Toni Stafford-Interview

By Manish Srivastava | June 17, 2010

The Change Makers @ PI Community:  Toni Stafford

Over last 18 months PI community has grown into a 4100 member strong action research network. It’s owing to the diversity, depth and active engagement of its members that this community has been continuously evolving as a global action research and learning space for change makers across the world. In this and upcoming PICKS, we would like to feature some of our community members and learn more about their life and experiences with PI community. Starting with Toni Stafford (interview by Manish Srivastava):

Toni Stafford is a federal employee operating as an internal consultant within the US Forest Service. She’s an MA in Chaos Theory and Social Change and a licensed provider of HeartMath®. Toni is a Presencing Institute Community member actively involved in action research and networking. She is member of four PI groups and hosts the ‘Women Leading Sustainability’ group. She has hosted some rich online conversation including one on ‘virtual conversations on level 3 & level 4’ .

MS: Toni, please tell us something about your life and the essence of your work?

TONI: I live in the Ozark Mountains, with my husband and our two children. We live in woods, in midst of lot of trees, where we practice organic farming, sustainable building techniques, and harvesting rain water. I really love nature and have been working with US Forest Services for last 10 years. As an internal consultant with Forest Services, I have been involved in facilitating transformation at a national, regional, and forest level.

Currently, Forest Services is going through incredible turbulence. We are in an era of increasing amount of uncertainty confronting major wicked problems of environment, economy and society. It creates immense pressure on the individual and asks for deeply innovative organizational solutions. The people I work with are very passionate and want to do the right thing but the challenge we face is getting increasingly complex. It’s leading to high stress and low morale.

My model, therefore, starts with a ‘healthy individual’ – within myself and in the people of my team. As a licensed provider of HeartMath®, I am training my team members to transform stress by learning to identify and manage their emotional experiences. By taking ownership of our emotions, we create positive emotional experiences that ripple into positive working experiences.

The work that I do continuously circles around the individual and spirals beyond that. When I become the whole person, I can encourage others to become whole.

MS: What brings you to Presencing Institute Community (PIC)?

TONI: At work place, it’s not safe or common to bring our whole self. People express mentally, physically and socially but what gets omitted is the emotional and spiritual expression. We need all 5 dimensions for well being.

I nurture earth based spirituality. However, I do not speak about it at work place. It’s at PI Community that I can experiment with my emotional and spiritual expressions as a part of my self-actualization. I have trust in the people (at PIC) cause of our shared context of Theory U and Presencing. Theory U itself is a process about being authentic and being really present to what’s emerging. Here, we can explore our emerging self with all 5 dimensions of well being.

Theory U is a practice of peeling the layer and being more and more present—a consciousness embodied by this group. We are collectively seeking the source that we are connected to. We may not necessarily agree on the source. It’s about allowing ourselves to understand, experience and embrace a process that’s timeless.

I am interested in bringing this consciousness and practice to the workplace.

MS: What has been your personal experience at PI Community? What excites you most?

TONI: My emotional experience with PI community shifts with the field that I am in. Sometimes, I have fear (the voices of criticism and judgment). Then, I explore my fears and the momentum changes. It’s sort of a dance. I find myself taking the risk and sharing things that I could or would not share with my co-workers.

At PI Community, we are shifting the way research happens and taking it to a new level. Old models were based on getting credibility by isolated work and individual publications. We are creating credibility through dialogue, sharing and resonance. We are creating knowledge based on connected, trust and understanding. Its more relational, alive and vibrant. Through this rapid prototyping of knowledge creation and action research, we are shifting the understanding of scientific method. There is more fluidity because the speed of relational synthesis is much faster. PICKS (Presencing Institute Community Knowledge Synthesis) is an example of living synthesis.

The old (ego-centric) model was based on the assumptions about accumulating knowledge as a capital. We are seeing a shift similar to that of music industry that led to a decline in record industry as a mediator. It’s shifting the way we created capital too. It’s an eco-systemic approach.

I sometimes find myself in an unfortunate place with one foot in the old and another in the emerging. Its like discovering a new voice of fear. From an office in the middle of nowhere, I need the PI Community, to know that—there are people who are comfortable with my novel expressions.

MS: How could this community help you in your emerging journey?

TONI: PIC has right number of people genuinely committed on regular basis that keeps it fresh and alive. I would like to understand—how do we help people organize themselves and how can we create a vibrant community like PIC in workplace? It would help me to understand the PIC story.

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Leadership for the emerging future

By Manish Srivastava | February 16, 2010

[PI Community Knowledge Synthesis Dec'09-Jan'10]

At the advent of the New Year, the PI Community is collectively exploring:
How can we co-create a holding space for developing leadership for the emerging future?
Here are some stories and conversations that capture the above mentioned theme.

PRACTITIONER’S STORIES:
Grassroots Leadership Education
Bikundo Onyari is a young leadership coach with a vision to “create 2.8 million new conscious (grassroot) leaders” in Kenya. He “seeks to enlighten and engage people for purposes of national healing and reconciliation after the effects of the 2007 post election violence.” Click here to share your ideas and learn from others.

Theory U Coaching Models
Barry Walsh shares his evolving ‘Theory U based coaching framework’, while other members share their best practices.

CONVERSATION INSIGHTS:
Holding Space for Potential to Manifest
Responding to Toni’s invitation for a co-creative publishing endeavour, David Friedman, articulates what he brings to a holding space for co-presencing: “Conscious identification (in my own mind) with the “we” that each group represents; A specific kind of bilateral tie with each member; A caregiving attitude and practice; An awareness of the immense conflict most people feel about letting go and letting come; Self-awareness of my own internal conflicts and ability to not get tripped up by them.” Read more and participate.

SECTOTRAL HIGHLIGHTS (Education):
Theory U and at-risk youth
Maya Opavska is discovering common passion with other members for co-creating innovating development workshop for at-risk youth using Theory U and other creative processes. Link

“How to transform and renew our educational system at the begining of this century?”
Responding to Otto Scharmer’s query on Education group’s Comment wall, members are highlighting the education systems resistance to change and exploring new approaches towards systemic change.

COMMUNITY BEST PRACTICES:
S-Lab: On-phone Case Clinic
A small group of community members from Presencing Institute Community engaged in a long-distance collective learning process and experimented with ‘skype based case-clinic’ to apply Theory U based collective learning processes in virtual learning environments. Click here to read about their case-clinic experiment and S-Lab.

From Transforming Capitalism website:
Children Full of Life
A heart-warming, inspiring story and an award-winning documentary about a class of 6 yrs olds and a school teacher sowing seeds of compassion, courage and love… living from heart! Watch video.

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Co-creating Generative Space

By Manish Srivastava | November 29, 2009

Over last few months PI community is engaged in many rich and insightful conversations on co-creating generative dialogue space that enables listening at level 3 (open heart) and 4 (open will). Most significant conversation has been about online or  virtual generative space hosted by Toni Stafford, that had 96 responses so far. Other conversations  focused on generative communities, embodiment etc.  True the subject matter, these conversations are leading to emerging engagement models within PI community that are addressing the limitations of the online space by providing a hybrid of virtual-real community engagement.

In this PI Community Knowledge Synthesis (PICKS), I have harvested the insights emerging from conversations around ‘generative space’, while highlighting the emerging engagement models.  Apart from the rich content, these conversations also embody the action-research spirit of the PI community practitioners. I would therefore recommend to follow Toni’s conversation on “Can we reach fields 3 and 4 in video and teleconferences?” where community members are bringing their real-time life experiences and co-creating new knowledge.

What is a Generative Space?

Generative space is a holding space for our highest potential to manifest (Stafford). It’s an active, innovative, artistic, field of people that leads to connectedness with a viral effect. Its a state where power dynamic are not at play and wise actions emerge (Baeck). Such fields might be of a higher import that any endeavour in which we try to do so (Michaud). From Theory U framework a generative space is a field of generative listening, collective creativity and emerging wholeness.  The insights emerging across various conversations could be synthesized across three key themes (levels of presence) about the generative spaces:

1. Knowing: Generative awareness

2. Being: Generative Self

3. Doing: Generative practices

Knowing: The Generative Awareness

What collective awareness/ consciousness enables generative space?

  • Remembering and acting in the consciousness of what we most care about
  • Honoring the indigenous capacities
  • Holding a collective intent for the highest outcome
  • Creating a shared context (community awareness)
  • Vision or purpose that connects the whole
  • Learning frameworks (like Theory U) that enable a generative dialogue

Being: The Generative Self

How do we become present to the generative space?

  • Presencing- being fully present to whats emerging while writing contributions or sharing perspectives
  • Mindfulness- Being mindful of people who are not in the room
  • Grounding- Being grounded in the moment and embodying the generative space
  • Silence- Being in the inner space of silence
  • Vulnerability- Being vulnerable to experience an emotional shift in self and the collective
  • Trust- Trusting the process
  • Letting go- for the highest possibility to emerge

Doing: The Generative Practices

What practices facilitate generative space?

  • Consciously cultivating a container- a small team that collectively practices generative space
  • Asking questions that trigger generative space
  • Story telling that connects hearts and cultivates social empathy
  • Cultivating intentional silence
  • Integrating multiple paradoxes that we come across at the bottom of the U like form and process, dreaming and implementing etc
  • Ongoing rituals of generative practices like dialogues, meditation etc

What enables generative space online/ virtually?

Above insights highlight that a generative space, whether physical or virtual, requires presence at all three levels- knowing, being & doing. In virtual engagement, ‘doing’ or the ‘generative practices’ become challenging as it requires some sort of collective embodiment like community members meeting together, meditating, dialogue etc. This is an area that is being addressed by the emerging technologies and other innovative coordination mechanisms at the PI Community (PIC). Some insights that emerged from PIC conversations are:

  • Using tools of inclusiveness like photographs, images, symbols that represent the members who are not physically present in the room.
  • Leveraging on emerging technology like online Open Space Technology, virtual World Cafe, Skype conference calls, etc…
  • Hybrid virtual-real community engagement where member connect with each other through PI online community and simultaneously engage in small group meetings physically or on skype.

These strategies help in some sort of embodiment and create an enabling environment for level 3 and level 4 conversations. The most exciting innovations coming from PI members is the ‘hybrid virtual-real community engagement’. There are many stories emerging from PI community and deserve an additional PICKS. This PICKS on generative spaces also symbolizes the evolution of the PIC as an ‘action-research community’. In our first PICKS (March 09), we highlighted the blind-spot of economic thought as ‘engaging large systems in generative (level 3 & 4) conversations’. Next PICKS (Aug 09) we explored ‘organizing communities for collective presencing’ as a strategy to address the blind-spot. In current PICKS (Nov 09) we are taking the inquiry further by proposing a framework for ‘co-creating generative space’ for collective presencing communities.

Furthering the inquiry on generative space, the emerging questions for the PI community could be:

How do we co-create generative spaces within existing institutions and large systems to shift them from Capitalism 2.0 to 3.0?

How can generative space go viral?

References:

Key contributors: Toni Stafford, Ria Baeck, Dale Hunter, Rick Brush, Louis Cox, Louis-Martin Michaud, Bernadette Castilho, Stephen Thrope, Kristin Bodiford, Simon d’Orsogna, Rolf Schneidereit among other members

Key conversations:

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Organizing Communities for Collective Presencing at Institutions/Large Systems

By Manish Srivastava | September 2, 2009

Presencing Institute Community’s (PIC) last thematic synthesis highlighted the “blind-spots in understanding and facilitating transformational change at institutional or systemic level”. In last 3 months, PIC’s conversations seem to be actively addressing this blind-spot of societal transformation . PIC members are bringing their stories, insights and inquiries to co-create innovative ways for engaging institutions/large systems in collective presencing leading to collective action and common will.

These stories and ideas are emerging from diverse fields of education, governance, forest management, corporate executive teams etc. They emphasize on ‘organizing communities’ of stakeholders within and across the systems by leveraging on transformational social processes of deep dialogue, creative arts and principles of self-organizing.

Through this ongoing exploration PIC Practitioners are opening a new area of action research and inquiry:

1. Enabling processes:

What social processes would help in creating communities that would engage the larger system in seeing and acting from the whole?

PIC practitioners have shared some transformative social change processes and technologies that may facilitate communities for collective presencing. These include: 

  • Engaging whole community in deep dialogue at “level 3 (reframing metal models) and level 4 (regenerating sources)” by developing “authentic connections” (Kamyar, Mar 02, 2009) and tapping and engaging “the hidden collective knowledge of people inside corporations (and large systems) to co-create a sustainable future” (Lippod, June 18, 2009).
  • Creative arts as an integral medium to reach Presencing. It facilitates community building through cohesive group formation, conversation and dialogue in a non-judgmental setting. Various art forms are discussed including social presencing theatre, photography, painting, body work, dreams etc.
  • Self Organizing principles and its application in organizations and communities. It explores the role of trust, honoring emergence, chaos, nature’s organizing principles, appropriate framing, letting go etc, to facilitate a self-organized or self-directed community.

2. Enabling infrastructure:

What are the various coordinating mechanisms that would enable community building across various levels of the system?

To engage and shift the whole system we would need coordinating mechanisms at various system levels (macro and mundo) that would enable community building:

  • Within organizations/institutions. ‘Cross-functional leadership teams’: Theory U based interventions to facilitate strategic leadership team meeting. It helps in generative dialogue and deeper relationship and enables them to see and act from the whole organization and larger system perspective.
  • Across the institutions/ sectors. ‘Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP)’: MSPs are most relevant when a complex societal problem is beyond the capability and resources of any single institution, organization or stakeholder. It “summits a multi-stakeholder group (by) getting the whole system in the room (or a microcosm of the system) to address a complex issue that requires a wide variety of views and experience”.
  • Among citizens, beyond institutional boundaries. ‘Place-based or Online communities’: Place-based community interventions may engage multi-stakeholders from the local community in a collective inquiry dialogue around their local issues/challenges . Another version of place-based community could be local Communities of Practice (CoP) for facilitating collective capacity building . Online communities like PIC, on the other hand, have limitations in facilitating conversations at level 3 or level 4, “yet they provide a terrific and low-cost opportunity to learn” and connect.

Above mentioned ongoing PIC conversations are creating action-learning and knowledge about ‘how’ can we engage large systems in collective presencing. However, there is deeper exploration required for understanding- ‘what’ is the emerging field of change . What are the mental models that need to be re-generated? What are the sources for emerging collective consciousness? What are the new economic models, systemic assumptions, values that would become the building block of ‘collective presencing communities’? What are the regenerative economy prototypes and innovations happening around the world?

____________
Refer full conversations by Manish Srivastava http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/exploring-blindspot-shifting and Hein Dijksterhuis http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/can-you-work-as-an
See full conversations by Cheri Torres http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/education-and-whole 
See full conversation by Hala Makarem http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/creative-arts-and-theory-u 
See full conversation by Toni Stafford http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/self-organization-in-human?id=1705042:Topic:18579&page=1#comments 
See a related story by Rasmus Moller http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/ubased-strategy-process-for?page=1&commentId=1705042:Comment:22719&x=1#1705042Comment22719 
Refer PIC practitioners’ online case-clinic on MSP with Patrick McNamara’s conversationhttp://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/theory-u-for-multistakeholder
Refer to Hala Makarem’s story of collective inquiry dialogue around the status and potential of education for sustainable development in Lebanon http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/eduquest-cafe 
Refer to Patrick McNamara’s story of San Francisco based local learning grouphttp://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/starting-a-local-learning 
Refer conversations by Ralf Lippold http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/getting-deeper-into-level-34, 
See full conversation by Kelvy Bird http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/the-blind-spot-of-economic

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Education for Sustainable Development, Capitalism 3.0 & Wisdom of Love

By Digest Team | June 19, 2009

EduQuest Café
Hala Makarem shares her story about facilitating a “collective inquiry dialogue around the status and potential of education for sustainable development in Lebanon” and presents the insights and future models that emerged from this multi-stakeholder dialogue.
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/eduquest-cafe

The Blind Spot of Economic Thought: Transforming Capitalism to a Regenerative Economy
Peter Canny responds to the Global Classroom lecture conversation posted by Kelvy Bird and highlights “the signs of Capitalism 3.0 already emerging in:
1. Organisations working to deepen the consciousness of leaders in Government bodies NGOs & commercial organisations
2. Organisations like KIVA & micro financing
3. Community Banking [In Australia = Bendigo Bank]
4. Each of us daring to make conscious principle based decisions e.g. becoming vegetarian or acting on whatever matters to us!”
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/the-blind-spot-of-economic?page=1&commentId=1705042:Comment:26562&x=1#1705042Comment26562

Our place and purpose
Peter Roberts shares his poem inspired by epilogue of the book ‘Presencing’:
” We might think that love is just an emotion
but we create emotions - they are not the source
Love is the One that gives birth to creation
Discover it within, it will direct your course”
http://www.community.presencing.com/profiles/blogs/our-place-and-purpose

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Week of June 01, 2009

By Manish Srivastava | June 2, 2009

Change, soul and money

Marco Navarro shares a “video that may change paradigms about money, self being, human consciousness, world change, new perspectives, power, government and our own responsibility on it”
http://www.community.presencing.com/video/change-soul-and-money

Creative Arts and Theory U
Dawn Marie Jordan writes  “Now we need great movers and shakers: people who can feel with the hearts of lions and move with the fleetness of deer, in new rhythms, new patterns. We need leaders who engage their bodies deeply through movement and touch. We need to align thinking with feeling and action, touching each other in refined and discriminating circles of approximation, creating personal intimacy equal to the flood of information”
http://community.presencing.com/forum/topics/creative-arts-and-theory-u?page=4&commentId=1705042:Comment:25660&x=1#1705042Comment25660

Resonance between Theory U and theories emerging from many other disciplines,
Barton Friedland shares ”I have been noticing for some time that a number of theories that are emerging from many different disciplines share many of the same underlying principles that Theory U is based upon…. To be more specific, about the kinds of resonance I see between Theory U and other schools of thought, let’s look for a moment at the principles behind the Agile software development manifesto: Flow; Transparency; Eliminate Waste / Create Value; Amplify Learning; Decide as Late as Possible; Deliver as Fast as Possible; Empower the Team; Build Integrity In; See the Whole”
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/resonance-between-theory-u-and

How can we support individuals and groups, organizations and communities in developing their capacity of presencing?
Magalie shares “essence of the conversation” on Theory U based consulting that emerged from a convening of Theory U practitioners from the Bay area. She shares among others practical insights “How one might work with a client team in a very short amount of time (say 1 hour) to explain the value of Presencing to the project, to engage them in conversation about it, and to help deepen their ability to engage in their work?”
http://community.presencing.com/forum/topics/how-can-we-support-individuals

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Week of May 18, 2009

By Digest Team | May 18, 2009

Quick links: Starting A Local Learning Group; Creative Arts and Theory U; What´s next?

Starting A Local Learning Group
Patrick McNamara shares the steps he took in creating a local learning community in San Francisco and invites other PI community members to share their experiences. “We …had great success creating a spirited learning community where we try out pieces of the U, share what we’ve learned when Practicing Theory U, given/received feedback on our U applications, and worked together to better understand and engage in Presencing”.
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/starting-a-local-learning

Creative Arts and Theory U
Ria Baeck, explores the role of bodywork and art in ‘Presencing’ process and, shares “To become present means we need to be present to - conscious of - of thoughts, emotions and bodily feelings. That’s why doing some body exercises is so valuable for deepening the dialogue. To get to real presencing - level 4 - we also need to be aware of the subtle sensing. Then drawing, dreams, a vision quest, the constellation process (representational observation) etc are needed to bring us information from this ‘night’ field - from the future we don’t ‘know’ yet”
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/creative-arts-and-theory-u?page=4&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A25273&x=1#1705042Comment25273

What´s next?

Some facts about the rapidly changing knowledge economy. A teaser to those contemplating on ‘what’s next?’
http://www.community.presencing.com/video/whats-next

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Week of May 11, 2009

By Digest Team | May 11, 2009

Quick links: How can we open the back doors and rear windows of an organization who is just “not there yet”?; Exploring BLINDSPOT: Shifting Attention to Deep Eco-centric Awareness at Institutional/Societal level; Theory U for Multi-stakeholder Summit Design; Human evolution

How can we open the back doors and rear windows of an organization who is just “not there yet”?
Over last 3 months, Isabelle Mahy has been engaging PI Community in her “real case” of bringing change in a large public organization, in Quebec, in the education sector. Her story has unfolded as a microcosm of larger context and an inspiration for the PIC members. As exprienced by Theiopoulou Anthi “thank you so much for publishing this story from the very beginning and allowing us to live it with you and somehow be part of such a great change step! What a delicious “chocolate”!”
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/how-can-we-open-the-back-doors

Exploring BLINDSPOT: Shifting Attention to Deep Eco-centric Awareness at Institutional/Societal level
Exploring the myth & making of gigantic organizations, Howard Roberts & kotaro kusunoki discuss: how the “originality of the impulse to organize” eventually leads to the “elite core taking control of the process of social learning” and “institutionalizing the schism between the elites and the entire group”.
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/exploring-blindspot-shifting?page=3&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A24484&x=1#1705042Comment24484

Theory U for Multi-stakeholder Summit Design
Dale Hunter shares her facilitator’s report of a 3 1/2 day cross sectoral leader’s dialogue and invites other members for deeper reflection and feedback “Although I worked with the group to allow the opening and deepening of the space there were still some who “couldn’t or wouldn’t go there” dispite my very best efforts …wondering what else I might have done so that we all could have moved fully into the experience”. Replying to Hein Dijksterhuis’s comment & insights from his experience in similar situation (multi-stakeholder dialogue), Dale reflects, “…. Now that I have your affirmation of it (fish bowl as a dialogue tool) in this context I will definitely use it. This posting of yours, Hein, is ample affirmation of the usefulness and potential of this site”
http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/theory-u-for-multistakeholder?page=1&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A24496&x=1#1705042Comment24496

Human evolution

http://www.community.presencing.com/video/human-evolution

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Week of May 04, 2009

By Digest Team | May 4, 2009

Quick links: Macro-economic Dimension… - Education and Whole Communities - Self Organization in Human Systems - The Mother Wound and Presencing - Coaching Sustainability Leadership - The world through the eyes of our children

    Macro-economic Dimension: Investing in the Sixth Kondratieff Wave
    Judith N posts an insightful and inspiring blog article (by Bernard Lietaer) that explores “Nicolai Kondratieff’s (1892-1938) discovery of a 40-60 year “long wave” in the Modern economies”. This article presents insights from Leo Nefiodow’s analysis of K-Waves while highlighting that “the next wave will be based on what he calls “psychosocial technologies, i.e. individual, community and environmental healing processes”. “…. the best way to deal with the current job scarcity is therefore to invest in the technologies that support the move towards “integral wellness” thanks to “psychosocial health” technologies”
     http://www.community.presencing.com/profiles/blogs/macroeconomic-dimension  

    Education and Whole Communities
    Berit Tenna larsen replies to Cheri Torres’s conversation and shares her experience of educating teachers by “introducing them to system thinking and the importance of looking at the child at a part of a system…. I am amazed to experience the impact of my own changes in behavior or attitude, can change the reactions of people I meet”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/education-and-whole?page=4&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A23880&x=1#1705042Comment23880

    Self Organization in Human Systems
    Toni Stafford reflects that “text based communication doesn’t facilitate levels 3 and 4”. Ria Baeck supports that “I have the same feeling…, that on this site not many - any? - conversations are of level 4;…. we need a really good, challenging question that will be our guide in this conversation…” Toni brainstorms further “What is it about self-organization that is so appealing and intriguing to me? Why do I feel so compelled to trust it?…”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/self-organization-in-human?page=3&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A23318&x=1#1705042Comment23318

    The Mother Wound and Presencing !
    Simon Lafrenière explores the bottom of the U, “it wasn’t easy to figure what’s that future knocking at my door and since then I’ve happen to find some help in the following quote toward a resolve of that ”riddle”- “By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart.”…Just in case this might help someone facing a similar struggle.”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/the-mother-wound-and

    Coaching Sustainability Leadership
    Lee Riddell poses in the Sustainability Group: “Is anyone interested in dialoguing on what sustainability leadership means and how it is being incorporated into everyday leadership?” Jay responds: “I have a tough time with the term “sustainability;” I find it can get overused or misused, resulting in vagueness– how might we re-term these concepts? What are they really about? Group capacity-building? Long-term community resiliency?”
    http://community.presencing.com/group/sustainability/forum/topics/coaching-sustainability

    The world through the eyes of our children
    Poems posted by Hala Makarem:
    “… The loudest part of the day is night
    When the land of the dreaming take over
    When the hum of the angles flood us with transparency…”
    http://community.presencing.com/profiles/blogs/the-world-through-the-eyes-of

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    Week of April 27, 2009

    By Digest Team | April 27, 2009

    Nicanor Perlas Interview Clip 2

    Find more videos like this on The Presencing Institute Community
    As part of a new series of Thought Leader Interviews, Otto Schrmer speaks with Nicanor Perlas, who advocates the need to “access our creative selves…”

    Case Clincs as starting points for large scale change
    Ralf Lippold applies “Theory U case clinic” for co-creating an innovative project (LockSchuppen) in Dresden. While sharing his emerging story, he invites PIC members: “If you are interested in learning more about the LockSchuppen-Story woven around the Theory U (and a few other fields, like Lean Thinking, Team Entrepreneurship, System Dynamics, Artificial Intelligence) check it out.”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/case-clincs-as-starting-points

    Creative Arts and Theory U
    Max Neill explores “Art is a method of mining into different levels of what we know, and into the unknown” and reflects on “…Guin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ where Sparrowhawk uses his powers to delve illegally into the darkest realms of the dead, and in doing so unleashes a dark and powerful monster…”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/forum/topics/creative-arts-and-theory-u?page=4&commentId=1705042%3AComment%3A23499&x=1#1705042Comment23499  

    Learning from the Central Part
    Tuan Anh Nguyen shares in his blog his journey along the paths from Quang Nam to Quang Binh province in the central part of Vietnam. “The story is the same” across the cities. “These stories observe the structure of “Success to the Successful” playing around along with their “escalations”. When we are keen to pay attention to one part and ignore the other part, it does not help the other part even grow by the visionary pictures people hold from the beginning…”
    http://www.community.presencing.com/profiles/blogs/learning-from-the-central-part

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