Resources

Each year at this time, we plan the Adaptive Action Labs (AALabs) for the next year. We consider a number of factors in selecting the topics. What challenges are clients talking about? What questions do we hear from Associates? Which of the AALabs has been successful in the past, and which ones should be put aside for a year or two? Ultimately, after these questions, the anchor we always come back to is this: What topics will best help individuals and groups live out the HSD Vision?

The HSD Vision is an aspirational description of future patterns where people use HSD to see, understand, and influence the world around them. Royce Holladay, HSD Institute Director of Services, explains who the “we” refers to in the vision statement. She describes how it takes each of us to set conditions for this pattern’s ultimate manifestation in reality. 

Note: I ask your indulgence for this post. I know we have an international community, and I usually speak to a global audience. Today I make an exception because of the urgency here and the worldwide implications of our current social and political patterns in the USA. Perhaps, by accident, it will be relevant in other domains, as well.

This year’s Live Virtual Workshops are designed to challenge traditional assumptions about how we live, work, and play. In this post and throughout the year, consider how the old assumptions just don’t work in today’s uncertain and turbulent world.

In today’s complex and turbulent world, facilitation is less about managing or guiding a conversation. It’s more about standing in inquiry and setting conditions for people to move forward together. It’s a necessary skill if you are in the front of a room, working with a group to move forward. And, it’s just as necessary as you participate in difficult or complex conversations in your day-to-day life.

“Transformation is an ongoing process that tends to appear ordinary, when, in fact, something extraordinary is taking place.” — Suzy Ross

What do falling in love, a summer thunderstorm, and an election have in common? They are all turbulence in search of resolution. What is turbulence, and why would Ramsey Clark call it an opportunity? The dynamics of complex adaptive systems can answer these questions and generate other questions to help you love the turbulence you are in.