Reflections on Enlivening Edge Community Conversations – August 2017: How is it That We Weave so Much Love into the Space?

  By Andrew Carter MacDonald for Enlivening Edge Magazine

Two things I’d like you to know about the Enlivening Edge Community Conversations. One is that they’re an amazing place to connect socially around what’s important for us in the emerging new consciousness. They help us see more possibilities for our work, connect with new people, and put us into a synergistic field where good things happen. The second is that they help us practice and learn some of the fundamentals of the Teal space.

First, about the connecting. These conversations really are a wonderful place if you’re interested in the move to Second Tier/Teal workplaces. “How is it that we weave so much love into the space?” wrote Alexandra Pivalachi.  That pretty much sums it up. My prosaic answer—though the question doesn’t need an answer—is that the magic of being together creates the field in which we see what is true and what we could do individually and together.

There’s wisdom in the conversations too, mostly a practical wisdom made in the moment that doesn’t translate perfectly to the page. (You had to be there!) I like Harry van der Velde’s comment, which arose in a particular context, that “this IMHO is about growth and maturing. That you cannot speed up too much.  You cannot harvest apples when the tree is still in bloom. ”

I also liked this comment, again from Alexandra,”Whenever I’m about to share something there is this lingering doubt that it’s totally unrelated, and then when I do share, I realise how informed by the field my contribution is – opening up more and more to what is present and becoming a channel for that. Noticing that there is no ‘ownership’ of the impulse or thought as it already belongs to the whole. Always pleasantly surprised by how common themes arise out of shared space.”

These Community Conversations are taking wing and moving on from their parent home in Peter Block’s “six conversations.” They’ll no longer be strongly tied to the conversational areas that Peter Block had spelled out: Invitation, Possibility, Ownership, Dissent, Commitment, and Gifts.

Instead, new evolutionary developments are in play. The hosting team will be freer in developing questions that arise out of their own sensing into the field of what’s emerging and needed now within each call. This is a mark of maturity and growth for the team, and for the community as a whole. It will be interesting to see to what extent the resulting questions are variants on one or another of the original conversation topics, which are extraordinarily skillful in design.

The second thing I’d like you to know about the conversations is that they’re a great place to learn about the fundamentals of the Teal space.

We’re working out just how to learn and teach these ourselves so we’re all in on the experiment—and you are welcome to be part of this as a co-developer if that calls to you. We’ll be asking “powerful questions” to bring out what is true for us. One idea is that these will relate to one or another of the three principles in the Teal space (Wholeness, Self-management, and Evolutionary Purpose) as we learn what these mean in practice.

If all this sounds to you like a rich environment for learning and a lot of fun too, and an open door for you. . . you’re hearing what I’m saying.

You can be part of these Community Conversations on the first Thursday of each month, 10 AM US-Pacific, 6 PM UK, 7 PM Austria. You can sign up for notifications here and will get all the call-in details. (The third Thursday is now devoted to the new Empowering Collective Emergence© EE Community conversation series at the same times which you are also welcome to participate in. Get detailed information via the same signup list.)

There’s no financial cost to participate . . . just the energetic cost of showing up and joining in the exploration.

Hope to see you there!

 

 

Andrew is a part of the Enlivening Edge Community Conversations hosting team. He is the author of Evolutionary Blues: Discovering the Depths of Radical Change, appearing shortly. www.AndrewCarterMacDonald.com. Reach him at andrewcartermacdonald at gmail.com.