound personal, societal, and global renewal has never been more real. Now is our time. 
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  • ​​Our moment of disruption deals with death and rebirth. What’s dying is an old civilization and a mindset of maximum “me”—maximum material consumption, bigger is better, and special-interest group-driven decision-making that has led us into a state of organized irresponsiblity, collectively creating results that nobody wants. 
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  • ​​What’s being born is less clear but in no way less significant. It’s something that we can feel in many places across Planet Earth. This future is not just about firefighting and tinkering with the surface of structural change. It’s not just about replacing one mindset that no longer serves us with another. It’s a future that requires us to tap into a deeper level of our humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It is a future that we can sense, feel, and actualize by shifting the inner place from which we operate. It is a future that in those moments of disruption begins to presence itself through us. 
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  • ​​This inner shift, from fighting the old to sensing and presencing an emerging future possibility, is at the core of all deep leadership work today. It’s a shift that requires us to expand our thinking from the head to the heart. It is a shift from an ego-system awareness that cares about the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that cares about the well-being of all, including oneself. When operating with ego-system awareness, we are driven by the concerns and intentions of our small ego self. When operating with eco-system awareness, we are driven by the concerns and intentions of our emerging or essential self—that is, by a concern that is informed by the well-being of the whole. 
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​​Comments?
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​​I like this item 4.0 -- "seeing and acting from the whole" -- and I certainly do agree that "this is what we should be doing (if possible)".
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​​The big issue -- the roadblock, the difficulty, the challenge -- might be that "the elephant in the room" is being perceived by six blind men, as per the famous metaphor.   We're all looking at the same whole, and we're all arguing.
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​​What IS "the whole"?  How can we conceptualize it?  Speaking for myself, I am not satisfied with the models I have seen out there.  We've come a long ways -- but I think we still have some serious "transcending and including" yet to do before we are face-to-face with the container that holds it all...
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​​David Korten's manifesto on systemic transformation
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  • ​​The Great Turning makes the case that we humans are a choice making species that at this defining moment faces both the opportunity and the imperative to choose our future as a conscious collective act. We can no longer deny the need nor delay our response. A mounting perfect economic storm is fast approaching. A convergence of climate change, peak oil, and the financial instability inherent in an unbalanced global trading system will bring an unraveling of the corporate-led global economy and a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life.
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  • ​​We cannot avoid the unraveling. We can, however, turn a potentially terminal crisis into an epic opportunity to bring forth a new era of Earth Community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by most all the world’s people and eloquently articulated in the Earth Charter.
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​​Comments:
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​​Korten had a new book coming out in January. The first chapter is available for free download here. As part of ​+the New Stories team​, I am talking about the possibility of some virtual and in-person hybrid dialogue tied to the book launch, building on ​+the large Maestro call​ (over 800 simultaneous participants) we just held on 12/8. [Ben Roberts, 12/14]
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​​Peggy Homan's wonderful "how to manual" on "turning upheaval into opportunity." 
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  • ​​What does it take to face disruptions and invite others to join you to realize new possibilities? If you are seeking effective principles and practices for working with change and the unexpected, then you’ve come to the right place!  With so many organizations, communities, and fields of endeavor facing unprecedented change, it helps to have some support for finding a promising pathway through change. Some notions to consider: Emergence – through which order arises from chaos as the existing order is disrupted, differences appear, and a new coherencecoalesces.  By engaging emergence, you can help yourself and your organization or community to successfully face disruption and emerge stronger than ever. Practices for engaging –  Step up by taking responsibility for what you love as an act of service.  Prepare to embrace mystery, choose possibility, and follow life-energy.  Host others byclarifying intentions, welcoming disturbance, and inviting diversity.  Engage byinquiring appreciatively, opening, and reflecting.  Then do it again! Principles for engaging – Welcome disturbance, pioneer, encourage random encounters, seek meaning, and simplify. Questions to consider: How do we disrupt coherence compassionately? How do we engage disruptions creatively? How do we renew coherence wisely? Along with principles, practices and questions, real-word stories help you work with compassion, creativity, and wisdom through the entire arc of change.  From disruption to coherence, you’ll learn what to notice, what to explore, what to try, and what mindset opens new possibilities. This work can be challenging but also tremendously rewarding.  It enables new and unlikely partnerships and develops breakthrough projects. You become part of a process that transforms the culture itself.

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