Inside Conversation

The first day of the conference is done. There are about 500 attendees here this week. Yesterday’s highlights:

Opening Keynote by Peter Senge:

• The main theme of the conference is Interdependency. He asked the "simple" questions "Who do I depend on?" and "who depends on me?" He used this to show how interdependent all citizens of the world really are through some simple metaphors ("where does your food come from?") and startling facts (photos showing the polar ice cap shrinking)
• Western basis for thought is noun based. Systems are process/flow based. Since our fundamental language is not alignes with the appropriate language of systems, it is difficult for westerners to see systems.
• Needs:
• Understand that the world is in a unique circumstance. "We have never been here before".
• Develop our language to facilitate the conversation of systems
• Expand our horizon with regard to time and space

Workshops: I attended "Introduction to Systems Thinking"

• Reviewed some basics, what could be called the language of systems. (e.g.,Behavior-over-time graphs, causal loops)
• The language is a tool to facilitate the conversation, not the end itself. In other words, the process of trying to draw a causal loop creates the value more so than the finished product itself.
• Archetypes are commonly recurring causal loops, and exist to serve as a starting point for jumpstarting the conversation.

The afternoon keynote was fascinating. Delivered by Rose von Thater-Braan, Leroy Little Bear, and Amethyst First Rider. They opened up the world of thought of Native Americans.

• No dicotomy
• Listen
• Renewal of spirit
• How would we change what we do if we knew that all things were animate?

These notes do not do justice to the richness of the content, it is intended to provide a quick overview to provide me with a marker and a place to renew the conversation.

On to dat 2…

Filed under: Whole Systems |