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  • Tiffany von Emmel 10:29 pm on August 29, 2010 Permalink  

    Honoring Home 

    Last night was “Honor Home”,  the first gesture of the At Home project. It was quite an experience. Below are slideshows of home makers at play and the homes that people have made so far.

    With the Home Team keeping our transformative learning hats on, Paul Loper asked me what I had discovered so far as a result of the At Home project. In answer….

    I have increased my awareness of my experience of home.

    Home is presence. Presence with oneself,
    with each other, with the earth.

    Feeling at home is something to cultivate in oneself. Through each breath, through appreciating, caring, resting, eating, choosing consciously.

    As we interact with our environment, we may have the illusion that home is about making a nest full of physical things, but is it, really?

    The act of making an external place called home is simply a way to cultivate the internal experience of home.  Consciously and unconsciously, we nest to make a vessel for feeling at home.
    The more we experience being at ease in our self, even as we move across multiple places and  situations, the more connected and resilient we become.
    This then speaks to the importance of play. Playing house in relationship, playing with being at home as a way to come home.
    There is no place like home, Toto.
    Please share here and there: What is home to you? When are you at home?
    Upload photos to Flickr group: #AtHome
    Tweet: #AtHome
     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 5:04 pm on August 23, 2010 Permalink  

    Relational Value – what impact do we want to make together? 

    There is $120 billion dollars in the U.S social capital market, money waiting to be spent on social good, according to Hope Consulting’s new report. Imagine what that investment could do for alleviating poverty. Why are investors interested in investing in a better world?

    Because money is not the thing. People use money to create what they really want – belonging, health, peace, making a difference and environmental balance.  People are choosing to lead a simpler life and give back to society more (London School of Economics, Boston Consulting Group).

    Now, to free up this value for good is another thing. We need new new business models, organization design and social processes grounded in the new paradigm of a relational economy. The Dreamfish cooperative is building such a relational economy. We  are developing value tools that are grounded in the fundamental idea that development flourishes in connection, not control.

    Every Friday, we host a Leadership Lab to explore new ideas in “human work” and relational economy. This last Friday, I introduced this Relational Value model. This model is the outcome of a Dreamfish Labs project started in 2009 by Paul Loper, Peter Kaminski and Marguerite Manteau. The first phase of the Value Project focused on what is value and how do we relate to it? Do we create it, exchange it, transfer it? At what moments of work collaboration do we experience it? What kind of social software tools enable us to generate value? The second phase has led to a codified map of categories and processes that are grounded in both an analysis of Dreamfish member experience and research in micro-enterprise development and human development.

    Want to swim a little? Here are the notes and  audio-recording (available for limited time).

    There are three views of the Relational Value model. The first graphic above shows you “what is value”. The second below shows you “how do we get there”. The third graphic shows what the experience is that social designers and change agents design for.

    The Relational Value Map above is an analytical tool. It offers individuals and teams a tool to make meaning and evaluate what kinds of impact you want to make.  These five categories have subcategories.

    • Belonging includes family, friends, and community.
    • Wellness includes food, shelter, physical safety, health, security.
    • Achievement includes quality, productivity, self-worth, self-efficacy, self-confidence.
    • Development includes learning, collaboration, human and enterprise development
    • Global care includes peace, human rights, and sustainability.

    The Relational Value Flow above is the “how we get there”. It is iteritive and agile.

    The colours on the model correspond to the pyramid shown above, now shown in a process.
    Connect out loud – We grow through relationship, rather than a heroic journey.  Connectivity also builds the ground for resilience as the chemical oxytocin floods us. In marriages, the number of frequent interpersonal  “bids for connection” and a low number of criticisms per hour is a good indicator of whether a relationship will last (Gottman). Connection bids, such as a handshake or a blog link help us develop empathy and sympathy, what neureconomist, Paul Zak describes as “the “social glue” that adheres families, communities, and societies, and as such, acts as an “economic lubricant” that enables us to engage in all sorts of transactions.”

    Work out loud –  Open Source your life!  When we allowing our selves to show up without the perfect thing or the completed thing, we give the signal to others that is o.k. to be a life-long learner. By opening up and working out loud, we are helped to learn from each other. This spreads value….

    Value Out Loud — At the end of a meeting or project, reflecting on value created enables you to develop critical reflection skills and an increased awareness that value is not a commodity transacted, but something we participate in. Use the value map as a tool to assess belonging, wellness, economic impact, learning, social impact.
    Give Out Loud –  As we recognize abundance and our development, we experience the generosity of the network and ourselves a part of the network.
    Spread out Loud – Show your impact. Do not hide it under a bed or rock. Whether quantitative financial spreadsheets or qualitative stories,  images and guides, create “reifications” of your value to inspire others to generate more value.

    The Relational Value Experience describes the individual’s experience. This is helpful for designing a social experience.   You know your design is in the right direction when individuals say things like this. To paraphrase Nancy White, “we build social software for networks of people, but it is individuals who experience it.”

    What’s under the hood? The Relational Value model is built from an analysis of Dreamfish member experience through a lens of my research in knowledge and relational culture design. The map correlates with Relational Cultural theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Brian Hall’s Value Technology. (For a deeper read and application to an organization, there is a case story  project to build a culture of resilience and sustainability in Dreamscape, Innovations in Transformative Learning.

    Commodity thinking versus relational thinking?
    I’ll leave you with a great quote from last Friday’s Dreamfish Leadership Lab. Leonard Perlson told a great story that illustrates the difference between the Value as commodity or value that is growthful.  Leonard says,

    The difference between trading value and creating value is the difference between trading a Picasso and developing an artist.

    People are artists of life. Let’s develop the next billion out of poverty.

    Want to dive more into value? An upcoming opportunity is upon us. The social capital marketspace is forming at the SOCAP conference, October 4-6th.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 2:25 pm on August 15, 2010 Permalink  

    At HOME – an invitation 

    What is Home? When are we at Home? Where is Home?

    Dietmar and I are starting a participatory art project over three months, called “At HOME with Tiffany and Dietmar”.  I invite you to join us. This may or not surprise you, depending on which context you know us from. So, here is  the backstory and a meta-story [but not meta-data] about participatory design thinking

    Why At HOME

    Dietmar and I met in 1998. We met as change agents who had both come to work and learn with Anna Halprin, a pioneer in collaboration methodology and community choreographer for social change. Anna and Lawrence Halprin, environmental architect, are known as leading social design thinkers across disciplines in design, health, psychology, and systems sciences. Anna had developed her work as part of her recovery from colon cancer.  I related to Anna’s path, as my journey with Ulcerative Colitis over fifteen years has focused my work similarly on creating resilient processes of organizing networks in unpredictable environments.  In this shared ground of participatory design thinking, Dietmar and I began our life and work together as collaborators. We started up Improvisation Labs, developing transformative learning groups in East Berlin.  We led tranformative inquiry labs for change agents and communities. We then founded Dreamfish in 2006.

    Meanwhile in the background, what has enabled us to take these risks to innovate for a decade was a wonderful physical home in San Francisco. How we have this home is a story unto itself about participatory design thinking…

    I had arrived in San Francisco in Fall, 1997. I was in midst of a series of surgeries at Cedar Sinai Hospital to stabilize my health after years of learning to live every moment in the unknown. Now, I wanted to start fresh in San Francisco.  I came to San Francisco with little but I knew a few extraordinary people.  And, it was the Dot com goldrush days of 80 people standing in line for one vacant apartment.  But, finding a home in these conditions felt doable. I had become comfortable working with the ambiguity of the unknown, a positive outcome of uncertain health.

    Here was my process for finding a home – in design terms, here is the”Score”…

    I didn’t look in the paper for listings (starting with data and information), then fill out an application (more data, information), and end up with a transactional contract (more data). Nor did I “solve a problem” and fix it.  Instead, I started with connection. I connected to my own wonderment. I then connected with someone who knows me and whose way of Hominess I appreciated.  I asked Doug Paxton. Doug said, “Check out Noe Valley.  Its sunny, peaceful, and close to the Castro. My intuition is that you will like it.” I listened and paid attention. Then, I connected with the place, walking the neighborhood. Increasing the participatory pattern, I then connected with more people and had more conversations.

    I talked with elderly people, because they were the most connected. They knew the place and people (They had relational knowledge).  Within a few hours, I had a new friend, Angie, who then introduced me to Mel, her neighbor.  Mel was in his 80′s and hadn’t rented his second story of his building for years. We became  friends. I renovated the flat. Mel rented the flat to me for a very low rate. My friend, Urusa Fahim, joined me and the home enabled us to focus on our doctoral studies.   Then, Dietmar and I met, and we all became family to each other.

    For 12 years, Mel, Dietmar and I have shared household resources, shopped for groceries, gone out to dinner and to the doctor’s office. We have cared for each other as human beings. In the process, we have together reduced our environmental footprints and our costs. We have learned together. With his Depression era frugality, Mel helped us become more resource-conscious, inspiring our Clothesline Laundry behaviors.  Mel now uses a cordless phone.  This “landlord-tenant” interaction has been a practice of Home (practical knowledge). It is also an example of how the property rental business can be Human Work.  We traveled, lived sometimes in Berlin, but always came home to Mel.

    This every day know-how of Home has nurtured greater capacity from which we do our work to enable social impact (ie. Responsive knowledge). We owe much gratitude to our Home.

    Now, Mel has moved to a nursing home in Washington, and the family is selling our house. We are sad about parting from Mel and our home. But, rather than seeing this transition as a problem to solve, we’re looking at this as an opportunity to connect with what matters and start a new life.

    Oy! Where will we live? you might ask. We’re not there yet. We’ll start with connection.  We’ll start with gratitude and honoring of Home. We’ll reach out to connect with you. This practice of increasing participation will gives rise to knowing what our new home will be. How?  Here is our Score for we will emerge in a new home (Axiom: Improvisation requires Agile planning.) …

    How At HOME: the Score

    The Score has four phases:

    1. Honor Home – Appreciate our experience of home. Invite participation in the appreciation

    2. Go Home! – Digitally increase participation.

    3. Discover Home – Explore new spaces to inhabit and call home.

    4. Inhabit Home – We inhabit a new home.

    Timeline

    August 28th: Honor Home
    Aug 28 – Sept 30: Go Home!
    October 1 – December 31: Discover Home
    January, 2011: Inhabit Home

    Roles/People

    Go Home!
    • Tweet at: #AtHome
    Discover Home
    • Home
    Inhabit Home
    • TBD!

    1. Honor Home

    Transformation of space into a container for unfolding HOME
    • Hang clothes lines within reach across room
    • People pin the paper-cut HOME icons to the lines with clothes pins
    • People create paper-cut home icons with visual art materials.
    • People enter space to unfold an inquiry into HOME

    Want to get involved?

    Please participate here on this blog and…
    • Tweet about what is HOME at: #AtHome
    • Share photos of HOME at Flickr Group: #AtHome

    What is Home to you? When are you at Home? Where is Home? How did you discover your home?

     

    • Lisa 1:52 pm on August 19, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I am a home body, no question about it. Home is definitely my physical house in Oakland. Being a practitioner of yoga, I sometimes worry about my attachment to the stability and safety it provides — our home is blocks from the Hayward fault. But mostly I am just grateful for the pleasures of cooking in my kitchen, puttering in my vegetable garden, hanging the wash on my clothesline, chatting with neighbors, and settling in on the couch for a movie night with my husband and dog. To me, home means simple pleasures.

    • Jill 9:29 am on August 20, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Home is where I am. Home is inhabiting reality and the present moment completely. Home is embodying self and having space to connect, create, + contemplate.

    • Paul 10:15 am on August 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      safety, ease, dropping of “public personae,” intimacy, eros, foolishness, awkwardness, deep recuperation, trust, familiarity, reliability, creative opportunity, productivity, reflection, expression, hosting, cleaning, organizing, decorating, maintaining, …..

    • Larry 4:26 pm on August 28, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      too many rules…

    • Nnenna 3:30 pm on August 31, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I have five homes and building one right now.

      I come from a quaint little village in the eastern part of Nigeria in West Africa. We had a family tragedy when my father was assassinated at ‘home’ . This triggered a wave of traumatic reactions in the family. So we packed my mom and siblings and just left home. So all three houses are empty.

      We rented a small place in the nearest town. We did not want my mother to lose the attachment but we needed everyone safe. The new place is smaller and space is not really there. But it is home. Because that is where the family members feel safe.

      My partner and I have a place in Accra, Ghana. Nice neighborhood in the chic part of town. There is a huge mango tree there and whenever it fruits, the whole neighbors get a real feast! The house has got a large sitting court and we have enjoyed gallons freshly-made fruit juice there. This place represents calm and quietness for us

      My partner also has another house in the western part of Ghana – Takoradi, actually it is called Esipong hill. The house is behind a stadium and overlooks the Atlantic ocean! Beautiful place. We are gently moving from Accra to Esipong now. Lots of fixing to do. Lots of future plans too.

      I am doing this reply from Abidjan in another apartment. It is pure white – pillars, rooms, floor, walls everything. A friend of mine had the place but refused to let it go. We both decided to make it a home. A peaceful place. To an extent that has been a success. It has become a kind of refuge to many people. They actually come just to ‘feel’ the peace and ‘be at home’.

      A new house is being built now. We call it ‘Lot 17′. It is a different experience. We have been building it from literally ‘ground 0′. The structure is up, the tiles are now being laid. I have a special attachment to Lot 17. Like raising a child! So many heartaches but far more joys!

      So here are to all the homes where we have memories, find safety, find calm, dream of the future, seek refuge, and construct our dreams.

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