On May 12, 2017, the Goi Peace Foundation convened a symposium at United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan. The theme, “Co-creating a World in Harmony and Balance” , was an expression of the Fuji Declaration and Soul of WoMen Initiative begun two years earlier.
I have worked with the Goi Peace Foundation for many years and was witness to the development of both the Declaration and Initiative. This symposium brought together thirty-five global leaders to address five perplexing dualities we encounter within a framework of oneness.
We knew there could be no way these leaders would be able to present even a fraction of their work in the world. How could we design a day that held a spark of the greater intention we all felt was possible when too many speeches might deaden the energy of the room? How could we work with an emergent perspective rather than one that focused solely on content? Adding to the complexity, the seating and tables were largely fixed and the symposium sponsors felt strongly that everything spoken should be available to everyone (an audience of about 50 people were in the hall with us) so no breakout sessions were possible.
Check out John Hunter talking at the TED conference on solving the world's problems with his fourth grade class… it's entertaining and touching…. and suggests that in the emergent nature of self organizing groups, there is a human capacity for wisdom that is not written in any manual.
If you have to ask what a picture is worth, then you probably can't afford this column.
In The Power of Collective Wisdom we wrote "seeking collective wisdom is a conscious attempt to elevate group life from its history of fighting tooth and claw to reach the top of the hierarchy or achieve dominance over others." And we referred to the human capacity for empathy, compassion, and the role of mirror neurons in allowing for the permeability of emotional life.
So check out these words below from economist and best selling author, Jeremy Rifkin, the author of The Empathic Civilization. If you want to see his ideas come to life in pictures, however, check out this graphic illustration of his ideas (sent by my colleague, Gabriela Melano, this is a 10 minute synthesis of a much longer presentation – brilliant).
"Economic activity is no longer an adversarial contest between embattled sellers and buyers but, rather, a collaborative enterprise between like-minded players. The classical economic idea that another's gain is at the expense of one's own loss is replaced by the idea that enhancing the well-being of others amplifies one's own well-being. The win/lose game gives way to the win/win scenario.
In the distributed economy, where collaboration trumps competition, inclusivity replaces exclusivity and transparency and openness to others becomes essential to the new way of conducting business, empathic sensibility has room to breathe and thrive. It is no longer so constrained by hierarchies, boundaries of exclusion, and a concept of human nature that places acquisitiveness, self-interest, and utility at the center of the human experience."
I did an interview with colleagues from the Life Science Foundation and the Center for Spirituality and Healing. They put on an amazing conference this year whose theme is “Whole System Healing.”
This is a short video of Lauren Artress talking about the importance of collective wisdom. Lauren is the founder and creative director of Veriditas, a non profit organization dedicated to introducing people to the healing, meditative powers of the labyrinth.
. If you want to see his ideas come to life in pictures, however, check out this graphic illustration of his ideas (sent by my colleague, Gabriela Melano, this is a 10 minute synthesis of a much longer presentation – brilliant).