Once more I felt the buzz of new beginnings almost like a new love affair. All change happens through contact said someone. We talked a bit about why other similar groups seemed to go through life cycles - starts in a flurry of excitement/much potential/great expectations; plateau, then peters out. Someone said the problem was unfulfilled needs for contact. I like that. It seemed to be a key point. We need to involve ourselves in all dimensions of head/heart/body/soul. On the other hand, while I flourish with a certain quality and depth to contact nevertheless, there are many people who don't want what I want.

What did we discuss? Lots on dialogue and 'contact'. And also on Julian's visual OD. Fiona's notion of the possibility of social meetings with clients to hack around issues in a different way, in a different space, outside the office. A wonderful phrase of Keith's: 'speaking the unthought known'. A nascent taxonomy of: authentic work/adulterated going-through-the-motions change agentry/professional fads... and much more. Some of it was a bit whizzy. I guess we were going through the stage of 'the naming of the members of the tribe', identifying mutual reference points. But that was OK. What was most memorable? Ummm, perhaps a little thing: restarting the conversation from the beginning as each person arrived. Though in the event it wasn't like rewinding the tape. As the saying goes: 'You can't tell the same story twice and keep it true'. My sense was we almost forgot to get real with the next step. How do I feel now? Yeah, not bad. Quite good really. Yes, it was good.

(on our purpose...) The real key critical thing is reflexivity - 'apply these principles to ourselves' . It's important to me because, well, it keeps me honest. The other thing I heard was Fiona's 'we should be a campaigning network!' (not verbatim). Ah yes.... Taken together, that's good enough for me, for the moment, on purpose.

I was energised and enervated by the breakfast meeting (on 17th Nov) and this continued when I walked into a room (on 9th Dec) and felt the balance of intention. During the meeting I followed the discussions with feelings of concern about this becoming a think tank with no action to the high of something new happening and being created in the moment. It left me with a deep sense of belonging.Having sat on public company boards for ten years as Finance Director I know how powerfully change can be facilitated and now it's my chance to make a difference. Julian and I have met twice since the meeting and concluded that we would work on an outline for the weekend retreat as an offering for the group.

What comes up for me from the emails since the meeting parallels my own dilemma of bringing heart and soul into the workplace. Modern day Psychotherapy often guides the individual away from associating the workplace with their own personal relationship process. Yet there must be a synthesis somehow! Body,Mind, Heart and Soul! To show up as we truly are, warts and all, create and move forward. But how do you bring these qualities into the workplace without undermining productivity? The image of a boardroom in tears over someone's personal loss brings an instant reaction and my intellect suggests that this isn't a constructive process and yet when people truly connect the intangible becomes tangible and often there is a collective sense of goodwill and collaboration.

For me, awareness is the most important tool we have. So maybe by checking out with ourselves what goes on for us as we come together to create the group and Ethos, it will provide us with tools of how to facilitate the changes we experience in the group, within the work place. If the group want to try a different experience, how about meeting at the house I built this year in Siwa Oasis, Egypt? It's three hundred miles from anywhere, situtated between the Great Sand Sea and the Quatar depression. I can recommend the desert experience as a tangible way to challenge many of our conventional perceptions!

Thanks for a great morning last week. It was so fruitful and creative.

I wanted to let you all know how excited I was during and after last Thursday's meeting.It felt so alive, buzzy, animated, in-the-moment. In short just how I hoped a network meeting would be. Our discussions seemed to me be authentic. People seemed to become present and from where I was sitting/standing to penetrate some of the toughest issues in personal and organisaitonal change.

The journey commences... who knows where it leads.........