Patricia Ryan Madson:

Improvisation is founded on two principles that feature prominently in the Buddhist perspective: Impermanence and interdependence. The fact of groundlessness and constant change is a given in improv. Eternal instability: that is our playing field. The improviser practices her art on her feet with others. We learn that we aren’t in this alone. We need and depend upon our fellow improvisers. Only stand-up comics go it alone. Improvisers look to their fellows for help, inspiration, ideas and fuel. Improv training is a form of meditation in action.

A great blog post by Patricia Madson. I love her musings on this topic. And I find her reflections on the principles that guide an improviser — what she calls “the Five A’s of Improv” — to be so useful.

I’m reading Meg Wheatley’s Who Do We Choose To Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, and this quote resonates strongly. We aren’t intent on changing the world; we simply try to work in ways that honor people and evoke our best human qualities. It nicely sums up my own work philosophy. I don’t have grandiose aims to change the entire world. And I’ve never felt the need to make a “d…  
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Euan Semple:

Every time I hear the word “driving” used in the context of business I wince.

It reveals so many misconceptions: that the person using it is in charge; that people can be driven like cattle; that there aren’t consequences to using the word.

I agree 100%.

Stephen Duns, writing for Leadership Victoria:

So the more we try to control, the more people will self-organise against our control and the less control we have. A paradox for leadership. The more a solution is imposed onto a system the more that system will self-organise against that solution.

What is the way through this paradox? The answer lies in another feature of complex adaptive systems – “a system will only accept a solution it is part of creating”. The solution is to use some sort of participatory process that allows the collective intelligence of the system to create its own solution.

This is bang on. It’s one of the most succinct, yet practical explanations of working with complexity I’ve read.

In simpler terms, imposing change on people increases anxiety and resistance. People own what they help create, so invite them to participate in creating solutions.

During this podcast with Michelle McQuaid (16:27), Gervase Bushe shares these tips on asking more generative questions:

• They are surprising.
• They touch the heart.
• It takes them somewhere new.
• They build relationship between people.

I’ll listen to this again and again. Gervase’s work is truly inspiring.

David Whyte: Heartbreak asks us not to look for an alternative path, because there is no alternative path. It is a deeper introduction to what we love and have loved, an inescapable and often beautiful question, something or someone who has been with us all along, asking us to be ready for the last letting go. 1 Storm: Photo © Martin Gleeson. Gough’s Bay, Victoria. January, 2012 Rest in pe…  
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I really enjoyed this podcast with Michael Wood, Dom Fay, Peter Catt and Sue Wilton on the themes of listening, dialogue, emergence and Open Space Technology. Definitely worth a listen.

David Gurteen:

Conversation creates the conditions, in which actions and changes we would like to see in the world become possible.

Yes, conversation is action.

Brené Brown, talking with Krista Tippett:

Yeah, make a note right now. He or she who chooses comfort — over courage and facilitating real conversations in towns and cities and synagogues and areas who need it; when you choose your own comfort over trying to bring people together, and you’re a leader, either a civic leader or a faith leader, your days of relevance are numbered.

This applies equally to leaders in organisations. A great quote from a fantastic interview.

Brian Barrett, writing for Wired:

Still, the lasting appeal of RSS remains the parts that haven’t changed: the unfiltered view of the open web, and the chance to make your own decisions about what you find there.

Amen. RSS has always been a key part of my experience with the web. Hat tip to Stephen Downes for the find, not so coincidentally via my RSS feed.