Gibran Rivera's Blog (12)

Our Leadership Convening

From www.interactioninstitute.org/blog I just had the unbelievable privilege of facilitating the leadership convening of the Gathering for Justice at the Stone House in North Carolina. The experience left me with a powerful sense of being “on purpose” of doing precisely what I’m supposed to be doing in the world. I can only wish that more of us have that experience as we go about our work and our lives. There is more to say than I could possibly capture with a single blog post, but I’m not spea… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on August 24, 2009 at 4:29pm — No Comments

Decentralization and Human Development

I have been a zealous (some would say over-zealous!) proponent of networks and the application of network theory to the work of social change. I have been pushing and working for a radical rethink of our very approach to social transformation. I believe we have to move away from a model that is organization-centric into a mission-based model that maximizes the potential of decentralization. My vision calls for an approach that creates the conditions for the emergence of ideas, opportunities and… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on April 28, 2009 at 3:33pm — 1 Comment

“Pre-Planning” or “Readiness”

We were in a learning session the other day and I was amused when I heard Marianne Hughes, our Executive Director at the Interaction Institute for Social Change, refer to “back when it was still ok to talk about planning…” I appreciated her currency in the field, as well as the decades of experience she is able to bring to the table. Marianne was talking about how important it was to apply a “pre-planning phase” to any organizational change proce… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on April 16, 2009 at 4:31pm — No Comments

T'shaka goes All-Star

My work with www.thegatheringforjustice.org is about as inspiring as work can get. I am working with a bold and committed Design Team that has been carefully crafting the next leadership convening of the organization – the purpose: decentralize to build movement. During our last Design Team meeting my thoughts were particularly provoked by one of T’shaka’s (http://www.burnsinstitute.org/) sports anal… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on April 6, 2009 at 1:33pm — No Comments

Some Reflections from Cairo

My first glance at the Nile was a casual look, it was in passing. I’ve only been in Cairo for a few hours and I like it. It has that megacity feel that I’ve experienced in other places, Sao Paulo for example, but it also has this other thing and I can’t quite put my finger on it. There is something about Cairo that says, “I’ve been around for a long, long time.” There is a warmth to the people that is particularly appealing, it is a welcoming place. My mind can’t help but flash back to my long… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on February 24, 2009 at 3:36pm — No Comments

A Taste of King's Truth

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. In a world of hyper-marketing and overabundant information we can tend to become immune to the power of words – this is probably a good defense mechanism, something to protect ourselves against the myriad corp… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on February 8, 2009 at 4:49pm — No Comments

On Dave Brooks, Faith and Trust and Social Change

Wow! The secret is out! And it’s in the New York Times! David Brooks is breaking it down; Newtonian physics is not the end of the story. The industrial paradigm has broken down, we live in - An Economy of Faith and Trust (this is the title of his piece!). Brooks boldly calls out the fantasy of control that we keep hoping will solve our problems, the ideas of “input to output” that dominate how we think about the world are being called into question. We have to shift from the complicated to the c… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on January 16, 2009 at 2:54pm — No Comments

Our Kids Killing Each Other

I don’t have a TV, and so I’ve been catching up on “The Wire” through Netflix. The stuff is in my head, it’s an overload of brilliant television, too much violence and a whole lot of reality. This is the place from which I open the papers today and learn what I already now – our kids are killing each other, Boston made the top 10, we are number 6 on the list. The shit is painful, and what’s even more frustrating is that there is nothing new to recommend. Papers are talking about the same old thi… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on December 29, 2008 at 5:52pm — No Comments

Pecha Kucha Night

Last night I went to “Pecha Kucha” night, sponsored by AIGA, the professional association for design and I am left full of insights and ideas about the possibilities of this format. Here is a bit on “Pecha Kucha” from Wikipedia – “The idea behind Pecha Kucha is to keep presentations concise, the interest level up and to have many presenters sharing their ideas within the course of one night. Therefore the 20x20 Pecha Kucha format was created: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images,… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on November 13, 2008 at 11:09am — No Comments

Beyond the Organization

We have a funny relationship with our organizations. We tend to forget that we built them. We tend to forget that without us they are abstractions, little more than a piece of paper in a government office. We tend to forget that we are alive and that they are not, they are tools, ways to structure how we work together so that we can do what we want to do, but better. I often talk of this situation of being a lot like “The Matrix,” the humans built the computers to serve them but instead they end… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on October 22, 2008 at 10:11pm — 1 Comment

Here is the Breakthrough

Anish Kapoor successfully challenges our notions of time and space within the realm of our own experience, not as abstraction. Those of us who work in the field of organizational development can significantly heighten our impact by following his example and honing our own ability to invite people into alternative experiences of time and space. What Kapoor refers to as “mythological time” can also be understood as the archetypal realm – human history reveals itself through this realm. The epic n… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on August 26, 2008 at 11:54am — No Comments

Decentralizing Movement

Many of us exploring the relationship between network theory and emergence are still finding ourselves baffled by questions of planning and implementation. The command and control model, solidly grounded in Newtonian physics and the industrial age, also tends to feed our more personal fantasies of power, agency and order at a grand scale. The laws of emergence seem to point toward smaller spaces where crtical connections are made and relationships of trust are fostered in more intimate settings.… Continue

Added by Gibran Rivera on August 4, 2008 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

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Gathering For Justice created this Ning Network.

The Gathering’s Mission

The mission of The Gathering is to build an Intergenerational, movement, rooted in history, cultures and non-violent direct action to heal communities, build collective strength and generate an environment of hope and opportunity.

Civil rights and social justice organizations have come to understand that collective action on a national basis is required to stop child incarceration and challenge the immoral process which perpetuates an unjust justice system. These groups are working under extremely difficult circumstances and many of them with little or no resources. The Gathering is a national movement that creates a coordinated space to 1) fortify relationships between regional groups, 2) support local endeavors and 3) enhance the ongoing organizing of non-violent direct action training. Central to its mission is strengthening our moral environment.

- “a project of tides center” -