[Dialogue] "Our only job is to teach RS1"

[Janice Ulangca]

Wonderful, wonderful, WONDER-FULL, Wayne.  I was polite in my reaction to 
point 1  out of great respect for Lyn and Jim.  I started cheering, though, 
as # 2 began, then internally jumped up and down with enthusiasm.  Thanks! 
for articulating what has been/now is, going on.  As for 3, 4, 5:  What 
needs to continue to happen.

I suspect some action on my part will follow - don't yet know what. 
 Because - tomorrow night begins a community event hosted by the Peace with 
Justice Committee of the Council of churches.  The Human Costs of War and 
Pathways to Peace is the series title.  Aspects of SATW, of ORID, of 
participation  principles,  of creating events that can change 
consciousness,  are woven in ...  I'd better get back to work on some 
context details.
Janice Ulangca


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Nelson" <wnelson at ica-associates.ca>
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 12:41 PM
Subject: [Dialogue] "Our only job is to teach RS1"


>
> 1. Stan Gibson had Lyn Edwards and Jim Addington here in Toronto for an 
> RS-1 in the 90's. It was just before her last big birthday. I think they 
> did a couple of them and experimented with teaching methodology a bit. I 
> think there have been a few others - here and there.
>
> 2. At ICA in Canada, we are using Brian Stanfield's ' The Courage to Lead"
>
> We worked hard for years  to articulate the pillars of our foundational 
> understanding in transparent terminology.  Brain took all of our thoughts 
> and did an amazing job of expressing our core wisdom. It's important to 
> point up a difference between a secular RS1 and a transparent RS1. Courage 
> to Lead steps away from traditionally religious terminology in order to 
> sacralize the ordinary and raise existential questions. It is nothing like 
> a word - word translation from churchy words to non-churchy words. No 
> attempts to wrap something in a different package to make it appealing to 
> those not into churchy metaphors. It transparentizes life experience.
>
> ICA Canada runs a multi week study group on Courage to lead. When they are 
> offered in Toronto's University Health Network, the courses are fully 
> booked within an hour of being offered on their website. People report 
> things that would be solid evidence of a "changed life" to most anyone and 
> certainly anyone with eyes to see. There are a team of people guiding 
> these sessions and they do amazing work.
>
> ICA Associates, for many years, taught a course we called "Participation 
> Paradigm."  Developed around the same time we were doing the Courage to 
> Lead research, we were looking for a way to take advance ToP facilitators 
> into the foundations of methodology. We used RS1 as the overall template. 
> Limits and Possibilities  - Continual Affirmation - Inclusive 
> Responsibility - Social Pioneer
>
> A pillar of the course is what we call "Contentless Method" in which we 
> attempt to help people see the connections running from facilitation 
> practice down through guiding values to the foundational understanding 
> that are the DNA of one's facilitation practice and  their own life. 
> Seeing and, indeed creating, that alignment blows people into a new world. 
> They are practitioners with profound purpose and grounded life methods.
>
> We have since woven that together with our work in Imaginal Education into 
> a three day course called "Human Development."  It is part of a series of 
> advanced courses along with Advanced Facilitation Tools and Organizational 
> Transformation and the 6 day Art and Science of Participation. Those who 
> take that series of courses are firm, deep colleagues. and powerful 
> facilitators who are able to enable groups to address their own 
> existential situations. They walk the talk.  I'm speaking for my own 
> experience. ICA and the US ToP Network have done the same sort of depth 
> training, and mentoring with many people. Going to their meetings is 
> nothing short of sheer bliss. To see that many people joined together in a 
> substantially deep purpose and common understanding is, to me, sheer 
> bliss.  These people are weaving new ways of human interaction into 
> communities and organizations and it is making a difference in their lives 
> and in their workplaces.
>
> Do we "teach RS1"?
>
> 3. Courses come and go. We recreate our curriculum regularly. A course 
> construct is a container.  They tend to get crusty and rusty. Renovate 
> 'em. Toss 'em out.  Keep the good stuff and put it in a new dish. Keep 
> doing it. Rapidly and with integrity. Welcome to life in the 21st century.
>
> 4. Viewing a metaphor used to describe core identity and purpose as a 
> perpetual, specific program directive stretches the fabric just a bit too 
> far.
>
> 5. To do is more blessed than asking why others are not.
>
>
> \\/
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson
> wnelson at ica-associates.ca
> O - 416-691-2316
> M - 647-229-6910
>
>
>
>
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