DavidSibbet.com

Sibbet Family Art Show

My brother James, a graphic designer who lives up in Northern California (Comptche near Fort Bragg to be prescise) called recently to say he was participating in an art show of Mendocino artists that would include art from the artists AND their families. He asked if he could include two of my pieces and I agreed enthusiastically. The show is called Generations and will be all February at the Oddfellows Hall in Mendocino. James' painting of a seated woman is on this flyer on the middle right.

TEDx Copenhagen - Draw More, Together with Olé Qvist Sorenson

My friend and colleague Olé Qvist Sorenson presented at a recent TEDx conference in Copenhagen. His video is wonderful. It's a simple, inviting, clear demonstration of why visualizing in groups is so much fun and so helpful. Enjoy a look. Olé's company Bigger Picture, regularly creates large-scale visualization for clients, as well as white board animation movies and many other visualizations. He's been a very inspirational example in a growing, world-wide network of visual pratitioners.

 

Hopeful News: Coro's Exploring Leadership for High School Students

I just recently accepted the Chairmanship of the Coro Center for Civic Affairs, Northern California, Program Committee. Coro was the foundation for my career in organization development, having myself been a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in Los Angeles in 1965-66, and then on the staff in San Francisco from 1969 to 1977. This is my second round as a member of the Board. As experienced as I am with this organization, I'm bowled over by the energy and excitement Amy Chan and Ben Polansky are generating with our evolving Exploring Leadership program for high school students. We are now serving 180 students a year and the effects are transformative—as this new video supported by Kaiser Permanente will demonstrate. It gives me a lot of hope that young people are once again feeling interest in getting involved in their communities and civic affairs, and that involvement in service learning can have such an impact on their school performance and their lives.

Symptoms of Inner Peace

Spyrock, a fellow member of the Thought Leader Network, sent me this wonderful, reflection on the "Symptoms" of Inner Peace," written by Saskia Davis.

 Symptoms of Inner Peace

• an unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

• loss of interest in judging others or yourself

• loss of interest in conflict

• loss of ability to worry (very serious symptom)

• frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation

• contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature

• frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes from the heart

• tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen

• tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fear based on past experience

• susceptibility to love extended by others and the uncontrollable urge to extend love

If you have all or most of the the above symptoms, be advised that your condition of peace may be incurable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting these symptoms, remain exposed at your own risk. These conditions of peace are highly infectious.

© 1984 Saskia Davis

"I feel called to notice the role of contexts..." Tom Atlee on "Something Big is Trying to Work Through Us"

Tom Atlee, the creative energy behind the Co-Intelligence Institute, recently wrote Something Bigger Than Life is Trying To Work Through Us His analysis of our current predicament is crystal clear. We are experiencing the shadow results of our own "enlighted" technologies and practices. The crises will be transformational, (or not) and Tom explores how it might be. He moves into very poetic language talking about what it means to wake up to conscious evolution and see ourselves as mirrors of the larger evolutionary pattern. Bill Veltrop of the Monterey Institute for Social Architecture (MISA) spotted it and sent it along and I'm posting a link here because he is giving voice to my own orientation for these times. As with any paradigm shifts, the emerging expressions are still being crafted. Tom is one of the shapers I respect.

Reclaiming Ceremony

My heart is still singing from the four-day retreat I and 35 other colleagues spent in the redwood forests of Ben Lomond this summer solstice. We met at Sequoia Retreat Center, a truly sacred place. It was my eighth year participating. Each time the experience deepens.

The energy in this year’s gathering went up an octave—perhaps because of the crises in confidence the world now faces, perhaps because a core group of us has stepped across a threshold of withholding into true ceremony, perhaps because of forces we cannot explain. But these two weeks after returning have been filled with reflections about all that happened, and especially  the evening of Medicine Wheel dancing that is the turning point of the experience. I felt like our community reclaimed something deep and fundamental, and experienced true ceremony.

During one of my reflective times I drew this pen and chalk drawing of the dance, without thought of sharing, just so I could relive the experience. The image has come alive for me. There is something about the energy of line and patterns that re-evokes some of the magic. I have no idea if it will do that for you, but I feel called to try and bring it alive a bit in words. Something happened this time that all of us need more of. Perhaps in sharing those of you who feel called to similar experiences will step into them.

Remembering Brian O'Neill—Who Lived and Modeled Partnership

Brian O’Neill, Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1986—one of the longest serving National Park Service superintendents—died May 13, 2009 from a complication following a heart operation. He was 67 years old, and a legendary public servant. I wrote the following piece in memory of what he taught me about partnership over many years of working together. We will all miss him terribly. His life and work will be celebrated this Friday, May 29, in a memorial service at Crissy Field in San Francisco.To read more about Brian see the GGNRA website: In Memory of Brian O'Neil.

Brian O'Neill lived partnerships! As an organizational consultant for more than 35 years I've seen many, many leaders talk about collaboration, authenticity, empowerment and partnering, but few modeled it like Brian. This post is in gratitude for the vision and energy he shared with so many of us.

Coro's Graduation: A Personal Adventure in Immersive Learning

I was very moved and challenged by the invitation from the 2009 Coro Fellows Class to be their graduation speaker. It said “we as a class have decided that we would like to have a speaker at our graduation that can represent our experiences as Coro Fellows.” I felt confident about this part since I was a Coro Fellow in Los Angeles in 1965, then on the staff from 1969 through 1977 in San Francisco, and on the Board in the 1990s and now again in the late 2000’s. I understand what it feels like to have a series of very disparate internship and projects experiences in government, business, labor, media, politics, and community organizations and try and make sense of the larger system. That’s what the 12 Coro Fellows do for nine months, along with the 66 different Tuesday evening and Friday seminars held to make sense out of it all.

But the invitation went on. “After more discussion, we decided we wanted a speaker that could address the crowd from a number of different viewpoints from within the program.” This was less clear. What did they mean by “different points within the program.” I immediately thought of the levels of experience the group of 12 invariably encounter. One is the diversity of points of view the different Fellows bring, gathered as they are from around the country. In this class Nicholas, who wrote the invitation, was from New York City. I knew another was from North Dakota, Andrea, who I talked to during the reception, was from Virginia. But they might have meant the different sector perspectives, or did they mean different levels of human perception—physically, mental, emotional, spiritual? Okay, I definitely could at least honor a multi-perspective perspective.

Connecting With Source—Experiencing Theory "U"

Otto Scharmer ignited the Thought Leader Gathering at Fort Mason, San Francisco, today with his sharing about the application of Theory “U” to social transformation. Craig and Patricia Neal, the Heartland Circle sponsors, expanded the meeting to 110 people because of the interest in Otto’s work. As conversation starter, Otto’s job was to catalyze our thinking and conversations in wisdom circles and a larger group circle dialogue that followed. He really delivered.(He's third from right)

On Being San Franciscan

The Grove is beginning a new project business planning with the San Francisco Film Society. They plan to take over the historic film theater located on the Main Post, creating a home for this vibrant organization, recently expanded as it takes over the programs of the Film Arts Foundation. As a result we attended the open of the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theater. It proved a doorway into a truly indigenous, San Franciscan experience.

The opening featured La Mission, a film by Peter Bratt about the gritty, colorful Mission District in San Francisco. His brother Benjamin stars in a story of pride, redemption, violence, and the power of community.

Peter and Benjamin grew up in the Mission. Their intent was to portray universal themes through as authentic a context as they could create. And the context is vibrant—graphically mirrored by close-ups of the Mission murals threading through the opening credits. (This one, called Maestrapeace, is a on the Women's Building in the Mission).