Full Circle Associates

As I mentioned late last week, I headed off to rural Whidbey Island on Saturday - Wednesday for the second Evolutionary Salon. It was a great chance to get out into the country side a bit, meet some fantastic people and think about something I really had not spent time thinking about before: evolution and how it can inform our practices and actions to help make a better world.

The salon used Open Space as it's process architecture, which put the shape and contents of the time together in the 84 participants' hands, skillfully guided by Peggy Holman (Open Circle Company)and a convening team. First, I have to say, these people worked their butts off and I appreciate you! Second, many of the participants joined the evening debrief meetings to help inform the next day. Hats off to them. As a facilitator, I took a busman's holiday and indulged in conversations and music making instead of evening meetings. How SWEET it is!

The proceedings of the convening will be going up on the Evolutionary Nexus, so I'll not duplicate content. Instead, here are a few of my reflections.

• Roots. Getting away supports reflection.The open space format, with the judicious use of periods of silence and reflection give me a chance to take a deep breath and look inward. As a workaholic, highly productive, energizer bunny-type, this is not my common practice. I think I need more of it! One of the things that emerged for me was the need to spend more time looking inward, reflecting and grounding myself. I have many branches out into the world. I need to feed the roots.
  
• Purple Silk Pajamas are powerful. Knowing I'd be rooming in a house with a bunch of the participants, I packed my new, silky purple pj's. These things are a work of beauty. They feel SOOOO good. Well it turns out a lot of the most interesting conversations were with my "house mates" in the early mornings and late evenings, over tea, wine, and snacks. And so I recall these conversations when I look at those PJs. Another idea emerged from the pj conversations. I work online a lot -- in my PJs. When I speak at Northern Voice next month about online interaction competencies, I think I'm going to present in my pajamas. Maybe some bunny slippers too. You know, geek conferences can be a little tame and predictable. Why not be a little different eh? Besides, the jammies look pretty good too. People like to hug you when you are wearing them.
  
• Euphoric Bullshit. When we are passionate about things, big things, like saving the world, there is always that possibility of taking ourselves too seriously. So as an antidote, a few of us sat together on Tuesday afternoon to write a song to offer back to the group. Prompted by the line shared at one of the opening sessions on Sunday that we had to watch out for "euphoric bullshit," we themed our song around the line, making fun of ourselves and our interactions during the salon. We were a bit leery that we might offend, but when we previewed the song to the organizing committee Tuesday night, they said, DO IT! So during our opening circle of the final day, our brand, spanking new band, the Viral Dimensions (dang, that's not the right name - I already forget! I just know the abbreviation was VD!)rolled our our first song, "Euphoric Bullshit." By the time we were done everyone was singing along and laughing.
  
  Laughter is powerful medicine. It keeps us on an even keel, reminds us that while it is important to take our work in the world seriously, we can't take ourselves too seriously. And music is good medicine. As I think of my life, so often online, I realize one thing that happens is I often laugh or sing alone. So now I need to think more about how to practically integrate that into my online practice.

Evolution is pretty damn awesome. That our little planet has come to be what it is. That our brains have evolved to the point of selfawareness --> this is pretty stunning stuff. To use evolution as a framework for seeing the world is a useful lens. I am now thinking about how it applies to my study of online interaction and technologies for communities. And how to keep an eye out for the euphoric bullshit.

When I find myself getting too evangelical about this tool, or that process, I'll put on my purple silk pajamas, get back in touch with my wiser roots, hum that song and remind myself to keep it all in perspective.