as you take a step back to listen
to what is alive now
as you take a step back to listen
to the whispers
can you slow down
walk and see
what life is whispering
to me
to you
what is being called
into existence?
Percolab Canada invite you to 3 complementary experiential personal leadership events to help us create the world we want to live in. Come to one, come to all!
Residential (at the Biology Field Station, University of Montreal)
Registration opens mid November.
Residential (at the Biology Field Station, University of Montreal)
Registration opens mid November
The Flow Game is a unique opportunity to give and receive wisdom on questions that are important to us.
It takes place in supportive environment. Its purpose is to ground, strengthen and bring clarity to your flow of life, your leadership and actions.
You will have the chance to explore a question that has meaning to you in your life or work right now, in a collective Community Flow Game. The game hosts will be newly trained hosts guided by experienced Flow Game hosts.
We invite you to come and spend the morning and play the Flow Game with us!
It’s a fun way to dive deep around a topic that you seldom take the time to reflect upon by yourself. And you will experience how the collective support brings us much further than what we can achieve by ourselves.
The Flow Games will take place at ECTO – co working space – 936 av. Mont-Royal Est, 2e étage, Montreal.
on Sunday 10 February 2019 from 9.30 am to 13 pm.
Or contact paul@percolab.com
Preparation: To participate, we ask that you bring a clear intention or question to the Flow Game. During the game, we’ll jointly reflect and share knowledge related to your question or intention. We will play multiple games in parallel, each in small groups of 5–7. If you come as a pair you will have the choice if you wish to play in the same game or seperate games.
Contribution: We would be happy to accept voluntary contributions of between $20-$40 per person. Donations will go to the Youth Leadership Program at Kufunda Village in Zimbabwe: http://www.kufunda.org If you are not contributing in this way, you are still very welcome
Residential (at the Biology Field Station, University of Montreal)
BUSINESS AS USUAL IS NOT AN OPTION ANYMORE.
This training is for you if you want to clarify and strengthen the way you bring more horizontal practices into your organizations and groups.
Residential (at the Biology Field Station, University of Montreal)
Registration opens mid November
CULTIVATE INNER CLARITY, BALANCE AND STRENGTH
This DOJO is for if you want to explore your personal leadership and inner strength for wiser action.
You are invited to a workshop – a dojo – meaning a place to practice for your life.
The future is in business as commons. In a world where business models are changing and even the traditional notion of work has lost its fit with current paradigms, Samantha Slade an innovator and pioneer in organizational and business models will present a new organization mindset focused on compensation as conversation, co-governance and sharing and collaboration.
Samantha is driven by the transition to future paradigms. With a background in anthropology, she pioneers novel organizational models and practices. Ten years ago she co-founded two businesses – Percolab, an international co-creation and co-design company and Ecto a co-working cooperative in her home city Montreal, Canada. Samantha works with governments, startups, and professional associations and foundations to tackle their complex challenges. She also co-creates commons-based collective impact initiatives and platforms. Engaged in the commons and social innovation movements, Samantha is currently writing a book – Going Horizontal – Creating a Non-hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (to be released in October 2018 with Berrett-Koehler Publishers). Samantha believes that organizations can be a microcosm of the world we want to live in.
Today, Samantha Slade walks onto the TEDx stage in Geneva to present her talk: “Business as a commons“.
#businessascommons #futureofwork #TEDxGeneva
as you take a step back to listen
to what is alive now
as you take a step back to listen
to the whispers
can you slow down
walk and see
what life is whispering
to me
to you
what is being called
into existence?
as I take a step back to listen
in the sounds
at the heart of the noise
I hear the echo of something old and true
…
as we are in turbulence
emergence is what we breathe
can we learn to be in it
fully
and consciously
and with generosity
and grace
recognize it
and thrive
and become?
can we learn
to host each other
in our capacity to become
the best humans we can be?
can we discover
our collective muscle
and learn to flex
in service of all that is alive
all that was
and all that will be?
can we learn together
and practice
being better ancestors?
can we name together
the complexity of here and now
and craft our weapons of love?
why do we need this
art of humaning?
we cannot change
the systems we are
when we stay where we are
addicted to the
already known
the predictable
the fragmented
and the linear
I want to learn to hold
movement and stillness
I need to see
the parts in the whole
…
can we learn
the subtle art of listening
for the patterns
that guide us to what needs to be?
can we become
in awareness
of the systems
of power
that shape and constrict us and
the field where we breathe
and feel
and find nourishment
and pain?
can we learn and practice together
to see and name
what we are up against?
and with the force of our stillness
move into action?
…
why do we need this
art of humaning?
calling
our power to work beyond
our structures of ego
to discover our future as eco
to co-create
to reconstruct
and discover
what we can truly do
calling
our future as co-sensing
and practicing grace
as we call out for collaborations
we cannot see yet
what happens when we put together
our whole capacities of fully sensing
human beings
in the service of a shift
towards eco-system conciousness?
what can we learn to sense
collectively?
what can we shift when we
discover and enter
our full collective power?
I need to see the art of humaning
and inquiring about the world
and ourselves
as we enter in the questions
we listen together
…
the art of humaning
finds stillness
in nature
I breathe
I take a step back
I see life
I see the art of humaning
to help usher an old culture
where we can listen think and act wisely
as the multitudes we all are
where power and love are the
anchors of the inquiry
and experiences
and stories
connect us
and help us see the future
and the complexity
that moves us
…
act in complexity, wisely
try the art of trying (shit out)
try the art of listening
be strategy
…
I listen to the whispers
of the present that is yet to come
I want presence
I want my steps
to discover the new paradigm
of the alliance of humankind
with life
in my steps in the new snow
I see our ability
to see one another
for the miracles we already are
…
I call for the art of humaning
I call for our gift of sensing together
what expects to be born
in the places we work
in the places we live
in the places we love
something is simmering
and awaits to rise to its possibility
…
I call for our capacity to call
I call for our capacity to hear
I call for our capacity to dance
I call for our capacity to love
and sustain life
I call for our capacity to do together
what can’t be done
and yet is done
countless times, everyday, forever
I call for our capacity to hear the screams
beyond walls and borders
with clarity
in the chaos
in the noise
I call for our capacity to dream together
and grow in dreaming
and grow in humaning
and grow in gardening our connections
and our learnings
and our heartbreaks
and our joys
I call for our freedom in the face of complexity
I call to see and be seen
in the web of life and change
…
what is the discovery path
we are carving for ourselves
and how will we care for each other
on the way?
there is
so much to learn
and to ask of ourselves
and of others
asking for help
is the kind
and wise
thing to do
as we are practicing
creating
world making
to unlock the potential
of the human field
to unlock the power to call
conversations that matter
what is the conversation you are craving?
…
if this is about life
then let the world be part of the conversation
then let imagination flow
in all its human
and non-human
shapes
what becomes possible
when we learn together
to be present
to the world?
a community
sensing and practicing
together
change as a constant part of life
…
this is not about you
you are just practicing
modeling something
in honesty
and vulnerability
calling is
letting go
of old patterns
and old ideas that are not in service
of the work
calling names
what is non negotiable
…
what is not negotiable
is allowing space for paradoxes
to live
what is not negotiable is
the humanness in nature
and the nature in humanness
what is not negotiable is
practicing in honesty
and openness
and transparency
what is not negotiable is
space to fumble
and work out loud
through our tensions
and our paradoxes
what is not negotiable is
talking about money
and value
what is not negotiable is
kindness and learning
what is not negotiable is
walking the line
between openness and boundaries
what is not negotiable is
conversations about complexity and power
within ourselves
within our communities
what is not negotiable is
the art
in the art of humaning
together
…
we invent the dance
of what good work is
and feels like
we dance in our bodies and our hearts
we dance our new structures
of possibility
and belonging
and in the dance
we hold each other
in learning
in growing
in exploring
in grieving
in trembling
we are learning to be
the archeologists of our future
…
what can we dream together?
are we breathing new worlds yet?
where is our center of gravity
in all of this?
what will hold the new together?
what holds us back?
…
I am calling
a life full of meaning
and work that makes me feel
alive
I am calling the revolution of humaning
can we live it yet?
I am calling
the revolution
of humaning
Also publish in Medium
“Well, why don’t you just come to one of our team meetings?” I say to the barista, “They are every Tuesday from 10 am to noon at the ECTO Coworking.”
He nods seriously and notes the time and place on a napkin behind the counter. I pick up my latte and wander off to one of the tables in the corner to work out a team budget proposal for one of our upcoming projects.
Inviting not-so-random folks to Percolab’s team meetings has become one of my everyday practices. I must extend at least 5 or 10 of these invitations a week. Sometimes these invitations are received as a gift and a possibility, like in the case of this barista who has just finished a graduate degree in urban planning and is interested in citizen co-design and consultation – one of Percolab’s areas of expertise. He had recognized me from a strategic planning session I had facilitated for one of the units at the university he attended.
Other times, the invitations are received by eyes wide with disbelief as though I had invited this human I have just met to my Sunday family brunch: please bring the mimosas and then you can go jump on the trampoline with the kids and Matante Guylaine.
“Why would you invite me to a team meeting?” said human demands, “Don’t you deal with, like, internal stuff at your meetings?”
“Yes,” I confirm, “we deal with internal stuff. Some of it is strategic, some of it is operational, some of is has to do with our personal dynamics, the first Tuesday of the month is about Percolab International. Some meetings deal with money and how we self-attribute our earnings, sometimes we even process conflicts in our team meetings. Like I said, Tuesday at 10 am – you should just come participate.”
“Um, OK, I can come observe,”says the human, “I am really curious. I won’t be distracting. I promise.”
“Yeah…well… no, that won’t work,” I reply with a suppressed smile, “I’m not inviting you to come observe us. We are people not hamsters. I’m inviting you to come be with us, to participate. Help us think through our challenges and issues, bring in all of your experience, and intelligence, and wisdom, contribute to our decision-making.”
“Really?” the human inquires, “But you only just met me! How can I understand all of your context and policies and regulations? How can I possibly contribute to decision-making? What will your boss say?”
“Well, to start off with there are no bosses at Percolab, we are a truly flat organization and we make decisions through a consent-based approach. And of course you can’t possibly understand everything we are about. But attending a team meeting is sure a more effective way of getting to know us than reading our “About” page online. If we are discussing an issue that needs to be decided upon and you, from your understandably limited perspective, are able to see a potential risk to the organization, we are gonna listen and take that into account as we move forward.”
“OK,” says the human – I can see that they are getting really curious, “but will I be the only stranger there?”
“I have no idea,” I say, “we’ll know when you show up! Some weeks we have no guests (we don’t call them strangers), often we have one or two, and a few times when several members have been out working with clients, we have had three times as many guests as Percolab members! Those weeks are usually great for brainstorming about issues we’ve been trying to work through, like rethinking our website.”
“Doesn’t it get exhausting having new people at your meetings every week?” inquires the human.
“It can be,” I admit, “Some weeks I’ve been downright grumpy about having to host new people into a team meeting, especially when there is a topic that is really important to me. Yet, again and again, I find our guests help me think through some tough questions about both our work with clients and how we work together as a team. Especially, if the person doesn’t “get” what we do easily, it challenges us to be clearer in how we speak about ourselves and cleaner in how we work together. So I might arrive grumpy but I almost always leave energized… coffee helps.”
“What type of people come to your meetings?” they ask.
“Some of the guests at meetings are interested in collaborating with us, some want to study us for academic purposes, some attend our meetings so they can learn about self-management and maybe even bring new practices to their own organizations, some are international experts passing through Montreal who want to jam with us, some are clients we already work with or are thinking of working with us – attending our meetings gives them a really good practical sense of our applied knowledge. One of my favourite things to do is invite all the participants in my workshops to come to a team meeting. You should see their faces!”
“OK, I’m in!” exclaims my new human friend, “I’ve been wanting to learn about self-management for a long time but I haven’t been too sure if my team is ready for it. Seeing it in action would really be helpful. It makes me feel a lot better to think that I won’t just be some voyeur and I can contribute with any knowledge or experience I already have. I find this idea of open meetings really inspiring and unusual. You guys sure are brave to do this!”
“Well…” I respond cautiously. I want to be able to accept this compliment but at the same time I am slightly irked that this practice that I find so normal is deemed as brave. “Well, we have a choice: we can talk about collaboration or actually experiment and experience what it is like to work with “strangers”. We can talk about transparency or open ourselves up to others so we can truly be seen, for better or worse, and understand ourselves and our blind spots better. We can talk about collective intelligence or actively engage in thinking with other people who come from really different backgrounds. To me and to probably everyone else at Percolab too, opening up our team meetings is a practical benefit to the organization, the generosity people show us by sharing their insights into our work is amazing. But opening our team meetings is also a meaningful and symbolic act: we are a fractal of how we would like organizations to function in the world. Imagine, if governments and institutions and corporations and foundations and community organizations had as their base model meetings that were open, transparent, collaborative, and drew on collective intelligence? Just that. Imagine that. ”
“Whoa!” says the human, “I’m gonna need to wrap my mind around that one. Maybe we can talk about that after the meeting on Tuesday.”
Guest Author: Mary Alice Arthur, Get Soaring
If you’ve ever been to Montreal, you will have experienced the vibrant hum of the city. It is a city that has distinctive neighbourhoods and an international flavour, and it is also a city committed to exploring and vitalising diversity. 2017 marks 375 years for Montreal and the city is helping to mark the celebration by making a public process of community storytelling.
Imagine, if you will wooden circular structures popping up in the midst of St Catherines walking street or in your local neighbourhood. They look very much like an open basket, because that was their inspiration.
Their intention is to create a network of points in space that transform people’s narrative about where they are and how they inhabit the space. Although they appear like little separate pods, they are all connected to the element of surprise and forming community, enabling people who sit in them to imagine space in a different way and create possibilities that were not there before.
They are called Nacelles, a French word meaning the basket of a hot air balloon, but conceptually pointing to network or multiplicity. In a tangible, physical way, they create a commons, a place to gather and share. By their very shape, they create an interesting bounded object in a public space in the shape of a circle. You’re exposed like you would be in public space, but you have a container of intimacy, and intentional collaborative moments in conversation. The nacelles create intimacy while you’re outside.
Each Nacelle is a set of pre-fabricated pieces which are easy to build together in about 20 minutes. In fact, the very act of building them starts creating community. They are about 12 feet in diameter, and seat around 12 – 15 people on two tiers of benches with a small table in the middle. But they are also permeable. People can stand outside the structure and lean in, making it possible to take part in something, even if you’ve just arrived.
Using these structures for public dialog and storytelling is the brainchild of French-based group Comm1possible. It fits seamlessly into Montreal-based practice Percolab‘s approach to dialogue and storytelling. Cédric Jamet explains: “We need more ways to connect people than social networks. The “smart city” as we think about it, is not enough. We need structures that allow us to do this in a real and physical way. That’s how Nacelles emerged.
“There was a consciousness around the circle as a way to connect people that informed the structure of the Nacelle. The idea of the city of the future is a city created by the people who live in it. Nacelles become a physical representation of that.
“When we think about it, this project around inclusion is also around sharing individual stories, and what comes up is a common story of inclusion. Nacelles help create a commons. The original idea was how can we experiment to create urban commons and cities as commons. That’s where it came from and where it’s headed. Really at the heart of the project is the idea of what becomes possible when we build the spaces we live in together.”
“The physical structure invites curiosity. And when you go over the threshold of curiosity it invites in relationship,” says Elizabeth Hunt. “One of our upcoming projects is around diversity and multi-culturalism with a borough of Montreal. Around their multi-cultural citizen day, we will be working with storytellers in the nacelles and then we will invite citizens with their own stories of how to shift the dominant discourse from integration to one of inclusion.
“It’s about building this together, shared responsibility. People show up with strollers, walking their dog. When a whole bunch of different kinds of people are there, you have the permission to go see. It’s a strange attractor. You enter the structure as strangers and emerge as allies. We are continuing to ask ourselves how we can use Nacelles as a collective sensemaking structure.”
Cedric chimes in again: “It shapes a bunch of things, experimenting with the Nacelle as a natural way to inclusion. We all have a relationship to this theme, whether we are born here or not, came here or not. I was hosting during the storytelling process – the storyteller was indigenous and his theme was around what it is to welcome and host people in. I was thinking ‘I’m an immigrant here. I’m French originally. I have a colonial background in me.’ Everyone who participated and shared stories verbalized their connection to this place in ways that were not anticipated. There’s something that happens when story gets shared and space gets held. Holding space is the condition for emergence. Something special happens.”
Elizabeth agrees, even though her story is completely different: “I’m born and bred in Montreal – same hospital as my dad – 11 – 15 generations each side. Those streets I’ve walked as a child, my parents, my grandparents also walked. I graduated from University on those steps over there. I had supper with someone there a few blocks over. My relationships to this space – what else is possible in my relationship to this city – is forever transformed by being there with the nacelles. We can transform an area into a storytelling platform, what else can we do in terms of moulding this city?”
Percolab has been partnering with French company Comm1Possible, which developed the concept and has used the nacelles in France and Morocco. Percolab is their only North American partner, but it seems obvious that the nacelles are far more than a way of creating community conversation and storytelling. Even the way the two organisations are working together is seeking to create a commons out of the application of nacelles.
“Nacelles help create a commons,” Cedric tells me. “Then there’s the whole aspect of how we work together — if our purpose is to create commons, then Nacelles itself has to be a commons. That’s what we’re building on with Comm1Possible – how do we develop the system supporting Nacelles that is thought of and lived as a commons? Yes, there’s the object, but there’s a whole philosophy and business model that goes around it.”
Elizabeth continues: “We haven’t explored the questions, but the physicality of it invites the questions – how do we share this? Who does it belong to? How do we share the decisions? What is our vision for greater social change? We’re trying to work a commons based agreement – our working relationship is a commons relationship.”
As Cedric says: “The more people there are in the Nacelle, the more the Nacelle becomes invisible and it becomes a circle that’s about people. When we were using them on St Catherine and I walked away for a few minutes, I could see a conglomerate of people, but you couldn’t see the Nacelles. It was like a bunch of grapes but you can’t see the stem. It is an architecture that is holding people together but that you can’t see when its working well – it becomes invisible. That’s a metaphor for excellent hosting work.”