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October 2004 Meeting:
"Sowing the Seeds
of Learning"

"Sowing the Seeds of Learning" Meeting Report, Pt. 2

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Table of Contents

Section
 Report Part
Number
Welcome 2
The World Café 2
Opening 2
Agenda 3
Introduction and Overview: Communities of Practice 3
Harvesting the Potential Within 3
The Design Team and Agreements 3
Farmers Market: The Promising Practices Marketplace 4
The Seed Exchange 4-5
Day 3 Check-in 6
Day 3 Agenda 6
Communities of Practice: Identity, Relationships, and Information 6
Planting New Seeds: Team Planning 6
Sharing the Crop (District Plans) 6-7
Requests for Support and Closing 7

Welcome

Our time together began with dinner on Wednesday night. Each participant was assigned to a cross functional “home team” that included members from each district. Throughout the 3 days we worked together at various points in these teams and came back together periodically to check in with each other.

Bob Hill and Jim Pearson from the Ball Foundation each made some opening remarks. Recalling the spirit of Carl Ball we were reminded of his passion for learning and deep commitment to children. Joann Ricci offered her warm welcome acknowledging the wisdom in the room and the potential that is unlocked when we engage as peers in powerful conversations.

The World Cafe

Design Team members Olga West and Mary Kennedy introduced the World Café, a process to discover who is on this journey with us and what they really care about. We reviewed some Café Etiquette and how the process would work. We began the first iteration of the café in our home teams answering the question: “What is the legacy we can create together for our children?” Round 1 ended after 25 minutes of conversation. The host stayed at the table and the other participants moved to new tables. The host of each new group gave a brief synopsis of the previous conversation. The new group built on that and their own first rounds to deepen the question for themselves. We repeated the process for 2 more iterations then returned to our home teams for the 4th round.

After the 4th round, we were asked to individually reflect on the quality of the conversation. One question we were asked to think about was “what may have surprised us in this dialogue?” Using the “popcorn” style of reporting out from random participants in the large group, Mary Corrigan captured these comments. To encourage the spirit of reflection we were each gifted with a journal from the Ball Foundation. Before adjourning for the night, Olga and Mary Kennedy offered another question to reflect on as we moved into the dreamtime: “How were you as a learner in your groups?”

Opening

Joann began Thursday with this quote from A Simpler Way by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Rogers.

…Life altered the atmosphere and gentled the sunlight. It turned the naked rocks of the continents into friable soil and clothed them with a richly variegated mantel of green which captured the energy of our own star for the use of living things on earth, and it softened the force of the winds. In the seas life built great reefs that broke the impact of storm-drive waves. It sifted and piled up shining beaches along the shores. Working with amazing strength and endurances life transformed an ugly and barren landscape into a benign and beautiful place.

In a universe where the desire to experiment and to create is so inescapable, it seems important to ask why. Why are novelty and experimentation so encouraged? Why does life seek to organize with other life?

When living beings link together, they form systems that create more possibilities, more freedom for individuals.

This is why life organizes, why life seeks systems – so that more may flourish.

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