Learning Together. Building Community.

I recently talked with Aaron Enyetu, who arrived here from Uganda just a few months ago. Aaron has worked both as a volunteer in the community-building work of the Baha’i community, and as a professional for Kimanya Ngeyo, an organization based in Jinja that promotes the empowerment of rural people to participate meaningfully in the development of their communities, families and themselves. One of the organization’s areas of focus is sustainable organic farming methods. Eager

What happens when we live a lie for generations? What does it do to us when we pretend we are better than others? What happens to us when we build structures and institutions to keep the lie in place? Racism is damaging all of us—White, Black, Brown and everyone in between. When we buy into a lie, we become separated from ourselves. We become strangers to our souls. We begin to believe that this world is all there is and this is all that matters. We come to occupy a smaller a

Last week I was at a conference for Portland-based organizations involved in global development work. It was sobering and hopeful at the same time. The dangers of climate change, the refugee crisis, the challenges faced by peoples and countries around the world, the even greater challenges looming on the horizon, are all rather staggering. At the same time, there are bright spots of hope, many of which come from our youth. One speaker shared the story of Richard Turere, a you

When we look around at the public conversation these days, it’s rather sobering. Issues have become polarized, with each side becoming more entrenched in their view. Arguing has become more important than problem-solving. And yet the problems we face as a humanity grow larger and more tangled every day. Are we doomed? Is it human nature to argue and fight about everything? What constitutes human nature? M. Scott Peck found a humorous way of explaining this in his book, The Ro

Here’s what I’m learning: When we’re learning something new—when we enter new territory—it’s uncomfortable. As far as I can tell, it’s always uncomfortable. I keep thinking it will get easier, and it does… this new territory becomes familiar, known, more comfortable. But then I turn a corner and I’m in a different new territory. Once again, I don’t know how things work, I don’t know the lay of the land, I’m just feeling my way through. Slowly I’m getting accustomed to the fee

Do you know the Einstein quote about how we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them? I looked it up the other day because I wanted the exact wording. But I kept finding indications that the quote is mis-attributed. Apparently there’s no evidence that Albert Einstein actually said this. Einstein’s Urgent Call for New Ways of Thinking However, there are other documents that Einstein wrote or signed that do call for a new way of thinking. One is the Rus

I made a mistake. And it was horrible. Actually, it was a constellation of mistakes, because there never is just one. But I realized something, finally, after all these years… It wasn’t the mistake that made it horrible, it was how I beat myself up about the mistake. I’ve been re-reading John Heider’s The Tao of Leadership and came across a passage about simply observing: The wise leader pays respectful attention to all behavior. Thus the group becomes open to more and more p

This article is part of a series on “Learning About Learning.” Have you ever felt overwhelmed at the beginning of a project? Or frustrated trying to explain something to a new team member? Beginnings are not easy, especially for those of us who get our energy from completing things. But beginnings are precious; they hold an essential but fleeting treasure—the ability to see things with fresh eyes. I was walking down the street one day and ahead of me was a two-year-old with h

About a year and a half ago, I set an intention for myself to facilitate learning within groups and between groups. Suddenly all kinds of opportunities opened up to do just that—for clients, for community groups, for groups of individuals and even in my own family. Some of these opportunities showed up in the Baha’i community where there is a veritable ocean of written guidance: books, letters, statements, study materials. The challenge I found myself facing was how to comple

This whole Prosperity Project started when I read The Prosperity of Humankind and realized that unless we include every single human being on the planet in this vision of prosperity, we won’t have peace, justice or well-being for anyone.  As a writer, I realized I could paint a picture of what this looks like when we’re doing it. So I started interviewing people who had a unique perspective on prosperity and explored some of the deeper meanings of the concept. Each person I t

Last fall I set an intention to “facilitate learning within groups and between groups.” Since then, I’ve served on an elected body in my community, wrote a user manual for a team of tool-makers, coached a high school student who started a robotics club at her former elementary school, created various presentations and tools, and helped individuals find and use tools for their work. So what have I learned about learning so far? Make it visual A picture is worth a thousands wor

Knowledge is one of humanity’s most precious treasures. Yet throughout history, it’s been a treasure reserved for the elites of human society. Today, the tools for generating and applying knowledge generally reside in the universities and research facilities of “developed” nations. But this approach just intensifies the vast gap between the “haves” and the “have nots”. What would happen if these tools were available to all people everywhere—from the African farmer to the Illi