We are really pleased to welcome Peter Pula to the Agility Narratives to talk about his personal journey as an advocate of generative dialogue and journalism that supports the art of collective conversations as a transformation tool.

Peter leads by  holding space for and challenging changemakers, organizations and individuals with generative dialogue and connection found in relational presencing in the hosting of mini or community conversations.

Practicing dialogue with a generative approach, using appreciative inquiry, asset based community development and the power of asking launches the possibility of an experience of aliveness,  delight and creativity and  being welcomed and received in community.

Peter's story started with a start-up venture in generative journalism, the Grassroots Review, based in Peterborough, Ontario, with the belief that everything one needs is already present in our communities: all that is needed to be done is ask the right questions and tell the stories that result.

This belief in the power of community presence led to 18 months of Peterborough Dialogues, the launch of diverse Community Conversations globally, both teaching and hosting, including Cultivating Community Conversation that has reached its two year anniversary.

We found the talk illuminating, sparking levels of curiosity about the power of listening v.s. the power of distractions, being in the present moment, origins of inquiry one has, definition of community, my role as host in holding podcast space, and the benefits on changemakers and organizations that are navigating complexity with agility. This makes for an hour of awe. Enjoy!

0:00  Welcome to The Agility Narratives Podcast
1:06 Early part of your journey towards the work that you do - Desktop Publishing Revolution
2:14 The journey from publishing to dialogue
4:43 How do you harvest from a large group dialogue? Peter's exploring new approaches like Found poems
7:08 Are found poems meaningful for people who weren't at the meeting that day?
8:26 What shifted for you that rose from your curiosity in these practices?
9:47 The flow of meaning - Peter's passion and curiosity about the root of dialogue
14:10 Tenets of my agility narrative - Peter aims starts with the realization of every person's potentiality and act of mutuality - in relation
15:59 Exploring the practice of relational presencing
18:43 The community member is the protagonist
19:55 Emergence in community dialogue and the idea of being open to surprise
23:45 The power of being present
27:39 notion of living wholeness, a journey or generative wholeness? (the theme)
29:08 notion of living wholeness, a journey or generative wholeness?
30:34 Applying these techniques to organizations - To discover and explore a next step in social evolution or the way we are organized
36:40 Villains - abstraction, dissociation, co-dependency, consumption, homogeneity, deference to experts and maybe consensus, collectivism,
38:58 Moving beyond these villains
40:28 The theme behind your villians - how do we see separation and alienation in conversations
42:27 What's at stake here? Living Life
44:41 Advice to stakeholders that feel stuck - What's Peter's call to action?
47:49 Defining the meaning of democracy as a way of life - conditions for each person's potentiality
50:52 I ask 4 questions. If if you, Martin, want to step in and move, create, initiate something
52:28 Threats - Despair, hollowness... powerlessness, loneliness...
54:58 Opportunities - A live life - An encounter with life in all its forms is the possibility
56:07 What other languages would you like to introduce?
56:50 Thank you Peter for flow of meaning you have engaged us in- lots to get to know
Janet is Founder of Taproot.jem.Systems is an integral coach
Martin is Founder of Neutral Advocate.