NewStories lives in a vibrant eco-system of people and possibilities. Our blogs are a pathway to access what we regard as essential knowledge for all of us in these times of transformative change.
We are rapidly becoming aware that none of us are going to be left out of the collapse of multiple systems in which we live. Wars may be happening elsewhere, but fires, floods, hurricanes, bomb cyclones, tsunamis, crop failures,...
Featured Stories2We cannot “fix” the coronavirus. It is here. To be sure, there are many things we can do to mitigate the speed with which the virus spreads. I’m deeply appreciative of the many announcements helping us learn what we can do. This is a...
BobFeatured StoriesResilience2The first thing to overcome with the coronavirus is fear. The virus is certainly dangerous. The likelihood is we will need to learn to live with it. A “new normal” will emerge with its own protocols for traveling, meeting, caring for...
Featured Stories0Our mission is to reweave the social fabric that regenerates Paradise I was born and raised in Paradise, California, a town of 27,000 in Butte County on The Ridge, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas just above Chico. On November 8th,...
ClimateFeatured StoriesPreparing for the Possible2For the last several years Transition US (TUS) and NewStories have been working together to support people everywhere who are building healthy and resilient communities. We’ve been natural allies with similar values but using used diff...
Featured Stories0Last month I had the privilege of spending a couple of days with folks in Lake County, California. It’s a small county – only 64,000 residents with 2 incorporated towns. Per capita income is the lowest in California and various health me...
ClimateFeatured StoriesPreparing for the Possible0DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE From NewStories friend Robert Gass Dear friends, On this day, traditionally celebrated as the independence of our country, let us affirm that the times are calling for an embracing of our interdependence. w...
ResilienceSocial CapitolTransformation0It has been observed that next to a banjo, the most potent instrument for social transformation is a story—and that the future will belong to those who can tell the best story of the 21st century. Beginning in childhood, stories are...
Featured Stories1What does it take to build community? Bob Stilger shares some of his ideas in the context of building a Cohousing community in Spokane, Washington, his home for the past 46 years....
BobFeatured StoriesResilience0In October 2018, over sixty representatives of 28 First and Indigenous communities met in Girdwood, Alaska, for a first-of-its-kind gathering: the First Peoples’ Convening on Climate-Forced Displacement . NewStories was asked to design...
Case StoriesFeatured StoriesResilienceclimateDisasterindigenous0Rahasya, the editor of Lotus Guide and a Compassionate Activist in Paradise writes about how important it is for the people of Paradise to raise their voices and come together in the collective journey to become the heroes in their own...
Featured StoriesResilienceParadise1How Paradise, California regenerates a healthy and resilient community after the devastating fires of November, 2018 may provide critical learning on how communities step beyond the almost irresistible force to return to the old normal...
Case StoriesEmerging StoriesFeatured StoriesResilienceSocial CapitolParadisePreparing for the Possible0What does it take to come back into relationship with each other and our beautiful planet? Why is it important? What shifts when we do? Daniel Aldrich in Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery suggests that it is ...
Featured StoriesResilienceSocial Capitol0Three things made me curious in the last couple of weeks about our concept of time. The first source of my curiosity came up during conversations with participants in a Practicing Wholeness Circle (PWC), and with colleagues interested in...
Featured Stories0I was in Sonoma and Napa Counties earlier this month. Listening, asking, feeling, listening some more. I’ll share reliable statistics when I find them. Hundreds of thousands of acres are burned. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000 ho...
Case StoriesFeatured StoriesCaliforniaDisasterlistening0Itatemura was a village of 7,000 people, known all over Japan for its delicious water, clean air, and fertile soil. I was there earlier this month hosting a group of 22 Japanese people on a journey to discover what we could learn from Fu...
Emerging StoriesFeatured Stories1In the drylands of northern Ethiopia, climate change is a formidable foe to the communities who make their home across the rugged landscape. In one such community, known as Abrha Weatsbha, the intertwined effects of desertification, soil...
Emerging StoriesFeatured StoriesCommunityDisastermigrationResilience0(Seattle, WA) Esmeralda Planet Protector (actor/costume designer Sara Holt), hero to millions of kids across Canada, and her sidekick Goober (actor/co-writer Ian Gschwind) are now getting ready to train young Apprentice Planet Protector...
Featured StoriesSocial InnovationInnovationtheatre0Three years ago, I had a client situation where two people engaged in an intense conflict during a gathering I was facilitating and I felt terribly unequipped how to handle the conflict. I knew I needed more training in order to be of be...
Case StoriesFeatured StoriesConflictDiversityTransformation0Dear friends, In the end, I believe that those who call forth the most collective intelligence and wisdom will be those who can manifest – and help others manifest – two vital capacities: 1. the ability to include more of what is nor...
Featured Storiesco-intelligenceDiversity0I traveled to the Middle East in January to be part of a Nonviolent Communication intensive in the West Bank with 40 Israelis, 40 Palestinians and 15 internationals. We lived together for nine days, listening and speaking deeply, while ...
Featured StoriesHealerslistening1Anthony Flaccavento wrote this article for YES! Magazine. Anthony is an organic farmer, activist, and sustainable development consultant based in Abingdon, Virginia. His book, “Building a Healthy Economy From the Bottom Up: Harnessing ...
Featured StoriesDiversityRural0With the loss of my husband Lorne’s father in 2016, and my own father recovering from a series of small strokes (he is doing great and back in full swing with his speaking and writing), the year was marked by a sense of mortality. Mortal...
Emerging StoriesFeatured StoriesdeathpurposeWellbeing0Complexity, Strategy, and the Possibility of “A World that Works for All.” [Originally published Dec 22, 2016, on Medium and reposted here at Bob Stilger’s request] In a recent Facebook post, the brilliant and prolific Joe Brewe...
Resilience0We have become so remarkably accustomed to a form of leadership that comes from the top. Why? Well, because it is easier for everybody. It is easier for the leader because they can indulge in their narcissism. And, well, we want them to....
Art of HostingFeatured StoriesArt of HostingLeadership0In early 2016 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation approached Kate Seely with the idea of conduction a National Listening Tour about creating a Culture of Health. For several years RWJF had been developing a Culture of Health emphasis as o...
Case Stories0My 29 year old daughter Anne Lucy Stilger Virnig wrote this amazing text to her mother, Susan Virnig, after this week’s election: Thank you, for all you did in the sixties and seventies and eighties. I keeping having all these conversati...
Featured Stories0My dear friend Maaianne Knuth recently shared this story from the month long women’s leadership journey at Kufunda Learning Village A few weeks ago we completed our second Young Women are Medicine retreat. A month long journey with 18 yo...
Featured StoriesSocial InnovationEnspirited LeadershipWomenZimbabwe0I graduated from medical school in 1981, giving me now nearly 35 years of experience as a physician. My medical school was very focused on patient centered care, even at that early date. This focus on the patient accentuated my own view ...
HealersArt of Hostinghealinghealthwholeness0In mid-April of 2011 I traveled to Onagawa, a town of 10,000 on Japan’s northeast coast. On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 in the afternoon a magnitude 9 quake struck not far off the coast. Forty minutes later a tsunami wave towering 60 feet ...
Case StoriesResilient Japan BlogCommunityDisasterResilienceUncertainty0Small communities can be amazing and High River, Alberta, Canada is at the top of my list right now. I’ve been with people in community there for three days. About 90 folks who care came out for one of more of four sessions of the Our ...
Case StoriesArt of HostingCommunityDisasterFutureSessionsResilienceUncertainty1I sit here at my keyboard feeling both broken-hearted and still angry tonight. Hide Enomoto and I have been co-hosting a learning journey to Fukushima with 24 people, all Japanese except for one American (well two, including me). We visi...
FukushimaResilient Japan BlogDisasterfukushimaJapanradiation0For years now I’ve been on a one person campaign to defrock the butterfly as the mascot of transformation. Human societies are not like butterflies in how they change. A colleague I met early this year a a Art of Hosting Training ...
Social Innovation0I received this powerful letter from Kathie Olsen, a program officer with The Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, after the shootings earlier this month at Umpqua Community College. Kathie is a writer and grandmother and occasional no...
Featured StoriesDisaster0Last week I worked with my partner Teresa Posakony, three good people from The Athena Group — Faith Trimble, Paul Horton, Steve Byers, and one “apprentice,” Ali Kingfisher who has worked many years in government, who is already a g...
Case StoriesArt of HostingSocial Process Design0Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Times was this year’s Summer Gathering theme, taken from the title of Paul Born’s new book on community. The Summer Gathering is a 29-year old experiment in deepening community hos...
Featured StoriesNew StoriesActive HopeCommunityConferencesDeep LearningResilienceTransformation0It has been a month of stories. First story: I’ve spent more than 15 hours on the phone, in chat sessions, and on-hold. I’ve had three installation visits from Comcast to change my internet and phone service. Each person I’ve worked with...
Emerging StoriesFeatured StoriesCommunityComplex SystemsResilience0I was asked to provide some assistance to a U.S. conference last week. A gathering of 280 or so good folk who are doing work to increase energy efficient in industries. Their normal conference is multiple parallel sessions where juried p...
Case StoriesFeatured StoriesConferencesFacilitation0About a year and a half ago, New Stories Team Member Valmae Rose introduced me to Juan Kanapi, Jr. It was just after the devastating Typoon Haiyan and Valmae hoped that my work in Japan’s disasters might offer some insights in the P...
New StoriesSocial InnovationArt of HostingDisasterSE Asia0I recently came across this lovely blog on Edutopia.org about the choices we can make in our lives. It was written for teachers, talking about how to avoid burnout. But I think it has insights for all of us. — Bob Stilger Choice #1...
ResilienceHappinesshealthResilienceWellbeing0NewStories friend David Spangler recently shared these thoughts about four different times. I was struck by how these are also four different frames for stories. Enjoy! — Bob Stilger A number of years ago I took part in a small con...
New StoriesNew Storiesspirit0THE DECISIVE DECADE SERIES We invite you to join us for the 5th Annual Whidbey Winter Gathering… Where Do We Go From Here? Thursday, January 29 – Sunday, February 1, 2015 Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, Washington We are enteri...
New StoriesSocial InnovationStory DomeCommunityFutureSessionsLeadershipTransformation0Just Back from Japan… I’m back in Spokane, my final trip to Japan this year complete. Much to share! There are ongoing challenges in the disaster area. Outside Fukushima, there’s tremendous pressure to return to the old normal — in s...
Resilient Japan BlogJapanPossibilityTransformation1Here’s a great 7-minute video, part of David Suzuki’s Bluedot Tour: ‘Shoulders’ by Shane Koyczan “There will be no other thing as worth saving as this. Nothing more important, nothing as precious. This is home.” Watch,...
Films0My old friend and colleague Dean Ornish has some fresh language for my “Throw a Better Party” philosophy: — Love is more powerful than fear as a sustainable motivator — If it’s meaningful, then it’s sustainable — If it feel...
Featured Stories0Check out Jon Stewart’s Daily Show interview with Tavis Smiley. REALLY good… Tavis Smiley’s new book “Death of a King,” about the last year of Martin Luther King’s life when he began to become less hopeful and more outspoken ab...
Films0Dear Friends of the Future, Last week I sent the 3 minute video that was shown to the delegates at the United Nations conference at the beginning of the climate conference. Here is the expanded version (5+ minutes) that is closer to the ...
Films0Watching the news over the past several months, we can easily get the sense that the world as we know it is on the verge of falling apart. The outbreak of violence in Israel and Palestine, the emergence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the ten...
Transformationmeditationsubtle activism0People from all over the world are gathering at Findhorn this week for a New Stories Summit, which promises to be a deep inquiry. Why are more and more people turning towards the imagery and trajectory of story? What is it about thi...
Featured StoriesNew StoriesStories0What a breathtaking day yesterday. We ended up with over 1150 events registered on our map. Over 40,000 people joined the Facebook event. The Global Care Room was lit up with gold points of light all over the planet. And almost 3,000 par...
Featured Storiessubtle activism0Let’s get a more complete view of what’s important. I really want to highlight an excellent piece of work. Please take the time to read this outstanding article if you want to understand radiation and Fukushima: Fukushima and the Long Re...
Featured StoriesNuclearResilient Japan BlogFearfukushimaradiation0I’m a little surprised to have my first blog on the new New Stories website be about someone else’s work. It took me about 2 seconds to get over that. And to remember that this site is here to give access to a wide variety of insights ...
Social InnovationInnovationResilienceSocial Labs0I’ve just spent 8 out of the last 10 days in Future Sessions with people from all over Japan — Fukushima, Tokyo, Kyoto, Shikoku, Kyushu. It’s been an amazing time. I want to share some of the stories and learning that are brewing in ...
Resilient Japan BlogInnovationJapanPossibilityResilienceRuralTransformation0In April I was one of the keynote speakers for the STIA+ conference in Seattle. The video of my presentation, at the left, arrived today in time for it to be a present for my 65th birthday! I’m back in Japan with new learnings, both ...
Resilient Japan BlogDeep LearningFuture CentersResilienceTransformation0I had very interesting night on March 7th! I was asked to speak at TEDxTokyo Teachers on Learning Resilience. The presentation, itself, was a practice of resilience. I was going to share when I spoke anyway (and the video later), b...
Resilient Japan BlogfukushimaFuture CentersJapanResilience1A thoughtful weekend… I’ve just returned from a weekend in Fukushima. I was with a small group of social activists. We all knew each other. We came together to talk about what’s important now, as we prepare for the work of the next ...
Resilient Japan BlogfukushimaFutureHappinessInnovationJapan0What an amazing couple of days. As usual, I didn’t know what was going to happen. My friend Honda-san had said, let’s go visit the smaller towns nearest the reactors and a woman who has been working with me in many ways, including as...
Resilient Japan BlogFearfukushimanuclearradiation0I’ve been back in Japan for almost two weeks. My last trip of the year. Most of my work this time is learning and planning. There’s always so much learning to do. Today I’ve been in Fukushima, at the Big Palette, a convention cente...
NuclearResilient Japan BlogfukushimaFutureJapannuclearradiationUncertainty0I didn’t realize until I wrote the date in this blog that today is the anniversary. Just a year ago I arrived in Minamisoma with several other colleagues just after the largest earthquake since 3.11 had struck 100 miles off the coast. ...
Resilient Japan BlogfukushimaJapanPossibility0This afternoon I stood on the seawall five miles north of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants. A lovely fall day. I began a loving kindness meditation: may I be filled with loving-kindness; may I be well; may I be peaceful and at ea...
FearNuclearResilient Japan BlogFearfukushimanuclearradiation0I’m back in Fukushima. It is always good to be here. The people — those who are committed to making their future here are amazing in their determination and common sense. I’m here for three days for the third Fukushima Kaigi — a Ci...
EmotionsFearNuclearResilient Japan Blogfukushimahealthnuclearradiation1It takes about 7 hours to get to Otsuchi in Iwate Province to the north of Toky-. Four hours by high speed train, two hours by low-speed train, and about an hour by car. We went there yesterday for a FutureSession. Otsuchi is a costal to...
Resilient Japan BlogFutureSessionsInnovationJapan0Okay, I have to begin this blog telling you about a new methodology we’ve just developed in Japan. We call it World Carfe. Here’s the story. We’re sitting at dinner in an onsen near Renshoan after a day of talking about how we migh...
Resilient Japan BlogJapanTransition Towns0I didn’t expect to be writing so soon again, but there’s a story that needs to be told. Today I was at a forum organized by ETIC and the Learning Institute at Fuji Xerox. The forum brought together a cross-section of 50 or so people ...
Resilient Japan BlogBusinessJapanNPOs2I’ve been back in Japan for a couple of weeks, supporting our new Tohoku Futures Network. It’s been nearly three months since my last report. Time spent resting, thinking, and working to see next steps. This year some of what I nee...
Resilient Japan BlogFuture CentersJapanUncertainty0You’ll find a lot of references if you Google “The Kamaishi Miracle,” so I’ll keep this really short. It’s just an important story to remember. Kamaishi is a costal town in Iwate Prefecture. The most northern province affected by las...
Resilient Japan BlogJapanUncertainty3Dear Friends, Earlier this week I was invited to have dinner with Peach Heart’s founders. A year ago five young women created Peach Heart because they felt young women in Fukushima needed support in speaking their truths to each other....
Resilient Japan BlogFearJapanPossibilityUncertainty0Dear Friends, I’m on my way home to Kyoto for a brief visit before returning for a for five final days of work in Fukushima. Deep learning continues for me and for all of us as we discover how to support communities in Tohoku in creati...
Future CenterInnovationJapanResilient Japan BlogFuture CentersInnovationJapan0I’ve spent the last few days in Iwate Province, the most rural and most northern of the three provinces devastated last year on March 11th. I’ve been in to coastal communities — Yamada Town and Otsuchi. Each had a population of aroun...
Future CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogTransformationCollaborative ActionInnovationJapan0I’ve spent the last few days in Iwate Province, the most rural and most northern of the three provinces devastated last year on March 11th. I’ve been in to coastal communities — Yamada Town and Otsuchi. Each had a population of aroun...
Resilient Japan Blog0Dear Friends, I spent yesterday in the new FutureCenter in Minamisoma, a community 25km south of the reactors in Fukushima that had a population of 70,000 before 3.11. The FutureCenter is in a former small corner convenience store, sta...
FukushimaFuture CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogTransformationDisasterfukushimaFuture CentersJapanradiationResilienceTransformation2This past weekend I was one of 350 people at the Fukushima Kaigi in Fukushima City. I was amazed. It was a weekend long Community Congress, people from Fukushima as well as other parts of Japan who came together to honestly discuss t...
Future CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogTransformationCollaborative ActionfukushimaJapan0My attention continues to be drawn to Fukushima. In many ways, Fukushima is invisible, just like the radiation which descended on it on March 11th. In Japan, my experience has been that people’s eyes just slide over it. As horrific a...
Resilient Japan Blog1I’ve just spent an incredible day in Fukushima province. People everywhere are leading the way. My last of four gatherings was just a little while ago. I was in Tamura City near Koriyama with a smal group of local people. One, di...
Resilient Japan Blog2I met a soul brother of Jim Drescher today. Jim and Margaret Drescher are stewards of Windhorse Farm in Nova Scotia Canada. An old growth forest which has given birth to many enterprises that nurture the earth. They know the forest...
Resilient Japan Blog0August 22nd The learning journey split into three groups – one to visit the clinic, another to visit women who have learned how to make crafts – and life — together, a third to visit a fisher village. I joined four young journeyers a...
Resilient Japan Blog0I’m co-hosting a learning journey for Japan for Sustainability. We’ve brought together a small group of younger leaders to learn with and from disaster. Let me begin these notes with a story… That afternoon of March 11th, 2011, the y...
Resilient Japan Blog1Dear Friends, I’ve been away from Japan for almost two months and will return in a couple of weeks. I’ve got something delightful to share. We just learned that our proposal to Give2Asia to establish a Future Center for Collaborative A...
Resilient Japan Blog0It’s my last night in Japan for this trip. Tomorrow I will return home to Spokane. For the last two weeks events have been offered all over Japan as part of Future Center Week. Tonight, about 35 people gathered to reflect on what we’...
Resilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Today I’m traveling back from Ishinomaki to Tokyo and will return to the US on Friday. We’ve just stopped in the City of Fukushima, which looks amazingly normal. The destruction of radiation continues to lie heavy on my heart. My fir...
Resilient Japan Blog0Dear Friends, I’ve written a lot about Future Centers over the last year because I believe they may be an important way for people in Japan to invent a new future. We’ve just begun FutureCenter week. A little more than a year ago it ...
Resilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Many have asked me about Fukushima. I’m far from an expert here, but I keep picking up pieces of information and perspective that I am happy to share. The way I understand this now is that we actually have three very related and complete...
Resilient Japan Blog0Every once in a while, I am called upon to stand formally in my role as an Interfaith Minister. This is a short talk I gave as part of the Easter service at the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, WA. I was asked to tell a story of ho...
Featured StoriesMusings1Last week I was at an inspiring meeting in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A dozen of us gathered from different parts of the US to continue an exploration of common ground. There’s a confluence happening. Especially over the last decade...
Art of HostingResilienceSocial InnovationArt of Hostingcollaborationcommunities of practiceemergenceParticipatory LeadershipResilienceSocial Innovation1Dear Friends, As those of you know who have been reading my notes form Japan, powerful things are happening there. Most of the world has moved on from last year’s disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns. But in Japan i...
Resilient Japan Blog0Today we launched our newest project—Great Transition Stories! This has been a labor of love over the past year as we—mostly Duane Elgin, Jeff Vander Clute, and me—have worked to gather the large, overarching stories of change that...
Great Transition Stories BlogMusingsProjects1The next five to ten years represent an unprecedented break in the human journey. We are between stories, or the guiding narratives, that serve as beacons for our collective future. For example, the “American Dream” that pulled the U.S. ...
Featured StoriesGreat Transition Stories Blog1What’s your immediate response when you hear the words “Future Center”? I first heard them a few months ago from Bob Stilger who had been working in Japan as a witness and host and facilitator for the cultural transformation underw...
Featured StoriesMusingsFutureFuture CentersJapan0Hi friends, I’m beginning the “soft launch” of something that has grown out of my work in Japan over the last several years. The Transformation Institute: Community, Business and Personal Transformation is coming to life at web addre...
Transformation0Hi friends, I’m beginning the “soft launch” of something that has grown out of my work in Japan over the last several years. The Transformation Institute: Community, Business and Personal Transformation is coming to life at web address...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0In 2011 there the earth was shaking in many places. Revolutions in Egypt and Libya, earthquakes in New Zealand, floods in Australia, Greeks occupying Syntagma Square, the US Occupy Movement, and of course the triple disasters of Japan....
Future CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogCollaborative ActionDialogFuture Centers0Wow, I’ve been back in Japan for a quick visit. When I left in mid-December, my intuition was that I should come back for a quick visit to begin the new year. I wanted to know what the energy would be of the new year. Incredible, o...
Future CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogTransformationFuture CentersJapan0Wow, I’ve been back in Japan for a quick visit. When I left in mid-December, my intuition was that I should come back for a quick visit to begin the new year. I wanted to know what the energy would be of the new year. Incredible, ove...
Featured StoriesJapanResilient Japan BlogTransformationFuture Centers0I just receive these pictures from a colleague: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-111211/daiichi-111211.htm They give an immediate overview of the disaster of Fukushima. They are part of a large collection of images and PDFs at htt...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0It’s been another busy week. First, we gathered 60 people together for three days of dialog about their leadership at the KEEP at Kiyosato. They came from all over Japan; two thirds of them in their 20s and 30s. It was our fourth You...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Pausing as I write the phrase, ordinary people…. What’s really true is that I am just blown away. I’ve spent the last three days meeting people who are doing the work needed to stabilize and then re-create the Tohoku region of Japan th...
Art of HostingBobJapanResilienceStrenght BasedArt of Hostingasset-basedBobIntergenerationalJapanResilience0Last day of three days in Tohoku disaster area. We woke to a beautiful morning with a bright autumn sun on a smooth ocean. Such a different view than the one eight months ago. Rikuzentakada was a jewel of a small community. Populat...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Dear friends, We* spent a second day visiting four different places in the the Tohoku disaster area. I’ll just talk about two. Eight months ago today the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown hit Japan. Back in the tsunami area of...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0The word “volunteer” took on new meaning for me today as we listened to four different stories today in the Tohoku disaster area. Five* of us left Tokyo this morning and traveled to Sendai. I’m just blown away. Let me briefly share...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Two remarkable meetings today in Tokyo that I’d like to share with you. The first was with my friend Tamio Nakano and his friend Makoto, who developed the Junbun-ko process I described in my last note, and Kathleen Sullivan and Hazuki Ya...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0It has been two months since I wrote. I’ve been back in Japan for two weeks and having a difficult time finding my ground. I’ve actually been home in Kyoto for the past week, and feeling unclear. Today the fog lifted a bit… Near my...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0My previous blog from our late September training on the Art of Participatory Leadership told part of the story. A week later, further reflections came clear that I want to share as well. This is a more critical reflection on my work...
Art of HostingArt of HostingBobEnspirited LeadershipParticipatory Leadershipsystems of influenceZimbabwe5More than a thousand years ago, they came from the north of Africa, leaving the violence and seeking peace. They came and they settled in an area that became known as the Great Zimbabwe, a kingdom from 1200-1500 AD which is estimated t...
Art of HostingBobResilienceArt of Hostingcommunities of practiceParticipatory LeadershipResilienceZimbabwe0Dear friends, I have returned to Japan for a short two weeks of work at the end of the summer. Much has shifted since I left Japan in early June. Three months ago the dominant emotion in the air was grief, surrounded by a sea of conf...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0July has been a quiet month for me. I’ve been back home in Spokane biking, reflecting, thinking and writing. I’ll return to Japan in a few weeks. If you missed my earlier notes from Japan, you can see them all at www.resilientjapan...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0It has been several weeks since my last note on Japan. Since then I’ve spent two weeks in Thailand resting a bit and offering the first Art of Hosting Social Innovation in the Southeast Asia region. I’ve been back home in Spokane for...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Dear Friends, I just have a few more days in Japan this trip. I’ll be back several more times this year. Most attention is still focused on emergency and initial stages of recovery here. Soon, attention will turn to how might the T...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Dear friends, For two months I’ve been working in Japan on behalf of The Berkana Institute and New Stories, two nonprofit organizations based in the USA. I’ve been sending regular e-mails about my work and my experiences and you ca...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0I do love this land. Sitting on the high-speed train from Kyoto to Tokyo, tanbo (rice fields) covered with water glisten in the morning sun. Spring’s many shades of green cover the nearby hillsides. I’ve been here for almost tw...
Resilient Japan Blog0My friend Val, from Elos Institute in Brazil wrote me recently: I love your questions about what can be done right now, what are the possible solutions. Yesterday I attended a philosophy class and people’s perspectives about the world we...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0I was born 62 years ago on Friday the 13th, so today has been a “double” birthday for me. And it has been the concluding day of Future Center Week. Five weeks ago a small group of us gathered at the KEEP at Kiyosato. Among other thin...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Shikoku is the smallest of Japan’s four largest islands. Located a bit to the west and south of Osaka and Kobe, it is mostly rural, definitely part of the chihoo — which sometimes means rural and other times means anyplace other than T...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Sometimes an event happens that disturbs the whole system so profoundly that, like a gunshot wound in a key organ, the life of the body is threatened. And, if you survive it, you’ll never be the same. Japan is like that, having been hi...
Featured StoriesMusings0Last Sunday I was to have traveled to Koriyama in Fukushima, but a bad cold was coming on and I wisely stayed home. Yesterday I met with Yuya and learned more of the situation in Koriyama. It is complex, to say the least. Koriyama is...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Many conversations continue about how best to support the unfolding of work here. I’m in conversations with an intriguing array of people and organizations. KDI Future Centers, Japan Dialog. Art of Hosting – Japan, Goi Peace Foundati...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0It was ten years ago that I journeyed to Zimbabwe for the first time. Today is the 40th birthday of my dear friend Marianne Knuth. We were both younger then! Marianne was beginning a journey that would take her home to Zimbabwe whe...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0On the train headed back to Tokyo after almost a week in the Kansai Region. Different teutonic plates, different electrical grid. The physical disasters seem far away here. The emotional turmoil is very strong. I spent Friday, Satu...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Dear Friends, I’ve finally returned home to Kyoto. I’m only here for an afternoon and night before going to Nagoya for events and conferences for the weekend. But this place is home. I arrived this afternoon and had a long and love...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0Dear Friends, I spent Sunday the 17th traveling to, working in and returning from Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture. Site of some of the worse tsunami damage. Part of being here is just plain strange. My hotel is shaking as I writ...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0I remember years ago watching a western on TV. A gnarled old man picked up one stick and broke it and said: “boys, if you stand alone, you’re easy to break.” He then put a bunch of sticks together and asked one of them to break the...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Yesterday morning the earth shook in Tokyo twice as I sat here at my hotel desk. They are what are now considered mild quakes — just a little more than 5 Magnitude — and both around 100 miles away. This is part of the new normal here...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Mt. Fuji revealed itself today, for the first time since I’ve been in Kiyosato, a small town in the mountains a couple of hours south and west of Tokyo. This silent sentinel is always on the rim, hosting Japan. Often hidden by many l...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0I’ve returned from a nice long soak in the onsen hotsprings here — in the midst of snowflakes falling on the outdoor pool. A quieter time, after another day of powerful conversations and deep listening. This is a beautiful place, wit...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0I sit here a little broken-hearted this morning when last night I was just beginning to see some new clarity. All I know is that I — and we — need so much help. And it is not help of the usual kind, it is help in finding and using th...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan BlogFuture Centers0Sunday morning greetings from Kiyosato. Mt. Fuji still sits with majesty on the horizon. The food is still excellent. The onsen is once again very hot. AND, much has changed. I’ve been in Japan for four days. Listening, sensi...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0I arrived Tuesday night. On wednesday i had my first meeting, with about 6 people i know pretty well. it was the first time any of them has shared their own inner turmoil since 3/11. ALL of Japan has been affected. of course, the...
Featured StoriesResilient Japan Blog0In a week I’ll be headed back to my beloved Japan. What will I find there? Community. Friends and family. Colleagues. Grief. Destruction. Possibility. Fear. Hope. All those and more. My heart quivers some. I am almost ove...
Art of HostingBobJapanResilient Japan BlogStrenght BasedABCDArt of Hostingasset-basedBobcommunities of practiceemergenceEnspirited LeadershipFuture CentersIntergenerationalJapanKDIOasis GameResilienceSocial Innovationsystems of influence8A new insight emerged – as it usually does – in a conversation between friends. Bob has been a long time sparring partner for me and so when I was reflecting on a year’s project of co-creating and activating a new collaboration model wit...
Art of HostingBobResilienceSocial InnovationcollaborationemergenceResilienceSocial Innovationthe hub0My heart reaches out to Japan wondering what I can do to help. How do I witness this disaster from a distance in a way that helps to restore community and build more resilience? Stay connected. Stay connected. Stay connected. Tho...
BobJapanResilienceResilient Japan Blog0I first met Arawana Hayashi in the summer of 2004 at the Shambhala Authentic Leadership Institute (now ALIA — www.aliainstitute.org). It was my first time participating in the Institute. That year we’d organized an Intergenerational ...
Art of HostingJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingembodimentJapan0So last week we invited 60 or so people to do something unusual in Roppongi. A few blocks away from the Japanese Parliament and on the second floor of the Japan Foundation headquarters, we had businessmen and school teachers, consultan...
Art of HostingJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingJapanPresencing0Perhaps it is ironic, but women’s leadership has never been a topic that has captivated my attention. Since I was little, I have heard my mom’s stories about not being allowed to wear anything besides dresses for most occasions, abou...
Art of HostingJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingJapanWomen0My body did protest a bit at the 5:30am alarm after five hours of sleep. But there was a Shinkansen “bullet train” to catch at 6:30 in Tokyo in order to arrive on the island of Shikoku a little after noon. Shikoku is one of found...
JapanResilient Japan BlogSocial InnovationStrenght BasedArt of HostingJapanSocial Innovation1Yamizaka-san and I were invited to do a workshop in Osaka. Yamizaka-san was a landscape architect 10 years ago. Now he’s something else? But what does he call it? A community developer? A community designer? Both of those h...
JapanResilient Japan BlogStrenght Basedasset-basedJapanKDIResilienceSocial Innovation0We met a couple of nights ago in Tokyo to reflect on the recent Art of Hosting in Kiyosato (see earlier blog). After almost four months of work here this year, I still am surprised. What brings 22 people out for five hours on a cold we...
Art of HostingBobJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingBobJapanrelfection1Ten years ago Tsumura-sensei created the Human Relations Center at Nanzan University in Nagoya. Twenty years before, he had been trained by NTL – National Training Laboratories for Experiential Learning – in “T” Group processes...
Art of HostingJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingemergenceJapanT Group0Since my arrival in Japan in January I’ve wanted to do an Intergenerational Dialogue here. It finally happened last month. On a beautiful Sunday in the middle of November, nearly 70 people gathered in a lovely building on the Tokyo U...
Art of HostingJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingIntergenerationalJapan1Like a trip down a water slide, the Art of Hosting at Kiyosato, Japan began and then, quickly, was complete. Whew! Our second one this year. This time the hosting team from outside Japan was Toke Moeller from Denmark, Susan Virnig, B...
Art of HostingBobJapanResilient Japan BlogArt of HostingJapan2They came from all around the world. Fifty from Japan, twenty from Israel, Denmark, the Netherlands, UK, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan. An amazing production across culture. They came to the lovely space of Fuji-Xerox’s...
JapanPowers of PlaceResilient Japan BlogSocial InnovationFuture CentersJapanKDI0Over 150 years ago Admiral Perry’s Black Ship came to Japan and demanded that she open her doors to the world. Ten years ago the White Ship set sail to unleash creativity in Japan and the world! Today I had the wonderful experience of ...
JapanResilient Japan BlogSocial InnovationCreativityFuture CentersJapanKDI0I am back in the beauty of Japan. Last week I worked with a group of 40 business leaders on social innovation. We met in the autumn beauty of Nasu, a rural area north of Tokyo. Those who came are the original members of the Future ...
Future CenterJapanResilient Japan BlogSocial Innovationcommunities of practiceFuture CentersJapanKDIResilienceSocial Innovation4Today my husband asked me: Are you optimistic? The question came out of our ongoing dialogue about new stories, where they’re emerging and whether they will make a difference. He was asking me if I was optimistic that humanity could ...
Featured StoriesMusingsoptimism2I’ve kept a copy of some pages of the International Herald Tribune from my visit to Japan a couple of months ago. The article, on May 16, 2010, was titled: Challenging the king of economic statistics. The article described the sacred cow...
JapanMeasurement1I recently saw James Cameron’s new film Avatar in I-MAX 3-D. It’s an intense experience, if for nothing else than being on an alien planet during a war for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Beyond luxuriating in the fantastical images, I came ...
Featured StoriesFilmsMusings2Once again I am awake in the middle of the Japanese night. Head and heart buzzing from yesterday’s work. I was invited to join KDI — Knowledge Management Initiative in Tokyo for a afternoon workshop with participants in their new Fut...
JapanResilienceResilient Japan BlogSocial InnovationStrenght Basedcommunities of practiceemergenceEnspirited LeadershipFuture CentersJapanKDISocial Innovation4I’ve had the chance to come to Southern Africa a couple of times a year for the last decade to work with wonderful people. My work has been as part of The Berkana Institute and our efforts to create the Berkana Exchange as a translocal...
ResilienceStrenght BasedSocial InnovationZimbabwe1That’s what is said in Japan when one returns home. “I’m back, I’ve been out in the world and I am back.” ただいま. And that is exactly how I felt this past weekend will leading a workshop in Japan. This blog is both a bit a...
BobResilient Japan BlogBobEnspirited LeadershipJapanlistening7Bootcamp is over. Those are the words that came to me last month when I was working in Phoenix with people from the St. Luke’s Health Initiatives. My trip to Phoenix came right after I returned from almost a month in southern Africa....
ResilienceSocial Innovationcommunities of practiceemergenceRobert Theobaldsystems of influenceZimbabwe7I thought when I headed off to southern Africa in early November, I would have a spacious time for reflection, learning, and writing here. That wasn’t the case. I was engaged in pretty much non-stop work in various systems. AND, be...
ResilienceemergenceZimbabwe4I arrived in Zimbabwe several days ago, my first visit this year. Since before Kufunda Learning Village was a glimmer in the heartmind of its founder, I have been journeying here. When people ask what I do at and with Kufunda it is o...
Powers of PlaceResilienceasset-basedemergenceResilienceZimbabwe0One of the great challenges of the kind of work I and others are doing is figuring out how to measure our progress. We often have fundors involved who want to know what our metrics are, but more importantly our communities themselves nee...
MeasurementResilienceemergenceevaluationMeasurementmost significant change17Last night I was having dinner with an old friend, Francesca Firstwater. We were catching up on our lives and our work. Francesca is one of those remarkable people who has led a life of service. No drum rolls or trumpets — she just quiet...
BobResilienceemergencelaguagelistening1Yesterday I was preparing for a phone call with the St. Luke’s Health Initiatives in Phoenix. They’ve invited me to participate in their December annual conference as a “not-expert” giving a “not-keynote.” After reading through the note...
Resilienceasset-basedemergencehealthResilience6One of the initiatives I’m currently working on is Powers of Place, developed by Sheryl Erickson, Renee Levi and a host of others with funding from the Fetzer Institute. The Powers of Place Initiative is a partnership of individuals, org...
Powers of PlacePoPIPowers of Place4
