First version 3/31/09. Updated 1/28/2010

A member of Aiki Extensions asked me what I do out in the world so, after responding briefly, I offered to post this.

Imagine living at the point in the past before the term "martial arts" came into use. You notice that practicing the arts can also build character and good citizenship (relational) skills. Then you notice other people have already noticed this and begun to develop ways of teaching it, going by various names, or just calling it versions of The Stuff I Do. You have the feeling that the various ways would benefit from interaction and cross-pollination. When you suggest this you often run into resistance of various kinds, from simple denial to turf wars, to benevolently pretending you don't exist or are charming in your naiveté.

Change facilitation methods (including methods that extend aiki metaphors beyond the mat) are in their infancy, just beginning to realize they are process arts and relate to each other as equals and collaborators.

I just completed a webinar with Harrison Owen (of Open Space) hosted by Steve Cady and the Nexus folks at Bowling Green State Univ. There are several more coming up, each on a different process art. I'm going to attend as many as I can, as I am writing the part of my dissertation that deals directly with the process arts.



If you'd like to participate in the next one or get more info and download slides check out http://tinyurl.com/nexuswebinars

After hearing Owen equate the Open Space approach with Life and declare it The Ultimate Method Which Always Works I had a few thoughts which the moderators chose not to allow until after the recording had been stopped and the webinar had officially ended.

I began to ask the following in the aftermath and then opted instead for the discussion area at http://tinyurl.com/c82dtu

What if our edge, as a field, may be sharpened into focus by honing the following two sides as though they were part of the same tool:

1. There is no method that is Best, only one that fits here and now, but there are core principles and best practices, which suggest a co-created ethics, which apply to the entire field of approaches and practices which facilitate behavior based on an increased consciousness of how we do what we do, and develop and deploy tools for changing systems.
2. These core principles will not be recognized as describing a whole field of study until that self-organizing field has a name that is non-proprietary (like sociology or psychology) and encourages the emergence of any approach that works best here and now.

The promo for this webinar wonders "Why does this "stuff" work when it shouldn't?" Even the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation frequently refers to what we do as "stuff." Aren't we ready to step into the professional world of business and academia as a discipline with a real name, and identify with and challenge each other as colleagues?

Parallel in importance and depth with the liberal arts, more and more facilitators of this "stuff" are being specific about their methodologies but are also realizing that they practice one of many process arts.

While in conversation with Founders of Methods at the beginning of making a field of study it is difficult to make room for this kind of open space. It is difficult to self-organize and use your two feet when an approach claims to be Life and the Ultimate Method. Continuing to call our work "stuff", or insisting our method is the only method is choosing not to organize such that more organized agendas gain power-over that is not helpful.

What if our field really is at least as wide as The Change Handbook suggests on page 14 (below), crossing the development of organizations, psychology, complexity theory, and so much more? How to frame that so we may work together so deeply that individual strengths and weaknesses become clear and methods adopt a bit of epistemological humility - becoming better able to work and grow together? Even more importantly, imagine the impact process arts may have in the making of cultures of peace and collaboration, as soon as we go ahead and identify as colleagues and grow the field as a whole community of understanding.

Brandon WilliamsCraig bdwc.net

or

and In Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest

More:

http://processarts.net/

http://grouppatternlanguage.org

http://ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?ProcessArts

P.S.

After the session was thoroughly over, Steve and I corresponded so he might have the opportunity to read a transcript of his words and correct any misconceptions I might harbor. Here is his response to my concerns about monotheistic thinking in our field:

Labels: processarts

Labels: aiki, aikiextensions, conflict, processarts

Val: (after a socially frustrating art class)

"Do you know how you tame people?

You say "Hi, excuse me, can I work with you?"
The main problem is they could say no."

bdwc said...

Wise boy. All the steps mentioned are necessary in taming people (including yourself). 1) Neutral Open Greeting, 2) Empathic Courtesy, 3) Clear Process Request, 4) Presence/ Ambivalent Readiness 5) Freedom for difference/ disconnection. My nephew the Zen Master.

Labels: conflict, difference, family, processarts

1. practicing group facilitation in order to build sustainable communities wherever there is an opportunity (neighbors, non-profits, service clubs, intentional communities, religious groups, businesses, etc.). Professionally, I use variations of the phrase "doing conflict well" in consulting gigs, and aikido is one of my favorite somatic metaphors for learning that process. I use various names for the methods I teach, most of which are clarified at bdwc.net under "Big Ideas."
   
2. proposing to other facilitators that we identify as a field of study and community of practice so we may have a collective impact, of which consequent generations may be proud, on peace-making worldwide.
   
3. treating the larger culture as a community in the making, as though a global, communitarian mythology were being constructed that is psychologically mature and designed to opt out of fundamentalisms.

Labels: bdwc, bio, processarts, professional

Labels: processarts

Process Arts are not a method

On Facebook, DeAnna Martin, of Dynamic Facilitation fame (see below for links), asked

how is promulgating a term like "process arts" different than promulgating an approach or method? it sounds like you are experiencing what a lot of method founders experience when they try and articulate their method to others who want to ignore the truth behind it, or want to wrap it into their box of knowing so they can feel comfortable with it's... Read More "place" in their world... just wondering how you'd respond to that? i love the term, by the way...

there are so many ways to organize "processes" and so many layers/lenses through which we apply them... have you been involved with Tree's pattern language work? She's still working on a name for it...

http://www.wisedemocracy.org
http://www.dynamicfacilitation.com
http://blog.tobe.net

I replied:

The best response I have at this point is to suggest levels of practice and a few tentative (personal and limited) definitions:

In my mind, someone in a difficult situation might want a specific and applicable response - a practice that seems likely to work, perhaps based in a larger method. If they learn that specific practice and others to it, they become a practitioner of a method. If they notice there are others working to facilitate the same method, they have colleagues.

Any of these individuals may notice that there are others working with other practices and other methods with different strengths and applications, which also facilitate behavior based on an increased consciousness of how we do what we do, and develop and deploy tools for changing systems.

When a practitioner discovers these core principles in the hands of other practitioners various best practices suggest themselves. This community awareness suggests the need for a co-created ethics (applicable in noticing what kind of culture is being created by a given advertising campaign, for example), which can apply to the entire field of approaches and practices and open a conversation about responsibility, innovation, and behavior. This is where the process arts apply.

The Process Arts idea is methodical, in that it suggests a way, i.e. creating a community of practice. It is a method of organizing by way of a non-proprietary name that aligns this work with the liberal arts and puts the the process arts naturally into education. It is a method of organizing a specific group of facilitators and not an approach to group facilitation, as such, and is thereby able to exist without increasing competition between practitioners. I am a method founder, but not in the case of the process arts, which have a much longer history than can be measured by my lifetime. I just conceived and prosposed the name for the field based on my practice in it with many others.

When I articulate the parts of my particular methods to others, and sometimes feel they may be missing a truth behind it, I usually find, in retrospect, that I have listened insufficiently to their needs or am feeling especially vulnerable on a given day. As far as tidily boxing my methods for consumption, I find that those situations and clients well suited to work in the way I suggest find my basic assumptions credible very quickly. That is how I learned that no method I have ever seen can meet all group and situational needs, and then committed to our field as a whole. My most arduous sales jobs have resulted in the funkiest mismatches in my history.

I'm glad you love the term. I got a bit of that during our conversation at the first Nexus conference. Want to help me/us grow the field beyond the method you know and practice with such expertise?

I have been in Tree Bressen's (http://delicious.com/tag/treebressen) pattern language loop since it began but unable to appear yet in the group as a whole. I'd love that project to consider the pattern language a part of the process arts field, but hope I have learned when to simply make a clear request and not push too hard.

Labels: processarts

Labels: education, processarts, psychology

1. The largest cache of beautiful photos including people, graphics, charts, etc. http://www.flickr.com/groups/nexusforchange/pool/
   
2. for Session notes mentioned above go to http://www.nexusforchange.org and select "Conference Central" and then "Session Notes Library"
3. for Video go to http://www.nexusforchange.org and select "Conference Central" and then "Media Streams"
4. Iris' blog is http://mythinginaction.blogspot.com/
5. John Abbe's blog http://ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?ObBlog
   
6. Brandon's blog is behind http://bdwc.net. Search the word "Nexus" or click on "Recent Blog"
7. Process Arts interview http://www.nexusforchange.org/index.php3?object_id=GME_Vault&function=download&item=8c1b83db43b595d09ce2082f333a59cf
8. Walkabout (the Little Fire Burns) http://abcglobal.net/LFF.html
9. Guardians of Peace project http://abcglobal.net/GPx.html
10. Please donate via http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=6530
11. If you are having trouble seeing this, it is reproduced with links intact at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh8swg_6fkjmgq or http://abcglobal.blogspot.com/2004/06/potential-ways-of-renamingvisioning.html
    

The organization name will read "Beamish Process Arts" - which was the founding name of Association Building Community.

Please make your desire clear on the Just Give form

Membership (whatever appropriate offering you would provide to support any vital organism growing these changes)

Program: Guardians Of Peace (Process Arts Community for Training)

Program: Little Fire Burning (walkabout and national outreach and teaching)

Program: Training Scholarships (to help develop process artists)

Administration (to further the survival of our community infrastructure)

If you would prefer to write a check, please write your purpose in the memo line and post it to ABCGlobal, 181 Farrelly Dr., San Leandro CA, 94577.

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Labels: daily, Nexus2007, processarts

The Arts of Peace

On the rue d Ayen in bedraggled St. Germain, France, stands a bright, pink, three-story schoolhouse. In its library are $25,000 worth of books. Its music room has an electric phonograph and a big collection of classical records. Its basement hums with lathes and its upper floors are alive with the clatter of typewriters and sewing machines. Last week the school awarded its first graduation, certificates—to WACs, for their proficiency in beauty culture.

The St. Germain school is one of the first G.I. schools to be set up under the Army's mammoth post-V-E education program for servicemen & women temporarily stranded in Europe (TIME, Oct. 16). To keep everybody busy, the program includes every phase of education, from vocational training to graduate courses in universities like Cambridge and the Sorbonne. But unit command schools (established by battalions) like St. Germain's form by far the biggest part of the program. By August 1 there will be one such school for every 1,000 soldiers. Every soldier who is not assigned to urgent duty will be required to attend for two hours a day (unless he prefers drill and supervised athletics) until there is enough shipping space to bring him home.

Other phases of the Army education program are now getting under way. British universities are enrolling their first small batches of G.I.s, will soon take many more.

Find this article at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797608,00.html

Labels: peace, processarts