[OSList] Village Care notes! Chats 3 &4
Kári Gunnarsson
kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
Sat Apr 6 06:50:50 PDT 2013
This is beautiful.
I am now thinking to invite people around here to a open space workshop
series with the theme: "beyond your wildest dreams" It sounds like
something that could work for people.
I will put this invitation as an advertisement in the local paper.
I wonder if you people have any pointers for a good invitation letter for
this theme.
with love
Kári
On 5 April 2013 19:10, David Glenwinkel <david at villagecare.com> wrote:
> Great job, thanks!****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:
> oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *Tricia Chirumbole
> *Sent:* Friday, April 05, 2013 10:02 AM
> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Subject:* [OSList] Village Care notes! Chats 3 &4****
>
> ** **
>
> hi all! ****
>
> ** **
>
> Following is a rather lengthy set of notes detailing the past 2 Village
> Care conversations...whew! ****
>
> ** **
>
> As before, the notes were processed very little and are likely to include
> mistakes and omissions :)****
>
> ** **
>
> *Village Care chat 3*****
>
> ****
>
> Participants: Skye, David, Suzanne, Pernilla, Tricia, Marie Ann, Linda
> Stevenson, Paul Levy****
>
> · Skye has talked with David 1:1 and asked him, “What does he
> want out of this?” [skype discussions, interactions]****
>
> o David’s response: He likes metaphysical discussions, but he loves
> action. *What’s next? How do we go global? *****
>
> · David will connect Tricia with the Village Care leader in
> Nigeria for connecting her Ghanaian friends – he covers Ghana, Togo, Benin,
> Cameroon….****
>
> · Suzanne: Introduces how she is passionate about *unleashing
> leadership* at any level and that our North American model formed in the *Industrial
> Age, hierarchies, *etc., is *not working!*****
>
> · She has been *working with Millennials* in the realm of
> unleashing leadership. She feels we are at a *crossroads*, not just for
> poor communities, but for the “wasteland” of the young generation. They
> have *vast potential, but also vast college debt*. She wants to unleash
> their leadership so that they can unleash that of others!****
>
> o She wants us all to *come to Florida* [for the WOSONOS in case you
> weren’t sure!], so we can respond to the prompt: The world is
> waiting!!There is much ready to emerge, are we ready? ****
>
> · Paul: He is inspired by the discussion David gave of the
> respect for elders in the decision making of African villages. ****
>
> o What can we learn about the elder system in business and corporate
> settings? ****
>
> o He sees commonalities among healthy communities. ****
>
> · Either Paul or David suggests, “that no company is healthy for
> more than 1 or 2 years at a time” [then they need to reassess, refresh,
> regroup]****
>
> · David shares that in his experience leaders tend to be buried
> in companies and are not necessarily the nominal leaders – he can usually “
> *feel the rhythm” in a business* and identify the true leaders, as well
> as feel if there “spirit” is “right” or “wrong”. ****
>
> · David mentions how *Village Care* is supported by him and 3
> friends with *no outside support.*****
>
> o He was close to spreading the work further, but ran out of money,
> time, and energy. ****
>
> · Paul: *applying the Village care principles to the corporate
> world: *In regards to the importance of using only African facilitators
> for the village care work, why don’t we find people in organizations ,
> homegrown people, to run the circle?****
>
> o David replies that he doesn’t even do the intro in his programs****
>
> o Skye asks if he can *identify characteristics of a good facilitator*?*
> ***
>
> o David says he is not sure how he does it, he just knows****
>
> § Trying to make all of the program “Dumb ass simple” J so anyone can
> use it. ****
>
> o Pernilla suggests that it may depend on the question. In a conflict
> situation, it may help to have an external person, whereas for a “building”
> focused initiative, internal may make sense.****
>
> o Paul shares that one time on a project in Eastern Europe, he did not
> feel right opening the circle, so he asked someone else to do it, [someone
> internal or local I am guessing] and it worked!...Another time, they
> requested the “Englishman”, so he did the opening. ****
>
> · Pernilla opens discussion about the difficult of applying
> things at a *global level. *In relation to the complexity and varying *relationships
> between governments and people*.****
>
> o She adds that in Denmark, the citizens have a “graceful view of
> government”****
>
> § Some Americans on the call are confounded by this concept :o****
>
> § The Denmark States’ relationship with the individual is to protect
> them from the family/clan [demands I guess] – this is also intriguing to a
> few of the Americans! ****
>
> · Skye proposes that the* key to a revolution is 1) Hope; 2)
> Seeing Progress*****
>
> · Discussion about whether or not to *use social media and the web
> * for sharing ideas or how to. ****
>
> o Paul offers that there are comparable web services “behind the
> firewall” that do not have the commercial distractions and ties of those
> such as twitter. ****
>
> § More on this Paul? ****
>
> · Discussion on how/if to open up the discussion to everyone
> interested in the spirit of OS or not.****
>
> o Concern presented that the discussion/group may get too large to
> manage effectively. ****
>
> o Suzanne suggests some tools she was introduced to by Ben Roberts of
> Dialogue and Deliberation that can be used to break groups into smaller
> groups [I think this applies to skype discussions, but not sure!]****
>
> o Seems to be consensus that this approach sounds reasonable****
>
> ****
>
> ****
>
> *Village Care chat 4*****
>
> ****
>
> Participants: Skye, David Gwenlinkel, Tricia, Linda Stevenson, Denyse
> (David’s colleague/acquaintance)****
>
> ****
>
> · Skye: Interested in the intersection among OS, Village Care
> model, and her work with autognomics –****
>
> o possibility of identifying *Universal Principles*?****
>
> § Seems to include the existence of “self agency” or *personal agency****
> *
>
> § *Coherence *seems to be another****
>
> o Looking at the “why” behind processes that work****
>
> o Applying these concepts to *breaking cycles of poverty*****
>
> o Notes that the rate of change is happening at a pace in recent
> history that allows us to *observe processes*, not just outcomes, as well
> as the *evolution of process*. ****
>
> § Inspecting the phenomena consistent across living systems can aid in a
> revolutionary change in the way we think [about our world and place in it]
> ****
>
> § This way of thinking is in contrast to the predominant modern Western
> mode of *thinking that is focused on things, fixed objects,* and the
> manipulation of these things. ****
>
> · We think we can control and predict based on our understanding
> of this, but even these seemingly discrete and “fixed” objects have a
> history and even a personal agency that makes our ability to control and
> predict their behavior impossible. ****
>
> · David: requests Skye’s *definition of self agency*. He is
> currently pondering the concept of language to use and how to agree on this
> in respect to his work and in respect to his second book, which is almost
> finished. ****
>
> o His language is defined around his OS work in Africa ****
>
> o Notes that funders still like the terms, “capacity building” and
> “sustainability”, but these approaches are not working and he wants to *define
> what his network does* as something different. ****
>
> o Skye offers that personal agency can be defined in a number of ways.
> Provides the links:****
>
> § Definition of Personal Agency:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_agency ****
>
> § Common definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_****
>
> § Notes that personal agency needs to begin very early on and that we
> tend to interrupt this process from the start by interrupting the natural
> process of birth [not sure what birthing practices are meant here…anyone
> know about lotus births? Pretty cool J))****
>
> · David: Reintroduces his self-query, *“what is the appropriate
> level of follow-up?” *to provide to the villages that he works with. ****
>
> o He has repeatedly seen communities fall back into their hierarchical
> tendencies of putting chairs in rows, etc, but that does not necessarily
> stop the process – he wonders if they would do even better if they
> maintained the more open practices. ****
>
> · David also wonders *how you can let go* [I believe in terms of
> opening up his Village Care process for use by a broader group or
> completely public use] *while still* *maintaining the claims* that they
> currently make [assuming this means that the outcomes and success observed
> can still be presented as results that can be expected by users of the
> process]****
>
> o Tricia’s thoughts on this are that you cannot have both in full
> expression/pure form – both the opening and the assurance of “success”;
> adaptations will be made – some better and some worse – but you can
> mitigate the bastardization and/or improve chances of “quality/accurate”
> transmission. ****
>
> § Harkening back to the question about follow up: The successes and
> attrition will vary –all ideas and methods introduced to the world get
> absorbed and applied incrementally and in patterns that are not easy to
> observe and perhaps impossible to predict. ****
>
> § Any idea, practice, behavioral tendency, or cultural norm is more
> likely to grow to a critical mass if allowed the ability for it to be fully
> open and spread virally with a likely incidence that at some points it will
> be considered “bastardized” or completely separate from the original intent
> or core philosophical underpinnings by some.****
>
> § That is not to say it is still not a worthy endeavor to provide
> education, support, and advocacy for the principles and practices that you
> find to be valuable. ****
>
> § In my own experience, people and groups absorb and incorporate ideas
> into their world in their own time, when it is ripe for them. It is
> challenging to observe when something is having an impression, and likely
> impossible and not worth the effort to attempt to predict or manage what is
> having an impression and if/when/how it will be incorporated ….That can
> probably all be said in a nice one-liner…like, “just let go” J))****
>
> · Skye: Back to Universal Principles and *coherence and effective
> action. *Queries, how do we figure out what you do each day? Something
> has been effective in your past and then get to choose what you do with it.
> The development of values and valuing occurs in this manner. ****
>
> o References a *“Breaking the Cycle of Poverty” Program in Mexico *that
> is redefining personal agency and empowerment and has been very effective.
> ****
>
> o I believe it is this project – book on Amazon, but couldn’t locate
> link for program: ****
>
> o “Many international development efforts have been limited because
> they are elaborated as exclusively economic projects. Nobel Laureate
> Amartya Sen argues, however, that combating poverty requires expanding
> individual freedoms and capabilities, in place of bolstering only
> macroeconomic growth. Based on the work of IMIFAP (The Mexican Institute of
> Family and Population Research) in Mexico and Latin America, this book
> seeks to transform Sen’s philosophical approach into an operative model for
> sustainable development through its Framework for Enabling Empowerment
> (FrEE).”****
>
> · Linda: States that she can hear Harrison’s voice (creepy!): *Don’t
> work too hard* [this discussion is not listed in perfect chronological
> order, so not sure what this input is inspired by, sorry!].****
>
> o The power of OS is the power of self-organization. Reminded about the
> concept of a *“nexus of caring” *Opening the space for the personal
> caring to flourish. What do you care about genuinely? It starts to reveal
> itself. It is because this is who we are – *we already know how to do
> this – we just need the invitation. *We don’t want to fall back into a
> piecemeal approach.****
>
> o She repeatedly runs into challenges with people she works with in
> corporations who want results and have no experience that this can work –
> they are tied into hierarchies. ****
>
> o Recounts the message from [I think a group of *young people*] at the
> World Economic Forum in Davos in 2010 or 2011. Paraphrased: *They are
> connected so effectively that they do not need hierarchies and do not
> need to fail. They need everyone’s support and are willing to learn from
> others.”*****
>
> o Notes that it is *the* *aggregate that self organizes. *****
>
> o *Innovation gathering proposal: *Linda and Suzanne are interested in
> bringing together 100 people in a room – both young and old – for
> collaboration and innovation “beyond your wildest dreams” ****
>
> · Skye poses the question: What can we do next? What does
> everybody want to do? – she would like to explore how her work fits in, but
> is not sure how it is useful. ****
>
> o David responds that he is not sure that “we need to be in a big
> hurry…village care is closer to a place where it can be used
> anytime/anywhere”. Adds that while information is copyrighted, it is the
> kind of copyright that he wants to be used****
>
> o Tricia is interested in discussing mechanisms for expanding/opening
> up village care; exploring the combination of village care with other
> approaches/philosophies such as Skye’s work – even making it open source;
> and experimenting herself with applying the model to communities. ****
>
> o Initial thoughts on explore the concept of opening up/scaling:****
>
> § ID existing networks with aligned missions or audiences for spreading
> the word or adoption****
>
> § Explore value, feasibility, and alignment of various methods for
> knowledge and expertise sharing – forums, trainings, books, online
> resources, face-to-face training, etc. ****
>
> § Structures for sustainability - community fundraising, paying clients,
> all volunteer, multiple methods, etc. ****
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> --
> Tricia Chirumbole
> US: +1-571-232-0942
> Skype: tricia.chirumbole****
>
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--
Kári Gunnarsson
kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
gsm: +354 8645189
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