Full Circle Associates

(For those who are getting this twice in your feed, forgive me. I accidentally hit post when I wanted to save as draft - I was not done. Oi!)

I'm teaching another round of my online facilitation workshop this month and the issue of participation and engagement always is a core conversation. Then today as part of our ongoing "I Don't Know" telephone conference calls, David Wilcox joins us. One of our IDK gang (Dennis) had pointed to this recent article by David which just resonated for me. Participation is a culture, not a tick box:

"I've just caught up with an article by Nick Wilding which elegantly connects three key themes important in participation: developing more participatory organisations; power-holders letting go of control; and adopting an ecological worldview that sees 'a radical inter-connectedness between all things'. In Slow down... go further he warns that for professionals faced with polices for engaging with the public, 'participation could easily become the next thing to do on a check-list in a busy day in a rushed week'.

Participation is about much more than a tick-box. It's about a radical challenge to a culture that isn't working at local, regional, national and planetary scales. A culture that has valued profits over people and planet, and limitless consumption over sustainable relationships between people and places. The emerging, participatory, ecological culture requires that we find the time for community and conviviality. Practically, that means getting together with our friends and colleagues who we can trust to learn together about both doing participation and being participative. It means having the confidence to tell each other stories that matter to us in our job-roles as well as people concerned for people and the planet. This needs some practice. And practice needs good, reflective time and a good, reflective space.

Some of the words in this snippet (and the fuller article - check it out) that stand out are: trust, conviviality, community, stories, PRACTICE.

What is the role of practice in our efforts to become better communicators, better members of community?

community_indicators, onlinecommunity, trust, practice