Be prepared to be surprised

On the one hand, you are invited to let go of all expectations and practice being open to the outcomes that emerge. Whatever your past experience in groups like this, drop into the curiosity of a beginner's mind. These conversations will also invite you to personally own your experience, fully showing up with your presence.

That said, we anticipate that you will come away with:

• Deep, genuine connections with others in the group.
• Insights, ideas and new skills for community building.
• A desire for this group to continue, deciding on and fulfilling an aligned evolutionary purpose for the good of all.
• Energy, inspiration and action to elevate your team, organization, community or our world through the power of connected conversation, community and inspired action.

In this program, you will experience many conversations designed to deepen our coherence and connection with ourselves and others. These core conversations include 6 tried and proven conversations from Peter Block's book, "Community - The Structure of Belonging".

People become powerful when they choose to shift the context within which they act in the world. Communities are human systems given form by conversations that build relatedness. The conversations that build relatedness most often occur through associational life, where people show up by choice.

Each of these conversations will be experienced through inquiry with powerful questions. The power is in the inquiry, not the answers. The Peter Block conversations that are included in the program are:

• The Invitation Conversation
  "Invitation is the means through which hospitality is created. Invitation counters the conventional belief that change requires a mandate or persuasion. Invitation honors the importance of choice, the necessary condition for accountability." - Peter Block
• The Possibility Conversation
  The distinction is between possibility and problem-solving. Possibility is a future beyond our reach. The possibility conversation works on us and evolves from a discussion of personal crossroads. It takes the form of a declaration, best made publicly.
• The Ownership Conversation
  It asks people to act as if they are creating what exists in the world. The distinction is between ownership and blame.
• The Dissent Conversation
  The dissent conversation creates an opening for commitment. When dissent is expressed, just listen. Don't solve it, defend against it, or explain anything. The primary distinction is between dissent and lip service. A second distinction is between dissent and denial, rebellion, or resignation.
• The Commitment Conversation
  The commitment conversation is a promise with no expectation of return. Commitment is distinguished from barter. The enemy of commitment is lip service, not dissent or opposition.
  The commitments that count the most are ones made to peers and other citizens/members. We have to explicitly provide support for members/citizens to declare that there is no promise they are willing to make at this time. Refusal to promise does not cost us our membership or seat at the table. We only lose our seat when we do not honor our word.
• The Gifts Conversation
  The leadership and citizen/member task is to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center. The distinction is between gifts and deficiencies or needs. We are not defined by deficiencies or what is missing. We are defined by our gifts and what is present. We choose our destiny when we have the courage to acknowledge our own gifts and choose to bring them into the world. A gift is not a gift until it is offered.

The primary value and cost of this program to you is your time - showing up, being present, open, and committed.

To support this program and its expansion, you will be asked to make a reasonable financial contribution. We are open to offering a sliding scale price according to your means if you are the right fit for the program. At the end of the program, we anticipate that you will have received such a rich, valuable experience that you may want to 'pay it forward' so that others can experience the power of coherent community as you did.

To participate in this Learning Lab, we ask that you consider and agree to the following.

1. We come together to create new possibilities through having a conversation we have not had before. We do not come together to negotiate interest, share our stories, or problem-solve the past or future.
2. No one will be asked in any way to yield on their commitments or interest. We are not coming to decide anything. We begin with the belief that the commitments and interests of each of us have to be honored and taken into account by all.
3. Each agrees to attend at least 80-90% of the live sessions. (The current offering is 1 session of 2 hours each week for 8 weeks). There are always emergencies, and always pressing priorities, but the loss of even one person, for just one meeting, reduces the potential of what we can co-create together. Sessions will be recorded, so you can catch up if you miss one, but recordings are not intended as a substitute for your attendance.
4. Each agrees to spend a minimum of 1-3 hours per week learning or preparing through the self-guided Learning Management System for upcoming sessions and meeting in interactive conversation with other participants. This is designed to integrate the experiences, deepen our connection/coherence, and expand our learning potential.

Our hope is that you personally feel the call to build your own community circle according to your own passions, purpose and interests. We hope that you want to continue changing the world in some way, connecting people for the good of all.

This program is just the beginning of the possibilities that can unfold for the group too. We expect that your connection with each other will be so enlivening, that you will want to stay together to fulfill some evolutionary purpose. We imagine that you will want to support each other in changing the world by continuing the conversation, and together, changing the story of what is possible!

To facilitate your group moving forward in discovering and fulfilling your evolutionary purpose, we'll invite you to join us in other supportive programs and collective movements for changing our world for the good of all.