Integral City Meta Blog 2015

Here is the Integral City 2015 Meta Blog. It connects the 4 Voices of the Integral City to the Planet, People, Place and Power that energized us in 2015.

It follows the traditions of:

Integral City Meta Blog 2014

Integral City Meta Blog 2013

1. Equinox/Solstice Newsletters – Integral City Reflective Organ

1. Integral City Reflective Organ – March Equinox 2015: Signs & Wonders of Planetary Shifts
2. Integral City Reflective Organ – June Solstice 2015 – Pope, Planet of Integral Cities, People, Playgrounds
3. Integral City Reflective Organ – October 2015: Places – Smart, Resilient, Integral
4. Integral City Reflective Organ – December 2015: Inner Power, Outer Climate

2. City of the Year 2015: Paris

For the first time in 2015 we could see that some cities are moving the forefront of a Planet of Integral Cities. In particular the role that Paris played in galvanizing the world to think and act in ways that made us conscious of ourselves at a city scale, inspired us to nominate Paris as City of the Year 2015. In particular Paris helped us appreciate the reality of the Master Code through taking care of Self/ Others/ Place/ Planet. Here are four blogs exploring Paris 2015.

1. Je Suis Charlie
2. Je Suis Paris
3. Je Suis COP21
4. Paris – City of the Year 2015

3. Leaders Meshworking in Europe & USA

Europe brought the impact of People, Planet, Place and Power into city awareness and showed how national leaders can bring the politics of dignity as a defense against the politics of fear. At the same time a small city in Oklahoma, USA is at the forefront of prototyping how to involve the dignity of all 4 city voices in the process of becoming an Integral City. We honoured Durant, Oklahoma as Meshworkers of the Year 2015.

1. Discovering How Politics of Dignity Counters Politics of Fear
2. Meshworkers of the Year Award 2015 – Imagine Durant, Oklahoma, USA Integral City of the Future

 

4. Leadership Reviewed

Leadership in Integral City came into focus with the Integral Leadership Review Canada Issue in 2015 and subsequently inspired a number of leadership-related blogs:

©2014 Aboriginal Nations Education, Greater Victoria School Board, BC, Canada
Artist Jamin Zurowski
Bear/UL. Wolf /LL. Raven/UR. Salmon/LR.
This Totem is a Gift used with permission on this Canada Issue. Please do not reproduce without © Permission.

1. A Totem for Curating a Story of Leadership in Canada – Integral Leadership Review
2. From Totem Guides and Lock Masters to World Legacy Light – Integral Leadership Review Encore
3. Integral City Leaders Use Generative Change
4. Women Tell the Stories that Transform Old Story into New Story
5. Cities are Evolving Climate Story
6. Transportation Crossroads in the City
7. Celebrating Canada’s 4 Quadrant Leaders on Canada Day

5. Pope Leading “Urbi et Orbi”

Traditionally the Pope offers year-end blessings for the City and the world (urbi et orbi) – but this year Pope Francis demonstrated throughout the year active leadership on integral views of ecology, climate and refugees.

1. Pope Francis Calls for Integral Ecology
2.  Pope Francis Offers Blueprint for a Planet of Integral Cities

6. Integral City: Harvested Impact at Integral Theory Conference 2015

Integral City invited participation processes, purposes and energies with Systemic Constellation Work in Pop-Up Playgrounds at the Integral Theory Conference 2015. We promised many outcomes here:

1. 10 Best Reasons to Pop-Up at Playground Lunch ITC2015
2. Take a Play Break: Pop-up, Play, Constellate
3. ITC2015: Top 10 Reasons to Play at our Pop-Up Lunch

We published an Impact Harvest Report –you can find out about the Deep Design we used here:

1. Pop-up Places, Process and Purpose

7. Integral City: Woke Up the Human Hive Beyond the Smart and Resilient Cities at IT Smart City Conference

In September at IT Smart City Amersfoort, NL we explored the discourse that links Smart, Resilient and Integral Cities and how to recalibrate care, context and capacity for a planet of cities, summarized in this series of blogs:

1. Bee Hive Metaphor Offers Human Hive Disturbing Pattern of Survival?
2. The Human Hive Reveals Patterns that Determine City Types
3. Beehive: Biomimicry Patterns for Smart, Resilient, Integral Cities
4. Human Hive: Roles & Types
5. How Do We Locate the Smart City?
6. How Do We Locate the Resilient City?
7. How Do We Locate the Integral City?
8. How Do We Power Up Our Cities?
9. Integral City GPS Locator Compass
10. Waking UP the Human Hive – Recalibrating With Happiness

8. Householder Dharma

We started a periodic series of gentle “pointing out instructions” for applying principles from Integral City in your own home town (inspired by Marilyn’s home town in Canada).

1. Householder Dharma: Gaining Altitude on a Community of Blessings
2. Householder Dharma: The Best Exotic Qualities of Home
3. Householder Dharma: Optimizing Home Base with Values
4. Householder Dharma: Connecting People, Improving Health
5. Householder Dharma: Fifty Shades of Green Make Walking Delightful

 

 

 

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Integral City Reflective Organ – December 2015: Inner Power, Outer Climate

This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is Power.

The reality of the (modern) city is that the issues of consciousness, intention and responsibility are the gateways of understanding, preventing and transforming material challenges because the boundaries of local environments are perpetually porous. When the elements of life can manifest butterfly effects (Lorenz, 1995) half a world away, with disastrous consequences in remote and different environments, then resourceful conscious attention and intention may hold the only keys to survival.  

Hamilton, M. (2008). Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers, p. 14

Solstice Reflections on the Power of Caring 

The spectrum of governance systems in cities around the world is revealing that 21st century city governance demands a range of varied capacities for responsiveness to immediate emergencies, emerging sustainability and long term resilience. Modes of governance, range from the dictatorial to the democratic. They are not accidental expressions of human consciousness, but reflect the interior worldviews and mindsets of both city leaders and citizens.

While we imagine and even expect that city governance systems should be steady structures, in fact, they are ever emergent and constantly being renegotiated because the stability of cities is forever dynamic. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear: some worldviews are more inclusive and more soundly contexted than others.

In other words, the internal life of those who coalesce authority, power and influence in our cities contributes largely to the capacity of cities to be coherent, adaptable and sustainable. The events that Paris faced in 2015 (from the darkest disasters of the Charlie Hebdo and November 13 attacks to the most hopeful dignities of the COP21 Climate Conference) particularly showcased the range of responsiveness that city leadership now requires in this stage of human system development.

We are fast becoming aware that seeking sustainability and resilience in the urban world demands mindfulness about our relationship to realities within our cities, across cultures, spanning ecoregions and impacting the world. Our inner capacities must match our outer intentions. And just as Paris demonstrated in 2015, the Power of Caring for our cities can be  (perhaps must be??) amplified when the Circle of Care expands through the scales of Self, Others, Place and Planet – because a whole “family of governance systems” arises from the nation (France), regional affiliations (EU), transnational agreements (NATO) and international organizations (UN). We are living in an age where the city is the Power focus of human systems, but at this Solstice time, it is fitting to contemplate that city wellbeing depends on the healthy interconnections of People, Place and Planet.

When City Crisis Calls for Greater Leadership Power 

With cities facing such a variety of leadership demands in 2015, we can see that the need for extraordinary leadership capacities is growing exponentially. In Integral terms we can frame this as Leadership to “x” Power. And it appears that we may have broken through even the levels of complexity that defined a Leadership to the Power of 7, to a need for Leadership to the Power of 8? If I were going to point to a triggering life condition that is calling forth such Leadership I would target the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. If I were to name a Leader who is demonstrating the needed qualities of Leadership to the Power of 8, I would offer Angela Merkel. Mrs. Merkel may be a national Leader – but her decisions regarding an open refugee policy are impacting every city in Germany – and as a result many other cities in Europe.

Leadership to the Power of 8 understands the infinite qualities of adaptiveness that enable human systems to thrive (and reproduce themselves) in endlessly changing life conditions. In the spirit of Leadership to the Power of 8, Angela Merkel has taken the courage extend a Circle of Care that embraces not just the voters who put her in office, but to embrace the imperiled condition of the refugees and expand the possibilities for everyone.

In contrast to such Leadership to the Power of 8, we can also see on display Leadership to the Power of 4 that depends on authority and uses barbed wire to create a barrier to change (e.g. Orban in Hungary). Those using Leadership to the Power of 5 are invoking fear of change and “the other”, depending on manipulation and competition to foment resistance (e.g. Trump in USA). Others using Leadership to the Power of 6 are depending on arguments for justice equality but ignoring the “idiot compassion” where gang and/or tribal underbellies take unfair advantage of liberal societies (e.g. Brussels and its hotbed of jihadi neighbourhoods). Even Leadership to the Power of 7 that depends on complexity and the awareness of the environment and ecological realities risks being undermined by clashes of culture (e.g. on the streets of Paris at COP21).

Leadership to the Power of 8 transcends and includes even the healthy expressions of all less complex Leaderships (from Powers of 4 to 7). It depends on integral evolution – standing firm in the face of opposition from all the other Powers of Leadership because it can see a greater superordinate goal. Through the interconnections and cross-collaborations that are emerging on an increasingly global scale, we can see that Merkel’s intuitive (?) Leadership to the Power of 8 is creating the conditions that enable a transnational (if not global) flow of people, energy, security and resources. Today’s cities need leaders, like Angela Merkel, who have developed a consciousness that understands the interconnected, evolutionary, developmental nature of all life – and particularly of city life.

Read more on Leadership to the Power of 8 in these 2 articles:

·       Concise Version: http://www.integralcity.com/discovery-zone/Research%20Docs/Leadership%20to%20the%20Power%20of%208,%20WiPsy-3-2012_Hamilton.pdf

·       Complete Version: http://integralleadershipreview.com/7686-leadership-to-the-power-of-8-leading-self-others-organization-system-and-supra-system/

 

Enlivening Edge Calls Forth the City in 2 Ways

1. Enlivening Edge a new ezine for next-stage organizations (inspired by Frederic Laloux’sReinventing Organizations) is theming the mid-January issue around reinventing cities to their next-stage of consciousness. Like Integral City, EE sees cities as part of the fractal sequence of reinvention and evolution emerging between organizations and societies. Integral City will be contributing one of the main articles for the city theme! Add your own voice to the City issue by following the guidelines here http://www.enliveningedge.org/get-involved/enlivening-edge-writers-guidelines/ (deadline extended to December 28)!

2. Join EE for the 2nd (international) Integral European Conference (see below) Reinventing Europe: Integral Reflections in a Rapidly Changing World

Enlivening Edge is curating a Teal Organizations Track there and city-related content is especially invited!

Call for papers for the Teal Organizations Track (and all tracks):
http://www.enliveningedge.org/news/gathering-of-people-organizations-going-teal/

 

Invitation from Integral Europe 2016: Reinvent Europe

Mark your calendar for BEFORE January 10, 2016 – and send IEC2016 your proposal for a presentation, paper or provocation.

What does it take to reinvent Europe from an embodied integral perspective, synchronizing different value-systems?

That is the question IEC organizers are designing into their innovative conference format that will seamlessly interweave crisp presentations, juicy transformational workshops and heart-opening communal events.

May 4–8, 2016 at Lake Balaton Hungary is the time and place.

Advance whispers say Dr. Don Beck and Elza Maalouf will be keynoters and presenters.

Show Up. Speak Your Truth. Be Part of the Results. Learn MORE here.

 

The Power of WE: MetaIntegral Foundation’s Candidates for Integral Prpjects 2016

MetaIntegral Foundation, an Integral City constellation partner, continues to raise money to support some of the world’s leading Integral thinker/doers. Through their pooled resources and stewardship, research leaders will be supported as they apply integrative approaches to solving real-world challenges. Together, MIF and donors build credibility for these impactful applications and help to advance the field of Integral Theory and practice. The list of the candidates for 2016 Funding is below.

MIF uses an innovative approach where your votes generate funds AND help select the finalists.

Click here to read more about the projects, their leaders and how to add YOUR IMPACT.

• Caucus for Children’s Rights (CCR) led by Kate McAlpine
• Developmentally-Oriented Fundraising led by Jennifer Jones
• Energy Futures Lab (EFL) led by Tamara Connell
• Homeless Services Leadership Training led by Heather Larkin
• Integral Economics led by Elizabeth Castillo
• Integral Nepal Project led by Shushant Shrestra & Gail Hochachka
• Let’s Drink Less by Half led by Riina Raudne
• PUP Global Heritage Consortium led by Jon Kohl
• SSU Core Leadership led by Mark Fabionar
• StagesLens Text Analysis Research led by Tom Murray
• The Natural Design Navigator led by Mark R. Dekay

 

Meshworkers of the Year Award 2015 – Imagine Durant, Oklahoma, USA

Imagine Durant has created a bold invitation to the 4 Voices of Durant Oklahoma, USA to imagine a vision for the future and develop the strategies to implement it.

Imagine Durant has systematically documented the process, results and interconnections amongst a series of three Dialogues on the Economy and the Community. Imagine Durant brought together 24 Thought Leaders, 39 Community Members and 24 Policy Makers to learn what was most important to the community. From the contacts made through these representatives of the 4 Voices of the city, it is estimated that Imagine Durant has touched thousands of Durant stakeholders since inception in 2013. Read the full story HERE.

 

Power of Gratitude: Ken Wilber Gratitude Fund

Something quite moving and amazing is afoot in the Integral world. It is called The Ken Wilber Gratitude Fund which we might call the Power of Gratitude. This is an opportunity for all of us who have been affected, moved, and transformed by the brilliant work of Ken Wilber. The Ken Wilber Gratitude Fund represents a movement of those who have been enlightened and inspired by Ken’s gifts to the world, who relish the opportunity to be able to concretely say thank you with our financial contributions and to continue to support Ken and his work.

As Ken so eloquently communicates on The Ken Wilber Gratitude Fund website, he is far from finished with his life’s work and is currently entering a phase of massive output of new works that continue to build on the foundation he has created in his previous books, teachings, and articles.

It is the intention of KWGF founders that Ken will be supported abundantly for all of his physical and medical needs, and at the same time be held by love, support, and appreciation for what he has given us.  Thanks for giving – just CLICK – YES, I’LL GIVE

 

The Power of Learning Integral City Practices

We’d like to refer you to several Powerful learning resources that contribute to Integral City practices:

1.     Edited by Tom Christensen and published by Integral Publishers:

a.     Innovative Development: Emerging Worldviews and Systems Change

b.     Developmental Innovation: Emerging Worldviews and Individual Change

These 2 books featuring chapters from many of the big players in the Spiral Dynamics world provide practical applications of Spiral Dynamics Integral theory to all scales of life. Written by leaders for leaders responsible for healthy cities, states, countries, non-profits and businesses. – Educators guiding students from elementary school through university. – Economists concerned with money, finance, lending, and what is next for capitalism. – Policy-makers dedicated to disabled, impoverished, and other underserved citizens. – Those wishing a deeper yet practical understanding of large systems changes. – Therapists, counselors and coaches wanting a more nuanced view of their roles. – Lifelong learners who love personal stories of challenges, triumphs, and epiphanies.

2. The Amplifield connects you with a global community of people who meditate and share intentions together. Joining, gives you access to several frequencies of sound entrainment and a psycho-active globe that shows how your intentions amplify others’ and vice versa. It is a seed-bed for practicing WE-space.

3. Systemic Constellation Work with Jane Peterson in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is offering 2 programs on Feb. 18-20, 2016:

o   What lies beneath: understanding the hidden dynamics in organizational relationships, a workshop on Friday Feb 19 for leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs, and also for consultants and coaches.

o   Coaching sessions on Thursday Feb 18, and Saturday Feb 20. Each will be two hours long, experiencing many applications of constellation work – including what Jane calls the “FOO Factor” or the family of origin factor that keeps us stuck and unable to move forward as we sense is possible.

o   Contact Kate Sutherland for Registration Details kate.sutherland@thnk.org

Celebrating “Power-Focus” in the Coming Quarter to Light Up 2015 and 2016

December 21 marks the start of what IC calls the Power Quarter (from December 21 to March 20). What powers of leadership, creativity and meshworking do you bring to celebrate the Spirit of the City in this quarter? What WE-stories and Legends give you strength to embrace compassion in the face of adversity?  Where do you notice the Power of Cities expanding their influence on our Planet of Cities? Visit us at Integral City Collective on Face book and post a short update or a photo.

Meshful Blessings for December Solstice from

Marilyn Hamilton and the Integral City Core Team

PS

Here are some some Free Resources for amplifying Power in the Human Hive:

1.     Integral City’s ITC2015 Harvest Report The Fruits of Deep Design: How Integral City Harvested Pomegranate Impact of Integral Theory Conference 2015 – full report HERE.

2.     Tam Lundy’s Generative Change Primer has just been translated into Russian– click HERE for the link to download your pdf copy.

3.     Cherie Beck observes that she is very curious about technologies that use “vectors” to reveal what we would call Meshworks and/or architectures for our 12 intelligences. A wonderful example is in this demonstration that all roads lead to Rome:   http://www.wired.com/2015/12/here-are-all-the-roads-that-lead-to-rome/?mbid=social_twitter​

4.     Check out the series of blogs on European Refugees and Paris:

• Discovering How Politics of Dignity Counters Politics of Fear
• Je Suis Charlie
• Je Suis Paris
• Je Suis COP21: Paris Creates Climate for Change
• Paris – City of the Year 2015

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Je Suis Paris

I have been mesmerized into muteness regarding Paris since the November 13 attacks.

Je Suis Paris

A strange sensation like holding my breath has overtaken me – a kind of numbness and muteness. Writing has happened only in my head – and even then without much coherence.

Funny, since I was impelled to write quickly and passionately about Paris earlier in the year in the face of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. I named that experience an Ebola of the Soul. It was so shocking to the human system because Paris has been the archetype for Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité. The native and planetary support for Paris in January 2015 was immediate, public refusal to succumb to the real severe bodily injuries and the greater threat to freedom of speech (and the implied hostility to evolutionary consciousness itself).

But the November 13 attacks give bleak evidence of the dark intelligence behind the war theatre that was choreographed into the daily life of Paris – slaying and injuring people at sports, entertainment, dining and shopping venues. Re-creation itself was targeted – selecting places where all the 4 voices of the city congregated for the simple enjoyments and pleasures of life that renew, refresh and reconnect.

The planned simultaneity of the attacks heightened the reactions of fear, even as it stretched the emergency response systems to points of ineffectiveness. Our belated overviews of the situation reveal the reality of the VUCA intentions designed into the multiple attack zones:

Volatility at each site heightened because of the synchronization of the many battle zones;

Uncertainty because each and all City Voices (Citizens, Civic Managers, Civil Society, Business) at the many sites became confounded by the scale of local horror and disconnection from what people expect in their normal lives;

Complexity because people were overwhelmed with threat, injury and death without immediate explanation; and

Ambiguity because the meaning of the incidents and perpetrators of the acts emerged from shadow, disappeared into shadow and acted in darkness.

Moreover the timing of the attacks in the evening, literally taunted the City of Light by turning it into a city of darkness.

While the reactions inside and outside Paris to the Charlie Hebdo attack were swift and positive, the November 13 attacks were designed to overwhelm and confuse the responses of the city, nation, EU and world. They were deliberately designed to bring out the worst of human reactions – provoking counter threats, counter attacks and revealing the ineptness of authority and power in contrast to the self-righteousness of the attackers and their cause.

A month later authorities remain confounded by the death of martyred perpetrators at the scenes and/or the escape of perpetrators across borders and into the thousand hidey holes that support them (and their brothers) in the “sophisticated” cities of Brussels? Geneva? San Bernardino? It is a message with a strong “sous entendu” that no one is safe – not just in Paris but in any city of the world.

This fear and disconnectedness is exactly what the guerrilla factions want. They will be rejoicing at the political contractions and blame postulated by the far right (Le Pin, Trump). They are working at creating the conditions for expanding and spreading the Ebola of the Soul that Charlie Hebdo spawned, to a more Culturally Viral Ebola of the Body spawned by the November 13 outbreaks.

Does this mean that Paris’s natural contraction to protect itself is not appropriate? Or can we acknowledge that we all have been wounded. My own muteness/numbness is a reflection of Paris’ condition. Je Suis Paris – just as Je Suis Charlie. The Paris-wide scale of attack leads not only to the viral dis-ease but also to post traumatic stress disorder. Paradoxically just as we seek to hide from one another – in our pain, suspicion and pessimism – this is the time when we need each other most. “If you want to improve the health of a system, connect it to more of itself.”

Just as we discovered in contemplating Charlie Hebdo and the reality of the Politics of Dignity Trumping the Politics of Fear (regarding the not unrelated refugee situation) our first and strongest defence has to be to look within our own body/mind/heart/spirit. That is where we find the source of courage, respect, dignity, love and light for enacting wellness. But in order to do that, we need to connect to each other even in the times of greatest darkness – with compassion – so we can amplify the best of human nature that enables us to confront our deepest fears.

When the City of Light turns into the City of Darkness, perhaps there is an immune system, so deeply rooted in Life that our human system can find the way through our evolutionary battlegrounds back into the Light?  Let us hope that such a visceral dissonance to our calling to be Gaia’s Reflective Organs prompts a compassionately fierce immune response. Perhaps we are even witnessing in Paris the “fever crisis” that presages a breakthrough to a new level of evolutionary wellbeing for humans (and our Human Hives)?

 

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Discovering How Politics of Dignity Counters Politics of Fear

In September 2015 the Centre for Human Emergence Netherlands explored with me a proposition: The politics of fear can be trumped by the politics of dignity, regarding refugees, immigrants and voters.

We explored this question (drawn from Angela Merkel’s challenge to Europe in the face of the tide of refugees) using Systemic Constellation Work (SCW). SCW is a core process methodology that Integral City uses to do research and development to expand our ways of knowing the archetype of Integral City as a reflective organ for Gaia. SCW supports presencing, prototyping and processing for issues, questions, situations and challenges encountered by the Integral City Community of Practice.

SCW as a methodology taps into the collective unconscious (or Knowing Field (KF)) and reveals to participants, the archetypal patterns embedded in the field of the human system of interest. (SCW’s derive from Bert Hellinger’s family system constellation work that has expanded into many human systems including organizations, social issues, indigenous tribes, nations and in the case of Integral City – cities.)

Our NL experiment began with identifying the key Elements of this proposition: Fear, Dignity, Refugees, Migrants, Voters, Trump (the verb not the US mogul), Policy and Politicians.  An eighth element self-identified as Non-Voters.

Mapping out the Knowing Field (KF) within the circle of about 20 Witnesses, volunteers stepped forward to represent the Elements across 2 intersecting axes: Future/Past and Below/Above.

The first pattern within the KF was very chaotic with Elements strewn about helter-skelter – Policy bumping into Refugees attempting to move to the Future; Dignity being elbowed aside by Voters and Migrants; Politicians positioning themselves close to the Past and Non-Voters (expressing anger) stepping right outside the Circle of Witnesses. Fear started out close to the Past – and started talking argumentatively with little intention of shutting up. Trump hovered with no direction. Another new Element emerged as a possibility – Courage – who became a disembodied position (marked by a card) almost out of the circle above the Future axis point.

The second pattern with the KF emerged when Fear made his way from the Past to close to the Future, causing a ripple effect where the other Elements stretched out in a zig-zag pattern along the Future/Past axis like this:

Future

Fear          Refugees

Voters   Migrants

Dignity                (Courage disembodied)

Something Missing    Trump

Politicians

Past

Non-Voters

Meanwhile Fear kept up his verbal rant, taunting the Facilitator and other Elements. In the midst of this a mystery Element emerged that we simply recognized as “Something Missing” and Courage became embodied by a tall imposing man.

In the third and final pattern, the Facilitator demanded that Fear lie down and “be quiet” slightly offside from the Future.

This move precipitated a final pattern where Courage moved quite compassionately to stand beside Fear, while standing behind Dignity. From the zig-zag of Pattern 2, the other Elements moved so that the Refugees and Something Missing became the centre of a circle held by Dignity (located at 12 o’clock), Policy (located at 3) Voters (at 7) and Migrants (at 10).  Politicians, Trump, Non-Voters (now happy with the outcome) clustered together behind Past.

Politics of Dignity Trumps Politics of Fear

Comments from Witnesses and Non-Voters produced the insight that the “Something Missing” was Respect (as it relates to the Integral City Master Code). We also received a reframe of the proposition: The Politics of Dignity can trump the politics of fear by respecting refugees, migrants and voters.

A post-SCW debrief produced these insights for Individuals, CHE NL and the World in Transition (resonating with the sequence of the Master Code – Take Care of Self, Others, Place-Planet):

For Individuals

I have a better sense of Dignity.

I recognize the importance of Courage.

I was struck by the importance of Non-Voters in the world (and that they represent both ancestors and marginalized voices).

Politics doesn’t represent the people.

We didn’t need Policy – Policy self-organizes what is in everybody.

This is a complex issue and we made visible many intentions related to it.

Politicians never solve problems.

Everything got easier when the Refugees moved into the centre – when they were in the centre, Light came in.

I sensed a strange connection between Dignity and the Non-Voters.

I see so much potential in the Refugees.

Actually there is no separation between Refugees and Voters.

I have more respect for the Refugee(s).

I am struck by the power of Fear and Not Knowing.

Fear recalibrates Not Knowing.

Courage is replaced by Self-Confidence.

Our final image was like a ship pointed towards the Future with the circle in the centre. I am curious about the Element of “Something Missing”.

Perhaps this is like (Clare Graves’) Never-Ending Quest? – Where Fear disappears as Integral thinking and approaches emerge – maybe that allows Fear to even recalibrate as Unknowing?

 

For Centre for Human Emergence NL

CHE NL started by looking for core problem underlying refugee crisis.

This is an exercise in consciousness to step up to global consciousness.

Simply talking is not enough.

When Fear is out of the way, the systems self-organize.

We can work on our self/selves.

Politicians don’t seem to be part of the game.

Spiral Dynamics integral shows us multiple levels of Dignity and Fear.

We can’t design solution that is a one size fits all. There are needs for Purple/Red and Blue/Orange solutions (and even the basics of Beige).

We must look for the half a step ahead of the natural leadership that is being expressed.

For the World in Transition

The original proposition is a major challenge but it can unify EU.

Politicians relate to Politics of Fear.

Voters relate to Politics of Dignity

Even such a serious inquiry produces moments of truth and humanity.

We need to work our self/selves to make change.

Core Values (like attending to Basics of Life, Belonging, Self-Expression, and Respect for Life-Giving Order) underlie the possibilities for positive change.

~

The concluding reframe of the proposition helped us to discover how the Politics of Dignity can counter the politics of fear when both Courage and Respect are practised by people – especially when they combine their role as Voters with their role as Hosts.  Individuals, associations/organizations, communities, cities and nations all play roles in enabling The Politics of Dignity to trump the politics of fear by respecting refugees, migrants and voters.

(And since we completed this inquiry 6 weeks ago, the steadfastness of Angela Merkel to enact a Politics of Dignity in the face of mounting difficulties seems to embody the qualities of Courage, Dignity and Respect.)

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Householder Dharma: The Best Exotic Qualities of Home

Travel broadens the mind. And when we can’t do it in reality, a good movie or documentary can open perspectives and even create a longing to visit more exotic places in far reaches of the world. But with a little imagination we can bring a new appreciation for the beauty goodness and truth that surround us at home.

Exotic View of Sunset Ablaze from Garden Park Tower, Abbotsford

Inspiring the Soul

I live in Garden Park Tower (located in Abbotsford, BC, Canada) an apartment building that is also a secured community which gives me sanctuary from a world of travel, tensions and intensity. Here I am inspired by the stunning ever-shifting watercolor views of Mount Baker, sunrises, and the beauty of nature that feeds my soul. I have come to love my quiet times of reflection and regeneration here, where the introvert in me recovers so that the extrovert in me can interact with the world.

Respecting People

Our neighbours in GPT, many of whom have lived here since it was built, 18 years ago, are respectful but not invasive or cloying. Remarkably the residence and society meetings are well managed and civilized – partly because of the wisdom of the original developers who dared to imagine a community that would serve the larger community. They helped create bylaws that maintain both structural standards and people respect. We have worked out ways of being together that include everything from weekly movie nights (with free ice-cream), to seasonal “faspa” social events, fitness classes, current affairs lunches, crafts fairs, Christmas Festival of Lights and volunteer recognition teas. We share and stock and maintain a community library, flower gardens and frequently organize ourselves into cleanup crews for the landscaping. Volunteers self-organize to help anyone who is in need. Monday and Saturday mornings in the Rose Room Coffee Shop are popular gathering places for coffee, fresh pastry and the latest news.

Engaging the Senses

My location is surprisingly quiet as it is over a park, distant enough from traffic that it is interesting to observe but not intrusive from a unit where I hear little from the neighbours. My husband enjoys the many “eyes on the streets” that he can watch on the balconies and windows in neighbouring buildings. And my own eyes feast on the dazzling city scape with four seasons of changing colours, textures, scents and bird calls. Safe from traffic, it is easy to walk around the neighbourhood and park paths through wildy corners of great cedars to Fishtrap Creek where geese and ducks tend their broods. I especially enjoy my regular ambles with walking buddies by nearby houses, forever in the process of re-building themselves, with garden surprises around most bends and mysterious paths through a maze of backyard trails.

Building on Diversity

GPT is a special community – located where the old neighborhood of Clearbrook displays signs in German and Punjabi as well as English. Within walking distance I can dine on Thai, Chinese, Indian, Greek, German, Japanese and Korean food. We are so lucky to have our “pocket” Garden Park, on a bus route and be close enough to Elwood Park and the Discovery Trail, where it is common to meet pedestrians of all ages, with pets, strollers, bicycles, canes and walkers. The dogs are generally friendly and add humour and character to the passing stream of people. The community and city work hard at being responsible in their investment for the upkeep of all our private and public assets and are generally appreciative of the privileged environment we steward.

Delighting Life

So when I am tempted to dream for a distant vacation, a more exotic location or diverse culture, I really just need to wake up, step out, and fully enjoy the many delights of home. Here, beauty, goodness and truth all grace my soul, senses, community and environment with a daily flow of exotic life.

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10 Best Reasons to Pop-Up at Playground Lunch ITC2015

Joining MetaIntegral’s Integral Theory Conference for its fourth international event (and sponsoring the conference for the third time) Integral City has designed Pop-Up Playgrounds for three lunch times on July 17, 18, 19.  In Ballroom B (at Sonoma State University HUB) we are inviting 30 hearts and souls to Pop-Up for a “catalyzing” harvest in the Knowing Field.

Here are 10 Excellent Reasons for you to Pop-Up and harvest the conference that will get you out of your head and into your body and soul.

1. AQtivate the Master Code at ITC 2015
2. Discover impact that takes care of yourself, takes care of others, takes care of ITC2015, and takes care of home.
3. Talking is allowed – and encouraged.
4. Movement is expected – and modelled.
5. Energy is invited – and amplified.
6. Constellate your inner mental models and compare to outer AQtivating structures.
7. Pose Burning Questions; don’t expect certain answers.
8. Smash open the fruit of the pomegranate-of-expectations and discover the juice inside.
9. Bring individual brilliance to a collective space and taste, speak, see, listen, and feel.
10. Look for your natural and intentional fit in ITC Metatheory in our Integral City Playground.

We hope to see you any or all lunches – Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 1230-145pm. BTW – a Pop-Up Playground Lunchbox is included!!! In order to optimize the systemic constellation process we will limit participation to 30 catalysts (who are willing to participate experientially). So …first come, first constellated. See you at the Playground!

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Celebrating Canada’s 4 Quadrant Leaders on Canada Day

What better way to celebrate Canada Day than to flash the fireworks of July 1 onto the 4 Quadrants of Canada’s cohort of Integral Leaders?

©2014 Aboriginal Nations Education, Greater Victoria School Board, BC, Canada
Artist Jamin Zurowski
Bear/UL. Wolf /LL. Raven/UR. Salmon/LR.
This Totem is a Gift used with permission on this Canada Issue. Please do reproduce without © Permission.

A whole Quadrivium of Integral Leaders were featured in the Integral Leadership Review – Canada Issue at the beginning of 2015. But the plenitude of contributors and the depth of their insights deserves a special reminder today.

Click here to read the Profiles of all the Authors of the Canada Issue – Integral Leadership Review

Here is the Table of Contents in the Canada Issue – with links to all the contributions – including the original 4 Quadrant aboriginal Totem artwork of the Cover (with poetry, thought pieces, research reports, organizational histories, pedagocial principles for teaching leaders, environmental and sustainability insights, inspiring quotations, in-depth interviews … and more):

Cover

1/15 – Cover

Editor

2/15 – Cover

Editor

Leading Comments

1/15 – A Totem for Curating a Story of Leadership in Canada

Marilyn Hamilton

2/15 – From Totem Guides and Lock Masters to World Legacy Light

Marilyn Hamilton

 

Leadership Quote

1/15 – Marshall McLuhan 

2/15 – Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada (1999-2005)

Lead Poem

1/15 – Lead Poem

Tim Merry

Leadership Coaching Tips

1/15 – Leading Generative Change

Tam Lundy

2/15 – It’s not just what you do, but also how you think!

Natasha Mantler

Fresh Perspective

1/15 – Integral Coaching Canada with Laura Divine and Joanne Hunt

Marilyn Hamilton

2/15 – Dialogic Development: a Conversation with Gervase Bushe

Russ Volckmann

Leading Self

1/15 – Inching Towards Leaderless Leading

Edith Friesen

1/15 – Re-membering My Inherent Wilderness

Beth Sanders

Leading Others

1/15 – Is True Integral Leadership Possible?

Linda Shore

2/15 – Deep Presencing: Illuminating New Territory at the Bottom of the U

Leading Organizations

1/15 – Building Water Leaders and Waterpreneurs

Julia Fortier and Karen Kun

1/15 – Giving birth to Authentic Leadership in Action

Michael Chender

Leading Cultures

1/15 – A Circle of Aiijaakag, a Circle of Maangag: Integral Theory and Indigenous Leadership

Janice Simcoe

Leading World

1/15 – Integral Transformation of Value Chains: One Sky’s Integral Leadership Program in the Brazil Nut Value Chain in Peru and Bolivia

Gail Hochachka

2/15 – How ARE We To Go On Together? Our Evolutionary Crossroads

Brian and Mary Nattrass

Continuous LearningContinuous Learning

1/15 – Integral Dispositions and Transdisciplinary Knowledge Creation

Sue L. T. McGregor

1/15 – The Long and Winding Road: Leadership and Learning Principles That Transform

Brigitte Harris and Niels Agger-Gupta

2/15 – From Practice to Praxis – as Transformative Education: Leading at the Integral/Professional Interface?

Ian Wight

2/15 – Will the Next Buddha be a Sangha? Responding to the Call to Influence the Future of Collaboration

Rebecca Ejo Colwell

Book Reviews

1/15 – The Pulse of Possibility – A Retrospective Review of the Work of Bruce Sanguin

Trevor Malkinson

2/15 – (Re)Joining the Conversation: Commenting on Integral Voices on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: Critical Inquiries

Diana Claire Douglas

Column

1/15 – Integral Design Leadership: Healthcare Design as Extraordinary Service: An Interview with Peter Jones

Lisa Norton

Poetry Gallery

1/15 – 1. Forgotten Places

Tim Merry

1/15 – 2. What’s It Gonna Take to Stay Awake?

Tim Merry

1/15 – 3. Thank You

Tim Merry

1/15 – 4. Build the Arks (King Kong Song)

Tim Merry

2/15 – 1. The Mother

Tim Merry

2/15 – 2. Human Family Tree

Tim Merry

2/15 – 3. Superman

Tim Merry

2/15 – 4. Switch it on

Tim Merry

Notes from the Field

1/15 – Integral City Development in the Russian City of Izhevsk

Eugene Pustoshkin

 

 

We wish you a Happy Canada Day of Reading and Inspiration – with Gratitude to  all the Integral Leaders in Canada.

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Integral City Reflective Organ – June Solstice 2015 – Pope, Planet of Integral Cities, People, Playgrounds

This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is People.

International developer Gail Hochachka proposes that people’s feelings, beliefs and worldviews affect how they are ready and willing to participate in sustainable behaviors (2005, p. 1). Moreover, she points out that traumatic experiences, like natural disasters and war, can damage people and leave them disabled from appropriate responses. Although these interior realities of a city’s population have been largely ignored or discounted because they are subjective, invisible and difficult to study, they are just as real as the exterior physical realities of the city. Interior realities create an interior environment that has just as many or more layers, contours and textures to it as geographic environments. We have studied them through the lenses of psychology, philosophy and the humanities, but until recently we have not recognized that, like our exterior qualities, they evolve and develop. We map the paleontology of our interiors through the shifts in worldviews that enable the growth of our interior landscapes and, therefore, our capacities for response, adaptability and resilience. The key centers of those internal views are the self, the other (family, clan) and the world  (society, sectors, spheres of influence, regions, globe).

Hamilton, M. (2008). Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers, p. 14-15

Pope Francis Offers Blueprint for Impacting a Planet of Integral Cities

With his encyclicals on the Environment and Climate Change (May, June, 2015), Pope Francis seems to be thinking as big as a Planet of Integral Cities.

Pope Francis has gifted the world with a Kosmic view of the environment and the implications for climate change. He instructs the faithful that God has not given dominion to man to dominate the environment but to respect all Life. He explicates what Integral City calls the Master Code – emphasizing that man’s individual expression must be viewed in relationship to others (particularly those in the developing world and the poor) and nature.

By implication that so many of the poor now live in cities, Pope Francis’ encyclical reveals the inextricable interconnected relationship of cities to their eco-regions and that cities everywhere have an obligation to steward not only the health of people but the health of the environment.

Pope Francis’ sweeping views that marry spirituality and science bring together the inner and outer worlds of peoples everywhere. He explicitly references our need to embrace Beauty and Goodness with our pursuit of Truth.  Without question Pope Francis has opened the door to an explicit Integral Ecology (the name of a whole chapter of the May 2015, Encyclical). In fact, in the May/June 2015 Encyclical the Pope has used the word “integral” 23 times.

Now is the time for all good people to come to the support of our sister/Mother Earth to optimize our impact on our Planet of Cities.

Many of Pope Francis’ points to make impact resonate with our series “How to Optimize Integral City Impact” (inspired by Roger Walsh’s 2014 Keynote at Integral Europe Conference). In this set of blogs we framed optimizing injunctions for the implementation and impact of Integral City Principles:

1.     How to Optimize the Impact of Integral City Work

2.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact Through Adult Development

3.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact by Getting Ideas Out Into the World

4.     How to Optimize Impact of Integral City Work from Direct Experience & Deep Wisdom

5.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact through Transconventional Religion

6.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact with Community of Practice

7.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact as Spiritual Practice

8.     How to Optimize Integral City Impact as Accomplice to the Divine

Read more on this story here.

Integral City Blueprint

People in Dialogue: Imagine Durant Harvests Community Insights

How does Integral City work with a whole city? Durant Oklahoma is emerging as a gem of a generative action research process. We started with a visit in 2013 at the invitation of 2 City Leaders (Greg Massey, President of First United Bank, and Gary Batton, Chief of the Choctaw Nation). At that time we did due diligence with Integral City’s 12 Intelligences and came back to a small group (that became Durant’s Core Team for the next year) with a long term Proposal for Discovering, Imagining, Designing, and Delivering a unified vision for Durant and the strategies to implement it. From that Core Team, Imagine Durant was born as a project, financed by the 4 Voices of the city and guided by Executive Director, Kara Hendrickson.

On April 17-19, 2015, Imagine Durant began its visioning process, along with the Integral City team of: Beth Sanders, City Planner and Civic Meshworker; Linda Shore, City Management Advisor; Scott Moore, Architect and Community Planner; David Jaber, Natural Step Sustainability Expert; under the AQtivating leadership of Marilyn Hamilton.

We convened the first (of nine) dialogues where community thought leaders met to exchange and brainstorm possibilities for the future of Durant, Oklahoma. The special focus of this first round of dialogues was on the Economy and Community of Durant.

Twenty-four Thought Leaders pulled inspiration from their surroundings at the historical Three Valley Museum, located in downtown Durant. Leaders and community members from a wide variety of organizations, businesses and industries took time from their family and friends to share their stories, hopes, concerns, and visions for the city of Durant, Oklahoma.

The dialogue began with reflections among participants over an evening meal where they each shared stories of their personal connection with the community. Over the next 3 days participants asked good questions, explored four revealing scenarios (Dark Days Ahead, Status Quo, Durant Leads the Way, The Stars Aligned in Durant)  and finished with commitments to take the next steps together.

On June 13, 2015, a Public Dialogue continued the Visioning process, as citizens gathered to explore Burning Questions about Leadership Capacity, Engaging Community, Civic Management & Performance and Influencing Business Development. Participants offered generous resources including designing apps for “Discover Durant” and engaging veterans’ skills and interests with city projects.

Imagine Durant Public Dialogue

In September 2015, this first round will conclude with a dialogue with Durant’s Policy Makers, presenting the Harvests from the Thought Leaders and Public and seeking input for taking ideas forward for early wins, supporting resources and aligning long-term strategies.

Read the full Thought Leaders story in the harvest report in the Resources Link below.

Pop-Up Playground: A Unique Way to Constellate Integral City Intelligences

Have you observed the “Pop-up” phenomenon that is emerging as a form of urban engagement, experiment and enterprise? Pop-ups are usually temporary co-creations of citizens, artists, performers, entrepreneurs and even serious city developers. It is often associated with “tactical urbanism” and can emerge as restaurants, retail, and/or entertainment in places like urban streets, flood plains, under bridges.

Integral City has borrowed the Pop-Up process and is combining it with Systemic Constellation Work to co-create three lunch playgrounds at Integral Theory Conference 2015

Joining MetaIntegral’s Integral Theory Conference for its fourth international event (and sponsoring the conference for the third time) Integral City has designed Pop-Up Playgrounds where we invite conference participants to harvest conference insights with the help of the Knowing Field. Lead Constellator, Diana Claire Douglas (Founder, of Knowing Field Designs) will help us to explore and experiment with our conference experience – drawing on the systemic constellation process that taps into our collective intelligence and releases energy for surprising reflections and fun results.

In the context of our Integral City engagements, we call this method AQAL Systemic Constellation Work. Guided by Integral City’s Master Code, we will co-create conditions for participants to engage conference outcomes that take care of Self, Others, ITC2015 and the Places of our hearts and homes.

We hope that you can join our Pop-Up Playground Lunch, any or all days (July 17, 18, 19, at12:30-1:45pm.)

Click here for 10 reasons to Join our Pop-Up Playground.

 

Integral City Calendar for People Quarter

• July 16-17: Integral Theory Conference 2015 – Integral City will sponsor 3 Lunchtime Pop-Up Playground Constellations
• September 11: Imagine Durant Policy Makers Dialogue

 

Celebrating “People-focus” in the Third Quarter 2015

June 21 marks the start of what Integral City calls the People Quarter (from June 21 toSeptember 20). What people perspectives have been inspired by the Pope’s Integral Ecology message or Durant’s Integral City practices? What inspirations, actions, methods revitalize you?  We notice that People are gaining deeper, wider, broader insights of our Planet of Cities connecting not only because of disasters and sustainability challenges but because they are motivated to wake up, grow up and clean up. Visit us at Integral City Collective on Facebook and post a short update or a photo.

Meshful Blessings for June Solstice from

Marilyn Hamilton and the Integral City Core Team

PS

Here are some some Free Resources for learning how Integral City practitioners work with People:

1. Imagine Durant Thought Leaders Harvest Report

2. Tam Lundy’s leadership tip (offered in Integral Leadership Review – Canada Issue offered a Leadership Tip on Generative Change) explains how leaders generate change through both integral thinking and practice.

Connect to Tam’s key pointing out instructions for generativity that align well with Integral City’s 12 Intelligences here and download her Generative Change: A Practical Primer.

3. Here are three blogs that give “gentle” Integral City guidance to share as “Householder Dharma”:

Householder Dharma: Optimizing Home Base with Values

Householder Dharma: Connecting People, Improving Health

Householder Dharma: Fifty Shades of Green Make Walking Delightful

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ITC2015: Top 10 Reasons to Play at our Pop-Up Lunch

Integral City meets Integral Theory Conferencers on our Pop-up Playground Lunch July 17, 18, 19, 2015. Why join the fun??

1. Enjoy “Pop-Up” HARVEST Lunchbox that is supplied.
2. Attract spontaneous, unexpected, unplanned diverse people to discover in the moment what you can do together.
3. Co-create time, space and spirit to gather, mull, CONSTELLATE and digest energies of the conference with friends, fun and facilitators.
4. Discover what part of the harvest you hold? What part of the harvest you seek?
5. Actively participate in a Systemic Constellation guided by Knowing Field Designer.
6. Experiment with the metaphor of Pop-Up Square in the City and co-create a living, dynamic, flexible container for discovering the impact behind the impact with all that you do, be, relate, create.
7. Expect generativity, participation, a bountiful harvest.
8. Co-create a feedback loop as conference is proceeding –  make ITC more meaningful, overcome too much in head, structured, passive downloading.
9. Build on the mini-community you have set up with your friends at Sonoma State University Housing by joining us for Pop-Up (Day 1, Day 2 and/or Day 3 of the Conference).
10. Experience a nourishing “emergent reward” within the conference.

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Householder Dharma: Optimizing Home Base with Values

Last year I moved with my husband Peter Dobson, to Garden Park Tower (GPT),

Garden Park Tower

We moved from Cedar Springs Country Estate (town homes) on the east side of Abbotsford BC, where we lived for 21 years. We had travelled only 15 minutes distance across town, but it seemed like a new city and a new world had opened up to us here. We are now closer to the heart of the city (a walkable 2 blocks from city hall), the highway into Vancouver and the many health care and community services offered right in the building.

Peter has been retired from his own construction business since 2000, but I am still working – as a writer (of books and articles); professor (of graduate students at Royal Roads University School of Leadership and Environmental Studies); and city futurist. Happily for me, I can do much of my work from the comfort of my office chair, inspired by a view of Mt. Baker from my front window, the comforts of the Rose Room Coffee Shop downstairs and the renewal of a stroll around our pocket garden or an invigorating walk along Discovery Trail with new friends from GPT.

The City of Abbotsford has inspired me to learn from a variety of leaders in many walks of life; its unique geographic location as a hub of urban/rural living in the Fraser Valley; and the global opportunities and threats arising from its economics (the most intensely farmed region of North America), culture (the most giving city in Canada) and social structure (the city with the third most visible diversity in Canada).

But when I first started working in Abbotsford in 1985 I was offered one of the greatest opportunities of my life – namely to trade my management skills in exchange for learning the care-giving skills from the volunteers I came to meet in the Chamber of Commerce, Community Services, City Advisory Committees, Arts Community, Sports Associations, University of the Fraser Valley (and its predecessors), School Board, Health Authority, Faith Community and Government Agencies.

I quickly learned everywhere I turned, that Abbotsford was a city blessed with the spirit of volunteerism in action. The impact of this volunteer spirit offered leadership “stretches” to young and old, men and women, born Canadians and recent immigrants, Christians, Sikhs and other faiths, professionals and trades people, rich and poor. The wealth of differences seemed to really add up to the “difference that makes a difference”.

Since arriving at GPT this spirit of volunteerism has been an overwhelming value that has positively impacted the flow of life for both Peter and me. I was stunned when we moved in with the first offer of help to even unpack my dishes!! Since then we have enjoyed the continuous civility of greetings in the elevator, gentle guidance with “how we do things around here” (e.g. with buggies and newspapers) and the impressively cheerful, hard working volunteers in the office and the coffee shop. We are even inspired when we find little ways to volunteer (e.g. in the garden) and/or to discover how our gifts could be of service to the larger community.

We appreciate the tremendous respect for people, their cultures, their stories and their talents. While GPT provides a lifestyle that is so much more compact (in space and time) than the one we left behind, we have appreciated the breathing room we have here. We are grateful for the delicate balance of feeling publicly welcomed while still feeling our personal privacy is respected. We feel we have found a home base where it is safe and comfortable to look after ourselves, look after our neighbours and look after this place.

In my work with leaders and cities this set of values, is fundamental to a code that I believe healthy communities and cities are learning to live by. I call it the Master Code. It simply says:

Look after Yourself, so you can …

Look after Others, so together we can …

Look after this Place (and this Planet).

Living at Garden Park Towers, feels like we have moved into a Place whose values reflect this Mater Code. And we are grateful that we are called to optimize it some way every day.

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