Japan — Berkana Collaborative

Reflecting Kiyosato Art of Hosting

December 17, 2010 By Bob Stilger

We 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 weekday night to reflect on their learning together a month earlier? What kind of commitment to each other and to learning is represented here?

The walls were lined with the graphic recording from the Art of Hosting. On the floor there was a series of pictures of people and scenes from the Art of Hosting which were sequenced with the graphic recording. The Art of Hosting was present in the room with us. We began in a circle with a check-in: what are we each bringing here with us tonight? Then there we walked around the room and remembered. Yuya gave a bit of a walking through of the three days to help make it more vivid. We each picked one or two pictures from the floor which helped us access a particular memory. In silence we returned to the circle and wrote a bit about our memories. Then we formed groups of two of three to share impressions and learning. I was asked to share some of my reflections and learning with the group.

After a short break, we moved into open space. Fascinating topics:

How can we make it easier for new people to enter AoH easily?
What are the next steps for this Art of Hosting community?
What makes the difference between surface dialogue and being able to go deep?
What is the deep hosting of the whole field of an Art of Hosting practice event?
What changed for each of us after the AoH?
Afterall, what did you get from it?
What’s the “difference in temperature?” Some got hot, with lots of energy, some didn’t. What’s the difference?
What is the “art” of Art of Hosting?
The circle has a particular power; different energy. What is it?
Some people participated 100%, other less. What makes a difference?

I went to the first round session on deep hosting of the entire field, because that was where my main learning and interest was — things I wrote about in my earlier blog on Kiyosato. After checking in, people — with a little bit of hesitation — asked me to speak more about my experience. What I said — my own self-examination of what I felt I didn’t do well — opened a space for others. I learned later from some people that there is not much of a practice in Japan around talking directly about what didn’t work. People felt refreshed by the possibility of having this conversation. Personally, I really appreciated being able to talk about it face-to-face. So we talked about how there were “too many moving parts” this time; about how we all were too busy. Some talked about how they missed the fact that the larger hosting team was not meeting — but didn’t know what to do. What was missing, we asked. In the end, we concluded that what was missing as a simple and clear agreement that we would prioritize meeting with each other every day to share learning and discuss next steps. Not a long and complicated meeting — but a swift and clear checking in. We realized that any of us could have called for such a meeting this last time — but we were all swept away by what was going on.

Almost all of us noticed it was missing. Satoko talked about how on the last day she stepped in and changed the design of what we were doing. She recalled that I came up to her afterward and said both that I was completely surprised and deeply appreciative of what she had done. She talked about knowing she had to do it, but how she trembled because she was doing it alone, with no collective at her back. It was a rich and deep conversation. In fact, like other conversations from the first round of open space, we ran the full length of the hour for open space. We had to much to say and too much to listed to.

There was rich and powerful learning for each of us in this conversation. I commented on how I’ve stopped beating myself up for what I regarded as my failures during the event. What we didn’t talk about is how rich the learning was because of what didn’t happen. That learning would, of course, have been minimized and held in very different ways if we had not taken the time for this reflection session. So that simple message again — when we’re engaged in new work, it is essential to pause and reflect on what we’ve done as we find our next step forward. It is no big deal. It is not complicated. It does not require a lot of design. And it has to happen if we are to harvest learning and see what comes next.

This session was a powerful one for me. I’m very grateful. Whatever feelings I was still carrying which focused on what I didn’t do were transformed into an appreciation of the collective and into a know that we all, together, can do a better job the next time around.

Many blessings!

Filed Under: Art of Hosting, BC, Bob, Japan, relfection Tagged With: syndicated

Nanzan University Human Relations Centre

December 12, 2010 By Bob Stilger

Ten 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. He became passionate about experiential learning.

What I hadn’t understood was that “T” group work is really a key ancestor to much of the work I and others are doing these days. It starts from the idea that people come together to talk, and then start to learn from their separate and collective experience.

At the end of November, sixty people who were connected to the Human Relations Center came together for a full day to talk about their own learning and work and to help envision what the next ten years of the Centre might be. Then for the next two evenings, we did evening workshops with smaller groups exploring this field of ideas about stepping into your self and your passion as an engine for change.

Sometime, early on, Tsumura-sensei and I were talking and I mentioned “elegant next miniumum step” – a phrase I use often in Japan to help people think about working with emergence. Tsumura-sensei’s face looked confused and he said, “well, I’m usually dorokusa,i” which literally means messy and smelly, of the earth. We kept coming back to this tension between elegant and dorokusai over the next couple of days. Where I think we finally landed is that it is important to aspire to elegance and beauty AND, often what we end of doing is a bit dorokusai. We bring in beauty when and where we can, and sometimes we proceed without it – but even when we do so, we do so consciously and with an eye to creating beauty and elegance wherever we can.

I’m very curious about how the Human Relations Centre will find its elegant next step. In some ways it feels to me like it needs to grow beyond its roots and to work with a wider range of possibilities which exist now. I’m fascinated by what might happen if it formed a partnership with KDI to bring Future Center work to corporations in the Nagoya region. In so many cases the way we step beyond current form is to create new partnerships and sense into new possibilities.

Delightful folks. I’d love to keep working with them.

Filed Under: Art of Hosting, BC, emergence, Japan, T Group Tagged With: syndicated

Generations Together

December 3, 2010 By Bob Stilger

Since 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 University campus for the first intergenerational dialogue here. The youngest was just a month old and spent most of the day in a impromptu care center organized in a room in the building. The oldest was in his mid sixties.

Susan and Annie and I arrived as the intergenerational family with some experience from other parts of the world with these sorts of dialogues. Bob Wing, freshly arrived in Japan, joined us as well. The Japanese design and hosting team had spent a couple of months planning the event. Their conversations, themselves, were a rich exploration of the intricacies of generations in Japan.

There are some clear distinctions between the generations in Japan right now. The dankai are Japan’s babyboomers. Born after the war, they were the generation that turned Japan into a modern world power. For many in Japan there’s a mandatory retirement at 60. Most of the dankai have reached that age and have gone off into retirement with good savings and pensions from years of prosperity. At the other end of the spectrum are those in their 20s and 30s. They come of age since the legendary collapse of the Japanese economic bubble almost 20 years ago. They know the old days are not coming back. They’re scrappy, more entrepreneurial, willing to work in the existing system when it suits them — but not really invested in the existing order. In the middle, and somewhat trapped, are the folks in their 40s and 50s who haven’t generally thought of another way to live and are in the middle of businesses and governments that are working less and less well. Then, on top of this, toss in some interesting phenomena, like dokushin josei (bachelor women) – an increasing number of women who are choosing to remain unmarried. This maybe, in part, a way of beginning to reclaim the full participation in community women had until about 100 years ago when the Emperor Meiji declared that the key function of women was to bear children.

Back to the dialogue….

We met and talked all day. Using circle and world cafe and open space, we talked with each other about the gifts and the needs of the different generations. We talked about what might become more possible if we worked together in new ways. There was a richness there. A paying attention. One of the younger participants talked about how he spent 7 months bicycling through all 47 provinces of Japan — from Okinawa in the far south to Hokkaido in the far north. He had held 40 World Cafes as he traveled with more than 1000 people. When he finally returned to Tokyo, 200 people he had been with across Japan came to Tokyo to continue the dialogue with him. Another

The day began with people finding their way into a circle of ages — from the youngest to the oldest, making our way around the circle until everyone was in their chronological place. Then we broke into smaller groups, five or six people close to each other in age, to remember the gifts their generation brought to the whole.

The day continued in different configurations. The members of the Japanese team hosted the World Cafe and Open Space — the first time for both two person teams. They did beautiful and inspiring jobs — clear evidence of how smooth it can be to host dialogue in a purposeful field. People talked about what it might mean of the generations worked together differently. In some ways, more important than the content of the conversations was the sense of connectedness. There was a quiet intensity as people engaged each other.

Hours passed and soon we were harvesting the dialogues from open space. The single comment of the day that stuck with me most was when one woman, in her 60s said with a look of wonder on her face: “I never knew they wanted to be connected to me,” speaking of the younger people who had been in her session.

We had a closing circle and a couple of people talked about how they would go back into the “real world” the next day and how they would regret not being in this space. In my closing comments, I challenged that definition of “real world” and suggested that what we had been creating that day was, in fact, the real world.

I left the day remembering something simple. I’ve remembered it before, and forgotten. Real communities are intergenerational. Resilient communities are intergenerational. If we are going to build communities that work again, we need to engage all the generations. When we come together with respect, curiosity and friendship, all sorts of things become possible.

The time is now.

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49166333@N07/sets/72157625292193067/

Filed Under: Art of Hosting, BC, Intergenerational, Japan Tagged With: syndicated

Always Remember to Host the Whole!

December 2, 2010 By Bob Stilger

Like 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, Bob Wing and Bob Stilger from the US, along with Annie Virnig from the US as an apprentice. Kiyosato is such a beautiful place. Wonderful people, excellent food. And, well, it’s not hard to find beauty when Mt. Fuji looks on from the nearby horizon.

And so many difference from May. I write about some of those, and then share some about my most important learning.

We knew that we had a different group of participants than in May. Generally younger and will less experience. We knew they would come with a strong appetite for learning. We also had a different hosting team. We’d asked Bob Wing and Toke to join for many reasons; one was to bring more movement in. And we did!

We also made a challenging decision to dive right in, going for disruption of habitual ways of thinking and a bit of confusion as a place to start. We may have gotten more disruption and confusion than we planned on! Looking back (the Art of Hosting Workshop was November 19-21 and I’m just getting around to writing now), I think we had a bit too much “vocabulary” in this AoH. Vocabulary is a term I’ve started using more and more after work with Arawana Hayashi earlier this year. It’s causing me to pay attention to the number of new constructs, concepts, and words I am introducing. They all come together under the term vocabulary. We may have had a bit too much in a three day session with two languages in play at all times.

Still, it was a sacred space. People were moved. They left with more questions and more clarity about their work in the world. They left knowing more about how to host conversations that matter and how to design dialogue events. They left with deeper relationships with each other. A community is growing here in Japan. It’s a community of people finding their way into their work to make a difference in the world. And a community learning how to relate to each other.

And it went a bit too fast with too many moving parts. In addition to our normal work with circles, world cafe, open space, silence, clay, we brought in much more work with movement. We also added in learning teams around harvesting and movement. We brought a new form — ProAction Cafe — in and built a hosting chance around it. We had the normal hosting chances for Opening Circles and Closing Circles and World Cafe and Open Space. We also began, but didn’t really effectively integrate a Japanese Hosting Team with the Non-Japanese Hosting Team.

This is actually pretty hard and delicate work! There’s a richness is working in both Japanese and English — and it requires a lot of time and effort. There is a richness is bringing together new hosting teams that have not worked together before (as was the case in our non-Japanese team) and there are challenges. And, of course, all of this work in Japan that is going on under the name “Art of Hosting” is only ten months old and it is moving from being a network to becoming a community. So lots was happening.

But I need to talk about what was missing — which is the territory of my deepest learning. We, and especially I, did not hold the center well. It began with not making sure that our core team — five non-Japanese and one Japanese — were present for our whole design day before the AoH began. I think I didn’t fully appreciate the complexity of weaving in what Bob Wing and Toke would bring, nor the complexity of working more fully with a Japanese hosting team. So, even as we started, we were behind!

In retrospect, in my ideal world, here’s what would have happened: Annie, Susan and I would have had at least a short family check-in each day. The three of us, plus Toke, Bob Wing and Yuya plus a translator would have been having a core hosting team check-in each day. Some of the core hosting team would have been meeting and checking-in with the Japanese hosting team each day. On the first day, we did all of this except the family check-in. On the second and third days, we were all flying fast and none of these center meetings happened.

The result was “raggedness.” We were all rushing. There was too much confusion. The flow was not smooth. We probably could not have had all the moving parts AND do this level of conscious hosting of the center. I’d gladly sacrifice some of the parts in order to maintain more clarity at the core. The day after the AoH, Bob Wing and I were talking and he commented on how centered I seemed throughout all the days. I mentioned my growing clarity about what a poor job I had done in hosting the core of the system. Bob had an insight which went something like this “ah, yes, I see it. If the core had been being hosted well, then I would have know where and how to fit in. As it was, by the last day I felt like I was just running.”

So the learning is clear. The core, the center, the innermost circle must be held well. When it is held consciously, deliberately, with kindness and compassion. Its strength stabilizes the entire system and allow for deeper flow and greater learning. When things begin to get crazy, return to the work of the core. let go of some of the parts.

There are lots of different reasons for why I got lost. And I got lost. I forgot that my most important responsibility and my biggest opportunity was to host the whole by hosting the core. I am particularly aware of how the Japanese hosting team was left in the dark. Certainly, they were all involved in one or more of the moving parts, but they were not involved in the whole in a way which increases their capacity to offer these kind of events.

It’s all learning. It’s all practice. And I know I will make the space to be more attentive the next time around! It is a joy to be able to do this work in Japan.

Many pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49166333@N07/sets/72157625392945259/

December 3, 2010

Filed Under: Art of Hosting, BC, Bob, Japan Tagged With: syndicated

Global Summit of Future Centers

December 2, 2010 By Bob Stilger

They 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 Knowledge Dynamics Initiative (KDI) which organized and hosted the summit with support from The Future Centers Association. Low budget, lots of volunteer time, people made their way to Roppongi, Tokyo’s most international district, for three days. KDI itself is pretty amazing and I’ve written other blogs about them. They are working across Japan to help businesses use the Future Center concept which has been developing in Europe over the last ten year. In many ways, Japan is developing Future Center 2.0 — spaces which are dynamic, flexible, inexpensive and in which the dialogue that leads to innovation can occur.

In many ways the Summit itself was an experiment. How can we bring together a large group of people from all around the world and work from a place of curiosity, friendship and respect? How can we do extensive work in small groups with only two trained translators? How do we create an atmosphere of trust and cooperation and inquiry where everyone feels respected? How do we balance western communication styles which are based on talking with Japanese styles which are based on listening?

It was a challenge. Even though I helped to create the design and coached the many “hosting teams” from Japan, I had lots of reservations about the design. It felt like too much talking. On the first two days, it seemed like we were frequently caught in the one-way communication of presentations and my own design purity was offended. But it came together with an incredible amount of energy by the end of our time.

It’s always challenging to design and host for people who design and host. I have my own deep beliefs about the importance of peer learning and deep dialogue and discussion. I’m pretty allergic to designs which put one person in the front of the room, or even those which put three people in the front of three groups. AND, perhaps I was wrong. In spite of my own reservations about the design, people were engaged. Might they have been more engaged? Perhaps. But with the limited amount of translation available and the western need to talk in order to be present and the Japanese need to listen quietly, perhaps it was just right. Collective design is always a challenge, especially with a design team that has never worked together before and comes from varied backgrounds. But somehow, we made it work.

We brought movement in at various times each day to help people engage more than their heads. One of the most moving was a 30 minute silent walk in downtown Tokyo at the beginning of rush hour. Quietly people assembled and left the 15th floor, braved Tokyo traffic, headed into a sky walk system and eventually came to a large open courtyard. There was one rule — no talking. At first I thought we should have had a second rule — no cameras — but slowly the cameras disappeared into pockets and people stood and walked around the courtyard in silence. When we returned to our meeting room — still in silence — there was a complete shift in the energy. People felt more centered, deepened. From that place of silence people worked in their “home groups” (a technique used to help people form deeper relations with a few people) to create a sculpture using things from their pockets of what they saw as possible now that had been invisible before.

Quiet, intense work to end two days of learning and exploring different possibilities. On the third day we went to one of Japan’s ancient capitals – Kamakura. Picture this. Seventy people in a zen temple doing za-zen as a way to further deepen and enter a place of presence — Complete with whacks when requested from the walking zen priests. Quieting. Letting the feast of the first two days settle.

Then, in the afternoon, we made our way to another unexpected place — a Noh Theater. Noh has become less accessible in Japan during the modern era, so the actors at this one Noh Theatre have embarked on a new path. They offer a two hour lecture with about 40 minutes of performance embedded to give people a sense of this powerful drama. The theatre itself is a powerful BA. Participants were invited to journey further into themselves. After two hours of Noh, we began the closing of the Summit. What had people learned, what would they carry forward, what would they do next. Let’s be clear, Noh Theater’s are not designed for conversation. It is awkward to turn around the converse with others in the rows behind. Talking to the person in the next seat is problematic as well. But the BA was so powerful, we wanted to stay there and work with the more energy of the day. The quiet focus was incredible. People settled down and in. Plans for individual action and collective support began to emerge. In just two hours, the work of three days was pulled together with a number of heartfelt commitments for next steps. Among other things, the folks from Israel have volunteered to host the next Global Summit!

It was an amazing three days. I had my doubts. And I think I was proved wrong. What we did worked and there was an amazing feeling of connection and mutual support. The people from Japan left feeling validated and supported in the work they have begun this year. Everyone left with a renewed spirit. Good work all the way around!

A few more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49166333@N07/sets/72157625512214666

December 2, 2010

Filed Under: BC, Future Center, Japan, KDI, Powers of Place, Social Innovation Tagged With: syndicated

Global Summit of Future Centers

December 2, 2010 By Bob Stilger

A few more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49166333@N07/sets/72157625512214666

December 2, 2010

Filed Under: BC, Future Center, Japan, KDI, Powers of Place, Social Innovation, Uncategorized Tagged With: syndicated

White Ships and Future Centers

November 11, 2010 By Bob Stilger

Over 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 being hosted by the Future Center of Tokio Marine & Nichido Systems for a Vision Art workshop produced by the White Ship. Kuni Yazawa and Kimi Hasebe from White Ship are an amazing team. They invite people to explore the possibility that art can connect their minds with their spirits and deepest creative impulses. They’ve developed a simple and powerful process, which I was able to participate in today.

It begins with viewing five drawings that Kuni-san has made. The titles are blank. We were each asked to write what we say in the picture on stickies and then place them around the picture. Two English speakers and ten Japanese speakers spent ten minutes viewing and sensing into each image. We placed our stickies on the board around the pictures and then Kimi-san read them and asked several of us to say more about what our impressions were. We were invited into a realm of sensing and seeing and of letting go of judgments.

The ground was being prepared for us to step into our own creativity. Soon the room was rearranged and we had tables and workspaces. Kuni took us through a demonstration of how to work with chalk. Spreading, and then mushing around with our fingers to begin to solidify the colors. We were invited to explore the meaning of “Origin.” We each selected a textured card stock — an array of colors were available and the first step was to see which color called to each of us.

I was drawn to orange. Sitting with my blank slate for a while, eating a cookie and sipping a cup of coffee, I wondered how it was to begin. The “canvas” was with what is now the left edge at the bottom. I found myself experimenting with drawing a circle which became the blue/grey circle in the drawing. It looked a bit lonely up there, so I gave it some ground with red earth. Then, since I studied sumi-e in Japan long ago. I tried to draw trees like I used to. Big mistake. One of the left and one on the right were just plain ugly. Chalk and ink are different! What to do? Well, all was not lost, I discovered I could cover them up. I made sweeping arcs in purple, overshadowing the green trees. Hmm, I wondered. What is this? The arc, then on the left, seemed to reach up to the sphere. Then another partial circle started to emerge. Might it become a full circle. The arc, then on the right, was nudged into a circle around a circle, with a circle within. And so the process of creativity continued. Finally once the circles had emerged, I looked at it from “four bottoms” and chose the one presented here.

We each worked quietly, separately and connected. Each becoming absorbed in our own work. The hour passed quickly. And I found myself calm and grounded and actually feeling like I had produced something with a little beauty!

Our drawings were sealed, then framed and we were reunited with some questions for contemplation. Next, all the drawings were placed in the front of the room. Once again, we were asked to view each drawing and to use stickies to explain what we saw. What a lovely collage of images across the front of the room!

Kimi worked her magic again. She read the comments around each drawing, called on the writers for more details, then asked the person who created the drawing to come hold it and tell us all about her or his process and the essences that were present for them. It was a delightful sensing into the collective field.

We listened intently as each other described our own creative processes.

There’s a kind of centering that goes on in these kind of processes. Even those of us who claim we can’t draw or can’t do this or that find an inner well of creativity. Later in the night as we traveled back to downtown Tokyo by train, we talked about how it was as if life itself wanted to be free and rise up through us.

There’s so much available to us that we don’t usually see! A lovely day with lovely people. Here’s a few more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49166333@N07/sets/72157625240046353/

November 11, 2010

Filed Under: BC, Creativity, Future Center, Japan, KDI, Social Innovation Tagged With: syndicated

Social Innovation in Japan

November 10, 2010 By Bob Stilger

I 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 Center initiative from Fuji Xerox’s KDI — Knowledge Management Initiatives. KDI began 10 years ago, working with the ideas of Professor Nonaka around knowledge management. They’ve begun to see that knowledge management is important, but what is essential is creating new spaces and processes by which innovation can occur.

We gathered in a lovely room, in a sparse and beautiful circle to begin our time together. The day began with each person introducing themselves with a movement — what were they here to do. We used this sense of sparseness and brevity many times during our two days together. Seeing how little could be said to express a fullness. Time unfolded.

The Japanese word “ba” is translated literally as “place.” But it actually means much more. The essence of coming together in Japan is the creation of good ba — the creation of a space of hospitality, respect, deep listening, high regard. Because of their cultural attunement to ba, it is normal to have a conversation which references the good ba that is present in the room. We had good ba in Nasu. The stated purpose of our time together was to introduce the KDI Future Centers to Art of Hosting practices. They already know that a core part of their work to spark innovation is to host conversations that matter. The context we worked in was their personal and professional dreams for the future. The deeper purpose of this time was to deepen a field of relationships so they can support each other in the coming months and years as they and others create future centers.

We had silent walks in the lovely surrounding forest. We brought out play doh and used it to model the Future Center they dreamed of. We sat together and talked in pairs and in World Cafe sessions. We harvested — often asking for just one word. The conversations were animated and powerful. In so many ways people came alive in this authentic space. Of course, they always do! I was somewhat surprised at the length of the pause at the beginning of our one Open Space Technology session. In my western mind, I simply judged it as Japanese hesitancy to stand up. But my colleague Takahiko Nomura gave it another frame. “You know about KY, don’t you,” he asked. I shook my head and he went on to explain it to me. Kuuki yomenai means “not reading the air.” He went on to explain that his experience of the pause was that people were being careful not to be judged to be KYing; instead they were “reading the air” to see what they might offer in Open Space which would be of deepest service to the group. Such a subtle and interesting shift from “what do I want to present” to “what do I think will be of greatest service to this group at this time.”

It is things like this which continue to blow me away in Japan. There is a deep cultural competence about being in relationship — with each other and with the planet as a whole. After 150 years of the so-called modern era, people know something else is needed. AND, they are discovering how to work together to get it.

In my work here I keep coming back to a couple of key points. The first is that the Meiji Restoration of 150 years ago ended the feudal era in Japan and ushered in the modern era. It feels like these are the beginning years of a new Japan Restoration. The second is to use a proverb in Japan — “the nail that sticks up is pounded down” — to ask how the rich weave of relationships here might be used to help all nails stand up?

The Japan I was introduced to 40 years ago is barely visible. Three, let alone four-generation families have almost disappeared. It is nearly impossible to have an omiai (arranged marriage). Life-time employment is simply a distant memory. It would have been unthinkable then that the vigorous middle aged men and women who lived in the single family homes near my host family in Fushimi-ku in the south of Kyoto would live alone 40 years later as widows and widowers. The idea that there would be a rising population of dokushin josei (bachelor women) and that the size of the Japanese population would be declining would have been unimaginable. People probably wouldn’t be as surprised that the uncompromising pressure on Japanese secondary school students would only get worse.

Last year’s defeat of the LDP after 54 years of almost continuous power is one obvious sign of the changes gripping Japan. But it is only visible because it is something we know how to look for. What’s less obvious is the churning going on beneath the surface as people of all ages and all walks of life are stopping to question what Japan society is today and what they want it to be. It is an exciting time filled with possibilities.

The commitment people from these Future Centers have to finding a new way forward is refreshing. They know innovation is essential and they know it has to come from the community as a whole.

Great to be here!

Filed Under: BC, communities of practice, Japan, KDI, Resilience, Social Innovation Tagged With: syndicated

So How Do We Measure Quality of Life????

July 30, 2010 By Bob Stilger

I’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 of GDP, I’ll just quote a bit of it:

High-G.D.P. Man has a long commute to work and drives an automobile that gets poor gas mileage, requiring him to spend a lot on fuel. The morning traffic and its stresses are not too good for his car (which he replaces every few years) or his cardiovascular health (which he treats with expensive pharmaceuticals and medical procedures).

High-G.D.P. Man works hard, spends hard. He loves going to bars and restaurants and adores his big house, which he protects with a state-of-the-art security system. High-G.D.P. Man and his wife pay for a sitter for their children and a nursing home for their aging parents. They do not have time for housework so they employ a full-time housekeeper. The do not have time to cook much, so they usually order in. They are too busy to take long vacations.

All those things — cooking, cleaning, home care, vacations and so forth — the the kind of activity that keep Low-G.D.P. Man and his wife busy. High-G.D.P. Man likes his washer and dryer; Low-G.D.P. Man does not mind hanging his laundry on a clothesline. High-G.D.P. Man buys bags of prewashed salad at the grocery store; Low-G.D.P. Man grows vegetables in his garden.

When High-G.D.P. Man wants a book, he buys it; Low-G.D.P. Man checks it out of the library. High-G.D.P. Man wants to get in shape, he joins a gym; Low-G.D.P. Man digs out an old pair of Nikes and runs through the neighborhood.

By economic measures, there is no doubt. High-G.D.P. Man is superior to Low-G.D.P. Man. hat we cannot really say is whether his life is any better…

The article goes on to say that Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago and his colleagues have concluded that assessing a population’s quality of life would require metrics from at least seven categories: health, education, environment, employment, material well-being, interpersonal connectedness and political engagement. They also decided that any country that was serious about progress should start measuring its “equity” — that is, the distribution of material wealth and other social goods…

The fact that author Jon Gertner continually uses “Man” grates on me quite a bit, but I think what he points out is a very useful perspective. Now, add to this conundrum an article from Michael Synder of the Business Insider: The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it. This thoughtful article simply points out how ill-distributed wealth is in the U.S.. Some of the statistics from the article are startling:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

In other words, G.D.P. further fails as a measure of progress since most of us don’t have enough money to succeed that way anyway! Our world is changing so rapidly we’re like frogs in boiling water.

In the last week as well, there is finally some public discussion about deflation. Close friend and colleague Robert Theobald, a British Socioeconomist was warning 12 years ago that deflation was the real issue to be concerned about, not inflation. That’s certainly been the case in Japan for the last decade where falling prices have taken people and the economy into completely uncharted territory. This article by Paul Krugman: CAN DEFLATION BE PREVENTED? gives a good overview of this new situation.

What seems to be true is that we’re entering a deflationary period with an increasing separation between those who have monetary wealth and those who do not with a system that measures progress by how much we spend and consume. Seems like it is time to take Butan’s inquiry into Gross National Happiness seriously!

Filed Under: BC, Japan, Measurement Tagged With: syndicated

Unleashing Leadership and Inspiring Innovation and Creativity in Japan

April 28, 2010 By Bob Stilger

Once 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 Future Center. KDI was started 10 years ago to work with knowledge creation and realationships to knowledge, building in part on the inspiring work of Dr. Ikugjiiro Nonaka . There approach is one which places emphasis on “individual vitality” and the “dynamic field,” or ba.

Crazy bunch, with titles like “Wild Knowledge Architect, “Ba Conductor,” and “Sexy Works Stylist,” they work together in an almost completely flexible workspace in the middle of Roppongi, the international district of Tokyo. What caught my attention most is where they’re headed. They’ve been looking at the Future Center idea currently being developed in more than 30 locations in Europe. See The Reality of European Future Centres. Last week I wrote about a deep resonance between the work being done by GreenHouse Project and Kufunda Learning Village in Southern Africa and the work of St. Luke’s Health Initiatives. Guess what? The resonance continues.

Future Centers, at least as envisoned by Dr. Takahiko Nomura, KDI founder, are incredibly similar to leadership learning centers in the Berkana Exchange. The core work of Future Centers is to surface the knowledge, wisdom and leadership already present in organizations and to create conditions which all it to be used by all for maximum creativity and innovation. AND, the same four core competencies we surfaced last month at St. Luke’s Health Initiatives show up as core in Future Centers:

connect and convene
peer learning
source of research and information
strengths based approach

So we spent the afternoon with about 35 people from a dozen or so Japanese companies who are thinking about embracing the Future Center concept, each creating a Future Center inside their company as well as a trans-local network which links these Future Centers as a community of Practice.

I think it is going to happen. These folks are going to step forward and start using all forms of conversational leadership to invite innovation forward. AND, like elsewhere in the world they’re not doing it because it is the next groovy thing to do, they’re doing it because they know their survival depends on it.

I continue to be impressed with the level of receptivity in Japan for new ways of thinking about leadership, creativity and innovation. It is not just thinking about it — it is a yearning to step into new practice fields with new partners.

One last note. We talked about the community of practice work KDI has done over the last 10 years. The conversation is incomplete, but part of what we talked about is how in their communities of practice perhaps the most important thing that’s happened is that people have learned they are not alone. Others have some of the same intentions and ideas they do. We’ve always looked at Communities of Practice as places where knowledge is created. That’s part of their function. What may be more important is that they are places which people discover more about their own identity and step into their own leadership.

Beginning of a fascinating several weeks in my adopted homeland.

Filed Under: BC, communities of practice, emergence, Enspirited Leadership, Future Center, Japan, KDI, Resilience, Social Innovation, Strenght Based Tagged With: syndicated

Reflecting Kiyosato Art of Hosting

Nanzan University Human Relations Centre

Generations Together

Always Remember to Host the Whole!

So How Do We Measure Quality of Life????

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