Michael Herman's Blog (2003-2016)
Inviting Agility in Challenging Environments
romy shovelton emailed today, from her farm in wales, asking about mixing open space and appreciative inquiry. it turns out i have a pretty good story of such mixing, from grassroots to new national government, that i’d been meaning to update here. on my third visit to nepal, i helped convene and facilitate a third …
Continue reading “opening space for appreciative inquiry — and peace — in nepal and its government”
This in from my colleagues in Nepal last week, the third iteration of the Summit meeting we started in 2004: It is our great pleasure to inform you that the third national summit of imagine initiatives of Nepal is successfully concluded on 10 September,2006 in Pokhara. The three day summit made a clear way about …
Continue reading “Inviting Positive Societal Transformation
in Nepal”
Three and one half years ago in Nepal, my friends and colleagues working for peaceful development dared not speak the word “Maoist” in public, not in anything louder than a whisper, that is. When it was mentioned in private, eyes darted around the room, as if checking for bugs, and gauging the safety of saying …
This comes from my friend and colleague Ram Raut, on the occasion of the New Year in Nepal. The mainstream news out of Nepal these days is about hundreds being arrested in protests and a people teetering on anarchy. Here is an inside view, a heart view, from a guy who’s home was bombed only …
For three years, I have had the opportunity to work with peaceful development leaders in Nepal. In my last visit we did a four-day, national, Open Space and Appreciative Inquiry conference and training summit event. Most recently, the Maoists have attacked the village of one of the main leaders of the group. This photo is …
Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork The Nepali journalists I noted earlier have posted an open letter to a leader of the Maoists. That’s right, an open letter, open rebuke, and open invitation to a leader of the terrorists who have some reputation for disappearing people they don’t like. Some of those disappeared do …
Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork Here are some little individuals taking direct, and probably dangerous, action to make a difference in politically turbulent Nepal. Their story is a fantastic example of people using the simple resources they already have to make the big changes, like peaceful democracy, they really want. Oh, yes, and …
The Nepali king and military have placed tight restrictions on what can be printed and broadcast there, following the “royal coup” of February 1st. I assume the main media websites are similarly banned from reporting on what is really happening there. Friends and colleagues I’m working with there send conflicting reports by email and it’s …
Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork Last October, we ran a national, 4-day conference and training (Open Space and Appreciative Inquiry) to support peaceful development throughout Nepal. We also set up a number of weblogs so that they could report their good news. Buddhi Tamang has been reporting all kinds of NAINN progress there …
Continue reading “Nepal Appreciative Inquiry National Network”
Reporting here from Boudhanath, Kathmandu, with some random observations… little kids playing frisbee here in the street, using a 6″ square of cardboard for a frisbee whole chickens sitting out on tables in front of meat shops, heads and feet still attached, proprietors shooing flies from the tables a teenager passes by wearing a black …
Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork Greetings from Banepa, Nepal! We have just completed a hugely successful conference here. This was four days of working sessions and facilitator training, Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry, all blended together. We had 80 community leaders from every sector and every region of Nepal attending. We’ve been …
Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork Greetings from Kathmandu! We’re here, Buddhi Tamang and I, demonstrating blogging and getting ready to use a weblog to post the proceedings from the Open Space and Appreciative Inquiry conference that we will conduct over the next four days. If we can get all the technology to work, …
I leave tomorrow morning for Kathmandu Nepal, where the first order of business will be to facilitate a four-day conference for reimagining the future of that country. We’ll have about a hundred community leaders coming in from every district of the country. Given the difficulties with travel these days in the midst of the conflict …
My understanding of Inviting Leadership has been evolving and unfolding for at least 10 years now, but it’s only in the last year or so that I’ve come to call it that in my teaching. Here are my cryptic notes about teaching it now, after Jill turned my old teaching model upside down. She did …
Continue reading “Inviting Leadership Practice in Organization”
Last September I ran into the people who make these cool (hot?) Sun Ovens. Turns out they have reps in Nepal, where I was set to do an Open Space training day in November. We made some connections and got the Nepali Sun Oven guys invited to come demo the ovens at the conference day, …
To blog or not to blog? Well… okay… blog. It’s been a grand experiment, but there are things I put here now that I don’t have any other place to put. Much to my surprise, and chagrin, there is more to say. So without further ado, here is where I’ve been, mostly gladly, spending big …
All at once, Life seems as chaotic and coherent, pressured and peaceful, stirred up and stable as I can ever remember. All of my energy and attention seems fully deployed, into three nested spheres and three separate blogs — Open Space World, Chicago Conservation Corps, and here Inviting Life — each one a tidy list …
I find that my desk this morning reflects well the shifting and mixing that I’m working on these days. I notice that I’m working simultaneously on several things… the hot cereal and fruit in my bowl… taking notes from a yoga book to improve the practice I just finished… still reading the latest issue of …
This kind of makes me want to move to Kalamazoo, with a name like that and people like this in town… International Conference on Engaging the Other: The Power of Compassion October 26-29, 2006 in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA An international, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference examining concepts of “The OTHER” from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote …
Friends and colleagues in Nepal, people I’ve worked with for the last several years in my travels there, opening space for peaceful development, send this report this morning, following Maoist attack(s) last week: …Ram Bdr. Raut (national chairman of the NAINN peaceful development community) and his family was hardly survived due to heavy bombardment of …