I’m drowning in unread blog posts. My feed reader’s groaning under the weight. Nothing new there. That makes reading posts a bit like a lucky dip. When I get a moment I randomly pick something, and what do you know, tonight it’s a real gem. Over at the Interaction Institute there are musings on revolution […]
We covered a fair bit of ground in the first part of our tour of consensus past and present, but it was never going to be a complete survey of all movements and peoples who use consensus or consensus-like decision-making. So here’s a second installment. In it we look at The Aymara people of Bolivia […]
Dwight Towers sent me a link (as he often does) to Jeff Monday’s short video on information gaps – the difference between what we know now and something new to our experience and how we engage with the new (or don’t, as is often the case). In it Jeff Monday introduces Lowenstein’s Information Gap Theory. […]
I opted out of blogging about the recent riots on the streets of Britain. Who needs another mouthy blogger chucking around half-formed and ill-informed opinion about what goes on in the minds of disenfranchised youth? But via the Transition Newsletter I came to Laura Penny’s Penny Red blog and her post Panic on the streets […]
Welcome on board to Plan to Win, a new organisation supporting social action and learning in Melbourne, Australia. The folk at Plan to Win say: Plan to Win assists individuals, groups and campaigns to develop the skills and clarity required to win change in the world. The challenges we face on our planet today […]
You’ll have seen fairly regular references to Seeds for Change over the months on this blog. There’s a fair bit of collaboration between Seeds and Rhizome one way or t’other. Now Seeds are looking for a new member for their workers’ co-op in Lancaster. Here’s what they have to say: Are you an activist and […]
I was copied into an email discussion earlier this week with an underlying question of whether it’s possible to say that everyone can facilitate. Clearly there are people for whom facilitation is a greater challenge, whether because of confidence, experience, or communication style. What sprung to mind for me was shared facilitation. Not having a […]
I co-facilitated a short taster in nonviolent direct action (NVDA) at the UK Feminista Summer School, alongside Gill. It’s the first time we’d worked together. Bit of a baptism of fire, given that we had over 50 people and not enough time (just 75 minutes), but that’s the way with conference sessions. We walked down […]
There are aspects of meetings I’ve always just accepted. There are other aspects I’ve always been uneasy about, but gone along with. Hmmm, probably not the kind of thing one should admit to on the internet. Over the last year or so I’ve had the opportunity and the catalysts to challenge that acceptance and ‘going […]
Hand signals have become part of every meeting in some activist circles. Even when there’s no formal agreement to use them you’ll find a percentage of folk doing so anyway. There are very good reasons to use hand signals (which I’ll recap at the end), but there are also very real dangers. I’m minded of […]
