Cultivating Change Through Conversation

Sharing this post I wrote for the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance for their Making A Scene Conference 2012:

Cultivating Change Through Conversation at Making A Scene 2012

Margaret Wheatley wrote, “Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change. If we can sit together and talk about what’s important to us, we begin to come alive.”

These are challenging times for many communities: finding footing on slippery economic slopes, doing work that matters, nurturing our creative souls, and accomplishing all this while also taking care of ourselves, our families and our community. A friend of mine remarked once “I don’t know the answer, but we do.” Making A Scene is a special chance for the theatre community to explore the questions in our midst. To sit together and talk about what’s important to us, tapping into the contributions and passions of all who attend and discover new ways forward.

I am reminded of Margaret’s quote as I prepare to join Making A Scene later this week as the Open Space Technology facilitator. In Open Space Technology you are invited to bring your questions, issues, opportunities and ideas, and together we will create a participant-generated agenda under the question: What could balance look like for us as theatre makers? What new possibilities can we co-create together?

What are your questions and ideas? Seed them on Twitter using the hashtag #MAS2012 to whet our appetites for the burning topics and questions that you post during the Open Space. I’m looking forward to the palpable delight sparked when we find out who shares a question we’ve been holding, and the excitement that comes alive as new possibilities tickle at the edges of our conversations. Prepare to be surprised – and see you at Making A Scene!