Evolution, Process, and Conversation: A Foundation for Conscious Evolutionary Agentry

Sat Jan 6 23:17:55 PST 2007

Peggy,

A brilliant piece of writing!  I’ve been contemplating, discoursing and
dialoguing about the power of conversations for sometime now, and deeply
share your thoughts on this.  Susan Scott's book Fierce Conversations (the
word fierce is debatable. She defines it has gutsy, honest, truthful,
fearless and integrity driven etc.) propounds the same need and urgency of
conversations.  Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy in their book 'Execution' call
it 'robust' conversations.  

I am excited to read and know that this topic of the essential need,
evolution and the power of conversation is happening.  Though, I think, it
still does not get the same attention and weighting that it deserves -
especially in our word today where our patience for conversation and
dialogue has waned dangerously in lieu of sound bytes, quick one liner
answers, one-minute-management-and-change-your-life guides.  The other day
on one of the network news channels I saw a slot for 'world news in 60
seconds' ! Is that news or just snippets of information, soundbytes! 

You have articulated your explanations with beautiful and vivid analogies.

I now eagerly await to read your sequels to this dynamic topic....

Last year I facilitated a 2 day Ai event with a group of teachers, who went
from a morale of despair and apathy to an inspired and totally energized
team making great strides in the last 12 months.  Tomorrow, we have another
day's session where we will be planning for the year ahead.....all this
built on the magic of storytelling evolving to 'conscious conversations'.

I will share your article with the group, which will help to remind and
reinforce these wonderful gifts we have been given – intellect, emotions and
consciousness - and its latent enormous potential to which we hold the key.

Can’t wait to read more...

Anu 

Anu Parmar

SCA Strategies Inc.

Business Development and Strategy Consulting

Executive and Management Coaching

Organization Development and AI, OST, ORCTM Facilitation

Tel:  905 457 8623

cell: 647 400 8623

anuparmar at scastrategies.com

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peggy
Holman
Sent: 05 January 2007 20:48
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [SPAM] Evolution, Process, and Conversation: A Foundation for
Conscious Evolutionary Agentry

Months ago I said I'd write about:

   *   The perceptions of Open Space by some of the folks I met

   *   The evolutionary world view (as offered in the context of its 

relationship to conversation)

I then proceeded to get so busy I couldn't see straight. (I still am, but 

with a nudge from Diane Brandon, I thought I could at least share a piece I 

wrote for a new online e-zine - Evolutionary Life 

(http://co-intelligence.org/newsletter) on evolution, process and 

conversation.

Best of the new year to everyone,

Peggy

Evolution, Process, and Conversation:

A Foundation for Conscious Evolutionary Agentry

Why have a column on process in a newsletter devoted to evolution? What 

could process possibly have to do with evolution? In a word, everything.

We now know that our universe is not the static, clockwork mechanism 

scientists once believed it to be. Rather, we know that it is constantly 

changing. In fact, change through time is central to the definition of 

evolution.

A process is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of changes. Sound 

similar? You could say that evolution is the mother of all natural 

processes. And, as our mothers often do, evolution has much to teach us 

about the design of processes. Why do processes matter? The better we are at

designing processes that are consonant with the patterns underlying the 

dynamics of evolution, the greater our likelihood of creating changes that 

serve us well.

This column is devoted to processes used in human systems; processes that 

enable change to serve the needs of individuals, collectives, and the larger

whole of which we are all a part. We offer such a column because we believe 

that we are all agents of evolution and that the more conscious of this we 

are, the greater the difference each of us can make. In the months ahead,
we'll 

share concepts, stories, and process skills that you can use with yourself, 

your family, your friends, and your colleagues.

Since conversation is a primary means for human interaction, it is central 

to how process happens in human systems. As such, conversation is as an 

evolutionary force of extraordinary potential.

Evolution and Conversation

Over the last 14 billion years, as western science currently understands it,

the growing edge of evolution - the appearance of radically new forms of 

complexity - has moved from the cosmic to geologic to biologic to cultural. 

The universe itself learns and transforms, having made a variety of leaps 

through its billions of years. At every stage, single entities come together

to organize themselves into more complex entities - from hydrogen gas to 

stars and planets; the molten earth into a habitable planet filled with 

mountains and oceans; from single celled entities to the wondrous array of 

plants and animals on the Earth today; and through humanity itself, from 

family groups to world-wide socio-economic systems.

At each stage of evolution, the interaction that enables these leaps occurs 

differently. In stellar and galactic evolution, gravitational and subatomic 

interactions dominate. In geologic evolution, basic chemistry and Newtonian 

physics are central. In biology, interactions are biochemical, physiological

and ecological -- and DNA becomes fundamental in mediating them. And for 

humans, perhaps the most significant and ubiquitous form of interaction 

happens through conversation, which mediates most other forms of human 

interaction (such as conflicts and economic interactions). It is an 

intriguing concept, that conversations are for the evolution of social 

systems what DNA is for the evolution of life and gravity is for the 

evolution of galaxies and stars!

There is something vital and hopeful about the central role of conversation 

for the survival of our species. With its primary role in interaction among 

humans, conversation has the potential to do the work that interaction 

always does in evolution: enable distinct organisms (like singe cells) to 

self-organize, cohering into novel, more complex organisms (like us). What 

are the implications for humans? What do self-organizing differentiated 

humans become when they converse with each other?

We already know humans create tribes, nation-states and other collective 

bodies. I believe there is something of vastly more creative potential 

available to us. It involves another gift on the emerging edge of evolution:

consciousness.

What's Consciousness Got to Do with It?

Cosmologist, Brian Swimme, compared consciousness "to the emergence of 

oxygen within Earth's early communities of life, a development that carried 

both the destructive and the creative significance of that earlier
event."[1] 

When life first began generating oxygen with photosynthesis, the earth had 

no way to use it creatively, and it accumulated as a toxic waste product, 

oxidizing rocks and bacteria everywhere. It sparked the first environmental 

crisis, almost eliminating all life on earth. Instead, life mutated, 

inventing respiration - a new means to interact, perfect for the times - 

thus finding a new stability through increased complexity.

Could it be that consciousness is the latest evolutionary innovation that, 

when applied to conversation, catalyzes a new form of social system, the 

conscious co-creative collective, the radiant network of deep community? I 

believe that conscious conversation is the path to what Thich Nhat Hanh 

imagined when he said: "It is possible that the next Buddha will not take 

the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community,

a community practicing understanding and lovingkindness, a community 

practicing mindful living. And the practice can be carried out as a group, 

as a city, as a nation."[2]

The practice of conscious conversation has the potential to help us 

creatively engage with the overwhelming natural and human-generated crises 

we face today. In fact, it may be the only thing that can.

What is conscious conversation and how might it be our salvation?

A conscious conversation continually increases our awareness of ourselves, 

others, and the whole in relation to each other and our environment. There 

is a growing body of experience, research, philosophies, principles, and 

practices that teach us about the power of conversations to create 

breakthroughs. Where conscious conversation happens, violence disappears.

Individual practices, such as nonviolent communication, and projects, such 

as the Compassionate Listening Project, are examples of what is possible. 

Processes that engage hundreds, even thousands in creating the communities 

and organizations they want, are just beginning to demonstrate their 

potential for creating forms of being together that benefit and serve the 

needs of both individual and the collective. These processes that 

consciously engage people in conversation are at their best when dealing 

with diversity, conflict, and complexity. Processes, such as Open Space, 

Appreciative Inquiry, and The World Café are making a difference around the 

globe with thousands of people.

In the coming months, we'll share stories of the powerful force of conscious

conversation.

What does it mean for you?

Become conscious of the power of conversation to change the world. Learn how

the dynamics of conversation matter and use them. By learning to converse 

well and helping others converse well, you become a conscious agent of 

evolution.

What are the conversations that matter to you? Who are the people who care, 

as you do? How can you engage them?

Explore the process websites above -- and other more general 

conversation-supporting websites like the National Coalition for Dialogue 

and Deliberation and the Co-Intelligence Institute -- and try out some 

simple conversational hints and processes in your own life and community. 

Conversations that have heart and meaning can change the world -- and you 

can convene them!

Send any questions you have to me at peggy @ opencirclecompany.com.

 1. Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story: From the Primordial 

Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era, HarperCollins Publishers, NY, 1992, p. 

143.

2. Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Next Buddha May Be A Sangha" in Inquiring Mind, Vol

10, No. 2, Spring 1994

________________________________

Peggy Holman

The Open Circle Company

15347 SE 49th Place

Bellevue, WA  98006

(425) 746-6274

www.opencirclecompany.com

For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to:

www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook

"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt,

is to become

the fire".

  -- Drew Dellinger 

*

*

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