Introducing Conversations on Transformation
In our inaugural post I outlined the vision behind Building Belonging. I’d now like to provide some context for one of the experiments identified there, a curated series that we’re calling Conversations on Transformation.
Building the Cathedral
I sometimes use here the parable of the stone carvers, which I retell as follows: three stone masons are busily working carving stone. A person happens by and ask what they’re doing. The first says, with some irritation, “I’m carving stone.” The second says, with some pride, “I’m carving a door.” The third looks skyward, and says with some reverence, “I’m carving a cathedral.”
My consistent experience has been finding incredibly talented door carvers, and even a number of cathedral-builders… but none of us can see the whole of which we are a part, and all of us recognize that even if we could we can’t build it alone. The Building Belonging project is in part an effort to weave together all of these different people, to connect everyone in the task of co-visibilizing the whole (cathedral? mosque? synagogue? or something else entirely that we are co-creating?)
From socialization… to liberation
The second was encountering Bobbie Harro’s brilliant work on the cycle of liberation (building on her pioneering exploration of the “cycle of socialization.”)
She gave me the language to understand my experience: namely, that we were all working on different aspects of transformation (what she calls liberation) without being sufficiently aware of the other aspects, or their interrelationship. For me that meant doing equity work and anti-racism training over here; going to therapy and doing mindfulness practice over there; attending complexity workshops with systems change practitioners in still a third place. All good as far as they go… and each on its own unlikely to succeed without the others. Transformation is always and inherently relational, and operating at all levels at the same time.
Virtual “salons”
Over the course of 2019 we held a series of in-person “salons” (ah, the pre-COVID days): intimate gatherings of 6–12 people around the concepts that are animating Building Belonging. As COVID arrived we shifted to virtual gatherings, organized intentionally around the arc of transformation. In an effort to tie together the whole (to illuminate the cathedral that at least I think I see) we framed it around a book, with various sections corresponding to the different elements of transformation.
The result is a set of what we anticipate will be 21 conversations on transformation (give or take…) We have hosted four thus far: on Network Weaving, on Narrative, on Conflict Transformation, and on Reconnecting with the Sacred. Each conversation is in relationship with the broader concept of belonging, and in service of our shared vision for transformation. You can view past conversations and set alerts for future livestreams via our YouTube channel here:
You can also register for upcoming conversations via our Eventbrite page.
What we’re learning
We’ll use this space to share back highlights of what’s emerging from the conversations, and would love your reactions as well: what resonates, what doesn’t, what are you curious about. We share this in the spirit of open-source collaboration and co-creation, so we can learn and iterate together.
In community,
