I grew up having my father sitting me down to watch William F. Buckley on TV. I always felt expected to develop a taste and appetite for his razor-sharp perspectives. It was a rich learning for sure. In tribute to his passing this week, one of his quintessentially Buckley quotes: “I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.“

After 18 2-hour meetings coaching economic development clusters here in Wisconsin in the last 3 days, it’s clear that local and regional transformation is about one thing: new conversations. As it turns out, the desperate competition for new people, businesses, rock start models and funding are distractions from engaging current assets in small acts that realize dreams. The desperate pleas for more and better leadership are distractions from shared ownership in creating a future together that we can’t create alone. The desperate search for a “one right way” proves to have no power when compared to the invention of a million small acts that have the power to move communities into the land once thought impossible.

Marathon meetings with economic development clusters here in the heart of Wisconsin this week where people are enthralled with the power of the new conversations G and I suggest in our Intentional Model. Everyone gets the fractious nature of shadow conversations. They get the power of conversations that they’ve never had before. They realize the fact that regions and communities get stuck if they’re fragmented and fragmentation is not a function of asset deficiencies, but of the kinds of conversations that dominate the soul of the civic space.

What’s most interesting is doing this work with friend and colleague June Holley who led the 20 year internaional-scale model of transformation in an Appalachian region from abject poverty to the thriving of thousands of small businesses that now have local, national, and global footprints. No big groups, no big committees, no big speakers or studies. Her claim: everything they ever did was based on the 4 new conversations of our model.

It’s amazing how quickly people are able to find their suppressed capacities for dreaming, translating dreams into small acts, assessing their gifts and inviting other gifts to the table. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about agriculture, the arts, municipal collaborations, or technology, people are eager to let go of the old conversations about speakers and studies and engage their strengths in dreams that matter. What’s most humbling is seeing transformation happen before our eyes.

Interesting research from MIT reported in the NY Times suggesting that the costs of keeping options open often exceed the benefits. This leads to the wisdom and power of saying no to things that will ultimately keep us stuck in a known past, while postponing greater rewards in an uncreated future. It’s another reminder that, as my friend Peter Block says, the strength of our yes is equal to the strength of our no.

There is no reason why we couldn’t be a nation of artists, crafts people, writers, poets, musicians, storytellers, cooks, designers, gardeners. No reason why everyone couldn’t have a creative side where the alchemy of gifts shared create the quality of life that every community would envy and savor. No reason why we couldn’t turn our backs on a consumer identity and make the radical transition to a creative identity. No reason.

We only fear the future to the degree that we have disowned the part of ourself that yearns to create the future. We only fear the present to the degree that we have disowned the part of ourself that yearns to create the present. We only fear the past to the degree that we have disowned the part of ourself that yearns to create the past.

The awakened Sage is not merely a rare oddity, living alone in a cave in India or perched on a mountain top in Tibet. The  Awakened Sage - or simply awakened Human - is actually the nature of our very own consciousness, even here and now, in the deepest forms and highest waves.

Ken Wlber, “The Integral Vision”

My friend Tom and I were musing today about the research indicating that many leaders in organizations add little or no  real value to the organizations. Not only does no one know what they do with their time and talent, most people lack any significant interest and never ask. Accountability is a unilateral arrow pointing “down” on the organizational chart. The less people make, the more transparent their use of time and contribution to the organization.

Our job is to create exceptions to the statistical norms. And it’s far more work and less amusing than trying to put dresses on dancing dogs.

Watching the total lunar eclipse this week was a magical experience. The power of perspective is how a small reflective object can obscure a larger luminous one. It reminds me of the zen saying, if the sun doesn’t shine in your house, it’s not about the sun.

It’s a good day when we’re open spaces for the stories of others. We close this space by hoping people get to conclusions in their stories. Stories are not about conclusions, they’re about the weaving of reality from the fibers and colors and textures of our experience.