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: