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Engaging Whole Communities

How Future Search Went Global
by Marvin Weisbord
"Someday we may see formal evidence that future search and similar methods succeeded not because they changed the paradigm so much as they helped people refocus on what had always been fundamental to our species — dignity, meaning, community, and productive work." To read this article click here (PDF) ...

What Is Future Search?
 To read this article click here ...

Finding Common Ground with the Children of Sudan
by Sandra Janoff
"I don't remember how long it took or how many times I repeated the sentence until all hands were raised, but everyone in the circle was involved. In that time something changed in me."
To read this article click here (PDF) ...
Deep Democracy: The Inner Practice of Civic Engagement
by Patricia A. Wilson
"What happens when you take the tools of dialogue, systems thinking, learning communities, presencing, and profound change and apply them to civic engagement?"
To read this article click here (PDF) ...
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On Fields and Bees


Fields of Connection
A conversation with Roger Saillant
"Every now and then I experience this kind of field in the workplace. Every action, every note is in its right place, and it all becomes a symphony." To read this article click here ...

Dreaming World
A Prose Poem, by Margaret Wheatley
 "In Zambia just now, the women are rising from their crowded beds. Soon they will walk on hard feet into the bush, carrying basket crowns through the high grass. I hope they can find where the bees hid the honey this day." To read this article click here ...

Field Dance, by Arawana Hayashi
"We make choices based on what we perceive, but with attention on the space, these choices become natural, non-conceptual non-choices arising from awareness of the field." To read this article click here (PDF) ...
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Yet More on Spirituality in Business & Life
Stepping through Door B: Systemic Spirituality
by Barry Oshry

"It is as if we are standing before two doors: Door A and Door B. Right away there is a problem: We don't see any doors." To read this article click here ...
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 Stories and Updates
Healing through Dialogue: A Conversation with David Steward

"Our Foundation has launched an initiative to try to promote national consensus on the transformation process in South Africa. We believe that such a consensus will be essential for the continuing success of our young and fragile democracy."
Read the Article here ...
The Electric Flow of the Spoken Word:
A Conversation with Tim Merry

"My work is hosting space for people and affirming life on its largest level. I want to practice this myself — in the most whole way — and learn how to host a piece of land."
Read the Article here ...
Play these MP3 Audio Files:

Are You Ready? by Tim Merry
Time to Awaken by Tim Merry

Read the text of these slam poems here.
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Shambhala Insights
To Know Yourself Is to Forget Yourself
by Pema Chödrön

"By beginning to look so clearly and so honestly at ourselves-at our emotions, at our thoughts, at who we really are — we begin to dissolve the walls that separate us from others." Read the Article here ...

.................................................................................................................................... More News

2004 Summer Program brochure now available. Click here to download or contact us if you would like to receive a copy in the mail.

Progress Halifax, a business magazine published by ProgressCorp, features the 2003 Summer Program in its latest issue. Article by David Holt. To read it, click here.

February 2004, No. 3
. Visit the new Fieldnotes blog .

Summer Program Update

Register early to ensure placement in the module of your choice. Program brochure now available. Click here to download or contact us if you would like to receive a copy in the mail.

Presence in March

Next month the Society for Organizational Learning will publish a limited edition of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Peter Senge, Claus Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers. See www.presence.net. Watch for a pre-publication excerpt in the March issue of Fieldnotes.

From Sherry Immediato, Managing Director and President of SoL: "Accessing our capacity for stillness and being present to what is emerging may well be the most powerful tool we have individually and collectively to create the world anew. Based on years of personal experience and extensive research, this book's journey of discovery offers a new vision for a future we can all help shape."

From Ideas to
Insights

"I find pleasure in letting these new ideas swirl freely inside me. Like clouds, they begin as mist, then take form, then dissipate. Clouds themselves are self-organizing, taking new shape as thunderstorms, hurricanes, or rain fronts depending on changes in their environment. We are capable of similar transformations; new ideas can emerge as powerful insights if we allow them the freedom to self-organize."
—Margaret Wheatley,
Leadership and the New Science (2nd ed.)

Letters

"I've been a web development professional since 1996 and consider myself a bit of a web snob. I have to say, the newsletter is gorgeous and very well organized. " — Happy New Year, Marya Figueroa (California, USA)


"I just had a chance to check out Fieldnotes and just wanted to say that I deeply appreciate all your efforts and the intermingling of inspiration and practicality from so many different perspectives! I hope this coming year is productive for everything you are attempting to do." — With every best wish, Richard Reoch (Nova Scotia, Canada)



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To subscribe to Fieldnotes: go to http://www.shambhalainstitute.org/world/contact.html

Why Fieldnotes? This newsletter arose from the inspiration to make visible what is otherwise invisible — the rich field of connection, dialogue, and activity that is arising around the Institute's Authentic Leadership programs. This field now extends far beyond the programs themselves, in both time and place. This newsletter also provides a forum for people who are pioneering the emerging field of what could be called "authentic" or "transformative" leadership.

We'd like to hear from you. The editorial team invites your feedback, letters, and submissions. We are especially interested to hear how you have been applying your learning and insights in your own field of work. The submission deadline for each issue is the 15th of the previous month. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and space. Please include your daytime contact information. We look forward to hearing from you.

Newsletter Team: Susan Szpakowski, Lyn Hartley, Masud Sheikh, Dinah Wakeford & Barbara Zielinski. Web technical by Bernardine Wood.

Appreciations. Many thanks to our volunteer editors and contributors, and to Barbara Bash for her beautiful masthead calligraphy. Fieldnotes is a publication of the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is published September through May, at the beginning of each month. The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of the Shambhala Institute.