On the 1st of July this year we welcomed George Kinder to the Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth for a Golden Civilization conversation. This event was made possible by Jeremy Squibb of Serenity FP, a student of George and a follower of his Life Planning approach.
Unlike our approach to Life Conversations, which as I explained last week is agenda free, George has an Agenda for his conversations. He is asking groups to explore what, to them, a Golden Civilization might look like, what obstacles exist to achieving that and what we, individually and as a group, can do to move in that direction.
After framing the conversation, George moved on to asking about our vision for that Civilization. What actions, behaviours, values and emotions might drive that. We soon had a flip chart full of those visions and elements of vision.
George switched our focus to the obstacles that we foresaw to moving in the direction of the vision. Obstacles can be large, complex to resolve and long term, small, simple to fix and short term and all shapes and sizes between. Knowing what the obstacle is, allows thinking and planning to overcome it. For the small obstacles, that may be a personal change process. For more complex problems, there may need to be an active movement, with others cooperating to ensure that change is being facilitated piece by piece.
That leads into actions. Small steps that we, as individuals or groups, can take that will move us towards the ideal outcome. The smallest changes can make a big difference. Larger changes will consist of many smaller steps. With actions (what could be done) come committments (what WILL be done, by who and by when).
The process that LifeMOT undertook to continue with Serenity and with support from George and his organisation is to develop themes and begin the process of change. To do that, we will follow the vision, barriers, action model at some future Life Conversations around themes from the July 1st conversation.
An initial review suggests we can look at macro issues such as peace, understanding, equality and sustainability and group and personal issues such as communication, openness, transparency and compassion. We’ll have the flip charts from the original session with us on Wednesday afternoon (and images are in the header, above) plus additional paper for notes, doodles and insights. We'll first decide our starting point and then move with the group dynamic. The only ground rule will be to be positive and progressive in our contributions.
If you want to change the world, if you want to change your community, if you want to change you, the first step is to define where you are going and what your passion may be.
Come and join us and take steps in a positive direction.
-Andy Coote
