Tag Archives: collaboration

Making Space for Connections

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 2 Comments

Our social fabric is a most valuable asset, the invisible woven net in which we live, exert influence, find resources and collaborators, solve problems and make up what comes next.  I pay attention to people who foster ways of strengthening that fabric and want to share here a few recent experiences with people who are doing just that.

On Saturday April 14th, I gathered with about 40 other folks in my neighborhood, the Laurel district in east Oakland, CA to participate in the Laurel to Redwoods Walk led by Oakland Urban Paths.  OUP host Paul Rosenbloom and special guest, local historian Dennis Evanosky, led us on a meandering journey through our streets, introducing us to off-the-beaten-path public pathways that some of us knew nothing about, including passages between private property lines, pedestrian bridges and trails.  OUP’s mission is to raise awareness of these pathways to increase public usage and enjoyment of them and to get support for signage and maintenance that keep them accessible.  Dennis continually fed our interest with “here on this very spot” tales of Oakland’s early development by native peoples, Spanish settlers, gold miners seeking real estate, greedy lawyers, and more!

I enjoyed the exercise, the adventure and the history.  But what thrilled me most was the way connections formed during this hike.  I noticed this in several ways. A few times, as our serpentine group stretched along sidewalks, we inspired curiosity and connection. People came out on their porches calling out “Who are you?” and we replied “Come with us for a hike!”  In an improvisational moment, one man even ran inside to get his hat and joined us.  Gerald, owner of Scheberies Used Cars, paused to talk with the group as we followed the path next to his chain link fence.  His business has been there since before 580 was built! As we walkers warmed up to each other, making introductions and falling into stride with different companions, our conversations deepened.  I participated in problem-solving discussions about how to slow traffic on the 35th Avenue hill and how to get trails and bridges in the redwoods fixed after the winter’s rains.  I’m sure there were many other productive threads that I never witnessed.  It was heartening to sense how this random group of people on a hike was so naturally creative and willing to serve this place we love living in.  I want to celebrate Paul and Oakland Urban Paths who so obviously make space for connecting people to the land, to history, to each other and to our future.

A week later on April 21st I attended the business launch party for BASE Landscape Architecture, owned by my fun and talented clients, Patricia Algara and Andreas Stavropoulos.  Even after years of being a networker, I find it challenging to walk into a room packed with people I don’t know.  I explored their office digs, got a glass of wine, and discovered the Zome in their shared workspace where I settled in.  (Patricia and Rob Bell construct these beautiful, whimsical wood structures that are a regular feature in Burning Man’s desert landscape.)  Benches with pillows lined the inside making an inviting space for quietly taking in the visual and energetic aesthetic and/or connecting with the people next to me.  There just is something about sitting in a circular space that facilitates ease of connection.  I leaned on the cushions to take in the ceiling, was entertained by two lively musicians, and had an engaging conversation about economics, organizational behavior and the self-organizing system we call the Internet.  I also heard a story about how the Zomes at Burning Man “create a space in the middle of the desert and everyone inside is like at a cocktail party.”  Andreas, Patricia and Rob understand how to make space for connections through building the kinds of environments we humans need to relax and engage.

As a final thought…

I notice that making the space for connections means slowing down our pace, at least a bit.  If you want more and better relationships, teamwork, and community in your life, work, and neighborhood, take the time to make space for connections.

Happy Earth Day!  Nika

Nika Newcomb Quirk, MBA PhD
facilitating the emergence of systems savvy, resilient, artful, and collaborative leadership
NikaQuirk@mac.com
+1 510-381-5350
facebook: nika quirk
linked in: nika quirk

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Playful Practices, Sustainable Living

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Becoming a Scholar-Practitioner

Posted on April 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

I’m back in my blog after 10 months. Like so many other aspects of daily life, blogging was crowded out by the need for me to completely immerse myself in writing the story of my PhD journey and research project, a document called my dissertation.  Last Wednesday, I completed the last perfectionist technical edits and uploaded the dissertation .pdf, submitting it to one final review by my school, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and ultimately to UMI/Proquest to be published publicly.  Sometime in June or July, you should be able to use Google Scholar to search for and download it, if you are so inclined.  It’s not as dry as some academic writing and has lots of pictures, but was still largely written for an academic audience.  (Be warned!)  My dissertation abstract gives you an idea in text form of what I’ve been exploring for the last 6 years.  And the image below visually expresses this artful action inquiry process I’ve been engaged in and with.

What does being a scholar-practitioner mean to me?  I’ve always been curious and now that inclination has deepened into being an inquirer, one who lives into reflective practice, meaning making, and the continuous exploration and articulation of knowing.  Through my PhD process, I have confronted, engaged with, made sense of and integrated much of my experience of life.  I’ve processed 1000s of pages of books and articles.  I’ve made the first of my contributions to the academic knowledge base.

And here, in this blog, I’ll continue to contribute to the online conversation, sharing what I notice about how we are Making Up What Comes Next.

Encouraging you to create some good today, I remain,
Nika Newcomb Quirk, MBA PhD
Emerging Circles
facilitating the rise of systems savvy, resilient, artful, and collaborative leadership

Image

Copyright 2012 Nika Newcomb Quirk

 

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Arts and Organizations, Reinventing Self

Tagged , , , , ,

Play with your Food – “plop” go the raspberries

Posted on June 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

It’s June here in the San Francisco Bay Area and there’s a tropical feel to the air. We’ve gone from a cold late spring into an early June of weird steamy atmosphere.  I’m a little peevish because I moved here decades ago partially to escape the “dripping wet under the armpits” humidity of East Coast summers. But, you know, there’s always a silver lining – the raspberry bushes are loving this weather!  With two beehives tending to their pollination, lots of moisture and overcast sun, the bushes in our garden continue to be heavy with beautiful, bumpy purple fruit.

In early afternoon today, I decided I needed some centering before immersing my mind in the process of dissertation editing.  So, I went out to play in the garden.  I said hello to the new crop of half-inch worms in the worm box, added our kitchen scraps to the compost, shared some of the more delectable scraps with the chickens, scratched my cat Bitty’s belly, and then turned my full attention to berry-picking.

Fully ripe raspberries, ones that are almost all juice held together by a delicate skin, are just waiting to “plop”.  Looking closely, you can see how gravity is pulling the juicy weight off the stem, loosening it for freefall.  With my berry bucket’s ribbon around my neck, I have both hands free for berry-catching.  I wade into the bushes carefully and gently move bright green leaves aside so I can catch sight of the sweet gems they hide.  About every ninth berry goes straight into my mouth, providing an eye-closing moment of sheer delight.  I pick berries with one palm underneath, encouraging them with my other hand to drop without squishing.  As I’m pulled into the flow of wading-revealing-plopping, I flash on an early memory of my relationship to berries.  I’m about 4 years old and strawberries give me a belly rash so when my sisters take me to the big wild strawberry field, I’m strictly told to Pick but not to Eat.  I learn the secrets of berry-hunting from them but I cannot resist the sweet rewards!  By the time we leave, my face, hands and t-shirt give evidence of my happiness and I walk home already scratching at my tummy.  Smiling at how little I’ve changed in some ways, I finish filling my little bucket and head into the kitchen to store my harvest.

The deeper I go exploring into the nature of collaboration, the more I realize the importance of our recognizing our relationships to everything in our world.  If we can see our own collaborative relationships in tending bees that nurture and feed from berry flowers that in turn “plop” fruit into our hands, we are more prepared to create and participate in the flow of human systems.  We are in no way estranged from the world in which we live.  We only need to open ourselves to the truth of our connection.

From me to you with joy, Nika

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Playful Practices, Sustainable Living

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Playing with Shared Power

Posted on February 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness – Thich Nhat Hanh

Sharing power is an ongoing human dilemma that is rising to critical priority in this century because of increasing planetary, economic and social pressures beyond historical precedent. In his recent State of the Union address, U.S. President Obama called repeatedly for unity of purpose and cooperative practice to “win the future”.  Listening to him triggered my ongoing questions about how we move a nation of individualists into successful, skillful collaboration with each other.  My longtime curiosity about this has become my all-absorbing focus in both my research and professional practice.

My experience indicates that playing together helps us to explore and learn about sharing power, and I’ve made this the core of my approach to cultivating teams. Moving, artmaking and storytelling as a group and in pairs provides an opportunity to step out of competitive or emotionally laden life and work scenarios, and play with power.  When we step back into our daily contexts, we can bring along insights and alternative patterns that seed and nurture more cooperative behaviors and relationships.  After all, Daniel Goleman advises in his book Social Intelligence, “Nature [in the form of our primate social brain] tends to foster positive relationships” and “even among complete strangers, a moment of playfulness, even outright silliness, forms an instant resonance.”  But, in the U.S., play (of this artful sort) is more often than not viewed as frivolous and merely entertaining, not a valid element in the formula for creating productive and successful leaders and contributors in the workplace.

Follow the leader(s)

“Play isn’t a character defect; it’s the builder of character, developing persistence, competence, mastery and social skills that take us beyond perceived limitations” (Joe Robinson in the Huffington Post).  Two weeks ago in London, I led a group of consultants, artists and activists through a morning of following and leading, pausing occasionally to process and learn from their experiences.  Collaboration emerges from the interplay between individual power and collective power. Grounded in confidence from knowledge of our inner authority, our power to choose and act, we are readied to face the uncertainty of interacting with the will and ideas of others.  We test our expectations and limitations about group performance.

Creating a shared story

Many participants in this group, as in others I’ve led, commented on their enjoyment of finding an ease-filled active space between leading and following, where shared leadership emerged without strain or confusion.  For some, it was an uncommon experience or one they desired to have more of.  They expressed being tired of just leading or following, especially in their work.  For others, it was their natural approach to life.  Pouring the composite power of partners or the group into this space between, possibilities are seemingly infinite and innovation sparks.  And did I mention it was Fun? Faces lit up, bodies were alive and the energy in the room was palpable.  Out of playing with shared power, we can learn to reap the full harvest of inspiration, learning, creativity and healthy community needed to evolve sustainable organizations.

Know a team that wants to collaborate better and has the willingness and courage to Play with Power?  Workshops and longer term consulting support available.  Contact NikaQuirk@mac.com or 510-381-5350.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Arts and Organizations, Dealing with Change, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Playful Practices, Power, Sustainable Living

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Right mix? open source & proprietary

Posted on January 14, 2011 | 1 Comment

My conversation over B&B breakfast with a computer science college teacher spilled over into dialog with colleagues at Ashridge Business School (UK) today.

How does an open-source, sharing-based environment create interdependence and community?

How do the “walls” built in organizations (including those between people) to protect proprietary information impact collaborative performance?

How will we find the effective mix of open-source and proprietary to support a sustainable commercial and social future?

What do you think?

Nika

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Leadership, personal growth, Sustainable Living

Tagged , , ,