Convening AS Capacity Building for the new age…

PART 1 of 6

This article, originally written in 2017; and then revised the spring of 2019; and then again in the midst of Covid and as a result of feedback; has now become a 6 Part Series. May this new breakdown of the information create yet more pleasant reading for everyone.

“If programming WITHIN the system is important, the meta-programming OF the system itself is even more important.”

(Don’t know who said this, but it has stuck with me for years… and thought it fitting to introduce this article here)

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PART 1 — Prologue and Introduction

Prologue:

Many of our culturally dominant systems and structures that are operating at this time, treat broad-based relationship building as the foundation for strategy as desired OUTPUTS — either as end goals or as tangential “benefits” — IF it is explicitly acknowledged at all.

Unfortunately, relationship building and the development of shared sense-making of the world are infrequently considered critical INPUTS, or ingredients essential to the design and structure building process.

This is a fundamental design flaw. It is the classic “do as I say, not as I do” syndrome.

The design professes the desired goal of inclusion, engagement, and relationship as the outcomes of our systems, that we say are essential to building a thriving…