Stone Circles is Nynke’s thinking system expressing in more or less earthly form its filtering of input.
The form and structure of any crystal of a particular substance will always be the same. Geologically and chemically this tends to be explained thus: Thermodynamics, namely the most stable energetic configuration, controls formation, and the bottom line is that it always happens in the same way.
Each substance has its own form and structure which the “gestalt” of the molecules” “know” and “align to”. These beings know their own structure.
Nynke May 24th, 2007
A new blog has appeared. Welcome Hans Konstapel, welcome to blogland where thoughts are woven freely.
Nynke May 12th, 2007
If I could describe the aftermath of an Open Space event, or what I experience from the ripples of the stone soup creating beautiful interference patterns, the best way to describe it would be
As it is Below, so it is Above
Dedicated to the whole team (including my self) that will be dreaming the AE2008 conference together …
People can learn to dream,
that even in the midst of chaos,
even in the heat of discussions,
people can develop a dream that,
gives understanding within their own hearts,
not by controlling the world dreaming,
but by controlling one’s own dreaming within.
Nynke May 11th, 2007
I have some Google alerts set for open space material appearing on the web, so I got this and reading it I found:
Things to NOT Do
- Standard conference/convention agenda/schedule/breaks
- Talking heads
- Speaker ribbons
- Show bags
- Tracks
- Published proceedings
Output of Conference:
- Some container (presentation, wall/time line) of the knowledge created by the conference, distilled into a reusable form.
- Video tape edited from conference activities
- Continuation of conversations on the Web afterward leading toward another event. (Events are needed to trigger participation.)
Hmmmnn. I think that old-fashioned paper written notes from break-out sessions, make a fine Book of Proceedings as “Output of Conference”, and when copied for participants and then distributed can be considered “Published proceedings”.
Maybe I am just “nit-picking” on the word “Published proceedings”.
Whatever, I think we need to be careful with how we say things.
Then I also read:
Input to Conference:
- Assign people to their “learning groups” or subteams prior to the conference, giving each a “thought assignment.” This actually starts the conference before the event itself and provides the infrastructure that will enable the conversation to continue afterwards.
My thoughts on this, after my initial confusion:
Sure, when I intend to participate in an OS event, I can, for example, rumor my thoughts on what my personal intent is as butterfly, participating in, observing, and enjoying what’s going on in the event, and I can blog and speak about being flabbergasted by the beauty of what I see happening at OS events, each time, again and again.
Intending to participate as a facilitator I can rumor ahead of the event, about how I/we set intent to “hold the space” for creativity, being prepared to be surprised - which I *love* to be, so I am always looking forward to an OS event ;-), the four principles, and the law of two feet.
Just like after the event some agreed upon action items may still have to actually manifest themselves, so also was there enthousiasm before the event, or else no participants had appeared, … and that was exactly what was to happen.
For example, for the Open Space at the IAF conference, people are invited to already come up with issues, and are welcomed to share those. A word of warning that doing so does not pre-determine the schedule balanced with encouraging enthousiasm and such sharing, is given here. Could of course be made even more encouraging. Any creative suggestions?
By the way, for ye marketeers out there, the “be prepared to be surprised” and “law of two feet” seem two very powerful resonant attractors at the moment. We’re getting many returns when throwing those words in the soup.
That being a side-note, back to my confused consciousness stream: bringing in a “thought assignment” like described in the article, that’s something else. That’s like, “Don’t think of banana’s” - “Now what are you thinking about?” That is not really inviting creativity …
Actually, this may be worse than that. Perhaps the in the article mentioned “Input to conference” stance combined with a welcoming “Open Space” can cause double binds for some people …
I double checked if I wasn’t jumping to any conclusions, by trying rereading the sentence with “theme” replacing “thought assignment” to check if she hadn’t just meant to write something like “attractor”, and didn’t even get that far. I immediately tripped over the “Assign people to their …” at the beginning. Yukkkk. Does not smell good to me either.
Setting up a predetermined schedule like in the article I just read, kills both “artistic originality” and “making connections to everything”. This “set-up for Open Space” feels more like a “set-up for Space Invasion” to me. Welcome to this already invaded space! Please, come in and open your mind to us?!?
And from our experience, our “Input to OS events” is certainly not a single item. The participants cook the soup together, hence the menu appears on the spot, based on ingredients brought by participants. As facilitators all we do is choose and make the environment such that humans can easily make and maintain connections, we chop the wood, get a suitable kettle, a stone, water, send invitations, light the fire under the kettle, set up some stools around it, explain the basic recipe, throw in the stone, and then we get out of participant ways as quickly as our two feet can carry us.
Nynke May 7th, 2007
Sweet Medicine Wheel
0-9 law
for large Open Space events
We are likely putting on an Open Space event in february 2008 for 300-500 people, a big un, compared to what we have done sofar. The below steps describe our natural conference choreography, meaning, that is what is likely to happen if meteors and things like that do not interfere with our intent. It is simply how we do things, undone from all sorts of manifestation details that always change anyway when making Stone Soup. Just some obvious observables from our experience sofar with making Stone Soup. Normally this all goes without saying.
However, for large OS meetings, like with 300-500 participants (or more), it may add to the richness of the OS event to consciously address each of these steps with the facilitation team.
| Female energy | Female and male energy | Male energy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The decision to organise an Open Space event (make stone soup) for participatory decision-making, and paying attention to what it will take to put one on, is the focus step. How original to see its activation potential! | 2. Gathering the necessary parts party works with substance. Get yourself a real stone soup chef. | 3. The form is then locked into space by adding ingredients like contracts, commitments and resources. | 4. Putting more wood on the fire under the kettle, we determine a theme, locus of authority, boundaries, location, catering — perhaps using a teaspoon of playful appreciative inquiry. | 5. Spread the word, rumor it! We’re gonna have stone soup! These whiffs of it make people understand something really good is about to happen … | 6. Correcting the flavoring, we imagine tunings for excellence. Make posters and banners. Turn on music. Make it nice! Now it really, really smells excellent! | 7. Freedom: Bridging by thought not what it seems? No snowflake, stone soup or OS event is ever the same. Nothing is ever the same. Be prepared to be Surprised! |
| 8. Starting in a Circle, the recipe pattern is given to participants by the Four Principles. As facilitators we merely have the honor of, as authentically and invisibly as possible, to be holding the space open for … participants together creating the matrix of what is to happen and what issues will be discussed whenwhere during this open space event. All ingredients are contributed by participants for a wonderful Stone Soup! | ||||||
| 9. Chaos and creativity in a self-organising universe! We are in the actual open space event, with nature all around us, surfing chaos, discussing topics in breakout spaces, making connections, participating in decision-making, raising our awarenesses, finding new focus on attention, informing our selves, cross training and gaining, resolving issues, butterflying outside and bumblebeeing inside, sinking stars into minds, connecting everything, the whole dynamical matrix, the stone soup is actually cooking and being eaten in the Now! | ||||||
| 10. Completion with after dinner dinner, closure in Circle, and Books of Proceedings. | ||||||
Shooting the arrow
1 (artistic originality) + 7 (connection to everything)
2 (individuating power) + 6 (general knowledge)
3 (relationships to others) + 5 (condition and appearance)
4 (will) + 4 (will) (Four principles, changing time, 4D)
What’s in the soup we eat?
7 (unconscious (dreamtime, 5D) and conscious mind (within time, 3D)) + 10 (collective unconscious (time cell activation, 7D) and collective consciousness (timing for manifesting dreams instantaneously, 6D))
Wake up at the
IAF Benelux 2007 conference and the Agile Open conference!
When not facilitating, I will be butterflying time connections outside
0 9 law, cycles, light arrow, medicine wheel, open space, self organising universes, spirals
Nynke March 30th, 2007
I happened to have the honor of witnessing a wonderful exchange between the IAF Benelux and the Agile Open organisers. A sponsoring swap.
Logo’s are to be exchanged on the IAF Benelux 2007 conference and the Agile Open conference websites-in-the-making and a conference-student-exchange of two people between the two respective conferences is to take place. Meaning, two of us go for free to their conference, and two of them come for free to our conference.
For the Agile Open side in the negotion, Willem van den Ende has been asked if he will organise and run an Agile Open @ IAF Benelux workshop in the morning. Who else will come with him still remains a mystery for now. Since I am co-organising the Open Space in the afternoon with Jan Lelie of the IAF, and Andrew Ballance will also be there, putting on an Appreciative Inquiry workshop in the morning, the Open Space in the afternoon will have an excellent experienced facilitator team.
Of course, in return, I will assist Willem and Andrew in the morning. Even if that means staying out of their way! That is negotiable. 
Let’s keep on swapping those T-shirts !!!
So …
the two students in this cross training and gaining from the Agile side will do a workshop on Open Space as guests of the IAF Benelux.
I can’t help but wonder what the two representatives of the IAF are going to bring to Agile Open in return?
… and of course Agile will reciprocate hospitalities enjoyed …
Nynke January 2nd, 2007
Two years ago, at European Consultants camp during the Satir session on sculpting practices, we cross trained and gained and expressed what I believe to be an important lesson. Practising the Satir stances as an essential ingredient to the sculpt we would build we encountered a situation where we clearly felt superrational as “coverup” for “blaming”. Yup. Sometimes “superrational” is “hidden blaming”.
Have you ever had something explained to you in great detail, with intonations suggesting it is the umpht time this is being explained to you, perhaps even accompanied by words or stances and intonations that “apparently you can’t hold this simple information so I am now going to pump it into you”. The rythmic way it is done in, tells its true tale.
Likely results: being distracted by the covert part in the message, we could not focus on the intake of the message we were presented with, that which we were are supposed to know, the overt part of the message.
Perhaps it was worse. Not being able to focus on the details we were supposed to take in and that now drone us by with their staccato rhythm and additional waves, we may have received yet another blow of treason: Our inability to focus under these conditions may have been used as a killer by for instance, a teacher, “Are you *that* stupid??? That now that I am drumming this into you, you won’t even understand (my perspective)??? And we all know kids are cruel, so that may have delivered a follow up by getting teased, perhaps even bullied. Even by who we believed was our best friend …
Perhaps it was even worse than that. What if we were a bright kid, that was quite the curious person, and trusting the authorities in whose care we were placed (darn, it’s one of those early illusions we create!), we freely asked away. And what if some grown-ups, those teachers, those authorities we trusted, felt uncomfortable not having enough answers? What if these authorities were afraid of our capability of asking good questions that made them think and doubt what they already believed to be real, which includes their “natural” authority? What if they were afraid of loosing their authority stance with us, and with the others? Afraid of our disapproval?
Perhaps the kiddies in our class room were already forgetting, while we were still collecting and kept gathering awarenesses up until we were twelve. Still, their empaths were still on when we got our “treatment”. Because they know how we felt. Yet they did not wish to know. They wished to forget. So they externalized their co-experienced esteem vanishing point, and projected it on us, the first experiencers in this collective story. To kill their own esteem getting killed, they teased and bullied us (in)to death (dancers). There, all gone. What happens to another, doesn’t happen to us (another one of those illusions), so we are better persons than the other (yet another illusion illusion) and our illusions more important (and thus right!).
This latter one is a painful one in my experience. Where people around us are killing their emotional intelligence and connections for a collective denial. Group think at its worst. A collective weaving of fears that create illusions on Earth that people have bought into in order to feel better about themselves, and to find justification in for mankind’s (un)balanced actions at the expense of others.
What if our best friend merely aligned for self-preservation with a bully. Please be our friend’s friend and understand he acted out of fear. Inclusion in a group for self preservation is a known human folly. In separation we can avoid reality. The price we pay is making ourselves dependent on “stronger peers” and “authorities” for constant approval, then having to forget about having chosen this strategy a.s.a.p., off course.
…
Saddam Hussein was officially executed. He was hanged. The official release by camera did not include some things that can be found on Saddam’s execution video available on the web. Some guards ridicule a man about to be hanged. I could consider that unnecessary cruel and hence inhumane and focus on potential effects this movie can have on the communities and collectives weaving the contemporary illusionary tapestry. Or, I could focus on likely underlying “universal” processes, to cross train and gain understanding of such cruelty …
Healthy griefwork includes our emotional intelligence, and we can move on.
Or I could do neither and focus on business-as-usual. Going superrational gives me a first way out to denial: I was not there myself, so perhaps the video was fabricated. Yes, it must have been, for our soldiers would never do such a thing. Not worth any further investigation. ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz …
And, I could fold it all-in-one. If my attraction to, stake in, or attachment to, a particular problem is large enough, and if I have trained myself including dancing self awareness on such issues, I can safely use my super rational for verification and validation practices, and facilitate undoing of not fitting perceptions for the purpose of truly seeing and understanding what is happening and having and making responsible congruent choices.
Assume that video on Hoessein on the web is not a fabrication, and the whole sandbox thing has expanded to include the entire Earth, and childhood movies are repeating itself with lots of people sleepwalking in it? Of course that’s a scary thought!
Particular associations in personal stories do not necessarily involve a treachourous teacher. Our personal movies may feature parents, an older brother or sister, or a partner. Even best friends now and then do it. And we project this movie pattern too on occasion. I know I (have) play(ed) a role in these movies. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this article. I also play(ed) a lot with (alternative) strategies for making much more interesting and joyful movies.
Wake Up!
Great Illusions of Freedom cause isolation and separation. Wake up from living in lala land and try some reality (even when you believe nothing exists). We are all in(ter)dependent on Earth, and we need not fight each other. We need no approval or disapproval from any group gestalt or individual to exist, or to preserve ourselves. Illusions. Nobody knows the right way anyway and nobody is stupid. And we’re all responsible for the collective projections and how we interact with our selves, life, and others in the Great Movie named Life on Earth.
Try these Five Freedom Illusions. In my experience, this movie delivers much better results on Earth!
To See and Hear what is here
instead of what should be, was or will be.
To Say what one feels and thinks
instead of what one should
To Feel what one feels instead of what one ought
To Ask for what one wants,
instead of always waiting for permission.
To Take Risks in one’s own behalf,
instead of choosing to be only ’secure’ and not rocking the boat.
– Virginia Satir
To support the projection of this movie in your life, you can order the Satir 5 freedoms as poster here
Nynke November 23rd, 2006
Intent: Delivering meaningful Change Management consulting services to a customer for addressing challenges when the customer needs to know “How to introduce RUP as fast as we can”.
We know Open Space Technology could work wonders here? Why?
OST can be used for a range of purposes: from vision forming and scenario planning, to change management issues when introducing new tools and techniques.
The technology is ideally suited to the uncertainties and complex issues that appear when re-organising, introducing new ways of doing things in a corporation, or when there is a highly polarized strategic issue or technically complex issue to be addressed.
In general, OST is suitable for finding sustainable solutions fast to problems where a diversity of people will be affected and different perspectives need be involved.
Suppose we then offer OST to our customers as if they were the customer’s demands.
Choosing to use OST requires proper discernment and clear thinking by the meeting’s host or sponsor, in particular when focusing on organizational change. It is essential that the client/customer be open to authentically listening to ideas generated by participants.
If we as facilitator are not straightforward during initial consultation or if the client has a too well-defined vision of what is to be the outcome or result of an Open Space event or meeting, OST should not be used.
How to do it differently and guard against these dangers, for our own sake, and that of our customers?
In these corporate contexts I sell OST only to customers, when it is a means to an end for solving the customer’s real problem, and the client (customer) can think clearly and listen. And perhaps something else than OST is a better fit (first)? We need to get field impressions and a customer’s purpose and non-negotiables clear first.
For that we need to gather workable knowledge. Let’s get up and go for a walk …
To my knowledge, the best way to get started is to investigate system responses. Why investigate system responses?
Freethink, question, examine, and be willing to confront issues of belief from a place of knowing. Try appreciative inquiry.
Dear customer, pick any issue or problem from the appearing field of (anticipated) issues from within your corporation regarding introducing RUP, and if you think I can be of assistance facilitating a resolution for that singled out item, contact me.
Nynke September 29th, 2006
To see problems before they see us, or, at minimum, at about the same time, and most importantly, to see what solutions we have already found. The sooner we see our most frustrating problems already may have been solved, the more time we have for moving forward with more enjoyable things. We cannot afford to waste the time we have. And that can give us our (competitive) edge.
What if this is an excellent example for illustrating use of chakra’s to figure out where we are in the Now - meaning in which state we physically are - and to consciously steer where we go with self, other and context in mind?
Condition red is where we can install and/or reveal new drivers. This is where we can (re)program our balance and coordination of states of mind. We can code things like “we do NOT immediately fire on just about anything that makes a noise or moves”.
There are many many ways. For instance, by what-iffing we can pose tactical problems that perhaps need to be resolved going forward. To my knowledge, playful games work best.
Our newspapers and media are full of the most exulting and horrible things. I step in the shoes of others involved and ask myself how I would have felt in and likely handled those situations. Like, could I have avoided this horror? If not, what could I use to evade or counter and safely remove myself from what seems to be happening here?
I also use movies woven in imaginative journeys like mystery space ship mocking bird.
And I regularly play “biker games”. These are games where I practice physical awareness. Like, how many, and which of my colleagues, can I make myself disappear with, and sneak up on? How many of them can sneak up on me - if colleagues notice, and figure out the game I am playing, and join in, the game becomes quite foolishly neat ;-))
And I often play a simple awareness game at conferences: Every time I see someone I know before they see me, I score, and each time they see me before I do, I subtract a point of my score.
My esteemed colleagues of course! How to recognize who we are?
When we are actually being attacked by a predator. So we need regular coaching, consulting and facilitation gigs to practice and tune our timing of Fight-Flight-Freeze patterns.
For example …
Excitement likely won’t kill me, but surprise can, easily, so let’s buy some time so I can still respond and not have to react!
What if we were to build and practice some kind of “power and strength continuum scale” (so that we do not bring a kitchen knife to an all-out corral gunfight?)
What if we practice/integrate/embody/exchange on “How to effectively … avoid, evade, and counter predatory people”, so we can focus on making our own dreams come true, and perhaps those of our esteemed colleagues, in expansively optimistic professional resource circles.
An example of such a power and strength scale for fearlessly engaging with victimizing chaos and predatory dominance dogma’s could be:
Do you have more ideas for playfully raising awareness and learning mental aikido?
Nynke August 22nd, 2006
Bubbling in the bath, I watched my stew from the feedback I received on Blogging Benefits. Late last night, babbling with Lynne, she asked me about my tag cloud on Stone Circles and I explained to her how I use it. Worth a separate blog entry I believe.
A blog is an alarm clock for counting tyrant moves
As I journal the times of my life, certain things can keep re-appearing. I can gather some idea of what is working in my life and what is not. With this externalized memory in hand it is much easier to see patterns, changes, and shifts. I ask myself what Jerry taught me to ask, “What do I want to keep or change in, or remove from my back pack?“. Works for me!
How I much easier see patterns, changes, and shifts using my blog?
For each blog entry I determine its key words as closing procedure of writing or making changes to an individual entry. I choose key words that are used in the entry and together describe its skeleton gestalt for my intent with it. Not only tags, but also amount of tags entered typically differs per entry. I enter the key word in the tags field of the entry form in the backend. Not only are tags entered used as metatags for search-engines identifying the permalink page, the tags are also used in my tag cloud. Key words that are repeated become bigger.
My tagcloud - and if you cannot see it in the navigation bar on the left you are either reading from systemsthinking net or have come here through the permalink URL of this entry, you can go to Stone Circles Homepage to see it - has four layers distinguishable by the size of the tags: thickest word representing sourcering word, semi-thickest words conscious keys, “normal” words subconscious keys, and smallprint unconscious, yet determinable keys.
At the time of writing this tag cloud entry …
Hmmmnjah. Having Joy as tyrant isn’t so bad, and connections and transparency are quite welcome guests, my subconscious quite supportive and showing what’s already there and happening, and the field of words and potential tyrants seems to describe a garden with fluffy bunnies and a woolly mammoth running around in it … Not bad at all … :-))))))))))
Tag clouds can be organised purposefully
for transparent self reflection.
And for transparent community reflection,
like some additional collective unconscious layer,
for example the Technorati Tags.
conscious, joy, measurements, source, subconscious, tags, transparency, unconscious
Nynke August 20th, 2006
For our new webhosting company-in-formation, I am bubbling about the benefits of blogging. I’ve been blogging and trying out several tools over the past few years (5 different blogs!). The writing folded in in itself. These are some “things” I noticed.
When I write an entry, I don’t have to carry that what I have written about, inside me. It helps me to “let-go” of some things. I noticed this effect through a looking-glass, when it was enhanced by Willem setting up back-ups to back-up our server. My blog has truly become my journal. By blogging, I give myself a powerful form of self-expression, and through that expression I can gain clarity, release, and relief. And sometimes that takes me rewriting an entry several times.
By blogging I can actually see and better understand what I need and want, my hopes and wishes, and how I truly feel. That helps me create the space for myself to practice the five freedoms.
And even if a calendar is not available, journaling about what I want to do and manifest for a single day, a season, a project, a year, or this lifetime, helps me to actually manifest things in the now. Purposeful blog entries serve me as “development stories” by extracting archive cards of “things to do” from an entry or by giving me clues for an open ended plan for getting me to a desired state. Like agile development of my own life’s path!
Writing a blog entry co-creates more personal awareness for me, and therefore more focus on issues that are really important to me.
By taking time for myself to blog, I can feel the gain from doing something specifically for myself. And what I write about regularly (re)appears in other contexts of my life as I have that time I have spent on myself in my inner backpack, and everywhere I journey to. And when I blog and when I don’t are all tell-tale signs of my choreography and path. It makes me a dead give-away.
I can write an entry now, I don’t have to write one tomorrow, or the day after. I can pick it up in a week, in a month. I can even choose to skip a season or two. It is my blog!
Writing entries, I record my experiences, dreams, ideas, hopes and wishes, thoughts and more, for reflecting on past, now, and future. I am telling my story to myself.
As Virginia Satir said, “Because I reflect on all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. And by so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I am Okay. ” Whether I re-read my journal or not, I already gain benefits from writing down my story. I am writing about how I see and experience life.
Retrospecting using my blog entries, I increase my awareness of the past and transform lessons I learned, to support a happier future for myself, life, and others.
As I journal the times of my life, certain things can keep re-appearing. I can gather some idea of what is working in my life and what is not. With this externalized memory in hand it is much easier to see patterns, changes, and shifts. I ask myself what Jerry taught me to ask, “What do I want to keep or change in, or remove from my back pack?“. Works for me!
Putting it all together, with my blog I track my personal growth and 5 freedoms. My blog is a wonderful tool that increases my understanding of myself and the context(s) I appear in. Being some kind of externally mirrored memory, it can be a real Treasure Trove for me.
That’s my personal blogging experience.
Now what about other blogs?
Other types of Journals?
On the web I’ve come across blogs about dreams, family, health, diets, hobbies, travel, and much more … Even for doing serious business. With a more business type blog you can track appointments, meetings, finances, or log data.
No matter what the blog tracks and records,
the insights and power it can give are amazing!
And Rick Brenner wrote about Working Journals
Stone Circles
Field stones for expansive (professional) optimism.
There are 61 Posts and 116 Comments so far.