Row, row, row your boat!

Good morning! I have been enjoying a row this morning listening to the wisdom of Dee Hock! Have you ever heard of him? He was deeply involved in the creation of Visa & former CEO. I am listening to the audio cassette (yup, a cassette!) of his key note address at the Systems Thinking in Action Conference in 1997 called The Rise of the Chaordic Organization - Purpose, Principles and People! I have listened to it a number of times (probably 4 times). He is funny, lovely, curious, interested and interesting! Call me or email me is you love Dee Hock - or if you are interested in exploring the principles he is sharing in this audio tape -- most fundamentally, he really elegantly outlines how our minds can trap us! He also outlines four essential principles for the chaordic organization: If anything in the world was possible - if there were no constraints at all - what would it take to bring about massive institutional change: 1) People will not move without real examples - need some real examples - like Visa, the internet, world weather watch, airline controller system - no one person is in charge it is very organic! Need examples across sectors. 2) Create models - people need to play with things. Four dimensional models are needed! The fourth dimension is ethical and moral - or spiritual dimension that we have totally lost connection to in our organizations. We have to collapse evolution and show how you didn;t build it but rather created the conditions for it to grow! Purpose and principles are the genetic code of organizations. 3) Academia and Science is really the religion of the 20th century. Thus we will need to create an impeccable intellectual agrument that will support this diverse knowledge as a case so it can be massively disseminated! 4) A global organization will need to emerge that will link all the people committed to and passionate about these new concepts - will act as a catalyst and in 20 or so years it will disappear!

Dee says very poignantly, "when you ask the right question - the answer is apparent!"

Have you ever had this experience... you love a book, a song, a video, anything so much that you re-read, re-experience it over and over again deepening your interest and understanding of it? Perhaps I am letting you know a little too much about my naturally compulsive nature :D

I wanted to get back to my "blog" after a conversation with Shannon McKarney (http://www.threeseven.ca/ and http://www.ecochick.ca/) who encouraged me to get started in the first place. As I spoke with Shannon on Friday, I realized part of the hestitation I was experiencing was that I feel lonely sitting at the keyboard writing my ideas down. Although I have been very committed to using the practice of Morning Pages by Julia Cameron using lovely, colourful gel pens to muse and explore my own voice... it still feels a little weird and intimidating to write with freedom, full expression and a powerful and provocative voice and place it out onto the world wide wide. (anyone else have this experience?) This is one place where having a coach or community to connect with can make a huge difference!

So - my pledge is to get online and contribute ideas, questions, thoughts, reflections, tools, connections, ahas, and all the great richness of life and learning more publicly at least three times a week! I hope my contributions are of value to someone other than my own growing soul! :D