Alejo: To be persuaded that our personal unexpressed vision is widely shared by others in the origin of conflicts, frustrations and failures, when people see that the group follows a way that is not the one that he/she presumed.

Can be revised to: The origin of conflicts, frustrations and failures in group process often arises this way: individuals are persuaded that their personal, often unexpressed and inarticulate vision, is NOT shared equally with others in the enterprise.

Re 12 step programs ~

FYI In the US, 12-step ideas have NOT proven to be of virtually any use for intentional community or worker owned enterprises. 12-step program is a bare minimum of structure for drop-in gatherings where individuals can express. That’s about it.

The values of 12-step are good; yet, the language generally and product statement in particular is undeveloped and not a target for improvement.

Yes, keep us posted on the Transition project in Mungia, a village nearby Bilbao. Great that you are pursuing a values clarification process. Please remeber to use dyads, mingle-milling processes, small group tasks and other Games Facilitators Play to make the meetings FUN. A series of five volumes of Games Facilitators Play exists for facilitators to find exercises and FUN wasy to assist group process. These and related books can be found on Amazon and then the least expensive copies found on AllBookStores.com

Alejo: Transition initiatives pursue a new way of relating with others, with nature and with future generations.

BD: This is neither adequate nor sufficient. My generation said this too and it got us nothing sustainable.

Alejo: REconomy projects further try to make economically viable what is socially and environmentally desirable.

BD: This is dnagerous talk in my mind. Talk like this tends to make abstract what needs to be passionate. This kind of abstract language especially turns off women because it is dissociated from passion.

Alejo: it is imperative to learn how to appropriate of the value of being a community. No rules exist for it, thus we need to try, fail and keep re-trying, learning from failures. The challenge is huge but we cannot avoid the categorical imperative to deliver a livable world to next generations…. never give it up!

BD: The above is a value well-stated. It can go at the TOP of a report of what emerges from your values clarification process. I call this value the “seven generations” value.

Til next time, Healing Toolbox ~ Bruce Dickson

I understand the reasons for the failure, and think that they are the most frequent. On the first reason, there’s a growing expertise of personal conflict management available that can contribute to overcome the lack of alignment between individual interests, and well as between each of them and a shared vision. This directly leads to the second reason –the lack of a sufficient philosophic depth that drives to a shared vision. Articulating a shared vision from the very first steps of the formation of a Transition group is vital for succeeding. To be persuaded that our personal unexpressed vision is widely shared by others in the origin of conflicts, frustrations and failures, when people see that the group follows a way that is not the one that he/she presumed.

The ’12 steps methodology’ tries to help consolidate a group, but I think that using a ‘Transition as a Pattern Language’ proposal is more effective.

We are now building a Transition project in Mungia, a village nearby Bilbao (Spanish Basque Country). First steps are being enormously exciting, with many people, different abilities and physical assets (land, facilities) coming on board. In the steering group, though, we think that before keeping growing, the moment has come to agree shared vision, as specific as possible for this early stage, to prevent future conflicts from making the initiative fail. I’ll love to tell you what it is and how it goes. Give me some days, ok?

Transition initiatives pursue a new way of relating with others, with nature and with future generations. REconomy projects further try to make economically viable what is socially and environmentally desirable. For that goal, it is imperative to learn how to appropriate of the value of being a community. No rules exist for it, thus we need to try, fail and keep re-trying, learning from failures. The challenge is huge but we cannot avoid the categorical imperative to deliver a livable world to next generations.

Thanks so much for this conversation and never give it up!

Best wishes,
Alejo

Based on your comment, I am not making myself clear. I was a full-on participant in the first wave of green-resilience-transition activity 1972-1985. It’s clear this wave “failed,” was not sustainable.

Some of us view the failure this way: it failed for two reasons; two crucial needs were un-met. (1) lack of an explicit method-technique for resolving interpersonal conflict. (2) lack of adequate and sufficient philosophic depth.

(1) has been filled admirably by Compassionate Communication (NVC).

(2) has not been filled by anyone or anything, as of early 2013. This gap has been filled and this need met by a few communities, notably Findhorn. This second gap-unmet need can only be filled-met on a community by community basis.

I spell this out because I believe your lovely and very well-written article ends weakly because it ignores and does not address these two un-met needs.

We found them to be crucial in the first wave of intentional community and worker-owned biz.

It is too easy for me or anyone to say, “The lesson was not learned; and, communitarianism and worker-owned biz can only limp forward without addressing these un-ment needs.” What is really needed is idnetifying and promoting individuals knowledgeable and passionate about attending to these two needs.

These people are most likely to be found to the “left” of Old Leftists, to use word play. To the left of Old Leftists are the whole-brain thinkers, people who aspire to thinking in terms of “the highest good of all concerned.”

I call these thinkers “green spiritual thinkers.” Maybe someone will coin a better term.

Another piece of history. The split between political progressive and “spiritual” progressives has yet to be examined anywhere that I know of. Examining this split and converging these two streams of progressive activity, is I believe, the natural successful third act of your article above.

Let me know if you wish my notes on the history of this split. If you know of other historians on this split, I’d love to know about them.

I cannot acknowledge the experienmce that you had in LA. In fact, I have no idea about either LA or American Green Parties, or about the ‘Green Spirituality’ (BTW: I am from and live in Bilbao, Spain).

We might be talking about different things. Green Spirituality might be in a ethical framework or ‘parttern language’ scale while the article I wrote is in ‘how-to-get-it-done’ scale. I don’t know…

I’d love you to dedicate an effort to telling that story, so that we can all learn it.

All the best,
Alejo

Hi the long Social Biz piece here collects and makes more coherent and streamlined the integration of many solutions we all favor.

Where this piece falls down as storytelling, is at the end, in the third act.

The author assumes there is no “frame” or “value” big enuf to encompass and incorporate all the pieces of the puzzle. We can infer he acknowledges the common experience we are have in Los Angeles, CA; and I think, worldwide, that new progressive groups pop up but but remain isolated, each a little gear turning alone but few if any gears turning together, few gears meshing, few achieving more drive towards a sustainable future than any can alone.

The ‘social glue’ to bring diverse orgs together already exists in the idea of “Green Spirituality.” I have a list of about 20 closely related ideas from the last 40 years; so please, DO use your favorite terms if “Green Spirituality” does not suit.

What is funny to me is for 40 years the Old Left, after it split from the progressive spiritual folks over Vietnam and nuclear weapons, divorced itself from activity of a personal-spiritual growth nature. This divorce-split of ‘progressive spiritual and therapy folks’ from ‘progressive political folks’ may have been sharper and more severe in the USA than in Europe.

But now, right here on this web page, the Transition movement seems to be repeating this same error again, attempting to ignore the ‘elephant in the living room’: only an ecumenical spiritual frame of some kind is large enuf to encompass all the solutions we all favor.

Articulating a coherent, FUN and practical story about “Green Spirituality.” will require effort. No one has done it yet that I am aware of; but again, all the pieces to assemble it conceptually lie about us in talks and literature of the last 40 years, especially Permaculture. Short version: you have to go beyond a political frame; you have to go bigger than an environmental frame. The idea of “seven generations” comes close yet still has to be married to an explicitly ecumenical spiritual story that allows for and encourages diverse expressions of “Green Spirituality.”

The effort to coalesce and articulate a good story about Green Spirituality will especially require identifying, nurturing and encouraging new leadership talent of all ages. Who’s good at talking about this? Find them. Get them speaking. Record the talks. Edit. Publish. Repeat.

I see no other way for the Transition movement to avoid the destiny of The USA Green Party, California Green Party, MoveOn.org and other “dead ends” than to find a way forward into Green Spirituality in some form.

Comments and contacts invited! No one can do this one alone!