Emails After
_______________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: bthxyz
[mailto:brian@sangumaconsultants.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
Subject: NI - Re: Stock
Take... Tick...Tick...Tick...
What was discussed, and I'll
be posting more on this later, is how to
extend the NI community by
using various online tools. I don't know
what part of
access may be ahead of us here in
the
We have to be more than a
'face to face' community. Thanks for
triggering off this
conversation.
Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: chris macrae [mailto:wcbn007@easynet.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
Subject: NI - Postcard from
I believe most of us
committed to write up our personal postcards of today's meeting partly to
confirm what we observed for those who were not there, partly to check communal
contributions we are prepared to make. The advantage of being an early
correspondent is I'm sure everyone else will be more accurate than my 50+ memory,
and anyway I like experimenting with boundaries, and then being told which were
ok and which were areas I had better go back to drawing board and relearn. We
were also asked to try to voice commitments we were prepared to make, assuming
always that the whole community felt they were worth a go...One other intro
remark: I love what this group seems uniquely to have connected and NOW realise
that people like Tony Page have put in huge amounts of effort over the years-
thanks to Tony and all the founders, may we multiply your values and
intents...I have a dream that one day there could be a NI chapter in every city
that needs true organisation change people whomever they may be…
Better stop before the postcard
overflows. Hard to after such a wonderful meeting of 15 people and wishing we
could have open spaced all 150 NI members.
Chris Macrae,
wimbledon, wcbn007@easynet.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Heap [mailto:nick.heap@ntlworld.com]
Sent:
To:
Subject: NI - My reflections
on the Stocktake
Dear All
At the end of the stocktake meeting last week, we decided to have a number of
"reports back" to the wider NI community. The notes that follow are
just my reflections and memories of the meeting.
1) We valued NI and wanted
it to continue.
2) NI was a good place to
try things out both face to face and on-line.
3) We tolerate and even
enjoy messy processes, organisational forms and situations. Mess can be very
creative.
4) The face to face and
on-line sides of NI are different. They appeal more to different people and
need thinking about differently.
5) Some people find the
prospect of joining the on-line discussion daunting because of the academic
brilliance out there.
6) There is a continuing
pull between the need for structure and the need for freedom. I think we agreed
not to try and resolve this but to leave it as a creative tension.
7) We need more people to
take on the "moderation" or "leadership" role taken by Tony
Page and Colston Sanger. Colston
suggested five people all together. There are at least functions like
facilitating relationships with other groups, developing the website and the
e-mail list etc that take time and effort.
8) There are no more events
in the pipeline. The group would like there to be more and to know what events NI'ers would like to put on and/or attend.
9) We discussed changing the
technology of the on-line discussions to make them easier to find and use.
Brian and others are investigating.
10) We discussed changing
the default "Reply" settings so that messages went automatically to
an individual rather than the list, but concluded this might change the
character of the interactions too drastically.
11) We noticed that there
was no obvious process for making decisions in NI!
12) We did not discuss the
process of the meeting at the end which I found a bit surprising as we are most
of us work with groups and we might have learned something interesting!
Best wishes,
Nick Heap
-----Original Message-----
From: Yvana
Reeves [mailto:yr@reeves-consult.demon.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
Subject: RE: NI - Re: What
is it that we do when we 'design' an intervention ?
I was struck after the NI stocktake day (by) my own resistance to structure and
processes that are 'brought in' from other workshops or events. In this case
suggestions of processes we could use to move the group through the event,in themselves logical, potentially affirming and
therefore attractive to follow, but to me still feeling like 'transference' from
another time and place. They may make the person who knows the process feel
they are helping but potentially it seems to disenfranchise all those who don't
know the process. I like the more Gestalt approach of being open to what is 'in
the field' and working with the energy that is in the room, for that group, at
that time and place and the group deciding the way to go.
Yvana
-----Original Message-----
From: Julia Williams [mailto:julia@personalimpact.com]
Sent:
To:
Subject: RE: NI - My
reflections on the Stocktake
Thanks Nick. That is so clear and a satisfying summary for
me. Julia
-----Original
Message-----
From: David Grey [mailto:davidgrey@SPIN1.fsnet.co.uk]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: NI - Request for ideas or proposals for NI workshops / events /
meetings
Hi everybody,
At the recent NI stocktake we talked of the importance of the face-to-face side of NI. We:
Out of the discussion I agreed to send out this request for ideas and offers.
Once we have got ideas and offers in we can circulate them and see what the potential take-up would be.
And we can see if people with similar ideas but needing some assistance to realise their idea can be put together so that jointly they can make it happen.
This is not only about workshops, but about any ideas at all for face-to-face events or meetings.
So, please read through the following very short questionnaire and reply to as much as you want of it, by sending it back, amended, to davidgrey@spin1.fsnet.co.uk
Best wishes,
David
-----Original
Message-----
From: tonypage [mailto:tony@pageconsulting.co.uk]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: NI - Reflections and our RENEWAL phase
Dear NI
Just over a
week has passed since our stocktaking meeting at
Sorry it's going to be a longer than a postcard - the reason for this is we seem to be at a very important stage and I want to offer as full a sense as I can of what happened on 9 May to the wider NI community including those who sent messages before the meeting (Wendy, Caroline, Carys, Andy, Lilly, Stephen, Lin, Richard, Georgina, Danusia, Lindsay, Jeremy, Bruce, Uly, Amanda, Karen and others) and many of you who have been actively involved in and supporting NI in recent years, but were unable to attend.
12 of us turned up (would have been 13 if I had remembered to tell Bridget we had moved the meeting from RFH - sorry Bridget) - and as so often happens in NI we had a mix of established NIers and new people (Gerry, Altazar and Pat).
Claire asked me at the outset why we needed a stocktake so soon after our last one in September. You can see details of the Sept 02 one at http://www.newintermediaries.co.uk/kpnews.htm and when I look at this it gives a real sense of what NI is about and our values - but it seems years ago! Well we did badly need a stocktake and I felt the occasion was momentous.
Why?
A big leadership question
After our introductions I conveyed the news that Fiona Coffey, one of the founders of NI, had decided for her own reasons to leave NI having felt ambivalent about her involvement here for some time, and this generated a rich discussion of the LEADERSHIP or lack of it in NI, and the sometimes awkward and uncomfortable dynamics that result from this. The sense of there being unwritten rules, and not knowing what they are (what's allowed and expected here, fear of posting, being judged as lacking), how easily "us and them" boundary develops, not knowing how decisions get made or what permisions are needed to say put on a workshop. I recognised my own part in these (liberal parents, few rules, little or no reaction to rule breaking such as staying out til 3am, desire to escape oppressive feel in organisation I have known and experiment with emergent organisation etc). David challenged us to make hierarchy, power and authority in NI explicit instead of shrouded in mystery as it now is. Well OK, that's the context.
Is
this a crisis?
Nick encouraged
us to pay attention to what we value in NI and it was clear that NI, since its
start in 1999, has been special, vibrant and valued by
many people for all sorts of reasons... but we also realised
that recently we are not achieving our potential or reaching out to everyone
who has subscribed here and it was not an exaggeration to regard our current posiiton as a CRISIS. With Fiona gone, Colston
and I are the remaining moderators, and Colston
admitted to being a bit bored while I feel overstretched. Colston invited the group to face up to the 3
clear options now before us:
1. Close NI
2. Renew NI
3. Dribble
on to incontinence. Ugh!
Which
option appeals most to you? Several commented that Options 1 and 3 were
not at all appealing and I felt from those gathered a real interest in pursuing
option 2 as the discussion went on to explore what was required. So it
appears that we're poised, on the edge of something, but this means we can
crash and burn or maybe we can fly ahead into a new phase!
What
are we?
Chris (a
most experienced networker) helped us recognise that
we were very successful both as an online and a face to face community
which technically makes us a "HYBRID".... or a "HYBRID
PLUS" because in addition to these 2 modes miscellaneous emergent
things happen such as projects (eg. Julia Williams and myself collaborating in our voice workshop),
talk, meetings, the Health sub-group, workshops (eg.
Claire Shrader's Magicians workshop last autumn),
learning sets between members that are not formally provided or necessarily
visible to all.
It was
plain that some people are more interested in the online aspect and others more
in the f2f but that NI is about both. The meeting lurched from one to the other
for a time and Jerry helpfully pointed out around
How
do we develop from here?
To develop
F2F we need to find out what members want (workshops? open space? social
gatherings? or what..), which David (and Julia?) seemed interested to explore
through a survey and Nick suggested phoning people (but discovered we don't
have phone numbers!). We noticed that we do not currently have a calendar
of forward events, and neither is there a place to find out who the other NI
members are although everyone is asked at the time they join their responses
are not currently captured anywhere.
To develop
ONLINE, Brian and Chris were both excited and expressed interest in
developing/exploring a series of options to take NI online forward and reach
out to a much wider group beyond those who happen to enjoy meeting in and
around
Yvana was
actively facilitating, and bringing the discussion back to explore the
core, underlying issues. Then at one point she seemed interested
in offering to faciliate f2f a technical workshop
with Brian and Chris exploring and demystifying online options.
How
do we make decisions?
This idea
generating stage of the meeting felt quite creative to me but seemed to stall
as it was not clear how we would take a decision and move forward. Yvana admitted she expected me to come in, pull things
together and point the way forward. Nick pointed out we do not know how we want
to take decisions. I was interested in NOT taking a decision and wanting to
find a way not only of deciding the way forward but of spreading responsibility
beyond Colston and me (your 2 remaining
moderators) and enabling others in the wider group to play their full
part in deciding our direction. At this point I declared my zero interest in
constituting NI formally and attending a single meeting about financial, legal
or other administrative matters - my excitement about NI is bound up with us
being a new free organisational form that has none of this clutter, and guess
what? I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEADING NI IN A TRADITIONAL
SENSE! (Sorry for shouting!). It feels important to me that NI remains
unconventional, different in the way we approach leadership and membership, on
the edge and constantly open and responding to the new life that is trying
to happen.
How
will we spread responsibility?
I also
recognise that as moderators Colston and I are
now the only "parents/leaders" that NI has and it is up to
us to draw out what NI needs now and point a way forward. It is also
clear that the future liveliness of NI may require clearer
parenting, really responsive leadership and that Colston
and I need help. We agreed to write down the tasks/responsibilities we think we
have and to consider how to move to a position of perhps
5 rather than 2 moderators, with time bound "terms of office". This
is something I will give further thought to and discuss with Colston before making our proposals here.
Actions
At the end
of the meeting as you might have gathered we agreed that those who wanted to
would post their postcard reflections here. They would also pursue certain
actions in the light of what we discussed. David's survey is one of these -
reaching out to you all to find what you want to give and get from
NI. Brian is going ahead to explore online
communications options/experiments for NI. Chris through his various
postings is opening all sorts of wider possibilities for us.
Review
As Nick
commented we did not (as is customary for facilitators) conduct an open
review of the meeting. I don't know why - maybe because we were due to be
kicked out of the room at 1, and maybe because some of us were going on to
other meetings. When we closed I felt personally satisfied in what we
had covered but then in chatting with the new people slightly disturbed at the
impressions they had of tension, emotion and clutter. It was not an easy
meeting, and not a great meeting for someone new coming to NI expecting an open
space. I think the established people left some of the new people a
little on the outside wondering if they really wanted to be part of this.
This disappointed me as usually new people love our meetings - but I understand
it too as I was very much needing to focus on where we are, to untie some
knots and to find some release. The tension was real. We had work to do in
the meeting and we got on with it. With hindsight I'm pleased at how
this meeting moved us and NI on and at the new possibilities we now have.
What
can you do next?
If you're
interested in where we can take NI, please respond to David Grey's survey, and
to the experiments Brian will no doubt propose in due course (including perhaps
one that addresses Bruce's challenge to provide ways for those spread far and
wide to connect).
Please
respond to the NI list if you wish to express where you would
like to see NI go from here. Whatever you say becomes part of our field of
emerging possibilities. NI becomes what you and we all want it to become.
Please
continue to use this space to ask answer questions, to make and respond to
offers, put in your ideas, join in debates and continue to play your part
in our many-sided, multi-dimensional exploration in the domain called
"people, organisations and change".
Thank you
for supporting NI, and being supportive and patient with me and I hope you will
stay with us and participate in this renewal phase.
With best
wishes
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: Complexity Simplified
and Applied [invoke, evoke, provoke -Cirque du Soleil] [mailto:im4xlns@hotmail.com]
Sent: 17 May 2003 21:38
To:
newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: NI - Renewal,
and comments..
Hello there,
first, a "thanks"
to Tony. I really liked this
articulation of what
transpired. It gave a clear picture on the key issues.
With regard to those issues,
a few quick comments that come to my mind:
1) NI already IS a community
of pelple far beyond the commuting area of
London, and beyond the
boundary of the U.K. I came to NI
because people
from NI also participate in
another group that I am actively involved with.
So the word about NI was and
is, everywhere. The Yahoo Group website
also
assures that (although it is
a bit hard to search out on Yahoo). The
people
who are signed on with NI...
135 or so, do include members from a number of
places in the world.
2) The statements of NI's mission/vision that are on the web, and which
accompany most of these
posts, suggest a very inclusionary approach. It is
my personal hope that those
who attended the session in person gave just as
much concern to the
interests of the distant, as to those of the close.
That doesn't mean that all
offerings or events will be the same.
Clearly,
things can be done including
those in a close commuting radius, that can not
be done with those of us who
are thousands of miles away. Still, I
remain
convinced that the interests
of all in getting value from participating with
NI should matter
equally. And I do not feel that way just
because I am
distant from the
nucleus. I participate in several global
groups. I travel
a lot. But maybe because I am one of those
"early adapters" of new
technologies, I feel good
about being considered/included no matter how far
away I am from the others in
a group.
3) With regard to the
question of leadership, and indeed with regard to ALL
questions that emerged at
this session- it rather sounds like the only
options now under
consideration are those generated at the meeting. Is
there going to be a survey,
to assess the global consensus on these issues?
If NI IS an unconventional,
new sort of organization, and does include
participants worldwide, then
I would suggest that everyone involved have an
equal say, at least in the
key issues of structure and governance.
Again,
this does not preclude
clusters of members from taking initiative to create
events, products, services,
and so on. Reflecting back on the system
my
partner Jim and I created
for the US Department of Labor, we settled on a
set of six core values/principles. For each of our main agencies (very very
different in mission and
culture, one from the other), we empowered a single
pair of people- one labor, one management, to oversee all development and
implementation issues. So long as any idea met the criteria- it was
a go.
Wonderfully creative and
diverse things emerged from these simple rules-
just as complex behaviors emerge in nature from a few rules. I don't know
if this was discussed, but
perhaps NI would be well served to agree on a set
of underlying values or
principles in a similar manner.
4) I am sorry to say I see
very little difference in fact between online and
in-person
communications. The greater difference
is if the online stuff is
not in real time, or is
linear. The threads of ideas that flow
here in
these emails are terrific I
think. But they do lack a bit of the
spontaneity that you can get
with instant messaging, or some equivalent
technology. But given some kind of live, group medium, I
find that I can
get a great deal of context,
sub-text, and meaning from the words people
type on a screen. Firthermore, the
ability to send private messages during
a realtime
event adds to the richness and understanding that flow throughout
the group. I suggest, therefore, that NI utilize the
simplest, cheapest
technology possible to
enable such real-time group conversations around the
world. That would mean AOL Instant Messenger, or
Yahoo Messenger- both of
which are stable, and free.
5) I was sorry to read that
Fiona has withdrawn. In my own
experience there
are usually reasons why
something like this happens. It is
usually not
spontaneous, or
coincidental. But that is also a
personal choice, and the
NI membership would do well
to look forward, I think.
I'm sure I'll think of other
things I wanted to say at some later time.
But
for now... this will do for
a start.
Happy weekend to all. I am off to the annual Quality Congress in
City,
Learning: Changing the Training Culture to Support
Quality and
Organizational
Improvement." This is a rather
different perspective from
the usual Deming or Six
Sigma stuff, and I will be interested to see how
many attendees I get
(thousands of people at the Congress- but I'll be
delighted if I get 20-30 for
my talk). No matter- "whoever comes is who is
supposed to be there."
Bruce Waltuck
-----Original
Message-----
From: Jeremy Keeley
[mailto:jeremykeeley@keeleycarlisle.co.uk]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Fiona Coffey
Subject: RE: NI - Reflections and our RENEWAL phase
Thank
you to you Tony and to Brian, Nick, Colston,
Julia and Chris who have so kindly shared their understanding of the
meeting. It feels clear to me what happened, and I feel I can share to
some large extent in the richness of the discussion.
It
seems a key point to thank you Tony, Colston and
Fiona for all the huge amount of value that you have bought to NI over the
years since you formed it. Actually - I would like to shout it THANK YOU
TONY, COLSTON AND FIONA FOR YOUR HUGE VALUE TO THE NEW INTERMEDIARIES OVER
THESE PAST YEARS.
While
I was reading this I remembered something from the early days immediately prior
to the formation of New Intermediaries where our learning set came to a key
decision point about how it moved forward with respect to the New
Intermediaries idea that Tony in particular wanted to really make into
something special. At that stage we debated, quite emotionally I think,
whether or not we should continue as a learning set or whether we should move
forward to form ourselves into the first form of the New Intermediaries.
We almost split up and were on the verge of losing dear friends from it.
At a crucial point we made the decision to maintain the learning set as it was
and Tony took forward the New Intermediaries with little except moral support from
the rest of us...and the learning set is still going and still serving us
richly if somewhat sporadically these days, still with Tony as a key part of
it.
So
what is the point of this? Two things I think:
(1)
That the New Intermediaries doesn't just have to be just one thing...the
renewal can work alongside the old, provided that people are prepared to work
hard at both (and it doesn't have to be the same people).
(2)
I recognise in myself some sense of ambivalence here. On the one hand I
do really care that those of you who do feel passionately about the New
Intermediaries can take it forward as they would like to and I do admit to
having still some sense of personal proprietriness
about the name (alright I know there isn't a word like that). And on the
other hand I personally don't really care about its format in the future
provided that I can continue to introduce people to it when I believe it would
be useful to them or they would be useful to it.
So
that puts me on a boundary here. Passionate
about a principle but with no commitment to any particular format.
And in this space I offer myself as a facilitator to those of you who want to
discuss and debate how you want to effect this
renewal. I obviously have to limit the amount of time I can put to this...but
certainly would be happy to commit a few days over the next few months if they
would be useful - so do call on me if I can help. (Please let me be clear - this is absolutely NOT a moderator or
parent/leader role I am offering to fill here).
Meanwhile
may I wish you Fiona all the very best!
Thanks
Jeremy
-----Original
Message-----
From: Andrew Harmon [mailto:andy@actorsmind.com]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: NI - Reflections and our RENEWAL phase
Jeremy,
Tony et all,
What I like
about NI as it's evolved is the shere informality
of it. I probobly said this before but I had a
drawing teacher who advised me to draw on cheap paper because the expensive
paper would make me too cautious and spoil the work. Now for me NI is cheap
paper, and in this whole organisational change game this gives it a value
beyond price. In this business where we all play a game called "Trust
Me, I Know What I'm Doing" because if we played the game "Jeez, I Haven't A Clue About What I'm Doing, Do You?"
we'd never get work, NI is - for me at least - an Oasis of Sanity.
Personally,
I'd like to see it stay that way: cheap paper on which everybody is free to
make their mark or not according to their temperament or state of mind and
heart at the moment.
Having said
all this, the coherence of NI has been generated by the comittment
and hard work of the founders, and the local (
Andy Harmon
-----Original
Message-----
From: David Grey [mailto:davidgrey@SPIN1.fsnet.co.uk]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: NI - Reflections and our RENEWAL phase
Thanks for this Tony. I
think it is an excellent summary of what went on, and of the challenges and
decisions which we face.
Good luck with NOT BEING A
TRADITIONAL LEADER. As I know you know, what you can't control is others'
expectations and projections. Hence my wishing you luck!
David G
-----Original
Message-----
From: Nick Heap [mailto:nick.heap@ntlworld.com]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: NI - Cheap paper and a street party
Dear
All
So,
how can NI continue informally and develop without heavy structures and
"formal leaders" or "executive committees"? I like
Andy's idea of "cheap paper" which I think means doing things simply
and cheaply and trying things out.
We
had a very successful street party for the 1975(!) Jubilee and the process we
used might just work for NI. Someone in the street had the idea and canvassed
support and got agreement to go ahead. We did not have a planning
committee but we did have a series of open meetings (all meetings were open)
where anyone who wanted to make a contribution came along. After the
meetings people did what was necessary.
It
was fascinating how the people changed as we got closer to the date of the
party. At first it was people with ideas for an "Its
a knockout" or a meal in the road or having a marquee where people who
performed could do their thing. Later on it was the practical people who knew
where to find things or how to do childrens parties
etc that came along. Everyone enjoyed the event and their involvement in
creating it. The young people made a wonderful walking dragon that was a
complete surprise to most of us.
So perhaps the next time Colston
and Tony get together to think about NI and where next, one or two of the rest
of us could join in, and help with the thinking and with the work. I would be happy to
do this now and then. Might this be a simple way forward?
What
do you think?
Best
wishes,
Nick Heap
-----Original Message-----
From: Georgina Woudstra [mailto:gwoudstra@clara.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: NI - Digest
Number 695
Hi Tony et al,
I unfortunately didn't make
the NI review meeting in
apologies- my 40th birthday took over!
I have not been a very
active member in NI, mainly as I receive so many emails that, by the time I
have read the NI digest, it is days later and the topic has moved on! However, I do read, and follow NI with
interest.
I can offer one perspective,
and a possible contribution to a way forward that might serve the NI
community...
What I like about NI is the
sense of community. I love the ease of
playing or dropping out for a while - without judgement or duty. I like the sense of NI being a playground for
learning and, in this sense, see a good deal of synergy between NI and my own
venture- The Society Of Dreams.
What doesn't
work for me is many face-to-face events as it's quite a hike into
One thing about communities
that I'm discovering through the Society of Dreams is that they evolve, change
and grow, and they need an energy bank to sustain them. If one or two people
are holding most of that energy, it is easy for the energy bank to become
depleted. Energy also dissipates without
human contact, which feeds the energy bank.
So, one practical thing I can suggest, is to
have a regular global connection point, or 'hook up' for the NI community.
At the Society of Dreams we
do this through regular teleforums. These allow people from around the globe to
get together on a regular basis for learning, development and discovery. If it serves NI, I can offer, a free regular teleconference space, perhaps monthly, or
bi-monthly, at a fixed time, or variable times. The content could be organic, like continuing
one of the email threads in person, or someone could stand forward and bring a
topic or some material. Our teleforums are currently all teleconference based, however
are looking to add web technology soon which will broaden the horizons.
I realise that the 'phone
isn't a vehicle for us all, and this doesn't replace the value of meeting
physically. However, it does create regular contact,
build relationships and top up the energy bank, all of which is useful. If this idea appeals to NI, then it would be
beneficial to have an NI champion who would arrange times, dates and perhaps
co-ordinate topics -or not!
If any of you can't imagine
how this could work- then may I invite you to participate in one of The Society
of Dreams teleforums for free. You can do this by joining The Society of
Dreams for a 1-month free membership which will give you free access to our 2
regular teleforums- the Coaching & Leadership Teleforum, and the Fulfilment Conspiracy- more info at www.societyofdreams.com.
If I can support the NI
community in this way, then I'd be delighted.
Warmest wishes
Cofounder The
Society of Dreams
-----Original Message-----
From: Colston
Sanger [mailto:colston@shotters.dircon.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: NI - Cheap
paper and a street party
Dear Nick and all,
I haven't got round yet to
finishing off my note of the stocktake the other
week - despite having drafted
half of it. I want to chip in here, however,
because there is an important and
*mistaken* assumption here.
It's this:
>So perhaps the next time
Colston and Tony get together to think about
>NI
>and where next, one or
two of the rest of us could join in, and help with
>the
thinking and with the work. I would be happy to do this now and then.
>Might this be a simple
way forward?
Colston and Tony (and Fiona), the
erstwhile shadowy co-moderators of NI,
have hardly ever- if at all -
got together to think about NI and where
next. The closest we have ever
got to it is probably a round of email or
phone conversations to agree we
need one of the periodic stocktakes.
I want to say this next bit
really clearly: the decision-making body of NI
is the company of people who
come to a stocktake. No more, no less. It is
*already* just like the
street party organising committee you mention, Nick.
Warm wishes,
Colston
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Heap [mailto:nick.heap@ntlworld.com]
Sent:
To:
newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: NI - Cheap
paper and a street party
Dear Colston
My apologies
for my mistaken assumption. Your mail shows what an amazing organisational form
NI is. I hope it goes from strength to strength.
Thank you for clarifying the
situation.
Best wishes
Nick
-----Original
Message-----
From: tonypage
[mailto:tony@pageconsulting.co.uk]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: NI - NI's Leadership & renewal
questions
Dear all
It's bank hol weekend, Sun morning. After lots of rain, it's
a time for tending the garden, cutting grass and hedge.... and my thoughts
turn to NI. Lots of emails circulating. I take
this to mean we're in renewal - early phase, finding our path, reading the
energy, looking for the next coherence. I for one am enjoying
all the questions bubbling up about undiscussables,
niceness, decision-making... some offers and ideas for how to move forward.
Some pause
for reflection at this stage strikes me as appropriate and healthy for NI going
forward. I'm being stimulated by this to reflect on the kind of leadership now
needed and noticing three philosophies which seem very much in tune
with NI's current and future potential. I wonder if
you agree?
If we want
NI to get beyond niceness, wheel-spinning etc to a point where people
"self-organise around the work" ( and I
do!) then we need to be clear about what the NI "work" is. We
say we're about People, Organisations and Change. We say we offer to our
members Support, Creativity and Impact. OK, fine in principle but what in real
practical terms do we need to DO for NI to be what we want it to be?
In the
NI spin-off Health group, which some of you are in, the question of what we
need to do is obvious and more concrete: we are organising ourselves to get
work in the health sector. But in NI as a whole we are looser and more of a
"potential from which conrete and
interesting things emerge". Still we can address ourselves to what we
need to do ie. what is the
work to be done in NI.
Maybe you
and we are each looking for others in NI to be raising meaty questions,
joining in, facilitating, calling workshops, experimenting with ideas and
techniques... organising something, or coming along to a party. Maybe you enjoy
being asked questions and being a resource to colleagues - sharing your
wisdom and experience. Maybe it is a social thing, or being part of
something. Maybe the real work is about creating multiple opportunities to
associate and connect with one another in as many ways as we can: face to face,
online, teleconference, real time and async etc
The
question I invite us to consider is "what
is the real work in NI"? Then we might be better placed to
self-organise, remove barriers and any
leadership/governance/decision-making/cultural question becomes so much easier.
Thanks for
listening/reading and please continue to offer your thoughts and
ideas.
Now it's
time for my breakfast and the garden beckons!
Tony
-----Original
Message-----
From: Julia Williams [mailto:julia@personalimpact.com]
Sent:
To: newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: NI - NI's Leadership &
renewal questions
Tony
wrote "Maybe the real work is about creating multiple opportunities to
associate and connect with one another in as many ways as we can: face to face,
online, teleconference, real time and async etc
The question I invite us to consider is "what is the real work in NI"? Then we might be better
placed to self-organise, remove barriers and any
leadership/governance/decision-making/cultural question becomes so much
easier."
This
puts in a nutshell for me what it is about. Very fluid, very free,
everyone taking responsibility for their own leadership and contribution,
however visible or invisible it is. For me that IS the real work. I
don't need any answers to that question other than that we communicate our
professional interests (which for some don't seem professional! and that
is OK too) in different ways, exploring and listening in the background or
initiating something. Nothing is right or wrong but we create what we
want and if we don't get support for an initiative here, we learn a lot from
that and can choose what to do with it. It's all about choice, value and
communication, for me.
Thanks
for highlighting the energy work again, Tony. I am finding the 'New
Alchemists' Email course just fascinating. Alchemists are 'people who see
and hold the potential in every moment!'
Julia
-----Original
Message-----
From: Frank Smits (Symphoenix
Ltd) [mailto:frank@symphoenix.net]
Sent:
To: New Intermediaries
Cc: Clive Cole
Subject: NI - practice what we preach: self-organising
leadership
Dear
all,
After
the stocktaking exercise, in which I have not really participated, Tony
mentioned various ways of ‘leadership’ that could help our community. With him
identifying that the principles of ‘self-organising leadership’ could be of
real help, I –quite naturally- could not agree more.
Is
it an idea to hold a session for NI, to look at some of this?
There
are a few people in the
We
could set up –say- a 1 day workshop to come up with a ‘map’ for the New
Intermediaries for the future, based on self-organising leadership principles.
This way, we will find, we can see what we believe our individual roles in this
might be. Usually, in those meetings –depending on how many people join- we
come up with 4-6 coherent initiatives to support NI’s
ideas.
Let
me know what you think.
Regards,
Frank
Smits
-----Original
Message-----
From: tonypage
[mailto:tony@pageconsulting.co.uk]
Sent:
To: 'newintermediaries@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: List of who we are
Dear all
Who are the
other 130 or so people in NI?
One thing
that became apparent at 9 May meeting is that we were interested in each other
- but that beyond email address and occasional postings it is not easy to
know who is here in NI.
A bit of
background - about 3 years ago we tried and failed to get everyone to put
up a pen portrait or CV and although there is still a place you can use
for this and your photo on the NI yahoo site there are only a couple of
CVs there.
But then on
9 May someone asked "what happens to the intros you write at the time of
subscribing?". The answer is nothing. We used to
post them to all but then someone got irritated about all the emails and we
stopped.
So how do
you find out who is in NI? Well here is a new
solution. Go to http://www.newintermediaries.co.uk/archive/NIers.htm and
you will find a compilation of all the intros people have made when they joined
NI starting with the most recent. There are around 70 of them. Scroll through
and you might find yourself there. Enjoy reading who else is around and
who introduced them.
What if
you're not there and want to be? Well send me or Colston
your answer to the 3 questions and we'll add you next time we update.
What if
you're there and don't like it? That's simple too. Re-answer the 3 questions or
ask to be removed.
Yours
Tony