The decade beginning 2000 was a good decade for me.  I married a wonderful human being in 2000; we have enjoyed great fun and a wide range of intensely pleasurable physical experiences; we have grown together and independently through many stimulating, engaging intellectual learnings;  and we have both experienced deeply meaningful emotional times.  We have traveled a lot and created a home we love. I am blessed in my relationship.

So, in this last decade, I have continued to change, as has the world around me.  A dominant and exciting force that is enabling this rapid growth rate of change is social media. We have new and additional ways in which we communicate and connect with people and we have many more topics and stories to share.  My sensitivity has been even more heightened as to how alike we really are across the globe.  How vulnerable we all are, and how much more we can become together.  I have been moved by so many stories shared in private and in public places – face-to-face, virtually, in books, on TV, in film.  All my senses have been sharpened.  For example, in Italy, I savored during and for months afterwards the landscape and the smells and sounds; the sensations and the tastes:  I admired the art work and architecture and imagined what it was like when armies of ancient Rome traversed the land battled against the Carthaginians and the Gauls;  I imagined the beauty of the Etruscans, even before the Romans, and then I imagined what life may have been like during the Renaissance when art and commerce flourished.  History and culture revealing how peoples continue to shape the future and leave their legacies.

I experienced similar emotions and wonderings while traveling in India and visiting Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.  My curiosity and interest is always aroused to learn how people get to where they are and what has shaped their current situation.   What are their stories?  My own birthplace, Australia, has untold stories that the land longs to share.  The more stories we can hear of all peoples on this planet, the richer we all will be.

I love to find the themes and connect dots.  What keeps coming up for me?  My filtering system is constructed to find the beauty, the goodness and what truths endure across time and space.  Horror and evil also endure across time and space. They co-exist.  History and the arts are full of co-existence. The victories of love overcoming fear, and good overcoming evil and beauty overcoming horror is the human story.

I learned at Christmas time, a dear colleague, whom I haven’t communicated with since 2002 has Stage 4 cancer in her brain and has very little time left in her present form.   Going about my business (busy-ness), I thought about her a lot, but didn’t call.   After Christmas, I learnt her condition had worsened.  I felt remorseful that I had not acted on my best intuition to call her when I wanted to.  I actually feared I had missed my opportunity to let her know I cared for her.  I had weak excuses, like a 14 hours time difference, Christmas was an awkward time, etc. etc.  Finally, I did call and our conversation was truly meaningful.  I also send the flowers I had been thinking about sending for four days.  I decided that moving beyond thought to action would be my commitment to myself in 2010.  To move beyond dreaming and thinking into action – action that serves others, and in doing so, serves me.

All plans can change.  So when the world changes around you, what constants provide you with a sense of safety or equanimity that enables you to go on?  The tiniest belief in oneself helps; some hope for a future; the support of others.  I have been in that state, when I had no self-confidence, despaired of any future and indifferent to the support and love of others.  How I’ve pulled myself out of such low points is my story and some parts of the dark story I am not proud of and some parts I am.  I realize the parts I am proud of are when I found the inner strength to shift my perspective enough to make a different choice.  Through the tears and the pain (both physical and emotional) I could sense a faint awareness that I wanted to feel/do something different.  In such times, I open up enough find an inner resource that offers a glimmer of hope and possibility that I am willing to admit there is a different way and I will do something about it.  I also believe that having experienced the intense discomfort of chemotherapy and radiation, that in the future, and if in a conscious state, when faced with death I can have the same experience.  I will find an inner resource that offers a glimmer of hope and possibility that I am willing to admit there is a different way and I can find it.  I know I will seek peace and love over fear.

What is your story?  What victories, celebrations and joys have you experienced in the past decade?  In telling your story, what have been highpoints of your first ten years in the 21^st century?  What will you remember with a smile on your face, a warmth in your gut, a tenderness in your heart?  What are you most grateful for or even a little bit grateful for – personally and professionally?  Who have you met in the past 10 years that has influenced your life in a good way?  What have you done for others that you know has been of service to them?  What thoughts may inspire you for action in 2010?

In the city of Kolkata, an anti-noise campaign has started and Sunday has been declared a no honking day.  To quote the police commissioner of Kolkata, Guatam Mohan Chakrabarti, “...city police are embarking on a major campaign against noise pollution in general and bursting of high decibel firecrackers in particular.”

“After some progress in the campaign, we want to observe Sundays as no honking days. Motorists in the city often honk without reason.  Most of the time this is a manifestation of their impatience.  Sundays being no hurry days, drivers can desist from honking.  This would substantially reduce noise levels in the city.  Over time, the city has got noisier and at some busy crossings, it is completely maddening.”

What is also relevant in networked India is that this campaign has begun on a virtual plane on the blog kolkatacops.com.  The Police Commissioner continues, “enforcement alone cannot make the difference.  Only awareness can bring down the overall noise levels.  Since we already have a blog, we cannot have a better vehicle for such a campaign.

“We are inviting environmentalists and doctors to air their views on the ill effects of high-decibel fireworks on health and the environment.”  In addition, he wants to invite historians “to tell how and when the noise level increased to such a level”.  Furthermore, “sociologists should speak  on what social implications this sudden spurt of noise pollution may have on our social life.  We would like to have the views of economists if they can quantify the environmental damage and the financial loss incurred by this noise spurt.”

The Police Commissioner has not forgotten the common person.  He does not want the blog to be “an airtight zone for expression on one-way views.”  He is hoping for a range of views from regular citizens as well.  “We expect that eventually science, logic and enormous goodwill would prevail.”

Among already eminent citizens who have blogged, here are two comments:
“It is surely a good move, but I doubt if drivers will follow it.  In civilized countries, drivers do not honk unnecessarily, but here this is a custom.  Drivers should be trained properly.” Dr. Dulal Bose, Ent specialist and former sheriff of Kolkata.

“It has become a habit here to blow the horn unnecessarily.  If drivers stop doing this, noise pollution levels will come done.  For this, we need a mass awareness campaign and this is a good initiative to start with.” Devang Gandhi, cricketer.

Enthusiasm and passion can be transferred virtually, so here’s to the Kolkata cops.

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Doing the best you can with the resources you have is an invitation to connect with your reflective self.  It is an invitation to think about the quality and the content of your thinking.  Have you ever kicked yourself or felt anger or annoyance at yourself because of something you did or thought that you knew was not worthy of yourself.  After the event, you judged yourself very harshly and felt remorse.  That is usually an unpleasant experience.

You have the capacity to turn that unpleasant experience about your own thinking and behavior into a pleasing experience.  How?  Acknowledge that you exercised your reflective self to know the difference.   And make that your reflective best self.  Actions, conversations, thoughts that are judging, critical, non-valuing of self and others are not helpful.  If you see leaders in your organizations and your colleagues as doing the best they can with the resources they have, it’s a more helpful way seeing what’s going on through a valuing lens.  You tap into your own inner resources of love and peace and truth and power to see a situation for what it is, not what your inner judge expects it to be.   When we become more conscious and do the reflective work, we clean our lens and see more clearly that we are all in the same  boat, doing the best we can with the resources we have. These include the inner resources of compassion, forgiveness and respect.

We are offering some great presentations and workshops online using iCohere collaborative platform and we are seeking a number of volunteer online hosts who will be able to participate in the conference and perform some support activities.   This is a great opportunity for those who want to participate, but for a variety of reason can’t make it to Nepal in November.  Colleague, Sue James is co-ordinating the online hosting activities.

What are the benefits of volunteering?

• Receive support and training in the virtual conference environment, prior to the conference itself;
• Become part of a global network of volunteers, all of whom share your interest in Appreciative Inquiry;
• Gain personal and professional recognition across the AI community; and
• If you can act as an online host for six (6) hours or more over the four days of the conference, you will receive a 50% discount on virtual conference registration!
• (These hours will not have to be contributed in one block, but can be spread out in two-hour time slots over the four days)

For all the details and to register, please go to http://suejames.com/aihosts2009/

I am fortunate to be able to travel to Nepal for the Conference and will also co-facilitating an online workshop, “Flourishing Destinies: How to Sustain Positive Change.”  I will be happy to answer any questions and request that you use the contact form on this site to reach me.

So when life happens, it can mean we are thrown off life’s course as we have designed it.   Barriers and challenges get in the way of what we dreamed our life to be.  The vision we held becomes blurred, cloudy or even blacks out.  It can happen when we get very sick, lose family members, our jobs, our homes and businesses.  There are so many stories out there in our current climate that seem to suggest life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Right in your face steps the aliveness of life – with its fullest passion urging you to take personal responsibility for what you really care about.   History shows us repeatedly that  human resiliency and adaptability triumphs.  In times such as these, we reconnect to our universal human values and feel that which makes us alive.

So whether you are protesting to have your vote counted in Iran, for medical reform in the US,  for a fair living wage in developing countries , or in support of your own personal challenges whereever you are,  let passion be your power!

The citizens of this planet reached a tipping point in just about every domain, resulting in more people speaking up for greater compassion and understanding across cultures;  workers and shareholders alike calling for greater transparency and integrity in financial markets;  consumers are seeking products and services that conserve our natural resources and health.

Alongside these positive seismic systemic shifts our communication channels and flows have become easier, faster, more far-reaching, collaborative and compassionate.

Out of curiosity, and in many cases, necessity to make sense of our world, more and more of us are connecting to people of other cultures in far lands.  We find these connections as sources of great innovation and inspiration which in turn reconnect us with our own creativity and imaginations.  Social media, including networks, wikis, blogs, podcasts, video and Twitter bring us together as one world.

We self-select into on-line communities where we are finding mutual interests, shared passions, connection points and a sense of belonging.  Our films and entertainments have become increasingly multi-and cross-cultural.  We laugh and cry together.  We celebrate our global humanity.

What are you hearing, seeing, feeling, thinking that gives you excitement and hope that we are becoming more conscious of world that can flourish for all?

I declare my biases up front:   I’m one of those who look for meaning in everything.  I’m curious and I will look for the best in a situation.

How is Twitter making our world better?  Well, it is not only Twitter – it is the entire social media phenomenon.   And it’s not the tools that are making our world beter – they are tools, enablers.  It’s humankind’s choices about how these tools are used is what makes the world better.

Somewhere else, I described Twitter as an emergent self-organizing system.  In the Twitterverse, it seems very quickly and without much effort we self-select into interest groups, drop into others for a visit, contribute, stay or move on.  It is the true Open Space Technology.  We begin to chose our networks and have our voice.  If we are neither contributing nor learning in one relationship, we use the law of the delete key.  What’s the point hanging out where there isn’t a mutuality of purpose or reciprocity?

Twitter has awakened me to knowing there is no void between us – the morphic energy fields – our collective consciousness is palpable.  I feel extraordinarily connected with so many more people through social media in an important way.  I honor their ideas and knowledge and experiences.  I feel a sense of responsbility of supporting them in their endeavors.  I am filled with hope and possibility.  How we can use these tools wisely to improve the conditions of  the sick, the hungry and those in despair in countries without such access is one big thinking exercise right now.

What’s your highest vision for social media tools?

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After reading her blog, Random Acts of Leadership, I had this experience.

I was in the local supermarket car park.  As I wheeled my cart back to my car, there was a plastic water bottle lying squashed on the path.  My fleeting thoughts were judging of some irresponsible person leaving it there, as I wheeled around it.  In a flash, I thought, you don’t like it, do something – show a “random act of leadership.”  So I went back, picked it up and threw it in the trash bin.  (Unfortunately, there was no recycling bin.)

What came up immediately for me was the desire to follow Susan’s example.  It seemed to me that I had performed an act of service.  So, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to invite people to share their stories of “Positive Acts of Service”.    When we perform acts of service, no matter how tiny, we experience a positive affect and that leads to more positive actions, and the recipient, if there is one, shows gratitude, and is likely to also perform some positive future action.

Recently, I was on crutches with a fractured hip and I experienced countless acts of service from strangers, opening door, holding elevators, carrying parcels to the next corner, carrying goods to my car.  I was both amazed and delighted by the amount of support and kindness shown to me.

There are more quiet positive acts in the world than negative ones, yet we don’t publicize them.  Here is a chance.  Let’s do it.  We can! Please contribute your own story below.