Thanks to all those who came along to our latest Community Conversation around Certification, asking the question “How are we supporting the next generation of NVC practitioners?”. Seeds of ideas to respond to that question were nurtured, including…
- Starting with a deeply effective inquiry into what the world needs.
- Designing a continuous journey of growth, support and accountability.
- Acknowledging and supporting people with different strengths and capacity.
- Learning from circle processes where we act as equals.
Below is a summary of the conversation for those who missed it.
Shared Dilemmas
This conversation came from various threads, so we started by exploring our different perspectives and coming to a shared understanding of reality, using the image below (video describing the image is here)…
Others then brought in their perspectives for us to consider as we moved into thinking about action. Here is some of what came up…
– feeling depleted of resources (even more so in lockdown) affects how we navigate through certification
– financial resources can be a blocker to some people who want to certify
– CPP document (guide to certification) is not accessible to all, can feel overwhelming
– certification shapes how NVC is understood practiced and brought into the world – ‘NVC trainer’ puts training more in the centre than applying NVC as a facilitator, mediator and other things
– it is not clear where to go to learn more about how NVC is applied in different contexts e.g. education
– wanting more understanding of where people are starting from, their background and experience as individuals
– wanting to increase awareness of power differences, becoming conscious of where we are around power
– not seeing awareness of guilt, shame and privilege in the process, and longing for social transformation
One of the things assessment and certification brings up for many of us are issues around power, so Ron led us in an embodied exploration around our relationship to power and standing in our own power as we move into thinking about what we might want to change.
Moving into action
From here we moved into groups to ask…
- What support might people considering certification need? What might get in the way?
- How do we include and value people who are choosing a different pathway?
- What’s your vision of a process that meets more needs, and how could we do that collaboratively?
Here is a flavour of some of the initial suggestions…
- Have a deep inquiry into what the world needs and starting from there, designing a process based on what comes out of that.
- Recognising capacity and supporting people using NVC in different contexts.
- Designing a process that doesn’t have an end – a continuous journey of growth and accountability. As a community of practitioners having a process where we are continuously supported, given feedback, held accountable. Space for everyone to be supported for what they bring and held with integrity, and acknowledgement to the commitment to be in that.
- Idea of pods to get feedback, support, ideas, coaching.
- Using the riseup list to self organise groups around applications of nvc including social change, education, facilitation etc.
- Longing for circle processes where we act as equals, as a collective, including grieving.
Continuing the conversation
If you are interested in being involved in what happens next, here are a few options…
- Dany and others are exploring forming a ‘Certification weave’ to feed into and support the current certification process. If you are interested please contact Dany at daniela.schirmer@hotmail.co.uk.
- Viv and Sarri are starting to explore ideas around ongoing learning, support and challenge, and how we might experiment with different ways of doing this. If you are interested please contact Viv at vivslack@gmail.com.
- If you have any other ideas or things to try around this, go for it! Start a conversation, reach out through the riseup list, or if you are stuck where to start please get in touch. You can also add ideas to the event harvesting document here.
Finally, we are planning more Community Conversations so hope to see you at one soon!