Resources

You facilitate when you help clarify, negotiate, and resolve differences. It can be a formal role when you are charged with leading others to negotiate system differences. On the other hand, facilitation can be informal. It happens anytime you support another person or group to see beyond their current challenge to find wise action.  

Newton’s First Law of Motion:  A body in motion remains in motion and a body at rest remains at rest until acted upon by some unbalanced force.

We live and work in a world where division, anger, frustration, and fear dominate the public discourse. People want different things. They relate to others in myriad ways. Activities are acceptable to some, but not to others. In the media, it is hard to know fake news from real news or editorial comment. Around the world, people are stuck. Irreconcilable differences seem to dominate the conversation.

Self-care is a walk in the woods. It’s the brisk movement of my feet touching the soil and the soft wind caressing on my skin. It’s the sun on my face and the view from each vista I reach. It’s the feeling of enchantment with the natural world. It’s the conversations I have with you along the way. It is in the way we share and listen to each other, and in the encouragement we give as we walk the trail of life.

Human systems dynamics teaches us to stand in inquiry, but there are some things we know for sure. As we listen to and engage in conversations about sexual harassment, certainties rise to the surface and need to be voiced.

What? This month’s Live Virtual Workshop was about using HSD to spread new ideas across a system. Leaders around the world are challenged as they try to spread new ideas across organizations or throughout communities. They have found how difficult it is to get a whole system engaged to implement initiatives. Over time, different approaches have been tried to shape deep engagement for change. Most approaches asked each person or team to follow a “recipe” to implement the latest initiative. Often, however the recipe was not enough to bring about lasting change.

Be conscious. Make choices. These practices are the essence of human systems dynamics. They are the heart, the core, the center, the distillation, the cause and effect, the input and outcome, the seed and the fruit of our work.