The History of OWD

 Phase I:Conception

On February 13, 2007, Charles Holmes, Carol MacKinnon and Susan Wright gathered in Carol’s flat in Locarno Beach to talk about “The Next Big Thing” for each of us.  We had each been feeling some tension between what we were doing and what we felt made to do.  We decided to spend a couple of days in deep conversation to see what emerged.

Day One:  Current Reality

 Susan spoke of the exponential growth of coaching as a new profession born out of change and the rapid incorporation of coaching into leadership and its development. Coaching has become a social and organizational movement – coaches in fact create more coaches as they work with clients.  But because of the need for coaches to make a living, the larger social innovation/change potential has been missed.  Coaches have not yet coalesced around their collective power to influence large-scale social change.  There seem to be a dearth of structures, networks, referent organizations… the kinds of things that allow people to come together and see themselves as powerful.

 Charles spoke of the highly successful Connecting for Change event that included the Dalai Lamai as well as many other global leaders, a whole bunch of pebbles in a container, and you’ve no idea which ripples from the east will touch the ripples from the west.  And that’s OK – it’s beyond individual control.  So much has happened from these connections; it’s almost overwhelming.  How do we create spaces to bring diverse worlds together without an agenda, to build trust, to have deep conversation?  And how do we move these events and processes beyond volunteer effort?  There has to be a way to monetize the value of connecting for change.   

Carol spoke about her world-weariness; there is so much to take in, so much need.  Organizations are essentially ‘anti-life’ – how much chaos and adaptation can we sustain?  It comes down to individual relationships – they are the real ground for personal sustainability.  Carol’s desire to be inspired, re-energized, comes with individual connection.  It’s the energy from conversations where you have the opportunity to understand others and feel understood, to use that connective tissue to co-create – that’s the juice.  The awareness is there; the question is what to do about it… it seems insurmountable at an individual level.  We have the collective power, we are a movement, we are leaders – how do we get it done?

As we talked, a number of points emerged:

       *  There is something in the atmosphere right now.  It’s demographic, it’s evolutionary, it’s environmental.  There’s an awareness of the need for change… it’s palpable.  The question is how to take advantage of it.

·      *   We have an obligation as leaders in a privileged culture to grow the circle, expand the community and contribution.  Not in the sense of welfare (We know best!) but in Development of Self (I change my world.) as a prerequisite to development of others.

·       *  Part of this revolution has to do with women.  There are so many examples of women creating innovative means for growing their communities.  It feels like something of a yin revolution, an emergence of the feminine in all of us, the power of the collective.

·       *  The work must be done inside the system – it’s a both/and necessity.  Both the individual and the collective, both the powerful and the disenfranchised, both grassroots and top leadership.

·       *  The possibility of some kind of convening… the ‘thousand points of light’ idea.  The tension is that more talk won’t necessarily lead to action.  How do we market this – product, process, people, price?

Day Two:  Possible Futures

We began with Susan’s challenge:  By 2010 we have a clear message with wide distribution which generates passion and responsibility. We have developed processes and structures for co-creating social change leaders and 50% of our 2007 income comes from this work. The idea is that enough people have been exposed to a kind of global concern and are willing to trust and be open to ideas about how to address it, that they will engage in various structures and processes.  Examples of how we might get the message out are writing about it, gathering people around it, using the internet, a newsletter… a vision of a constellation or network involving collaborative co-creative diverse partnerships of all kinds.

The question of how to be paid needs a reconception – perhaps it’s like ‘matchmaking’, a professional intermediary who adds value through standing in the spaces between and connecting unlike individuals and groups, supporting the development of trusting relationships across unusual boundaries.  The value might be seen as a new expression of philanthropy – a way for individuals and corporations to contribute.

As the message is disseminated, it changes, deepens, acts on and acts back depending on who is engaged.  We’re talking about an inter-organizational, inter-sectoral, multiple interest domain, a referent organization designed to facilitate connection at every level.

Charles’ challenge:  A diverse group of people connecting for change through dialogue, in pods of 8 – 16, who have come with a willingness to learn, grow, ideally commit to actions with others they don’t know how to talk with yet.  To keep it vital and growing, the relationships have to continue to develop over time.  There are single connections, mediated connections, gatherings, action learning projects, educational pieces, publication pieces… not with bricks and mortar cementing it but with partnerships and alliances and networks.  There will have to be different levels and ways of belonging.

Action Steps:

1.  Convene a gathering of coaches, a pilot project, people who know us personally and trust us, who come as who they are with whatever their issues are.  Each might bring someone from a different background, outside their ‘normal trapline’ to create diversity.  We hope to draw people who are in some way engaged in a global concern or searching for one.  We will talk about our hopes and dreams for connections with others to see change in the world.

2.  Beyond the event which is just one step, we create the domain, naming and claiming the social field we will operate in, developing a clear message and distributing it, without getting so fixed that it can’t change and evolve.  We hope to see a series of independent and interdependent action projects, locally, nationally and internationally to influence and impact world issues.  We will also engage in writing, speaking, developing a blog, a web site, etc.  See Appendix 1 for a graphic depiction.

 3.  Hold 4 pilot events within the next year – Toronto/Phoenix/Vancouver/Lima – and  then regroup to see what needs to happen next.

Note:  For a full text of the Locarno Beach meeting, email carolmac@uniserve.com.

Phase II:Development

Over the next 6 – 8 months, Carol, Charles and Susan further developed the idea, put together a draft agenda, and assembled lists of people who might be interested.  We investigated locations, costs and followed up on a number of possible partnerships.  We decided on The Kempenfelt Conference Centre in Barrie Ontario and booked 15 rooms.  We learned a number of good lessons as the gathering drew closer.

1.  We were not going to be able to do more than recover costs for this pilot phase – it was going to be a voluntary effort.

2.  We were not going to get the kind of diversity we wanted – friends and colleagues signed on because they knew us and wanted to support our vision. 

3.  We were not very clear about the purpose and outcome of the gathering – we didn’t yet have the script to speak intelligently about what we imagined, or what we imagined didn’t have broad immediate appeal.

4.  Many more people expressed interest than were able to actually attend – schedules are not only full but constantly changing, people are juggling trade-offs and discretionary events often fall away.

Phase III:Enactment

Inaugural One World Dialogue:  Kempenfelt Ontario, October 11 – 13, 2007

Twelve people gathered in the circle and spent time introducing themselves, their interests and aspirations.  In pairs, participants shared their hopes and dreams for the future, for themselves, their communities and the world.  After dinner, each member of the group created and talked about a mandala which expressed their current passions, where their hearts lived, based on the six core adult passions developed by Frederic Hudson].  The full agenda is included as Appendix 2.

The following day, each person was asked to present their ‘burning question’ and to ask for whatever help they most needed to answer the question.  The questions and requests were shared and the day was spent exploring each of the individual stories in depth.  Each member of the group was asked to add their perspectives and reflections from their own experience to each story and to suggest resources and fruitful directions for moving forward.  Not surprisingly, the questions, although specific to each participant, were largely universal in nature.  By the end of the day, the wall of the meeting room was awash in coloured ‘stickies’ added to each person’s mandala and question.

That evening, the body and soul were highlighted as one of the participants played beautiful piano music and the group moved to the rhythms.  The group also talked informally about themes and patterns that had emerged through the day and how they might collaborate and share contacts.

The final morning was spent in action planning – how to move forward with all that had been discussed.  First, triads met to share each individual’s personal action plan.  Then a series of key topics were generated by the whole group and participants selected the one that most interested them for a further discussion of how the collective might enhance these personal action plans.  The gathering ended with appreciations, commitments, and any further requests of the group.

About a month after the event, each person was interviewed about their experience at the gathering.  We asked questions like:  What drew you?  What resonated for you?  What has changed as a result?  What connections evolved?  How would you describe it to someone else?  What need should be continue to focus on?

In terms of resulting changes, for most it was a reaffirmation of their work and life practice, of the importance of these reflective spaces for deepening the dialogue with ourselves and others, a strengthening of courage and confidence.  Everyone spoke about new resources, connections, possibilities and the ongoing email sharing.  There was also a sense of being ‘evoked’ into others’ journeys and wanting to stay tuned.

The participant descriptions of the events included absorbing, involving and evolving, a personal exploration and a chance to meet like-minded others, a sacred time, powerful, leadership at a very high level, it looks easy but it isn’t – it’s a whole lot of difficult issues approached in very capable ways.  “If you want to know dedicated people who are involved in social action and understand what motivates and challenges them, and also if you want to get some help and support form them about your own issues, this would be worth attending.”  “Come with an open mind; this may be a different unfolding than you expect – you will get both personal and collective attention and support in a wonderful listening space balanced with the opportunity to explore with others.”

One World Dialogue II:  Tucson Arizona, February 14 – 16, 2008

Our second OWD in the desert never materialized.  Perhaps it was Valentine’s Day; perhaps it was the expense of travel for some; maybe it was because our primary networks are in Canada.  Whatever the reason, despite our best efforts to invite and encourage those we thought would be interested, in the end we didn’t have enough people to make the gathering a worthwhile experience for the few who were committed to attending.  Lessons?  These pilot events draw almost completely on our personal networks – they are people who know us well and are willing to risk the time and cost to be part of our journey.  We are not yet able to draw sufficient interest from broader networks, either because we aren’t clear enough about what we are doing or the issue itself hasn’t surfaced in the wider change agent population yet.  We may need to re-energize our search for partnerships.