Shifting Fields of Attention

The planning for Leslie Creative Learning Cooperative has gone well. The visioning period went well. Last meeting we unhinged the structure and let things float for a period. We re-opened a number of variables that had been set in the first draft of the strategic plan. The meeting wrapped up and we had not come to any closure. I asked everyone to stay in the uncertainty until the next meeting, in order to see how the various options felt.

Last night we met again. I facilitated a process which I'm thinking of as a "Deep dive to I Am." We passed a talking stick and began with "When we left the meeting I felt... and since then I've been feeling...." I facilitated discerning thoughts from emotions. I held the intention and facilitated A) People going deeper in the U (Theory U) by personally admitting their fears, and B) Viewing themselves at responsible and accountable for starting a school, 3)Realizing that there were no external forces which were preventing us. By connecting to the universal emotion of fear people had a shared experience and were able to shift from field 1 and 2 to field 3: "Seeing myself as part of the whole."

Once people began sharing feelings of fear and disappointment they began experiencing care and compassion for each other. This raised the coherence of the field in such a tangilble way that it created safety. I then lead people to connect with their most creative and innovative self and pass the stick a round with this topic... "I know I can do this. I am ___. I am going to ___." Each individual made a number of commitements and assignments using "I am" at the beginningof each statement. Then I called out questions and prompted them to all reply "I am" again and again like drumbeats.

The purpose here was to allow it to really sink in that we were the only things stopping us and that we decide whether we succeed. It also made a cadence which shifted the field from care and compassion due to vulnerability, but rather hype and momentum for success. Next we passed the talking stick for a round on the topic "Right now I feel..." and saw the noticeable shift in emotions. By going into fear together we generated the fuel for our own reserection. People were excited, and appeared to have a new sense of ownership, clarity, and purpose.

I closed the circle and released the deeper space we'd been holding. We chatted about fundraising and enjoyed a lovely meal.

While I know that the field 3 awareness was fleeting, I also know that the more we operate from that space the easier it becomes to achieve levels 3 and 4.

Life Lessons from my Chickens

We're hatching chicks in an incubator upstairs. The first few emerged on Saturday, several came on Easter sunday, and a few more are considering today as their birthday. My little kids are quite smitten by the chicks and fascinated by the process.

I am learning a great deal about transformation and life by watching the process. One thing I notice is that I really had a sense of pride for and affinity with the first brave chick. She didn't have the most effective exit strategy... she pecked for a very long time and finally broke through. I'm not sure what part of my programming has conditioned me to think that being first is best. I'm considering how much this notion serves me and perhaps I'll let it go.

The second chick had a much more efficient liberation. She pecked in a sort of straight line until she'd completed a circle and then gracefully pushed the whole top of the egg right off. She didn't have to fight nearly as much as the first. Why do I appreciate the struggle of the first more than the efficiency and grace of the second?

We have two kinds of hens, brown ones and black ones. For some reason the first 5 chicks born were brown and the next 4 chicks born were black. The black ones all died their first night. We think that they got too hot under the lamp and too dehydrated. Maybe the 5 brown chicks - being several hours older and therefore stronger - bullied the black chicks and kept them from the water? We don't know.

All the eggs began their 21 day incubation at the same time. Today there are two eggs with beaks sticking out of them, and I can see the chicks are breathing, but they appear to have no motivation to break out. This is the most interesting lesson of all to me... I put the eggs in and did what I was obligated to do. I can't do anything else. I can't break the shells open and let the chicks out because they would be weak. They MUST struggle by themselves in order to build up the muscle strength and determination needed to survive.

It doesn't matter if I'm fearful, helpful, prayerful, or facilitative... each of those chicks has to make its own choice to fight out of it's shell or to simply die.

Like the school we're working to start. I've done what I can to guide the visioning and the strategic planning process. At our last meeting we agreed to re-open a number of the variables which had been pinned down in the first iteration of the strategic plan draft. Some of the possibilities included realizing something less than what we had dreamt. We even came face to face with the possibility of giving up altogether. I encouraged everyone to sit in the place of uncertainty which we created by re-opening the variables. I asked them to see what the various options feel like.

I hope that what emerges from this time of incubation is a fight to live, a fight to emerge from our shell and grow feathers so that one day Leslie Creative Learning Cooperative might fly. Creation is a tender and fragile process, yet it is infinite and constant. Even if all my chicks don't hatch there will always be more chickens. The seeds I plan and tend to may never bloom, but there will always be flowers. For this, I am grateful.