Word’s getting around. Canada’s paper of record, the Globe & Mail, ran a wonderful piece about Conversation Week today by Fiona Morrow, who attended a conversation this Tuesday at a cafe in Vancouver. Morrow writes:
The question chosen for discussion is “What kind of leadership does the world need now?” We pass around a smooth grey stone (the “talking piece”) to indicate whose turn it is to speak. Kate Dugas, community manager for ChangeEverything.ca, struggles with the concept of leadership. “My parents were both journalists and leadership became a scary word - it was all about political backstabbing bastards.” Host Laura MacKay talks about her work in “backcasting” at the Natural Step Canada, a Canadian non-profit, a process by which you work backward from the desirable future to create a sustainable plan in which to achieve it. In those terms, she suggests, we are all leaders. Community development planner Lama Mugabo is a Rwandan who has lived in Canada for almost three decades. “I think of [Nelson] Mandela and how he talked about leading from behind,” he says.
The question chosen for discussion is “What kind of leadership does the world need now?” We pass around a smooth grey stone (the “talking piece”) to indicate whose turn it is to speak.
Kate Dugas, community manager for ChangeEverything.ca, struggles with the concept of leadership. “My parents were both journalists and leadership became a scary word - it was all about political backstabbing bastards.” Host Laura MacKay talks about her work in “backcasting” at the Natural Step Canada, a Canadian non-profit, a process by which you work backward from the desirable future to create a sustainable plan in which to achieve it. In those terms, she suggests, we are all leaders. Community development planner Lama Mugabo is a Rwandan who has lived in Canada for almost three decades. “I think of [Nelson] Mandela and how he talked about leading from behind,” he says.
We’ve always said Conversation Week is a grand experiment. Yesterday, a group of people tested out the Conversation Cafe process in the virtual world Second Life. Check out these snapshots, taken by a participant who goes by the name ~C4Chaos, who blogged about the experience here.
We’re looking forward to more reports from participants, particularly on how well the Conversation Cafe process transfers into this virtual world where, even though users are represented by humanoid avatars and some can chat by voice, most communication happens in the form of live text chat.
Special thanks to Vivienne Cassavetes for hosting this dialogue at her Peacemaker Institute on Second Life’s Commonwealth Islands.
Vivienne will host one more Conversation Week dialogue tomorrow (Friday) at noon SLT (that’s Second Life Time; same as US Pacific time). If you would like to join tomorrow’s event, please RSVP here.
These Conversation Week dialogues are just the beginning. After this week, Vivienne will be hosting ongoing Conversation Cafes at the Peacemaker Institute every Wednesday. Join the group “Conversation Cafe” in SL for updates and weekly questions.
Below this post, we’ve created separate blog posts for discussion of each of this year’s top ten questions. Please uses the comments on each question to post your own reactions. And after your face-to-face Conversation Week dialogues take place, please use these to share any insights, epiphanies, wisdom, or new questions that emerged.
Please begin your post with your city and country.
For Conversation Week 2007 this was the winning question. We add it here to give you a chance to survey the people at your Conversation Week table as we have surveyed the world to suggest and select the ten questions above. What questions do you and your community need to be asking right now? What’s not being talked about that, were it explored, would free us up to have the world we want?
On Thursday, March 20, Socrates will appear in Manhattan, in an effort to draw attention to the series of dialogues planned across the city as part of global Conversation Week. Ron Gross, a Columbia University professor and Conversation Cafe host extraordinaire, appears frequently as the 5th century philosopher. This clever bit of street theater is one creative way Gross is raising the bar and turning Conversation Week into more than just a series of conversations. This year, CW will be a citywide happening.
Here is the press release Gross sent to media in the New York area this week:
Joy and Power of Great Talk to be celebrated at New York events during global Conversation Week 2008, Mar. 24-30th SOCRATES to appear in Manhattan on March 20th New Yorkers who love great talk will meet during the last week of March to discuss the most important questions facing the world today, in venues ranging from the atrium of an office building on Madison Avenue, to the back room of an Afghan restaurant on 26th St., to a library at Columbia University. These events are part of global Conversation Week under the auspices of Conversation Cafes (www.conversationsweek.org). Among the free events already scheduled* are: ** Socrates, the 5th century philosopher famed for engaging his fellow Athenians in vibrant street-corner conversations, will reappear at noon on Thursday, March 20th, the first day of Spring, in front of the Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd St. (opposite the Museum of Modern Art), to discuss the joy and power of conversation, and provide information about Conversation Week. (Socrates is portrayed by Ron Gross, author of Socrates’ Way. (Contact: grossassoc@aol.com) ** Socrates Café, Tues., Mar. 25, 6:45 p.m., Atrium at 590 Madison Ave., between 56th and 57th streets (former IBM Building). Special CW meeting of this regular weekly gathering. (Contact: Evan Sinclair at ems327@yahoo.com) ** Socratic Conversation, Wed., Mar. 26, 4 p.m., Gottesman Libraries Columbia University (Teachers College), 525 W. 120th St. Special CW session of this twice-monthly dialogue group. (Contact: Ronald Gross at grossassoc@aol.com). ** Cafe Philo, Thurs., Mar. 27, 6:30 p.m., Bamiyan Restaurant, 358 3rd Ave. (26th St.). Special CW meeting of this twice-monthly conversation on the Parisian (Contact: Bernard Roy at bernardroy@earthlink.net) * Please confirm closer to date. More events are being planned and will be announced shortly. Want to be involved? — by attending a group, or starting your own? The website www.conversationsweek.org tells you everything you need to know. Gross conducts such groups throughout the country, co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation at Columbia University, is the author of Socrates’ Way, and frequently appears on the streets of New York as Socrates (www.SocratesWay.com).
Joy and Power of Great Talk to be celebrated at New York events during global Conversation Week 2008, Mar. 24-30th
SOCRATES to appear in Manhattan on March 20th
New Yorkers who love great talk will meet during the last week of March to discuss the most important questions facing the world today, in venues ranging from the atrium of an office building on Madison Avenue, to the back room of an Afghan restaurant on 26th St., to a library at Columbia University. These events are part of global Conversation Week under the auspices of Conversation Cafes (www.conversationsweek.org).
Among the free events already scheduled* are:
** Socrates, the 5th century philosopher famed for engaging his fellow Athenians in vibrant street-corner conversations, will reappear at noon on Thursday, March 20th, the first day of Spring, in front of the Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd St. (opposite the Museum of Modern Art), to discuss the joy and power of conversation, and provide information about Conversation Week. (Socrates is portrayed by Ron Gross, author of Socrates’ Way. (Contact: grossassoc@aol.com)
** Socrates Café, Tues., Mar. 25, 6:45 p.m., Atrium at 590 Madison Ave., between 56th and 57th streets (former IBM Building). Special CW meeting of this regular weekly gathering. (Contact: Evan Sinclair at ems327@yahoo.com)
** Socratic Conversation, Wed., Mar. 26, 4 p.m., Gottesman Libraries Columbia University (Teachers College), 525 W. 120th St. Special CW session of this twice-monthly dialogue group. (Contact: Ronald Gross at grossassoc@aol.com).
** Cafe Philo, Thurs., Mar. 27, 6:30 p.m., Bamiyan Restaurant, 358 3rd Ave. (26th St.). Special CW meeting of this twice-monthly conversation on the Parisian (Contact: Bernard Roy at bernardroy@earthlink.net)
* Please confirm closer to date. More events are being planned and will be announced shortly.
Want to be involved? — by attending a group, or starting your own? The website www.conversationsweek.org tells you everything you need to know.
Gross conducts such groups throughout the country, co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation at Columbia University, is the author of Socrates’ Way, and frequently appears on the streets of New York as Socrates (www.SocratesWay.com).
What other creative ideas can you think of to promote Conversation Week in your town?
We need your help to translate this year’s list of the Top 10 Questions into other languages. If you speak a language other than English, please:
1. Make a short video of yourself speaking one or more of the questions in another tongue, and
2. Upload it to QuantumShift TV by 12:00 noon PST (that’s GMT-8) on Wednesday, March 12. Give it a title like “Top Ten Questions - Spanish” and add the keywords “Conversation Week 2008″. We’ll take your footage and re-mix it into a multilingual invitation to the world to participate in Conversation Week 2008.
Help us make this year’s Conversation Week truly global!
What is a host? Whether at a party, in the grocery aisle, or at a Conversation Cafe, a host is the person who creates and holds the space for dialogue, who asks probing questions, and listens intently for the answers. In this 12-minute podcast Vicki Robin discusses the all-important role of the host.
Watch more videos like this at www.quantumshift.tv Fifteen hundred people in 39 countries participated in suggesting and selecting the following ten questions as the most important ones in the world today. These are our concerns expressed not as demands but as the questions we must all consider at every level of life to meet the challenges of our times. Conversation Week 2008 gives us a chance to talk with friends, neighbors and strangers about one or more of these questions – and discover answers that can re-direct our lives and work, while knowing that sincere people on the other side of the planet are doing the same. Your Conversation Week question is more a conversation starter than a conversation topic. Don’t feel obliged to answer the question. Rather, use it to stimulate your circle to go where their sincere interest lies. As you speak from the heart, listen with respect and follow the thread of meaning, you’ll have one of the best conversations of the year. Below the question are two assists. First, in parentheses after the question is a brief summary of the topic you can use, if you want, for your publicity. Second, after each question are several additional questions, if needed, to provide you and your guests a variety of doorways into the topic. Rest assured, you’ll find hundreds more facets to these questions. 1. How can we best prepare our children for the future? (Our Children, Our Future) What knowledge, skills and values and will our children need to flourish in their lifetimes? Do you know an especially gifted parent, caregiver or educator? What can we learn from them? Who are the children in your life and how are you preparing them? 2. What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there? (Making Sustainability Real) How can humanity both continue to provide lives of dignity for its billions while concurrently living within the resource-means of the planet? What does sustainability look like in different cultural contexts? What are your most hopeful images of sustainability? What changes can we make, and what must our leaders make? 3. How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century? (Survival in the 21st Century) Humans survive because we are so good at adapting to changing circumstances. What changes are you predicting? What changes do you hope for? Will the adaptations be technological, social, spiritual, economic – or all of the above? What are the best adaptations you’ve heard of? Where do you see good adaptations happening in your community? 4. How do we shift from “Me” to “We” on both the local and global levels? (From “me” to “we”) Where do you see a need to shift from “me” to “we”? What can a “we” approach give us that a “me” approach doesn’t, and vice versa? What needs to change to have people used to “me” engaged in “we” solutions? In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed? How can 6.6 billion people work together? 5. How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world? (Being the change) Does fighting for peace or making war on terror make sense - or do our goals and means have to match? How have you tried to “be the change” in your work and life? Who inspires you by “walking their talk”? What gaps do you notice between your “walk” and “talk” and what steps can you take towards “being the change”? 6. What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living? (A healthy economy) What’s the economy for, anyway? How does “the economy” make it hard to make choices for sustainability – a healthy balance between material, social and ecological needs? Where have you seen economic structures that actually contribute to greater sustainability? In a sustainable economy, how would you and your community meet your needs for the basics and also for those things that make life worth living? 7. How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice? (Having a political voice) When have you felt that your voice mattered in a political process? What contributed to that? Where do you want your voice to matter that it doesn’t, and how has that impacted your political participation? What re-inventions in the political process would inspire you to participate more than you do now? What one change would matter most? 8. What kind of leadership does the world need now? (Who leads now?) What does leadership mean to you? When has a leader moved, inspired or motivated you and what did you do in response? Is there a new kind of leadership emerging in response to new challenges? What gives this new leadership the power to lead? Are there different kinds of leadership for different times? 9. How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world? (Personal Balance in Demanding Times) How are you doing this balancing act? What would help you balance better? Who do you know who seems to balance well – and what do they know? How does your life touch the life of the larger world and what would allow you to feed your soul and relationships while making a difference “out there”? How can you feel satisfied you’ve given enough – to yourself, your family and your community? If our world is really looking down the barrel of an environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now? 10. What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world? (Ending violence everywhere) What incites people to violence and how can those conditions change? When have you experienced a potentially violent situation transform into a more peaceful resolution and what can we learn from that? Where is violence happening in your community and what would you like to see in its stead? What will it take to not just end violence and war, but wage peace? The eleventh question: What is the most important question in world today – to you? For Conversation Week 2007 this was the winning question. We add it here to give you a chance to survey the people at your Conversation Week table as we have surveyed the world to suggest and select the ten questions above. What questions do you and your community need to be asking right now? What’s not being talked about that, were it explored, would free us up to have the world we want?
Fifteen hundred people in 39 countries participated in suggesting and selecting the following ten questions as the most important ones in the world today. These are our concerns expressed not as demands but as the questions we must all consider at every level of life to meet the challenges of our times.
Conversation Week 2008 gives us a chance to talk with friends, neighbors and strangers about one or more of these questions – and discover answers that can re-direct our lives and work, while knowing that sincere people on the other side of the planet are doing the same.
Your Conversation Week question is more a conversation starter than a conversation topic. Don’t feel obliged to answer the question. Rather, use it to stimulate your circle to go where their sincere interest lies. As you speak from the heart, listen with respect and follow the thread of meaning, you’ll have one of the best conversations of the year.
Below the question are two assists. First, in parentheses after the question is a brief summary of the topic you can use, if you want, for your publicity. Second, after each question are several additional questions, if needed, to provide you and your guests a variety of doorways into the topic. Rest assured, you’ll find hundreds more facets to these questions.
1. How can we best prepare our children for the future? (Our Children, Our Future) What knowledge, skills and values and will our children need to flourish in their lifetimes? Do you know an especially gifted parent, caregiver or educator? What can we learn from them? Who are the children in your life and how are you preparing them?
2. What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there? (Making Sustainability Real) How can humanity both continue to provide lives of dignity for its billions while concurrently living within the resource-means of the planet? What does sustainability look like in different cultural contexts? What are your most hopeful images of sustainability? What changes can we make, and what must our leaders make?
3. How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century? (Survival in the 21st Century) Humans survive because we are so good at adapting to changing circumstances. What changes are you predicting? What changes do you hope for? Will the adaptations be technological, social, spiritual, economic – or all of the above? What are the best adaptations you’ve heard of? Where do you see good adaptations happening in your community?
4. How do we shift from “Me” to “We” on both the local and global levels? (From “me” to “we”) Where do you see a need to shift from “me” to “we”? What can a “we” approach give us that a “me” approach doesn’t, and vice versa? What needs to change to have people used to “me” engaged in “we” solutions? In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed? How can 6.6 billion people work together?
5. How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world? (Being the change) Does fighting for peace or making war on terror make sense - or do our goals and means have to match? How have you tried to “be the change” in your work and life? Who inspires you by “walking their talk”? What gaps do you notice between your “walk” and “talk” and what steps can you take towards “being the change”?
6. What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living? (A healthy economy) What’s the economy for, anyway? How does “the economy” make it hard to make choices for sustainability – a healthy balance between material, social and ecological needs? Where have you seen economic structures that actually contribute to greater sustainability? In a sustainable economy, how would you and your community meet your needs for the basics and also for those things that make life worth living?
7. How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice? (Having a political voice) When have you felt that your voice mattered in a political process? What contributed to that? Where do you want your voice to matter that it doesn’t, and how has that impacted your political participation? What re-inventions in the political process would inspire you to participate more than you do now? What one change would matter most?
8. What kind of leadership does the world need now? (Who leads now?) What does leadership mean to you? When has a leader moved, inspired or motivated you and what did you do in response? Is there a new kind of leadership emerging in response to new challenges? What gives this new leadership the power to lead? Are there different kinds of leadership for different times?
9. How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world? (Personal Balance in Demanding Times) How are you doing this balancing act? What would help you balance better? Who do you know who seems to balance well – and what do they know? How does your life touch the life of the larger world and what would allow you to feed your soul and relationships while making a difference “out there”? How can you feel satisfied you’ve given enough – to yourself, your family and your community? If our world is really looking down the barrel of an environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?
10. What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world? (Ending violence everywhere) What incites people to violence and how can those conditions change? When have you experienced a potentially violent situation transform into a more peaceful resolution and what can we learn from that? Where is violence happening in your community and what would you like to see in its stead? What will it take to not just end violence and war, but wage peace?
The eleventh question: What is the most important question in world today – to you? For Conversation Week 2007 this was the winning question. We add it here to give you a chance to survey the people at your Conversation Week table as we have surveyed the world to suggest and select the ten questions above. What questions do you and your community need to be asking right now? What’s not being talked about that, were it explored, would free us up to have the world we want?
What is a host? Whether at a party, in the grocery aisle, or at a Conversation Cafe, a host is the person who creates and holds the space for dialogue, who asks probing questions, and listens intently for the answers. In this 12-minute podcast Vicki Robin discusses the all-important role of the host.