Evolving Deliberately
Senior year is an interesting time to be a student. You are simultaneously enjoying the last year of school as much as you can while also thinking about the future and the unstructured life of the “real world.”
As a result, my friends and I frequently zig-zagged between discussion topics of these two realms — homework due that afternoon, to the 2016 election, an upcoming party that Saturday, job recruitment, etc.
One Saturday in June, a few weeks before graduation, a close friend named Rovik and I spent the day together enjoying our last spontaneous weekend as students. As we soaked in the sun and breeze off the lake, we couldn’t help but discuss the tranquility of the nature around us. He said he connected with the “green revolution” of the late 1960s out on the lake; I think he simply liked laying the grass and staring at the trees.
Later, we went to a house to spend the afternoon with a group of graduating seniors. Over several hours on the porch, a revolving door of people continued to pass by and stop to talk with us. An acquaintance from a student group walked by and chatted about a recently announced political policy. Another noted the tendency for younger generations to see the world optimistically through “rose colored glasses” — both figuratively and literally (someone on the porch had a pair of shades that made the world appear delightful). One person came up to the porch and we analyzed the dominance of Amazon and its rise as a modern IBM. Someone else came out of the house and we talked about a social demonstration she was on her way to attend.
At some point toward the late afternoon, Rovik and I stopped to reflect on the long day. We had interacted with so many different people, engaging in so many interesting, thought-provoking conversations. Would this continue after graduation? Would we find a space like this to keep our minds open and dialogues going? How can we maintain our positive, forward-leaning perspective on the world and ourselves— our personal version of rose-colored glasses — while acknowledging the ongoing change and complexities of society?
Both of us readily acknowledged that the difficult, challenging debate and conversation that we experienced in college was transformative. It is a central component of the learning and growth that comes with attending a University. These powerful institutions of learning work to create a ripple effect by encouraging us to dabble in discourse in the classroom so that we might foster discussion in our own personal lives.
But what about after college? Where would we find people like this that sought a similar level of exploration? How would we keep our rose-colored shades on to keep learning, growing, and impacting those around us? How would we continue to grow from the thoughts and perspectives of those around us, and help them grow along the way?
The next step just logically followed: Why not create such a space?
Over the next several weeks, Rovik and I developed a plan to craft our own space. We wrestled with its purpose, its structure, its operations, its composition, its soul. We pushed ourselves to think about the best way to continue to challenge and empower us to grow continuously throughout our lifetime, regardless of circumstances in the moment. We wanted to continue wearing our role colored glasses, constantly learning and seeing the potential of the world around us, while also understanding and appreciating the reality that grounds us.
In June, we launched Deliberate Evolution.
When asked to describe this group, I tell people it’s a “Book Club on Steroids” because I don’t really know what else to call it.
But it’s more than a book club, both in its actual operations and more importantly in its soul. D.E. is not just for reading together, it is for challenge and debate to facilitate group learning and individual growth.
Right now, we meet bi-weekly:
- Book Discussion — each month we pick a book to read as a group. About 2/3 is a discussion on the arguments, claims, and critiques of the book. The other 1/3 we try to “look forward” by asking questions like, “How does this apply today? How does this author’s argument apply to 2017 and beyond?” We first completed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari which takes an evolutionary approach to understanding the biology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology of the human species from it’s origination as a sub-species of the Homo genus to today. Most recently, we discussed Ways of Seeing by John Berger which was revolutionary at its time for examining the way art has contributed to our views of society, especially to the social divide between men and women. Both are incredibly relevant to today.
- Open Topic Discussion — each month we pick a topic to discuss as a group. Our first topic was “The Rise of Globalization and the Swing to Nationalism” which was a mix of anthropology, politics, and policy around the world. Our most recent topics was “Religion and Government” and the influence of religion on public life. Both challenged me to think about the world in a different way than I have before.
We also collect articles and publications on a regular basis and discuss these ad hoc throughout the day via group messaging.
What separates the group from a typical book-club or debate group is the foundation of humility and personal growth embedded within our institutional DNA and reinforced by group practices.
Buzzword Buzzword Buzzword — Name & Purpose
The name of the group, Deliberate Evolution, was chosen because it reflects the philosophical, internalized belief system that the group represents and its members should embody. We actively, deliberately seek to challenge ourselves in order to consciously evolve our minds and spirits. We choose to expand our understanding of the world, to face opposition to our belief system, and to refine our assumptions and understanding over time so that we might become even better connected to the human condition. In turn, we can bring this refined knowledge, philosophy, and dialogue skills to others and empower them to evolve as well.
Through intellectual and empathetic discourse and exploration on the most pressing and important topics of our global society, as well as individual debate and reflection, we hope to empower ourselves, others, and society to grow and evolve.
In English, Please…
Deliberate Evolution is founded on the belief that through intense but respectful discourse each person can learn and grow as an individual. By practicing empathetic understanding, engaging in debate, and exploring difficult topics, we refine our interpersonal skills so we can engage in these types of important dialogues outside of the group as well. The goal is to ripple out to other spaces — home, classrooms, workplaces — so that we can encourage those spaces evolve as well. D.E. is a continuation of our tendency to see the world through Rose Colored Glasses. On one hand, it might be completely naive to think this will make a tremendous impact on any one individual or broader society. But on the other hand, it serves as a platform for continued appreciation and learning of the world around us, and even if its impact is small, we continue to evolve deliberately as a result.
Values
Rigor
Realistic Optimism
Humility
Curiosity
Respect
Responsibility, Accountability, Ownership
Diversity in All Forms
Each of these has their own description attached to them — but the one I think is most interesting so far has been our very close attention to ensuring we have Diversity of in all forms — thought, affiliation, gender, creed, religion, nationality, class, and orientation. From the start, it’s been a central point of emphasis — Rovik and I debated for hours about how best to consider this as we moved through the planning stages, providing even more growth moments for both us.
So far, our group is small — 4 people — so that we could evolve at a methodical, deliberate pace. Even still, we have a range of ethnicities, religions, gender, and ideology. Its composition has made for lively discussions and enriching debate. I hope it has enriched the lives of the other group members and people in their personal circles as well.
We are expanding slowly but deliberately (see a theme here?). Next time we meet we will have two new guests. Unsure how to be welcoming of all people of all backgrounds while still being selective enough to uphold our personal values and purpose, we have invited these two people as guests to sit in on our topic discussion to let them evaluate if this is the right environment for them. It also gives us a chance to evaluate on some level.
As part of the introduction process, we’ve asked each person to write up a small person introduction. The current group of 4 will also do the introduction form so that is can be shared and so we can be vulnerable before even meeting one another.
This is just the first step in our growth and evolution, and I know it won’t be the last. Looking forward to more continued conversations and keeping my rose-colored shades on for the foreseeable future.
