Network Weaver, Habib, passes on

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I am very sad about the surprising news that Steve “Habib” Rose has passed away. He was an inspiration to me and a delightful friend. We still had projects in the air, and I feel hesitant to do the work without Habib. I first met him in Seattle at an event for Wiser Earth where Paul Hawken spoke about Wiser Earth and Blessed Unrest.

In honor of a fabulous network weaver, please contact someone you know (best if it is a weak tie) just to do it, just to connect and see what happens.

A memorial celebration of the life of Steve Habib Rose will be held on Sunday, October 7th from 4 to 5:30 pm at University Friends Meeting, 4001 9th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA, to be followed by social networking time.

Habib dedicated his life and his work to building connections among us. He moved us, both individually and collectively, to work joyfully for a deeper community. His vision, humility, generosity, justice seeking,
loving-kindness, network weaving and his phenomenal hugs inspired the many communities he graced with his presence.

Habib, may your presence live on. May we all learn from your spirit.

Donations to the Duwamish Nation are gratefully accepted in lieu of flowers.

Please also contibuting your reflections on Habib to an on-line memorial that can be found at http://wiserearth.org/group/habibsgarden

Play, Persuasion, and Field Building

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Recently, I was searching the internet for this unusual thing called Field Building. And I found some gems. Included in that is a section I pasted below from the Digial Arts Studio, which I found useful in that list of concrete things sort of way.

But today I am wondering, great, all this sounds rather cold to me. I just finished reading a Whole New Mind earlier this month. And so I wonder where the six senses: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning get integrated with this clinical approach to field building. I mean, really, we want people jazzed about the field so that all this delightful connection happens and the gift economy thrives.

The other thing on my mind is where is the intersection with work on persuasion, see Cialdini’s work.

Dr Robert Cialdini states that there are six principles of persuasion:

1. Reciprocation
2. Commitment and consistency
3. Social proof
4. Liking
5. Authority
6. Scarcity

How do these play a role in influencing the emergence of a field? I am merely playing with the intersection of these disparate pieces, my friends. I have not come to conclusions. I would love to hear your thoughts, want to play with me?

Now for that clinical approach I mentioned:

What is a Field?
A field is an area of specialized practice encompassing specific activities carried out by trained practitioners in particular settings. Typically a field’s practitioners require preparation in research- and craft-based knowledge, share a common language (including jargon), and have access to ongoing opportunities for professional education. They also acknowledge standards for practice, use vehicles for communication and information exchange, and enjoy credibility in the eyes of critical constituencies. These common factors are often called the “elements” of a field. For new fields of practice, advocates often aim to build the field by pursuing strategies to improve these “field elements” and thus strengthen, scale up, and sustain standard practice.

Eleven essential elements of a field include:
# Identity. A field is based on a distinct and recognized practice that can be clearly described.
# Knowledge base. A field has credible evidence, derived from research and practice, of results, as well as of the best ways for practitioners to obtain these results.
# Workforce and leadership. A field has trained practitioners, researchers, and practitioner educators; the structures and institutions for training, credentialing, supporting, and retaining this workforce; incentives and organizations for leaders and leadership development; and ways of attracting a workforce reflecting those served through the practice.
# Standard practice. A field has descriptions of standard practice that meet an acceptable level of quality. A common language is used to describe practice. Interventions meriting best-practice status demonstrate a capacity to achieve desired outcomes in culturally and developmentally responsive ways.
# Practice settings. A field needs places that are appropriate and equipped for practice.
# Information exchange. A field has vehicles for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information and knowledge, such as newsletters, conferences, journals, websites, and graduate curricula.
# Infrastructure for collaboration. A field has structures and institutions that facilitate collaboration among its members and critical allies, including professional organizations, special convenings, networks, and conferences.
# Resources. A field has adequate financial and other resources to ensure standard practice.
# Critical mass of support. A field has the support of key constituencies––organizations and individuals critical to sustaining it––including practitioners, researchers, administrators, policymakers, clients or customers, influential leaders, and so on.
# Advocates and systemic support. A field has adherents who work to foster the support of critical constituencies, garnering good will, securing various forms of support, and ensuring an appropriate policy context at all levels of government and within pertinent institutions.
# Systemic support. A field also has systemic support, including appropriate public policy and incentives that encourage practitioners to learn and use standard practice.

Motivating Participation

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Recently I was asked how to increase attendance at a gathering. I came up with a few simple questions to consider. Look at three perspectives.

1. The participants–who are they? There may be several audiences, and for each one, figure out what they want to get or are getting from the gathering.

2. Your perspective–why are you inviting them? What do you want to get from their attendance and participation? List separately for each audience group.

3. Observer perspective–what will the outcome of the gathering be? What will the world be able to see, touch, taste, smell, or feel because of the participation?

Now, what do you do with that? Use #1 to develop your strategy of attraction of participants. Use #2 to identify the proportional blend you want to have of different audience groups. Do you need idea generators? Processors to move ideas along? Finishers to put ideas into action? And #3 is useful for attracting funding and sponsorship.

Incentives, and this is just a starter list, might be:
# association (other people to connect with–especially face to face if they know each other virtually)
# reputation (most active in the field or other recognition of effort is honored)
# growth (learn something)
# inspiration (this is usually why a well-regarded speaker works)
# challenge (opportunity to collaborate on something vital)
# recognition (building their own visibility–like getting acknowledged for doing a cool video etc)
# play (to laugh and be creative)
# delight (good food, good sensate experience)
# narrative (fits into their story of who they are and why they do what they do)
# contribution (opportunity to give to the group)
# influence (able to change others or environment)
# stuff (things people can take with them and help develop branding and identity)

I strongly encourage visual mapping to show the relationships between people and between motivations/incentives and people.

Once you are clear about who to invite and why (for them, for you, and for others), then develop your message to each audience considering the benefit they receive for attending and participating. Then, also, consider what that benefit gets for them. Does it save them time or money? Does it develop their reputation or acknowledge them? Consider Maslow’s hierarchy. What core need is met?

There is much more depth to this than I can address in a single blog post, but this gets us off to a good start. What would you add to the incentives? Are there other valuable perspectives to consider? Is there a good way to create a matrix for organizing the information? What visual techniques would reveal the most useful information?

World We Want revisited

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Over at the World We Want blog last year, I responded to a post with an essay on the World I Want. It received feedback.

I want to revisit that. Draft 2.

What is your vision of a better world?

Many revolutions converging to create a world with more honor, respect, and ecological/systems awareness.

What converges?

Convergence of improvements for global health. The eradication of major diseases. Small Pox down, Polio close, Measles next, then each one or even many simultaneously. And more and more of this being achieved by organizations working together as a global health community using more and more complex and responsive information tools. More safe drinking water made available through coordinated efforts using community-labor and resources along with global data tracking and local/global teams which share and transfer expertise. We begin to take care of the bottom of the Maslow pyramid for all people. Put a bottom under it so all people do really and truly have a chance to have dignity and health.

Increased transparency of our resources above and beyond money to “grow ours” rather than “grow mine” including:

    • WEB 2.5—mass communication facilitated by servant leaders and centered on user-collaboration, tapping into collective intelligence. The many edges all empowered by mediums of information conveyance to speak across traditional boundaries and be honored in a customized user-driven fashion. Power to the edges, baby!
      Social Network Analysis—beginning to map and value the actual relationships that exist between us rather than the relationships placed on us by org charts. Moving forward to show relationships between people, organizations, affiliations, interests and passions. Deep and rich visualizations that empower connection and uplift action.
      Community Asset Mapping—tapping into the greater wealth of our communities—our connections, the resources we can bring to bear. Going beyond money to do more and see clearly, visually, what is available so making intentional choices is easier. Tapping into multiple forms of resources, inciting flows, and creating and empowering “currents” for systemic flows.
      Open Source—community working together producing property for the commons and changing the model for developing intellectual material. Let me repeat, producing property for the commons, particularly infrastructure that empowers honorable markets.
      Volunteerism on the rise as more and more boomers get back to their ideals. Retirement shifts from retiring/resting from work and community to become a meaning-making phase. It becomes about giving/contributing while supported by financial independence. It allows the vast intellectual and social wealth of the Boomers to be reused and shared through extensive volunteer and community efforts.
      The Organic Movement and other ecologically sensitive movements growing in popularity. People more and more realize the cause and effect relationships of their consumption and for their own health and the health of the world make different more thrivable choices.
      The rise and flourishing of our neglected gift economy via increased information sharing, matchmaking of needs with resources, and spiritual sense of oneness promoted by globalization in the best sense. Think Blessed Unrest and Wiser Earth.

    • What are the conditions needed to realize it?

    That the converging efforts find support and common cause and so unite and reinforce each other bringing together multiple upward spirals to change the overall flow of our culture.

    What are the obstacles?

    • Old thinking which focuses too much on immediate needs, “get me mine” thinking.
      Fear and scarcity thinking.
      Old established systems slow to change.
      Over-focus on band-aid efforts like micro-lending or over-glorification of system-reinforcing work that plays itself like change such as the Grameen Bank (which perpetuates debt-based systems).
      Delays in seeing the power of unity as each groups scrambles for funding, investors, audience, or attention. Competition instead of collaboration. Delay in seeing or valuing persistently our common cause.

    • Based on your experience, what parts of the vision are realistic and what ideas, strategies and plans can make it so?

    My vision is not only realistic; it is already in motion. The main question is about timing. How soon will we change? How many of us need to have an awakening in order to tip the change?

    I partner, as I can, with those who are doing everything they can to enable the dawning of a new age of thrivability, respect, honor, and ecological/systemic awareness. I spread the word to you, and you pass it on. If it is a message people are ready for, it will spread virally far and wide. If not, we re-work the message, lay more groundwork, develop more tools, share more information, and reach out to more hearts.

    I believe…
    I have a dream…
    I hope….
    that we believe
    and we have a shared dream…

    Curiosity!

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    Listening seems really important. But to go beyond that and be actively listening there need to be a spark of curiosity.

    To go beyond hearing what someone has to say and be engaged in discovering them and their ideas–that reveals several things about both parties. First, that you really care and honor them as a person, which frees people to share. Second, that you have connection to what they have to say–that you see value in knowing what they are offering. Third, that you see potential of learning from them and opportunity to co-create together. Forth, that you are interested in exploring with them.

    Many dialogs really are monologues cross-spoken. If someone holds in their mind what they want to say, what they want to get across, what they want to argue, what they want to push as an agenda…then the conversation isn’t really a conversation. Be co-creative in your conversations and display a good dose of curiosity.

    When I went through training as a coach, one of the first exercises we did was to give advice to our partner. The second exercise was to listen. I noticed two very important things. One, that the person I listened to seemed very capable of creating their own solutions. Second, the person I listened to was energized more by being listened to then by the advice. Since then, over and over, I have witnessed the power of being curious and listening actively and deeply as it activates the creative resourcefulness in people. More than that, they seem more likely to follow through on their own ideas and solutions than on any advice I would give.

    It does take some stepping back…it requires the listener to give up the idea that they have the right answer. Be curious, the person you are talking to deserves the opportunity to create solutions for themselves. What is that? Listen for it. Be curious. And you might learn something wonderful and unexpected. I have.

    But don’t just take my word for it, check out these benefits of active listening from an expert:

    • Sometimes a person just needs to be heard and acknowledged before the person is willing to consider an alternative or soften his /her position.
      It is often easier for a person to listen to and consider the other’s position when that person knows the other is listening and considering his/her position.
      It helps people to spot the flaws in their reasoning when they hear it played back without criticism.
      It also helps identify areas of agreement so the areas of disagreement are put in perspective and are diminished rather than magnified.
      Reflecting back what we hear each other say helps give each a chance to become aware of the different levels that are going on below the surface. This helps to bring things into the open where they can be more readily resolved.
      If we accurately understand the other person’s view, we can be more effective in helping the person see the flaws in his/her position.
      If we listen so we can accurately understand the other’s view, we can also be more effective in discovering the flaws in our own position.

    • KINS and Growing a Field

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    Looking over Capital Missions Companies, Key Initiator Network Strategy (KINS), I have many points of agreement about the principles behind the strategies. I believe

    • that we are all one
    • that there are key laws of nature including distributed intelligence and emergence which we can learn from
    • that there is strength in weak ties
    • that peer-to-peer relationship offer great power
    • that abundance, generosity, and trust figure strongly in our evolution

    And we do need resource efficient ways to make large social change. So this is my spin and twist on what I understand about KINS.

    Spreading behaviors path of 5

    1. Establish credibility. To make network change, change agents require credibility. Susan answers the credibility issue by asking for powerful high-status actors. I would say, sure those help. High-status is one way of being credible; it is not the only way.

    2. Encourage Inter-organizational Networks. Professionalization and inter-organizational networks act as sources for spreading the behavior through a network of common interest. There need to be paths in the network for connections to spread behaviors.

    3. Fosters powerful models. Modeling innovative behavior can lead to the spread of that behavior. Lead by example. This can be reflexive A<-=->B or mimentic A–>B

    4. Focus on commonality. Susan asserts that the spread happens through actors in similar structural positions. I prefer to broaden that: it spreads through actors who have something, anything that they know to be in common. The common trait between A and B need not be the common trait in B and C. There may be a propensity for dispersal of behaviors at a structural peer level, but it is not a requirement or limitation.

    5. Emerge effective collective action. Open space for mobilization and coordination of community of individuals and organization around a common cause.

    Agreed: “Homogeneous interests, a sense of shared identity, and dense social networks increase a group’s ability to mobilize its resources.”

    So that is how I am understanding and reframing what I understand of KINS.

    However, this does not speak to how to create homogenous interests, shared sense of identity, nor dense social networks. How do we do that?

    All over the place and focus

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    I suppose to some people my interests appear to be all over the place: philanthropy, currencies, technology, visualization, mapping, marketing, coaching, leadership, process arts, community development, art, creativity, and some other issues too like globalization, the bottom of the pyramid, social entrepreneurship, etc. And most of these areas I have enough understanding to listen and ask good questions…but not enough to debate academically on the finer points or the history. Coaching might be the exception. Maybe. I am not a specialist. And some say it is a world where we ought to be specialized. I don’t know about that. I think it is a world where we ought to connect and have engaging conversations.

    Sometimes, in our lives, we find the varied paths we lead all connecting down the road somewhere. All this leads together…

    How? Field building. I will post soon a longer explanation of field building, along with some tidbits of conversation and great links for those who are interested. For now, let me simply explain that field building is the conscious collective development of a network of purpose (both the nodes and the space between the nodes). And I see this as being critical for our evolution. We need to adapt to survive and for the planet to survive. We need to understand our world in more useful and appropriate ways. And all these interests of mine lead back to the many tools, processes, and systems that play a role in field building. An example–Social Network Analysis is an emerging field…It is defining itself, the practices, examining what distinctions are valuable and which are not. It changes how organizations work, and values human connection. It requires message management for maintaining a cohesive set of meaningful terms. It requires leadership to grow the edges and community to build the depths. It takes funding and marketing to keep thriving. It takes mapping and visualization to track and analyze itself. Other examples are Digital Media and Education, Currencies/Flows, and Thrivability (next evolution of sustainability). Sometimes fields are in transition too, like the work we are doing in Philanthropy to democratize giving, promote giving while living, encourage micro-philanthropy, etc.

    We need to change our world, to understand it in new ways, to work in new ways. I see my work as building fields that help with that process. And why? It comes back to my core purpose–to help people transform their lives and live with passionate purpose.

    Community Management

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    I was over at Fast Wonder today, and Dawn has a great list of roles for a community manager to play. I find it interesting how languages of different groups play a part in how we describe things. I agree with her role descriptions as things we need in community, with my background, however, I describe them differently or focus on different concerns.

    She specifically mentions: ongoing facilitation, content creation, evangelism, and community evolution.

    I replied to her post:

    Wonderful role descriptions. I also find it critical that the manager model the behavior you want in the community. An effective community manager understands the boundaries of that specific community and will take fire to defend those boundaries.

    And a piece of evangelism and facilitation is letting people know where opportunities for connection are–which I think you are calling cat herding. Good “Network Weaving” is helpful to tighten the space between nodes/participants. It also helps so people don’t miss content that interests them (lower threshold to participation).

    You speak of content creation and evolution, and this to me is part of the flow of community. Creating flow to encourage participation, uplift visibility, and encourage activity whether through conversations, practices, or tools. What flows do you want to enable and what, as community manager, can you do to encourage them. (And conversely what flows do you want to discourage too.)

    What do you think the role of a community manager includes? And in what context?

    Localizing Global Change! Chicago Conference July 20-22

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    You are invited to co-create the 4th Annual Chicago Conference for Good. PLEASE join us, bring friends and add spirit! Share this invitation with neighbors and colleagues, people you’d like to connect or reconnect with this July!

    “…cuz people who do stuff need to know more people who do stuff.” – ted ernst

    Localizing Global Change: Issues and Opportunities

    July 19-22 in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, IL USA

    The momentum of community is rising. Please join us! …for More and More.

    More and more people. More and more resources. More and more easy. More and more connected. More and more green. More and more power to do good things, in more and more local neighborhoods and organizations.

    Three years ago, some of us convened a small but national conference on the future of philanthropy, technology and community action. Two years ago, more of us joined in to create a second and international conference which was also the first-ever omidyar.net members conference. Last year we did it again, and along the way these conversations have sparked half a dozen more conferences and action on at least four continents.

    All the while, you’ve been busy doing all the things you do to try make the world a better place, and you’ve been noticing that more and more people are getting together for global community good. This year’s global gathering in Chicago is going to focus on “doing”. All good work. All kinds of local action. We welcome good people from everywhere to join with people we are actively inviting who are “doing” in Chicago neighborhoods. Bring your own local doing to share. We want to do more and more in all localities, and to do it more together.

    This year’s conference will follow the same simple and active format as all the previous conferences. We’ll gather for one big opening, create a working agenda that includes all of our most important issues and questions, meet with friends and colleagues to actively address everything on the agenda, document and publish our notes online, and head back out into all the things we are doing with more energy, more clarity and more connections.

    The momentum of community is rising. Please join us!
    …for more and more global good on the ground where you live.

    WHEN? July 19-22, 2007 …music and barbecue on Thursday night, conference all day Friday and Saturday, finishing by noon on Sunday, with airport drop-offs or excursions for out-of-towners on Sunday afternoon.

    WHERE? General Robert E. Wood Boys & Girls Club, 2950 W. 25th Street, Chicago IL 60623

    WHO SHOULD COME? Anyone who wants to get more and more into community, technology, environment, and other social justice kinds of work and practice. Anyone who wants to make more and more connections between all these sorts of things. And anyone who wants to have more and more fun and friends in the process of community leadership.

    WHAT TO BRING? Food to eat/share, materials to show/share, ideas and questions, issues and projects that you care about and want to inform and be informed by others AND a total of $40 (scholarships may be available) to pay for basic costs of site and materials for all three days of meetings.

    NOW WHAT? Send an email to nurturegirl@gmail.com, make a payment at paypal, forward this invitation to friends and colleagues, people you work with — and people you want to work with. we’ll send you details about places and times and be glad to answer any other questions. Stay tuned to www.GlobalChicago.net for more information.

    CO-CONVENERS? Ted Ernst, Hermilo Hinojosa, Kachina Katrina Zavalney, Michael Herman, Michael Maranda, Jean Russell, Dave Chakrabarti, Pierre Clark, and You…

    Discussion

    What kind of stuff
    have we been doing?

    * hosting and attending green dinners,
    * community gardening,
    * blogging,
    * digital excellence & inclusion,
    * chicago conservation corps training,
    * growing food,
    * organizing block clubs and parties,
    * depaving your yard and inviting neighbors,
    * restoring a riverbank,
    * planting native prairie in your local park
    * organizing your neighbors to work with the alderman or CAPS to get a camera,
    * or get one taken out,
    * recruiting volunteers,
    * organizing safe routes to school,
    * buying organic foods,
    * experimenting with new tech ways to connect people,
    * and living with less tech
    * driving less,
    * recycling more,
    * ensuring all differently brained people are seen as human beings,
    * seeing to it that the ADA laws are followed,
    * making social activists are supported and nurtured,
    * urban chicken egg farming
    * block clubs
    * traffic calming
    * peace parks
    * “doing.”… ,

    Leadership in Participatory Culture

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    What do we mean by leadership when we talk about it within the frame of participatory culture?

    In May, Ode magazine published The Power of Many, an article about our participatory culture (rather than top down hierarchies). On the website, they also post another article about the We mentality.

    Whereas leadership in hierarchical organizations, by definition, seems to be a relational position within the system, participatory culture surfaces a different filter for leadership. What is that filter? How do we know it when we see it, especially if it does not include an organizationally designated title?

    Leaders within this context display, I think, the following characteristics. And I would, of course, prefer to think of them as nurturers. But to bridge from one paradigm to the new thrivable participatory one, we will use the past terminology. Leaders, then, in participatory culture, noticeably portray the following:

    • trust others and trust in the collective ability of a group
    • draw attention to commonality between participants (rather than dividing them with differences)
    • demonstrate active conscious commitment to vision, values, and goals as example to others
    • act responsively to feedback and help grow feedback loops among participants
    • show their humanity, making them credible and proving their integrity regularly
    • listen actively and deeply with distributed credit so decisions seem to come from collective
    • instill a sense of togetherness, a sense of “we can do this if we each do our part”
    • defend the collective to outsiders and represents their needs
    • hold each participant to their greatness
    • open to seeing how the pieces fit together–open to emergence
    • willing and ready for new opportunities
    • able to respond with compassion in times of stress and difficulty

    Leaders in participatory community foster a sense of tribe/community as something each individual serves, uplifts, and is in turn cared for by. They presume that people are capable of being a contribution beyond their own individual wants to act for the improvement of the collective. These leaders are not afraid to be a strong example to embody the moral code of the group.

    Leaders in participatory communities do not function in a top down dictatorial method–they facilitate emergence within the collective. They do not direct: they bring forth. They distribute power to the individuals, empowering them to be their best, give their best, and be given the best. They encourage positive reinforcement to get more of what the collective needs to flourish. These leaders see their role as bringing out the best in others, as responsible for people harnessing collective expertise, wisdom, and creativity.