Super, Gordon and Marti, et al. Thanks for being there on our
behalf.
John
I know that many of us are engaged in
some way with the Occupy movement, and it's a subject worth talking about.
We've had Occupiers in our facilitation training here in Seattle, and Molly Shaw
and I have worked with several of their projects.
I caused
something of a disturbance in the Force (who, me?) this January. I
announced at the annual ToP conference in Sacramento that I thought we might
have some things to learn as well as to share about grassroots facilitation
through dialogue with the Occupy movement--and that I had therefore invited
about fifteen Occupiers from Seattle and UC Davis to our gathering for an
interchange session.
This came about because I had mentioned to
some of my troublesome friends here in Seattle that I would be attending this
conference and then learned that a number of them would be on a trek visiting
other Occupy groups along the Pacific coast during that same time. It
became very clear to me that God intended for our two groups to
connect.
The ToP leadership team put this on the schedule as a small Open
Space option on the last afternoon of our conference. It would be while
most attendees would be completing action planning in their task forces for the year ahead.
However, when I asked that morning for how many were interested in being
part of this Occupy encounter, over 90% of the hands in the plenary shot
up. The leadership team died: there went the prime working time for all
that planning. (I may never be invited to another ToP
conference.)
Nonetheless, despite shooting me looks that would have
dropped a more sensitive soul in his tracks, our leaders rebounded gracefully,
declared it a consensus that the whole conference would adjourn to the hotel
veranda outdoors for this event and that the scheduled planning would simply
start earlier, over lunch that day.
As you'll see from the video, I had a
ball doing this. This included participating in a little direct action
after the session, led by the Occupiers, at the Capitol Mall a few blocks away
(what's called a Guerrilla Mic Check, to use the technical term--not something
included in this clip. The marching that opens the video is of us on our
way to cause that trouble). No, no one got arrested doing
it.
Joanna Kohler was our videographer, and Marti Roach and I worked with
her on the editing. You'll recognize a number of Order colleagues in the
group, as well as interesting ritual activity, a great witness, clearly stated
rubrics for participation and team facilitation being created on the spot by
people who have just met one another.
Enjoy--and, if you share my
sense of its importance, let's talk more about just what is going on with this
movement and why we maybe should pay attention to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjmWcJjET4
Gordon