Summary
I am a professional facilitator and teacher, and co-founder of Association Building Community. In the 90's I coined and we developed the term " Process Arts" now used widely by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, Steven Cady, (see this entry for the text from their The Change Handbook), John Abbe, and several others in Organizational Development, psychology, and social justice fields, to refer to the participatory practices which build cultures of change able to work with and through conflict.
Process Arts relate to the kind of education that is essential for democracy and are so named to invoke and parallel the Liberal Arts, as the curriculum of schools around the world already includes practices like conflict resolution and mediation. As an approach to full participation, Process Arts have also proven quite useful in bridging the distance between citizens and representatives, as well as "progressive" and "conservative" groups eager to discuss and have a hand in social changes already in progress.
I have focused on building and articulating my contribution to this work for the past several years, working within our community and Council, obtaining an (almost finished) Ph.D., and contributing to or initiating online and face-to-face projects which are in the process of maturing.
My wife, Lisa, and I lost our 15 month old son, Aidan, for no reason that anyone can tell us, just before Christmas 2006. We left our apartment and employment to pull up stakes and wander the nation for several months so that our fundamental sense of homelessness might find a place to become more authentic and less something to be repressed. As often happens in transitions of this scope our financial situation became rather tight and the need to connect and continue working is stronger than ever.
I hope you will invite me to visit you and hear about your work. I'd also be happy to:
- facilitate conflicts so that all needs are met and several wants are satisfied,
- demonstrate how Aikido applies to everyday conflicts,
- introduce improvisational techniques for expanding creative responses to difficult situations
- re-energize meetings and work-sessions
- initiate mythological culture-study specifically for your group's growth,
- provide in-service training,
- present any of these ideas publicly or consult privately, and
- carefully consider your needs and those of the people in your sphere of influence.
I have thousands of hours in group process, hundreds of those as a mediator or facilitator, and would be more than happy to offer process options, help plan, or be available for back-up of whatever kind is needed. Humor is a prominent feature in my offerings and deep echoes of grief and re-creation often surface and find a place to rest or move while the process continues.
I also work with large groups to create conferences and seminars. ABC has a Saving Sounds project in partnership with Conference Recording Service, collecting audio and visual records of the Process Arts as they develop, so I record conferences for part of my living. I manage teams of conference recording professionals and would be happy to connect you with CRS or lend a hand in any capacity to make an event run more smoothly. I have been planning, directing, and providing security for events and presenting in public for over thirty years, and would also be happy to provide event coordination assistance as part of your existing team.
Left entirely to my own devices I like to hang a sign somewhere everyone can see that says something like "dilemmas, disagreements, and differences welcome here" and just see who joins in. I'm ready to plant the seeds, or offer water or warmth to grow your ongoing, auto-critical practice so that daily work becomes a pleasure and post-event or crisis debriefs become more rich in the authentic details necessary to improve for next time. Ask me how!
Please look for me down any of the following paths:
public at bdwc dot net
Toll Free (866) 236-0346 voice mail and fax
Direct to my PC (510) 96-bdwc1 (510) 962-3921
public at bdwc dot net
Toll Free (866) 236-0346 voice mail and fax
Direct to my PC (510) 96-bdwc1 (510) 962-3921
| posted by Unknown @ 2/07/2002 08:02:00 PM
Brandon WilliamsCraig is co-founder of a San Francisco Bay Area not-beholden-to-profit organization called Association Building Community, an executive consultant, and certified mediator and community building facilitator.
Brandon's community building interactions geared for work with Boards are scalable and take specifically shaped forms:
All decision-makers agree to the premises outlined herein and guarantee to be fully present. One no-show or unapproved departure while in process will result in an immediate transition to a brief and informal meeting for a closure in whatever way is of greatest benefit to the remaining participants.
Ongoing Context Agreement: an "already in process" framing into a "Three Act" format. The history of the group is Act One. Our work together must be understood as Act Two - the potentially tiring and difficult "middle ground" requiring experienced facilitation because it is of paramount importance to make an art of the process by caring about how we do what we do. The easily tapped energies of beginning and ending are out of sight for the moment. Act Three will be the follow-through after the work is complete and is entirely the responsibility of the group unless an ongoing service agreement has been reached in advance. Insisting on an authentic and thorough Act Two makes your project look less like Big Budget Explosions cinema with inflated beginnings and explosive surprises that benefit a very few... and more like resolving the tensions of natural human drama so that there can be a happy ending.
Unless the gathering is specifically a Class related workshop for a marginalized group, all funds are agreed upon up front, paid in advance, and not tied to outcome. Fees for serving organizations are based on a sliding scale beginning at $100/hr for people both serving a marginalized group and aligned with Association Building Community's goals. For organizations meeting neither criteria fees are loosely based on 1% of the served organization's gross budget and may include additional facilitators, printed materials, in-process training, and an ongoing web-enabled follow-through tracking process.
A three hour Inquiry Workshop would prepare you for taking truly effective steps toward shared success using the new tools at your disposal. These tools will help frame your vision-making process by addressing the completely natural and creative underlying tensions that result in misunderstandings and 'larger issues' that remain at least partly unconscious, interfere with work, and frustrate decision-making.
Since you are aware of the danger of scattering your energies, losing focus, slowing down to the point that nothing gets done, I hope you will deliberately learn these new language and method tools together, and then practice them. Then I hope you will move vigorously into Chapter 3 with the goal of becoming an even more effective team by creating a powerful common vision and a time line of purpose.
Chapter 2 possible date? Let me know several preferences by email to brandon at processarts.net
Sliding scale does not including travel expenses which remain to be negotiated.
Warm regards,
Brandon WilliamsCraig | posted by Unknown @ 2/06/2002 12:41:00 AM
Brandon's community building interactions geared for work with Boards are scalable and take specifically shaped forms:
- A three hour Associative Inquiry (sm) workshop in which the group's goals are set up for success through a thematic review of group history and identifying ongoing dynamics to create a shared vocabulary and process tool-set. This work is based on clarifying creative tensions between group roles, identity, and themes and will set the stage for working together by clarifying how the gravity of opposed ideas can pull an organization apart.
- A full day Working Group moving from an identity process similar to the AsIn workshop. This group uses the process tools created to spark shared creativity and lay the foundation of a platform for action.
- A two or three day Community Building retreat which goes deeper into inquiry and identity work each day but also builds shared expectations for testing and feedback over time and ends with both process and task related agreements specifically designed to create an envisioned future.
All decision-makers agree to the premises outlined herein and guarantee to be fully present. One no-show or unapproved departure while in process will result in an immediate transition to a brief and informal meeting for a closure in whatever way is of greatest benefit to the remaining participants.
Ongoing Context Agreement: an "already in process" framing into a "Three Act" format. The history of the group is Act One. Our work together must be understood as Act Two - the potentially tiring and difficult "middle ground" requiring experienced facilitation because it is of paramount importance to make an art of the process by caring about how we do what we do. The easily tapped energies of beginning and ending are out of sight for the moment. Act Three will be the follow-through after the work is complete and is entirely the responsibility of the group unless an ongoing service agreement has been reached in advance. Insisting on an authentic and thorough Act Two makes your project look less like Big Budget Explosions cinema with inflated beginnings and explosive surprises that benefit a very few... and more like resolving the tensions of natural human drama so that there can be a happy ending.
Unless the gathering is specifically a Class related workshop for a marginalized group, all funds are agreed upon up front, paid in advance, and not tied to outcome. Fees for serving organizations are based on a sliding scale beginning at $100/hr for people both serving a marginalized group and aligned with Association Building Community's goals. For organizations meeting neither criteria fees are loosely based on 1% of the served organization's gross budget and may include additional facilitators, printed materials, in-process training, and an ongoing web-enabled follow-through tracking process.
For example,
A three hour Inquiry Workshop would prepare you for taking truly effective steps toward shared success using the new tools at your disposal. These tools will help frame your vision-making process by addressing the completely natural and creative underlying tensions that result in misunderstandings and 'larger issues' that remain at least partly unconscious, interfere with work, and frustrate decision-making.
Since you are aware of the danger of scattering your energies, losing focus, slowing down to the point that nothing gets done, I hope you will deliberately learn these new language and method tools together, and then practice them. Then I hope you will move vigorously into Chapter 3 with the goal of becoming an even more effective team by creating a powerful common vision and a time line of purpose.
Chapter 2 possible date? Let me know several preferences by email to brandon at processarts.net
Warm regards,
Brandon WilliamsCraig | posted by Unknown @ 2/06/2002 12:41:00 AM
In this video Guardians of Peace from Aikido of Berkeley, Kayla Feder Sensei and Brandon WilliamsCraig join with and Eric Winters to demonstrate fluid responses to physical attack during the Aiki Expo 2002 in front of an international audience of professional martial artists.
Labels: audio, bdwc, demo, video
| posted by Unknown @ 2/01/2002 08:36:00 AM
