Guernica - 75 years ago the the Basque city of Guernica was bombed April 25, 1937 at about 4pm. There is a mashup of old video clips and pictures at http://www.mashpedia.com/Bombing_of_Guernica Picasso- Later Picasso made a painting of it and raised the question of bombing civilian populations into an ethical question. Guernica Conversation - Still later Joe Mathews made the Guernica painting an opportunity to engage not only ethical public policy questions but where people in the conversation might stand in the ready-to-hand-matters of life and to engage freely and responsibly. Brian Stanfield in one of his books describes how Mathews used the Guernica painting to invent a conversation that let a class of students raise and express vividly both ethical and personal existential questions in a learning environment. ORID Conversation - Even still later someone took the original Guernica Art Form conversation and changed the focus from being [ontology] to knowing [epistemology] and then formalized the conversation it into a queston procedure for knowing something - an epistemological conversation. Something gained but also something lost. Wayne Nelson's interesting paper last year stressesd this shift in emphasis to ORID epistemology as the basis for facilitation but he also de-emphasized the ontology of guided conversations that began with Guernica and generated many many other conversations including tombstone, journey and song conversations that were well documented in the Summer 73 Spirit Methods Manual. Does anyone know the story of how the Art Form conversation was "de-commissioned" in favor of the ORID procedure for knowing something as set out in Brian's book on workplace conversations an ad detailed in ToP facilitator's tool kit? Seems like something was gained with the invention of ORID but also lost as well. For one thing, it seems a facilitator has no existential or ethical standing to speak or listen outside the deliverables & procedures of the specific facilitation event. Another interesting question might be what additional tools might enrich the facilitator's tool kit? Storytelling, 1 to 1 coaching? Coaching teams & communities to form and accomplish results? Maybe it is time to develop & deploy some new leadership roles for the future? Seems like there might be some questions here for 50th Anniversary dialogue. Any suggestions? -- Steve