Author Archive for George Nemeth

Creating Wealth on Common Ground

Published by George Nemeth on July 30, 2008 in Recipes. 0 Comments

There’s a recipe in this story:

Seeking Common Ground and the programs that operate under its umbrella are the embodiment of that dream. The programs include a community organic farm at Denome’s home on Hicks Road in South Bristol; a farm-to-cafeteria program that works with Ontario County Cornell Cooperative Extension, local farmers and food service directors to increase the use of local foods in cafeterias; and Herb Haven, an herbal gardening and retail training program for women and children who are striving to become economically self-sufficient.

About 50 women are participating in one or more of the programs. The community farm is a cooperative that offers the chance to learn about agriculture and help grow a variety of vegetables and other edibles in exchange for having healthy, homegrown food. At Herb Haven, women attend eight to 10 hours a week to learn life skills (such as budgeting and setting goals), horticulture and retail job skills and attend a support group. They plant, tend and harvest the garden, create useful products with the herbs and then sell them from a shop at the site in Crystal Beach on Route 364. Free nutritious meals are provided for women and children, and a child-care program offers arts, crafts, song, dance, gardening, cooking and creative play…

Group of women fighting poverty at home - Wellsville, NY - Wellsville Daily Reporter

Reaching out to my network

Published by George Nemeth on April 7, 2008 in An Intentional Model and Recipes. 0 Comments

Jack writes on his blog regarding Instructions from The Cook:

The start of AA was a small act realizing a big dream. Two men started by helping two other men toward recovery and today million of lives are transformed by the community they built. If you have examples you know of or have been a part of, send them to us. The book, that will be titled “Instructions From The Cook: Recipes for Building Community” will feature descriptions, implications, and applications of a community building model around these recipes.

View the Intentional Model Recipes here. Email your recipes to recipes@radicaltransitions.net. You can also leave them here in a comment.

Wasting time building consensus

Published by George Nemeth on December 7, 2007 in Questions. 9 Comments

One of the theme of Radical Transitions that resonates with people that we share the model with is the realization that their process is stuck in what we refer to as a shadow conversation—conversations that can’t build community. Last night I was talking with someone whose group is bogged down trying to build consensus for a new logo and tagline that will be used to market a district. What to do about it? We propose:

The reality is that we don’t need to agree on everything for any of us to take action in the direction of our dreams. There are many small acts and invitations that do not require permission, support, or even interest from the whole.

Could that work for your group?

An Intentional Model - Shadow Conversations

About this site

Published by George Nemeth on November 21, 2007 in About. 0 Comments

Radical Transitions is the companion of Instructions from the Cook, a new book by George Nemeth and Jack Ricchiuto about conversations that build community. More info at www.IntentionalModel.com

Practicing Radical Transitions

Published by George Nemeth on November 18, 2007 in Questions. 1 Comment

Not sure if Ed Morrison’s taken a look at this blog or the wiki, but he’s another practitioner who’s work can be described by AIM. These are comments from a post on my blog. From Jack Ricchiuto:

What is it, Ed, that distinguishes other regions and leaders who are further ahead in green policies and structures? Are they more knowledgeable about green, are they more connected to the green professionals in the community, do they have more of a personal passion for things green? Or something else? I ask because you have a perspective on other regions that many others don’t have here in this region. Most importantly, when I happen to have the attention of a policy maker here, or someone in their first circle, what can I say or ask that can shift consciousness?

Ed Morrison replies:

Jack, thanks for the question. As usual, you have provoked me to think.

I would characterize the difference in regions as “the capacity to act”. Regions that are moving ahead with renewal have found the capacity to act. The capacity to act emerges from a widely shared responsibility to act and a an equally shared commitment to collaborate.

We’re all familiar with the “incapacity to act”. Organizations, communities, regions get stuck. Issues never seem to get resolved. Plans, often elaborate, get made but implementation fails. Action rarely follows. Worse still, we lose track of our priorities, and no one is quite able to explain why plans “sit on the shelf”.

The incapacity to act is characterized by several patterns. They include denial (we don’t have a problem), procrastination (this issue is not so important), suppression (the problem exists, but people are not able to share in finding solutions), complacency (leaders recognize the problem, but nobody believes it will change, so nothing is done), confusion (leaders are unable to pick among many competing priorities), blame (we tried our best, but someone else undercut our efforts)…

What questions are you asking that provoke transitions?

Four observations

Published by George Nemeth on November 17, 2007 in Questions. 0 Comments

From these four observations:

1/ Until a community learns how to have new conversations together, it will act in fragmented ways

2/ Fragmentation is the source of most issues we call “problems” in a community

3/ New conversations do not depend on politics or economics, but rather on the willingness of people to have new conversations

4/ Conversations that create a new future together are conversations about our dreams, small acts, our gifts, and invitations

Questions emerge:

What are the old conversations in this community that have been unproductive or fragmenting for the community?
Why do you think these conversations have lacked power?
Who else’s dreams and gifts in the community have also not been engaged by these conversations?

Where is your community at discussing these questions?

Surrogate

Published by George Nemeth on November 17, 2007 in Examples. 0 Comments

On his blog, Jack Ricchiuto writes:

Voting is at best a surrogate for direct engagement in one’s community. When I vote for a specific public action, like giving money to a school system, I am not taking a direct part in that action. I am voting to have someone else do that for me, holding someone else accountable for the choices I and a majority of my neighbors make. They are a surrogate to my engagement. I am not going to a school of my choice and giving my money to a teacher, custodian, or coach for a specific project that I have passion about. The surrogates who execute the intentions of a majority of my neighbors mediate a task I never personally engage in…

If you choose not to engage in community, do it intentionally, but don’t misconstrue casting a vote for an idea as taking action. It’s not.

Rediscovering

Published by George Nemeth on November 8, 2007 in Recipes. 0 Comments

Jack posted something to his blog that illustrates AIM on different levels: it’s about conversations, small acts, inviting participation, being engaging. This is an excerpt from a flight chat with a seat mate who joins neighbors in regular small acts of connecting people in his SanFrancisco community. They were talking about the Kerouac stories of natural communities a couple generations ago.

I started to say, “Well, you know this year is the 50th year of …” he [Bob, a San Franciscan electrician] finished with “Yea, On The Road … Kerouac”, leading to another hour of recounting the rich tapestry there. The routine he and some of his neighbors have is once a week or so, they’ll set a bench out front of their home near the Mission District and drink wine, offering to anyone who shows up. It is magic in bringing people out of their houses and into community. No surprise that he is one of the entrepreneurial members of a thriving non-profit board…

Neighborly Benchwarming is a great example of something we’re including in the book—Recipes for building community. It’s one of the areas Jack and I are looking for your ideas on. If you have any tips or techniques on creating community that we could include (with attribution of course), please email them to us, or leave them in a comment below.

jack/zen » Blog Archive » On the road

Begin

Published by George Nemeth on November 7, 2007 in An Intentional Model. 0 Comments

Where to begin? Jack Ricchiuto and I began talking about what has become An Intentional Model of Building Community in the fall of 2006. It was in the Summer of 2007 when it started taking the form for a book—Radical Transitions.

The crux of our model for me is that we’ve all been in meetings that tend to get stuck in one of the four conversations. Even worse, they reach an impasse because they deteriorate into a shadow conversation. When that happens, how do you get back on track?

Our proposal is that if you have the right process to begin with, it’s easy to keep the momentum going—driving the conversation ultimately to small acts. I’ll give you an example. This blog (and its companion wiki) were the direct results of the first workshop Jack and I did. He blogged about it on JackZen.com here, and I expanded on it at my blog.

One of the things we learned is to be very explicit with the narrative for the model. From the example above, here are the four “conversations” that resulted in the small act of having a wiki and a blog:

What would you love to be possible?

We’d like to be able to share these ideas with others and have them respond with their feedback. Since the book is based on stories and recipes, we’d like to have others be able to contribute theirs.

What talents and assets are we each bringing?

I’m bringing my skill and experience setting up wikis and blogs, as well as an excellent hosting company that’s responsive when I request domains set up. Jack has been creating graphs and has written plenty of content so we can start building pages immediately.

What can we get started on a small scale?

The smallest scale is one site with one page. With the right platform, Jack and I can collaborate wherever we are at anytime. A blog starts with one post.

Who else should we invite to the table?

Anyone with a story to tell about intentionally building community. Our framework is descriptive, not perscriptive. Both of us know many people who do this sort of work—let’s invite the to tell their stories of dreams, gifts, invitations, and small acts.

So as you watch this space, expect to see more examples, more invitations to kick the tires of AIM, but most importantly help us identify great groups to include in the book!