Library: Our First Three Seasons of Irresistible Growth

THE STORY OF OUR EMERGENCE, APRIL-OCTOBER 2000 SPRING On April 2, 2000, after months of noticing how good leaders everywhere are facing the same dilemmas, after great despair at the increasingly destructive influences of globalisation on so many talented organizations and leaders, inspiration comes flooding onto Meg Wheatley's yellow pad at 37,000 feet. Meg, President of The Berkana Institute, writes a description of how we might support life-affirming leaders around the world to develop greater clarity and courage. If we used the simple process of human conversation, and the power of connecting people together, could we support local leaders to act more courageously? Could we weave them together and create a global voice that would be strong enough to offer the world choice again about the leadership values and practices we use in modern organizations? Could we choose, as a global community, those organizational values and practices that affirm and nourish the human spirit? Meg begins circulating the first description of this dream among friends and colleagues. Immediately, Christina Baldwin and Bob Stilger offer their considerable experience and organizations to this effort. PeerSpirit (Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea) and NewStories (Bob Stilger) join with The Berkana Institute to make this dream come alive. Over the next months, others join with this effort (see the Who's Involved section of the Web Site.) Others respond with similar wholeheartedness, and a "Midwives Council" of 24 diverse colleagues meets in early June on Whidbey Island to give form and energy to this initiative. Sitting in council together and being open to insight and guidance creates a group experience whose intensity and grace surprises and humbles us all. We feel that this work is being done through us, and we begin to appreciate the amazing energy that carries this initiative forward. This group stays together, with many contributing their ideas and resources over the summer, and we meet again at the end of August in Chicago. During the Spring, The Berkana Institute moves into "Berkana House", a graceful and beautiful home built in 1906, converted into offices that work perfectly for us. As we move in, we already feel the presence of friends from all over the world who will soon be coming there. By Summer Solstice, we have raised $265,000 to begin. We have a new home and over 30 colleagues deeply connected to this dream and working actively on its behalf. We throw a Solstice party to celebrate. SUMMER During these three months, we pay great attention to both the organization and the identity of this work. We hire a number of staff and develop a strategy for how we can go global from the very beginning. We know that there are many circle initiatives in the U.S. and in Europe. We see the circle process being used as the new mode of social activism. It becomes important to notice not just the process, but what are these different circles being used for? What is our identity and purpose, for which we will use conversation circles as a core process? From the Four Directions circles are focused on the challenges and opportunities confronting leaders of all ages and in all places. Deliberately inclusive, we define "leader" as anyone who wants to serve others. Our circles will enable life-affirming leaders to refine their practice, to support one another and end their isolation, and to act with greater courage and clarity to change their world. Our second core process is to intentionally weave local into global. We will consciously use everything we know about the dynamics of living networks to catalyze the emergence of a global force for change. We will do this by connecting local groups around the world (electronically at first,) feeding back to them patterns and themes that are emerging from their conversations. We will create a sense of the whole among locally diverse circles. In this way, we will emerge as a voice strong enough to get the world's attention for the values and practices that nourish the human spirit, and we offer this voice to restore hope to the future. In July, sitting on a medieval stone wall in the castle of Borl in eastern Slovenia, at an Art and Business Festival, Meg meets Toke Paludan M¿ller of Interchange in Denmark, and reconnects with Marianne Knuth of Zimbabwe and Denmark. Toke becomes Regional Host for Europe; Marianne takes on the same role for Africa. Eventually, each continent or region will have its own Regional Host. These staff will identify first circle hosts in each region, and then provide them with on-going guidance and support as circles grow on each continent. Marianne brings to us her worldwide network of hundreds of emerging leaders, Pioneers of Change, younger leaders who truly are global citizens, and who are already working for a healthier and just world. Toke offers us his many years of working east and west of Europe, his work with emerging leaders, and his great skill at many different interactive processes, including circles, cafe seminars, and Open Space. Bonnie Marsh moves from Minneapolis to Provo to become Executive Director of The Berkana Institute. A senior executive in large health care systems for many years, we know she is perfect for dealing with the rapid and exponential growth of our efforts. She knows that this initiative is "her heart work" and is willing to change her whole life in order to bring this into being. Carole Schwinn joins our staff as Learning Inquiry Coordinator. We become excited at the many ideas and concepts we're experimenting with. We begin to think about specific research topics, and who we might partner with to explore such things as: * Defining the values and practices of life-affirming leaders * Leading and catalyzing a network * Developing a global identity through the support of local diversity * Communicating across cultures and networks * The power of simple human conversation to change the world In late August, the Midwives meet again, renamed now as the "Leadership Community." Our passion for this initiative has stayed strong, and everyone returns who was part of the first meeting. A few new colleagues join us. We hold a circle with students from Illinois Math and Science Academy, Imagine Chicago, and The Crossroads Spirituality Center. This is the process we want to take to the world, of sitting in council with people of all ages and different types of work. We are astonished by how quickly people bring themselves to the circle and how we go to deep and important questions and feelings. We leave that circle in Chicago with even more energy and clarity for what we are doing. We begin working on the technology and web-based processes needed for connecting local circles, for seeing patterns in their diverse conversations, for collecting useful information. Every circle will be face-to-face, rooted in its community, composed of diverse leaders from all types of local organizations and projects. But once they are meeting regularly, we will connect them to us electronically, and then to each other, thereby catalyzing local circles into a global community of leaders. As we explore new technologies, we begin to feel that not only is this initiative "right timed" and "right work," but that we also have "right technology" available to handle the creation of a global network where local members can successfully learn from one another. We develop our global strategy for starting circles region by region. We will begin with Europe and Africa, identify those who want to be First Circle Hosts, and offer them a Circle Practicum to prepare them before they convene their first circles. Our first Practicum will be in England, December 7-12th, and 5 additional practicums are scheduled before end of June 2001 in various parts of the world. In this way, our first circles will be of high quality. We hope that the experience of these first circles will be so powerful that those participating in them will want to begin circles of their own. If half of those who participate in our first circles bud off and begin their own, we will experience exponential growth in 2001. We expect to train more than 200 First Circle Hosts, and can easily imagine 5 new circles sprouting from each of these. We are preparing our staff and resources to be prepared for 1000 circles active by the end of 2001, on all continents. As the summer ends, we hold two "Calling in Abundance Circles" in Seattle and Provo. We hold these to both fund raise and friend raise. Again, we are astonished by how powerful the circle experience is, even among strangers. FALL Toke and Marianne travel separately in Europe and Africa to discover First Circle Hosts. They explain From the Four Directions by convening a circle, thus giving people a chance to experience the power of the process. They also ask teams of people to think together and decide who among them should attend the London practicum. The stories they send back to the U.S. bring our dream into focus and confirm for us the importance of these leader circles. We also become a bit wiser in understanding how circles will be different in each country because of specific cultural dynamics and traditions. We're becoming more and more excited by what we're learning. The first circle hosts attending our London Practicum come from twenty countries. They are also diverse by age, experience, and organizations: Africa : Cameroon; Gabon; Kenya; Nigeria; Senegal; South Africa; Uganda; Zimbabwe. Europe : Croatia; Denmark; England; Germany; Holland; Hungary; Slovenia; Sweden; Switzerland; Ukraine. North America : Mexico; United States. We begin to approach a few select corporations to be Learning Partners . We know we're experimenting with many of the challenges that are facing leaders of large networked and/or global organizations. We want to be in collaborative inquiry with a few organizations, we want them to provide financial support of our efforts, and we begin those conversations. We develop a more focused approach to partnership development and fundraising and Donna Gianoulis joins our staff to lead this effort. We begin in earnest our quest for the 5 million dollars we need over the next three years. Bob Stilger continues to explore new technologies that serve virtual learning communities. What are the appropriate uses of e-based communication? What are the conditions for effective web-based learning communities? He discovers possible answers in many places, and we hope to work with Microsoft to harvest their learnings from working in virtual environments. David Schwinn (Carole's husband) joins our staff as Regional Host for North America (Canada, U.S., Mexico). We will initiate circles in North America starting with a Practicum in March. We expect many friends and colleagues to join us on this continent, and are thinking about how to support North American leader circles in a way that simultaneously strengthens our global focus. Christina and Ann from PeerSpirit work with several of our Leadership Community to develop materials for our first Practicum. What are the essentials of circles, and in what wonderfully different ways will people create circles that are grounded in their own cultures? We are anticipating this London event as eager learners. We know we will learn an enormous amount from our First Circle Hosts and the twenty different countries and cultures in which they will initiate From the Four Directions. As we work together in the richness of our diversity and the depth of our unity, we will all emerge with a different understanding of the world and this work. We know our minds will be stretched, our hearts opened, and our spirits nourished. More to come, as all Hope breaks loose! From the Four Directions: People Everywhere Leading the Way WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO: Human nature is the blessing not the problem. We rely on human goodness. Each person's uniqueness is a gift. We depend on diversity. We define a leader as anyone who wants to serve others. The planet has an abundance of these leaders. Every country needs leaders who know how to nourish human creativity, caring, and commitment. We support leaders everywhere who want to develop these life-affirming organizations and communities. Locally, we establish circles of leaders in thousands of communities around the world. Colleagues meet face-to-face to think, share their practices, and strengthen their courage to act. Powerful personal and social change begins with these conversations. When people discover shared hopes and challenges, they act courageously to change their world. Globally, we weave together a web of leaders who offer their collective vision, courage, and practices to restore hope to the future. We will astonish the world with what becomes possible in communities and organizations when we nourish and sustain the human spirit. From a young leader from Bogota Colombia. . . We received this from an emerging leader from Bogota, Colombia, who is part of Planet Club - a sustainable leadership program offered to young leaders from around the world. He is working in Budapest Hungary for the next year. He was part of a circle process to introduce From the Four Directions hosted in November in Budapest by Toke Moeller, our European Regional Coordinator. I feel today that I want strongly to experiment, explore and take the courage to start trying out and in practice this little experiment of change. I just felt that it encouraged me yesterday that today I can start making the change in everything I want to. I also experienced it at home, by the way I talked to my roommates today, by the way I approached people. . . . How can I manage this energy, this much amount of burning? . . . . I don't want to feel that I say the truth, I just want to show another approach, but how? I went to grab the lyrics of this song, and found out the following piece of chorus: The rhythm is below me the rhythm of the heat the rhythm is around me the rhythm has control the rhythm is inside me the rhythm has my soul and with the strong belief that days like this are starting to come. With open heart