I write today from a little town called Downtown Texas, Texas (seriously). I arrived here in a flurry post-intensive on tuesday of this past week and amidst the chaos of working on-site at Art Outside, I have done some reflection and decompression on my first experience at a BGI Intensive.
My expectations were the metaphoric equivalent of a blank page... waiting to be written. I knew that it would be an energetically intense time and my expectation was very much met in that way. I learned quickly that we have an incredibly diverse group of beings at BGI. Folks from design, organizational development, operations, non profit, management, finance and everything in between. In entering such a learning environment, I found my excitement finally set foot on solid ground with which to run free.
A quote rang in the back of my mind all weekend, “My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” (David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas). Throughout the weekend the relationship between individual and collective 'gain' emerged as a major leverage point for me. A relationship often at odds in economic systems suddenly entered into a transformative space in my mind. I reference a transformative space only because I was flooded at the idea of attempting to begin to make sense of how these two complex 'stakeholding' bodies currently interact and could potentially interact. I recognize that as humans we have an inherent self interest that cannot be avoided. I also recognize that in cases such as the tragedy of the commons, we should have a vested interest in the greater social collective in order to not diminish our individual ability to thrive. One of my key reflections throughout the weekend was on further recognizing the depth, points of influence and challenges associated with this perpetual balancing act.
In an effort to better understand the perspectives around me, I gained a lot from learning more about Empathic Listening. I understand it to mean listening from the speakers perspective rather than listening from your perspective as is the tendency with selective listening or even active listening. I attempted to do this in a challenging situation that arose on the Sunday night upon my return from BGI. I first recognized that I didn't know how I felt in the situation, which in turn made it easier to listen and understand how others felt. One could say that this was an unfair advantage in the practice of empathic listening but in essence, if one cannot understand the perspectives at play then that person is not fully able to understand the situation. As the communication played out I continued to take in the feelings conveyed by the players around me and responded with a reflection on those feelings. I realized that a big part of empathic listening is not in how you listen but how you respond to what your hearing. With each reflective response those around me opened up and shared more. In the 'end' we all seemed to have a deep understanding of each others perspective which brought an inherent calm to an otherwise confusing and tense situation.
Overall I was struck by the high level of integrity, enthusiasm, accountability, curiosity and respect our co-hort and the greater BGI community brought during the intensive. It was relieving to feel like although things are not perfect, the best intentions are always present. There were times when I felt like structure, execution or content needed to be examined and usually the space for reflection was allowed. Im excited by the co-creation process and I look forward to helping the community grow and improve throughout my time as a BGI member.
