The Meaning Difference

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: What Life Expects From Us

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PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:
It's Role in Creating a Better World
Nine Berrett-Koehler Authors came together to explore personal responsibility: What it means? How could it change things? What can we all do? Dr. Alex Pattakos, John Perkins and Angeles Arrien set the stage for this powerful conversation among a group of distinguished authors about current affairs in our country and our world.
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A FEW PERSONAL THOUGHTS TO CONSIDER...
Personal responsibility is a topic that resonates with me. I believe in it, do you? Reflecting back on my generation, when we were going through the anti-war movement at another time in history, there was a sense of social activism that was certainly pleasure-driven, but also carried with it a higher purpose. It wasn’t just John Lennon’s songs and lyrics that symbolized this time of great change. I think people really believed in it. Some years later, we seemed to go through a period where we became a lot more affluent and anesthetized to a lot of things that were going on around us and in the world. We lost touch. We closed our eyes. We exchanged our social activism with the ease of running on auto-pilot.

Today, we find ourselves in a time of great turmoil, deep divides, great need, war, destruction and life, in many ways, out of control. I find it a time that is calling out for its citizens to feel a sense of personal responsibility. It comes with an invitation to discover deeper meaning in our lives, giving instead of taking --- by engaging instead of shutting down. The stakes are high and it is time to move forward to rebuild our country, our families, our communities and our planet. We must wake up, get informed and get involved!

As I mention in my book, we are, by nature, creatures of habit. As we repeat our patterns of thought over and over again, we begin to believe that life just happens to us and this limits our potential. We become prisoners of our thoughts. Perhaps, this describes where many of us are at this moment, but this can be changed.

Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in the PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY dialogue referenced above with eight other Berrett-Koehler authors. It was not only meaning-FULL to be invited to seed the conversation, but it was also a thought-provoking experience to hear what others had to say. The whole idea was to create dialogue that would invite others to think and question with us and get involved right where they are. I've realized it was a conversation about what life was expecting from us.

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."   
--- Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

I invite you to meet nine Berrett-Koehler authors and  LISTEN IN to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: It's Role in Creating a Better World and let me know what you think!

All the best,
Alex 

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
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Meaning-Full SUSTAINABILITY: The Power of Dialogue

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KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio presents...

HABITAT JAM: The Rest of the Story
with Charles Kelly, Commissioner General of the World Urban Forum III (WUF) joined by Dr. Alex Pattakos and Debbe Kennedy, founder, Global Dialogue Center meet to talk about the remarkable story of turning talk about sustainability of our cities and planet into action.  LISTEN NOW

There are meaning-full moments one doesn't forget. Especially, those where you get to both, witness and personally experience, some pioneering first. So it was with the Habitat Jam, a groundbreaking online dialogue that brought 39,000 people from 158 countries together for an historic 72-hours as a preparatory event for the World Urban Forum III. The visionary idea came to life through an innovative partnership of the UN-Habitat, the Government of Canada and IBM. IBM's JAM technology and a multi-talented team that made it possible for tens of thousands of global citizens, rich and poor alike, to come together in the largest ever public dialogue at the Habitat JAM last December. The ultimate goal was turning ideas into action for six of the most critical issues of urban sustainability.

During the Habitat Jam, I remember some provocative discussions and some of the questions that were raised about how we could engage others and whether or not the dialogue would really be turned into action. One exchange I remember went like this (excerpts from the Habitat Jam):

I RAISED A FEW QUESTIONS:
Don't you think that the "whole is greater than the sum of the parts?" Hence, rather than focusing on the limits per se of government, business, or the nonprofit sector, why not focus on enhancing the relationships between them? For example, isn't "good government" really more about "partnership" rather than "partisanship?" The future of cities (and humanity, for that matter) will require more people to span the boundaries, i.e., limits, and forge meaningful relationships between people, organizations, nation-states, and so forth. Do you agree?

How can we get shareholders, i.e., "people," to commit to meaningful values and goals, rather than simply pursue the will to money? Don't you think that a dialogue on "humanity" should presume that people are not simply mice looking for more cheese?! In other words, what makes us "humans" and how can we tap into the human spirit so that we can effect meaningful change on an authentic, deeper level? Isn't punishing shareholders (like rewarding them) like putting on a small bandage on a large wound? And, more importantly, aren't these conventional approaches to behavioral change somewhat "de-humanizing?" Food-for-thought!

BRIAN ANSWERED: 
I believe getting people involved is a fairly complex process that takes time. Two of the primary motivators I've seen as most successful have been the successful creation of images and hope. Images whether with pictures or word create something concrete that people can understand. Most people are attracted to symbols of hope.

IVANA CHIMED IN:
I suppose if we knew answers to your questions we would not have reached the point we are facing now. I suppose that one of the goals of this JAM is to discover how to handle the problems we face today. However, my answer might lie in the fact that there are many enthusiastic individuals that are concerned for our environment. They usually act in their community, sometimes being misunderstood and rejected. What if we create a strong network for those individuals - for mutual support and exchange of ideas and experiences... But perhaps this is what JAM is all about! I am very interested in the outcome of it!

I OFFERED UP IDEAS AND ASKED NEW QUESTIONS:
Indeed, I hope that we're all interested in the outcome(s) of the JAM and, most importantly, don't allow the positive energy and "synergies" that are developing as a result of this dynamic process to end. When I refer to the notion of "meaningful sustainability," I'm also applying it to the human dimension, that is, sustaining the meaning-full connections between all members of our broadly-defined "community of stakeholders." In this connection (no pun intended), how do we ensure that the participants in this JAM remain meaningfully engaged in the process after the JAM closes? What recommendations might we offer to the JAM organizers and those planning the 3rd World Urban Forum to keep the connections alive? The JAM is offering the world a unique opportunity to participate in a transparent and authentic process for the sharing of ideas. Now that the window of opportunity has been opened, what can we do, both individually and collectively, to prevent it from closing?

THE REST OF THE STORY

"I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world
rather than within man ..."  --- Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Well, indeed, the dialogue that started at the Habitat Jam mattered. It resulted in over 4000 pages of dialogue, reports from outreach activities and a list of 600 potential ideas. From those ideas 70 exemplary ideas, which were selected because they were  practical, represented ideas from various parts of the world, had relevance to the World Urban Forum 3 agenda, and held promise for having high impact on urban problems.

Learn more about the Habitat Jam and World Forum 3, as well as, the forum results and the innovative follow-on work underway, particularly the Global Urban Sustainability Solutions Exchange. It was particularly meaning-full to meet up with Charles Kelly, Debbe Kennedy and KSFR host Diego Mulligan on THE JOURNEY HOME to share the REST OF THE STORY. I invite you to listen in and also to learn more about the Habitat Jam and World Forum 3 results.

Let me know what you think?
What could we do to bring more people into the dialogue?
Would you like to participate in a JAM?

All the best,
Alex 

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
Santa Fe, NM USA  www.themeaningdifference.com

Visit me at my "virtual office at the Global Dialogue Center www.globaldialoguecenter.com/alexpattakos

Listen to and support the award-winning KSFR Public Radio in Santa Fe streaming on the web around the world.