Meta Project Navigation, 2022-09-07

Artifacts

Topics

  • sort of a "mid-six week" retro
    • key patterns
  • key functional working groups

Pattern Watching

  • Pete's Observations

    • For people really passionate to be doing what they are passionate about - and getting resources / help / support from the community
    • more resources to help people do the stuff they really want to do and are doing already
    • Jordan's Role - convening and shepherding... picking up and pointing towards the North Star
    • Potential weakness - using strength and commitment for building stuff - when that is not going to be big enough to get the whole thing done...
    • Suggestion - focus on convening and shepherding, and not being the person driving PM
    • Lionsberg - gather resources, help everyone with structure, cultivate the things it wants to see... without being in the business of doing that - rather helping others be the arms and legs and feet...
    • Take UN SDGs... there are people in the world working on every little piece...
      • Many of us - are building infrastructure and tools in service of... the groups working towards the goals.
    • Pick people we know are strong at doing things... and use them as core seeds to each domain...
    • The thing we need to do - is make sure people are doing what they are passionate about doing...
  • Dialogue around Pete's comments

    • Passion is the thread of
        1. Who is in the room... what are they passionate about...
        1. what needs to occur - who is already doing it and passionate about it, how do we resource them and engage them?
      • Collaborating from a place of resonance, emergence, passion... while ensuring we invite the right people in...
    • Social Architecture
      • how do we get the right people, at the right time, with the resources and tech.
    • There are sufficient platforms and interest, that when we are clear about pulling in values aligned people to do tasks - that is achievable.
    • what is harder - is having inner core group plus digital infrastructure to train, connect, oversee, manage to get the desired outcome that a particular project is about...
    • The inner core - flexibility, inner core, move around, and adjust...
    • Comes back to resourcing...
  • Pie chart / Mosaic

    • Enough energy into the different sections of the pie chart...
    • particularly when you are bringing people in...
    • pie chart distribution changes quarter by quarter...
  • ONBOARDING...

  • By supporting passion - coming from different broad sets of background, knowledge, understanding of how the Whole fits together, enough access, support to feel coherent in the group...

  • There are thousands of existing efforts...

  • We all need the same goals... coordinate with same goals, values, metrics...

  • Forrist - Perhaps, it is useful consider an analogy of fungi, mycelium. What does it do? It is the pathway to connect nodes and feed the visible areas plants, animals, etc.

    • +1 Forrist Right, more like roots-up connection and responsiveness and nourishment than top-down coordination
    • ...
  • Michael - - Forrist - Perhaps, it is useful consider an analogy of fungi, mycelium. What does it do? It is the pathway to connect nodes and feed the visible areas plants, animals, etc.

  • PASSION... people who are truly passionate and would be doing it anyway...

  • The missing thing is unity and coordination... to be aggregators, unifiers, messengers...

    • unify messages, spread a better message...
  • +1 Bill "what is the superpower of this community","be message takers, aggregations, connectors, servants of the process"

  • Unity is where we are from and where we are returning

    • Fragmentation is what we have worked into in the meantime
  • ATTRACTOR...

    • The attractor that allows people to test against (X)
    • Goals, principles, values, metrics
    • This is how you play if you want to pray...
    • Creating the boundaries in which passion and play can manifest..
  • Recognition and measurement of the allocation of attention...

  • Community of Practice...

  • Emergence vs. Control

  • Top vs. Bottom

  • Problems result from the attempt to bring order into complex systems...

    • Wendy - our job really is to create the theory and practice around a space that could help people
    • or disappointing them in new and different ways
      1. Need to get good at the theory of how complexity and emergence work
      1. acknowledge that paradox of order and disorder always exist - and people will jum around the make noise... as it emerges from our shared experience... that it roughly works... better than anythign else... so I will stay...
      1. have to see people's experience of the structures that steady things just enough...
  • Learning from what works and didn't work...

  • One principle may be the clarity between protocols vs guidelines. Guidelines = take the 'guideline' as a default if one needs the pattern in the guideline AND feel free to test your own method if you believe it will produce superior results. Then as you've run the experiment, loop improvements back to the whole.

  • don't force structure, help them learn what structures work and help them locally...

  • Deeply listening to our own experience and that of others...

  • Pick the energy... how well it is working and not working, as real tie feedback...

  • "This is what I am not getting from what you are trying to do"

  • A language of complexity and change management, listen to others, listen to ourselves, and track it. that we are hanging our actions on.

  • Killu

    • world is full of speakers, white papers, consultants...
    • if it hasn't worked so far, will not work with us...
    • Stay aware of that...
    • Can hire experts and expertise as needed...
    • Another open avenue...
      • Get to manage the energy, manage what it feels like, manage what we feel like is possible, that others will also feel.
      • What it feels like to join something that is snowballing and getting bigger and more exciting...
      • How it is created, susstained, repaired when broken, brought in again. How it is brought in, how it is held, how it is repaired...
      • holding the coherence and stability such that emergence can occur...
    • If we were to become Masters...
      • at an experience of emergence that keeps energizing us...
      • holding the container while listening at all levels wisdom, intellect, analysis...
      • Groups, moving in different things, talking about coming together, and at same time don't know how to come together, govern, be together.
      • People want to join, want to be there, don't want to lead
      • how to engineer, and how to lead grous with it.
      • Intentionally and in precise awareness -
        • create an experience which includes structure, process, energy, ways of showing up, bringing energy in...
        • Create an experience and feel, that people say "I want more of that"
        • A fully engaged experience
        • than the magic of the natural rules that already exist will start working on our behalf.
        • +1 Killu, holding the container for emergence. Listening around the world for what wants to come together. Feeling the energy build, where energy is sustained, composted and rebuilt.
        • ENGINEER THE EXPERIENCE...
        • People more likely to stick around... more likely to create value...
        • ...
  • The science of how we map the energy over time...

  • 1 Killu - as Otto Scharmer suggest in presencing work - developing the skill to sense what wants to emerge form the future coming into the present. This comes for the commitment to inner personal development and ability to be internally calm and present to what wants to arise. I sense we are largely doing this with Jordan's path he is guiding

  • Most valuable aspect - connect, aggregate, serve, and place value on these efforts, vs. fragmented, invisible, not fully valued efforts.

  • Made visible as a possiblity... believe in hope in, enjoy...

    • Made visible as a possiblity... believe in hope in, enjoy...
  • Support and service as well as emergence... hard to break...

    • SOMETHING TO ENGINEER...
  • Unity, convening, shepherding, aggregating...

    • Transparency
    • "If we only knew what we know we'd be in a lot better shape"
    • To follow the route of other people's networks - leading to more connections, more convening, more unity...
  •  -  To follow the route of other people's networks - leading to more connections, more convening, more unity... 
    
  • spaces for

    • Emergence
    • Connection
    • Deep Listening
    • Practice
  • Navigation should be a facilitated meeting where we practice that.

  • Michael: We are present in a movement. We succeed if the movement succeeds. So we succeed by supporting, recognizing, publicizing, connecting, nourishing as much of the movement as we can—not by owning, running, coordinating it—or whatever small portion of it we could ever begin to “control.”

  • It starts with the environment and experience... getting better at it... putting langauge on it... recognizing it... so we can use it as a tool...

  • Forrist -

    • The value of Ritual...
    • A pattern for a particular purpose that people agree to utilize that is intended to impact energetics as well as the physical...
    • Values as the single words...
    • A set of operationalized values - how they come into the world...
    • Then the rituals... that are the patterns...
  • in addition to ritual creating a container (externally perceived) they also open us to ways of being (internal) that we can then abide as and in

  • Ritual and sharing actual experiences

  • Ritual - than sharing what it is like at the end...

    • Did the meeting hold together, have the right structure, facilitate a shared structure that is strong or not,
    • We know how to do it, haven't set it up... need infrastructure to do it...
  • The energy in our own local projects

    • For instance if there is aa lack of density around engagement, technical management, finance...
    • So we can share to help that...
    • energy map of our own experience
    • Our own projects
    • Derivative of that is the energy map of other people's projects that we could help.
  • Consider case study of doing that.

    • Where has our own energy gone for each meeting.
    • Have a physical map at the end of each meeting...
  • +1 Killu - rituals are one particular spot of a 'culture canvas' have clarity on all the areas of a culture map, increase clarity and thus power of the 'intention' seeking to emerge.

  • If you don't do the first levels of being together, to hep each other, can't help anyone else...

  • Capturing what is working well in story form

  • what is not going well in story form

  • Half work plus overhead...

    • and some of critical path work is setting up the overhead functions.
  • VALUE Filter

    • Finances follows Value
    • Then the money when it goes to where value is, helps accelerate it...
    • WHAT IS OF VALUE... what needs to be of value, what could be of value, what isn't of value now, but in 10 steps could be...
    • From leaning in and being in practice.
    • Defining internal goals / in addition to external SDGs.
    • Financing infrastructure
    • doing infrastucutre
    • Serving infrastructuring
  • The 6 + 2, groups, what's needed for all is: Onboarding this needs the culture map by whatever name, likely a 'buddy' during onboarding and a solid period - 90 days... all presuming resources to dedicate the sustained time to do this creation - btw, PCARE offers what we have learned and develoed if/when desired.

  • Absolutely @Wendy E. A pilot is such a valuable way to learn. We want to create psychological safety so our teams feel encouraged to take risks in order to fail fast and that way we learn so much without too much damage. Then celebrate the failure. After building that smaller dam - we will have learned so much. Now we can plan how to build the bigger dam.

  • A STORY

    • of how what we are doing is of value
    • and how that value can grow over time
    • Focus on value - money follows value, and helps build value...
    • if we have value, but not visible and can't tell the story, will have to come back later...
  • Measuring Value, understanding value, and how that connects to funding... via a measurement of a sort and a level of objectivity...

Why do people join and stay

  • Stuff works better when connected to other doers and information, in an ecosystem.
  • When things are humming... leaves our hands...
    • what is important to know
    • what is ok to not know
    • what is the cost of knowing and not knowing

Emergent Teams

  • Resourcing / funding
  • Social Architecture
  • Tech / Infrastructure Dev Group
  • Core Group - servants and coordinators / leaders
  • Wisdom Circles - insights
  • Process
  • Media / Arts / Creative Expression

Other thoughts

  • Work with one existing project
  • Energy maps to connect, track resources

Balances

  • Overhead and Execution
    • At scale, 1M people will be execution people... getting stuff done...
    • the teams we have here are the coordination layer...
    • We might be seeing that all these teams, and more will be big, powerful, super essential...
    • Wierd gap - now and next 6 months - need to be doing all these things... without counterweighting all these things getting done...
    • Make sure we are doing at least half real work and half overhead work...
    • We have gotten into arrears - getting into WORK in addition to the Highest level stuff.

Challenges

  • doing what others observe us to be good at versus - what we are drawn to and passionate about and feel that we are good at
  • people's passion and engagement can't be bought
  • Experience of collaborators in this paradox needs to be positive for top down and bottom up to co-exist
  • inner core needs to be flexible to bring in and support the parts of the network
  • How do we help people accept structures that are good enough to help them in their passion when these structures are not perfect?
  • Making promises to people you bring in and keeping them
  • Metaproject structures must be locally appropriate to give the passionate people
  • local and existing initiatives know what they need
  • What people need locally might not coordinate at a high level
  • Aggregation in service of each other needs to be messaged clearly
  • Aggregation needs to be assemblage not sameness - holding the variety
  • How are fragmentation and variety different?
  • Take a complexity approach
  • disassemble and recombine
  • we are all connected at the level of experience

Retrospective

I Liked

Liked:

  • heard from lots of people
  • heard about where the energy currently is within Meta Project
  • Felt people were building upon the threads in conversation without too much happening in chat - could easily follow and deeply consider each contribution
  • have a sense that we moved the needle “forward” instead of going in circles.
  1. The experience I had of feeling rich content, increasing clarity and a path of possible emergence occurring. Actions of continuing. Not sure what to say structurally for this. It felt as the dialogue was organic and in a sense of flow.

Steady cadence of exchanges brought in the big undercurrents we were struggling to deal with. This isn't just paradox - it is the real nature of the work and we were very much in our craft to allow this to emerge in a steady and articulated way.

I liked the extraordinary richness and diversity of frameworks, perspectives, and experience that emerged into a coherent thread informing what we might do next and why. I liked that this feels like legitimate governance / navigation - super consciously and thoughtfully examing where we are, patterns, what is next, and why.

I liked the sort of intense and robust discussion from a number of different people and perspectives.

good conversation around structuring for complexity

Liked, continue: emergent insights, thoughtful understanding of where we are and what is needed, good listening, constructively and fast moving forward. Pete's comments to Jordan, the kindness and expansiveness how it left us, and Jordan's generous and immediate listening. Our different complementary viewpoints brought to any topic. And I really like all of you as people, and love spending time in the process of building something worthwhile from nothing to what feels like moving slowly but is really moving fast!

I liked the calm but vibrant energy i felt from the group. I like how we continue to build on each others ideas, experience, suggestions, to take another move forward. I love how you all have taught me so much already and I'm excited for all the other learnings coming up - for all of us

Liked the dialog, the voice/chat mix. Appreciated the continuing emergence of our efforts at roots-up connecting without top-down controlling.

Liked the flow and energy building.

I Wish...

I wish some of the people who were there in early meetings would rejoin and give feedback of what they see now. I wish we were clear in the many aligned interconnecting streams of value we are dealing with. I feel and intuit it but it needs to be clearly articulated and "sold" on the right levels, to quickly resource with best people, financing etc, as it has potential to be.

There is a pattern behind this - is it time, psychological safety, a cadence of turn taking? It is hard to put my finger on yet we all felt it. I wish to know how to explain this to others as we all came up with a similar thing in what did we do well. Magic.

I wish we could do occasional breakout groups for dialog on topics.

I wish for us all that we continue to feel passionate about the work we are doing - 'cause that means we are on the right track. It will also be partly what attracts the people who are looking for us and who will join us to do this important work. I wish you all have a wonderful rest of your day 🥰

I wish:

  • Jordan could be a participant and not have to facilitate, so he feels the flow of emergence differently; wish to hear his thoughts from this space.
  • The pattern created today could be a seed for future navigation meetings.
  • to hear more from everyone about where the energy is moving most for them

I wish we had a core team resourced to work on this full time. I wish we had a well resourced support structure to serve and empower the core functional areas that are needed for the body to structure itself. I wish I had $10M of philanthropic funding, and $10M of investment funding, to accomplish the first acquisitions and next stages and to resource and coordinate passionate teams in core functional areas.

Wish: I could expand the number of hours a day into the timeless... yet the paradox of being totally peaceful with the 24 hours that exist without an opportunity to change. Okay. Off topic but all that comes to mind right now. :-)

I wish no one here (or, hell, anywhere) was competing for resources or recognition.

I wish that we would have a structure/ritual for this meeting, clarity on what we are striving for, and stories to learn from related to that striving. I wish we would share what has been acted upon in between meetings - what is the target condition for each one of us that aligns us toward our collective striving and what have we learned from that experiment.

I Wonder...

are we thinking big enough? and what would happen if we got wishes above, what would be different in how we see do think?

I wonder what would happen if the resources were available to move this into a dynamically growing ecosystem of regeneration, emerging at a pace that not constrained by financial resources.

I wonder what would happen if we chose a subject that was really contentious or might be. So we have 20K USD how should we spend it now? How can we prioritise and how to we behave as we do this?

I wonder: What will emerge for each of us over the next two weeks, as a ripple from our focus today on the groups that are emerging

I wonder what would happen if we could communicate EXTREMELY effectively? This is critical. There is so much I want to know about all the work happening in the Meta Project and we are just at the beginning. We need to get really good at this to be successful.

I wonder what would happen if - we actually believed it were possible and acted as if it were our responsibility to co-create the best possible future for all generations of life. Without for a second flinching or shying away from that highest overarching and uniting goal.

I wonder what would happen if we create the conditions in this meeting for emergence to occur with a shared leadership model and a structure (that we would experiment with over time)...

I wonder if everything we were doing was to support projects not in the room, we would feel more ease?

I wonder what would happen if we tried some oral updates from members on their key areas of interest & action, and some discussion.

Closing

  • Core Teams and Meetings

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