Collective Leadership

[Michael Herman]

hallo ashley, seems to me that we could peel this back a bit... you said
'creating such a field' and i think at least part of your answer might lie
in distinguishing between what we are actually creating and what has only to
be noticed and articulated.  we might say that the 'collective' and 'fields'
parts of this already are, and have only to be pointed out in ways that
friends will understand.  'leadership' too, to the extent that everyone is
already 'leading his or her own life', already is, so the action here might
be stretching, expanding in response to invitation.  practice is probably
the thing that is most 'created' as i'm thinking about it now.  what folks
agree to practice together would seem to bound and define the field and what
anyone understands as 'this' collective.  to the extent that invitation
defines practice, then writing an invitation, articulating a practice,
serves to define or bound some part of the larger 'field' or 'collective'
that becomes gathering or group, as people demonstrate understanding by
actually showing up.  to me it's a bit like the whole of everything, the
Collective or the Field is a big bowl of soup and any invitation or practice
(including "leadership" practice) is some sort and shape of ladle we fashion
and use to scoop what we call this or that 'field', 'field of practice', and
'collective', as in 'collective leadership'... collective here being bigger
than one's individual life leadership and still always smaller, in the sense
of 'more local', maybe more locally understandable, than always everywhere
but not always recognizable Collective leadership.

yikes.

not sure if that's an answer or now, but it certainly was a small adventure
here.  <grin>  thanks, m

p.s. seems the thing to do, still, more toward answering your question, is
more about noticing.  especially noticing something about what i've just
described.  and how might this happen?  well, i think that's a bit of what
i've seen harrison do when he says something like "look around this circle
(in opening) and notice that this particular group, this particular
(collective) gathering has never happened before and will never happen in
quite this way again..."  this implies a 'something' (collective? field?)
from which we all came and to which we will all return... so it acknowledges
the larger everywhere by noticing the immediate and local here AND by simply
noticing that it is temporary.  then, in the same way, the opening circle is
the 'collective' and the breakouts are the little local places.... but
putting this local collective in 'perspective' seems the key, and as usual,
harrison seems to get it done in 2-3 sentences!  it seems, then, that pretty
much everything after that, the group can do for itself, as a (more)
conscious manifestation *of* the 'collective leadership' you 're after in
the first place.



--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.ronanparktrail.com
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
http://www.openspaceworld.org

312-280-7838 (mobile)


On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 12:01 PM, ashley cooper
<mail.easilyamazed at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm curious... What is important when inviting a group into collective
> leadership? What first comes to your mind as being of essence when creating
> such a field of practice and a structure for action? Maybe a principle comes
> to mind, specific practices, resources that have good ideas, your cherished
> opinions... I'm interested in what pops up first!
>
> With much gratitude,
> Ashley
>
> P.s. Sorry for the duplicates to those that are also on the Art of Hosting
> listeserv
>
> --
> "This is a year that needs you to be you."
> ~ Rabbi Ted Falcon
>
> www.wovenessence.net
> www.easilyamazed.com/blog
>
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