This is a hard one. What always excites me is when I
can help others accomplish what they want to accomplish while at the
same time developing themselves in the process. That is the work we
try to do so long as it is within our own value framework. But connection
to my deepest self...
In many ways I could say that our current work
with our corporate clients, excitement aside, has often had the opposite
effect – helping weaken my connection to my deepest self rather
than strengthening it over the years. But I am also coming from a very
deep personal sense of connection cultivated over many years through
my meditation practice and years at Findhorn. As life has progressed,
as family came into being, as client pressures would spill over from
time to time, as the economy had its downs and ups (and downs again),
it has become little by little too easy to dwell more towards the surface
than in those quiet depths I have known and loved before. They are still
there, but I am there less these days, to my detriment. My garden and
the strength of nature’s forces here in Sweden, help mitigate
this natural erosion, and in many ways, keep me reminded. But it is
still up to me.
Many years ago in my early work with community organising,
I experienced a very powerful exercise that we carried out at the opening
of a 3-day community planning event. There were about 100+ people present
from our neighborhood – normal everyday people, mostly lower income
with a higher proportion of elderly as that was the composition of this
inner city neighborhood. Few if any had any prior experience in community
planning, let alone trying to author a ‘master plan’ on
our own rather than leave this to city authorities. And even fewer thought
that such an exercise, requiring many complex decision, could be accomplished
with such a diverse and inexperienced group, let alone in 3 days.
After the welcome and going over the purpose for this
weekend work, the head of the local community organisation, a young
activist minister, led an introductory exercise to set the scene. He
placed a huge, 2-3 gallon jar, three-quarters full of pennies, on the
table in front of the group. He then asked everyone to make a guess
as to how many pennies there were in the jar, and gave about 5 minutes
for the task. One could measure, pick it up, whatever they wanted to
do to inform their guess other than open it. When time was called, he
had people call out their guesstimates and began writing some of the
answers on the whiteboard, asking “Anyone with a number higher
than...?” “...lower than...?”, etc. until he had the
highest and lowest documented, along with a lot in the middle. Then
he had everyone pair up.
“Get a partner, and take another 5 minutes to arrive
at a common answer between you.” Once again he took answers in
the large group and documented the highs, lows and the spread. Then
he said, “Form groups of 4’s from 2 sets of pairs and come
up with a common answer again.” 10 minutes was given this time.
As you can imagine, the discussions started to become interesting. But
in the end, another set of numbers emerged on the whiteboard, and a
pattern began to form. The highs had gradually lowered, and lows had
gradually become higher through the 3 steps of this exercise.
Fours then became eights, eights became 16’s, 16’s
became 32’s, etc. ,documenting new guesses at each stage until
there were just two large groups left charged with the task of agreeing
a single good estimate together. Discussion times were gradually increased
as the group size grew and in the end consensus was reached and a number
presented to the chairperson. As you could imagine, anticipation as
to the real number of pennies in the jar grew and grew as did the dynamics
in decision-making, the creativity of penny estimating theories and
the fun, so that by the end, there was a very special atmosphere in
the room.
“If you look at the answers you’ve presented
at each stage of this exercise,” said the minister waving his
arm at the columns of numbers written on the whiteboard behind him,
“what do you notice?” With only a couple of minor exceptions,
the highs and lows came closer and closer together at each step....the
spread narrowing markedly. Everyone noticed, but for many it was a jovial
“So what....What is the answer? How many pennies?”
The minister turned to the whiteboard and wrote the answer
right next to the last single guess arrived at by the whole group. It
was within about 50 pennies over several thousand. It was the last answer
– the answer arrived at by the whole group – that was closest.
“This is why we are here.” he said. “This
is why we need to take the time necessary to do this together, to listen
to each other. This is why community is important. Together we will
arrive at the best answer for our neighborhood, and each other.”
The moment was electric... And the weekend was a success,
laying the foundation for community development work that I believe
continues in the same neighborhood today, 25+ years later.
Since that time, ‘community’ and the wisdom
that is inherent in a group, has been a continuing interest of mine.
It has taken me back to my small home town in Ohio right before its
heart was devastated by 3 tornadoes on one otherwise typical Saturday
in June. It took me to the Findhorn Foundation in northern Scotland,
a magical place for community and connecting to inner wisdom if there
ever was one. And a place dedicated to the exploration and practice
of spirit-sourced group consciousness in every aspect of its community
and business life. It was in Findhorn that I experienced the highest
examples of wisdom and genius emerging from a group, as well as some
of the heaviest examples of endless ‘group process’ discussions
– the blah, blah, blah that can trigger that special kind of ‘allergy
to groups’ many of us in this work have encountered over the years.
And it has taken me to Sweden – a society rich
in tradition of the collective good, yet struggling today to balance
this natural leaning of the Swedish people against the increasing forces
of individualism that the push for ‘free market economics’
everywhere has come to unleash. Here we have established our consulting
practice where we have tried to bring together all of our experiences
over the years into forms and processes to help people accomplish what
they truly want to accomplish, together.
Over these years, many ideas, conversations and
experiences have moved me forward, mainly in the areas of change and
accomplishment. Some to mention here include the early years of DMA/Technologies
for Creating and “The Path of Least Resistance” by Robert
Fritz, inspiring conversations and ideas over many years from friend
and colleague John Adams of EartHeart Enterprises, the work of Gregory
Bateson on levels of learning and the idea of an equation for change,
popularised by Richard Beckhard. And on the spiritual side of life,
the early writings of David Spangler, the inspirational messages documented
in “The Findhorn Garden Book” (and many more) by Dorothy
Mclean, and the practice of basic Zen meditation first started in an
early bio-feedback course, all have impacted me deeply.
That remains to be seen, as I have in many ways, been
out of the loop (happily) here in our own little piece of paradise outside
Stockholm. I love interesting conversations, so yes I am generally available
to converse with others, most often by email these days. And I am very
interested in social activism right now as applied to the question:
“What is or should be the purpose of human society?” That
question engages me deeply, and we are looking at ways to forward this
discussion amongst the many.
One contribution I can offer today is perhaps my pragmatism.
For most of my life I would have answered ‘my vision, my inspiration,
etc.’ I have had to work hard over the years to develop my pragmatic
side in response to the immediacy of need we have met in our client
systems. And it has gone well (maybe too well?). So I find myself less
interested in idealistic visions and related discussions which are in
some way or other disconnected from reality these days. Likewise, discussions
for discussions’ sake – “talk fests”. They are
usually very interesting and I love ideas, creative conversations and
the new inspiration that often comes to me in these situations. But
we have most to contribute to those who are really interested in making
change happen. Through our studies, our own personal experiences and
those in our client work, we feel we have developed a very good handle
on change – what it takes, what it doesn’t take, what moves
it forward, what holds it back, what strategies to employ and when,
and especially, how to dance the implementation dance with it over the
long term. Strategy, tactic and action are certainly areas where we
can contribute.
And personally, I am very interested in helping
facilitate social change in particular. That is where I cut my teeth
many years ago, what I have missed in my life through many years here
on this side of the Atlantic, and what I feel I am about to come back
to. Helping groups achieve what they want to achieve has been a guiding
gift I’ve carried. I hope to now unwrap it again in service of
those groups trying actively to bring about positive change in our societies.
