Learning, Resonance & Resilience in The Messy Middle

Photo by Jason Krieger on Unsplash

Gratitude to those who joined last week’s Friends of OD for Life call. I'll share a few highlights, since there was abundant inspiration and delight, as always. 

The conversation swirled around the question: What is alive for you now in this urge to put life more fully at the centre of organizations? 

A surprising number on the call were in ongoing caretaking roles, deeply immersed in the immediacy of tending to life. We had some trust (perhaps hope) that this profoundly human endeavor leaves us wiser and more able to bring deep care into our work in organizations and communities. This caretaking work also undeniably pulls us away from work out in the world and the income that comes with it. 

Others were in a time of transition, of metaphorical hospicing as they move away from one form of work to another in search of more life-alignment and more authentic expression of our own voices. We celebrated the courage it takes to leave something behind and step into the unknown. 

We also lamented that so many of us struggle to support ourselves as we seek to contribute to this movement. “It can be disheartening to see so many people in this space who are capable, willing and passionate about regeneration and yet it is so hard to make a living out of these skills,” one woman added. “I think this work is so desperately needed in the world and I wonder how come the universe doesn't help accelerate it by making it a bit easier for people like us to make a change.” 

In his 70+ years, one man said that this is the third major social movement he’s been part of, and this is how it always is in the early stages. “The numbers are growing quickly but it’s still small.” In the meantime, these kinds of conversations help us “get recharged and keep the motivation up,” said another man. 

Our elder member also observed that this movement towards life-alignment in organizations isn't new: it's a “re-membering.” Remembering what we already know. Reconnecting in a deep sense of membership and belonging with each other and with life. No one has to – or can – figure this out alone. 

We explored the ways that this calls for learning as a synonym for living, and also for "unlearning." We’re each working to become the person the future needs. 

I shared that, within OD for Life, we have found the importance of nurturing relationships that allow us to show up authentically, to be welcomed as “enough.” And we've found that immersion in nature is essential to drawing on wisdom beyond ourselves alone. 

One of us pointed to the need for more collective integration of the things we learn, and how existing hierarchical structures are one barrier to that. 

Our elder member observed that we each have to be clear what our gifts are: some people have the capacity to work in stuck places, while others serve better within the unfolding dream state of the future. 

We mentioned Belina Raffy in Berlin, who has wonderful teachings and offerings around improvisation. I once wrote an article about what I’ve learned from her: Using Improv to Save the World. After all, improvisation is how life works. One woman shared a video from the Applied Improvisation Network's conference in Montreal. It's a delight to watch! 

Another talked passionately about the need to bring our brains, our hearts and our hands to this work of improvisation. And another talked about searching for the feeling of “humming” resonance that results when our work aligns with each other and with life. 

With compassion for ourselves, we acknowledged the necessity and value of “the valley of despair” that is such a common experience. "You either open yourself up or you sink." You have no choice but to recognize that something old is stopping, something new is about to start. 

When I asked about “the messy middle” – the focus of the upcoming OD for Life gathering – one man shared his view that what’s needed is to lean fully into an ecological worldview and all its generative potential, even as we keep one foot connected with the needed resources of the conventional worldview. The middle ground holds little value, he believes. The incremental approach won’t get us to a flourishing world. 

And yet, so much of our conversation had explored our experience of being in between paradigms and structures, and in between stages in our own lives. So much of what we shared was the messiness of this time of transition. 

The conversation left one of us “contemplating how I can be an experimenter in my own environment.” 

And it seems to have left many of us with “gratitude for the warmth of the space holding, and the experience of being seen and heard." As one of us shared: "This is always a gift that’s well received.”