July 12, 2015

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Miki with Angela Dash at a recent event in Cleveland, OH

When Julie Greene, John Kinyon, my sister Inbal and I came together and formed BayNVC in 2002, one of the main hopes I had was that as BayNVC we could create ripples on a far larger scale than any of us could on our own. Just a few days ago I had lunch with John Kinyon, the only other living member of that initial 4-some (who is no longer involved with BayNVC), and so the memories and the dreams are very alive for me.

These days, we are ever closer to that dream. With the recent and extraordinary success in Minnesota that came from leading a group of legislators and others to a collaborative legislative package; with projects in organizations such as Google, Southwire, and others; and with my growing experience engaging with organizational leaders who recognize the need for significant shifts in how business is done, the time seems ripe for harvesting many years of dedicated, mostly behind the scenes work and make it public and visible.

For this purpose, we are preparing to launch the Center for Efficient Collaboration, a new platform for all BayNVC's organizational work. The Center will be fully dedicated to:

• bringing the spirit of collaboration to organizations and groups,
• transforming the persistent perception that collaboration degrades productivity, and
• co-creating a blueprint for a human future that is truly attentive to the challenges of a finite planet serving billions of people. Enough people, including those in positions of great power, know that we need better mechanisms for stewarding dwindling resources. We hope to be a pioneer in finding solutions that work for all and move us in that direction.

Do you want to be a part of this? There are several ways you can:

• Visit our initial page and sign up for a teleclass that we are scheduling for when the full website goes live, probably in early September.
• Register for the NVC Academy Telethon, during which I present an introduction to Convergent Facilitation, the process that got the Minnesota group to the legislative finish line.
• Sign up for my intensive training in Convergent Facilitation Oct 2-4.  This is both an opportunity to learn it from scratch and to deepen your understanding of it if you have already been introduced.

In fact, we are so excited about this new way of organizing what we do, that we are creating and offering a free email course. There's nothing you need to do in order to participate: we are planning to include everyone in this course, which will start in a few weeks and last for five weeks before the website launch: "From Individual Needs to Shared Purpose: Bringing Collaboration to Your Workplace."

You can find out more about my other upcoming offerings below. You can also read my latest blog post about one of the key ingredients of the work I do: finding The Noncontroversial Essence. You can also click here to read the happenings since my latest newsletter, including training and facilitation work, celebrations, and more.

As I am finishing this newsletter, I am reflecting on the many years of BayNVC's existence so far. It's been an amazing ride, full of sorrow and tragedy (several significant deaths during this period) as well as extraordinary gifts. You can read the entire history of BayNVC here. I am pausing here to celebrate all the people that have contributed to us coming to this moment. 

In hope and peace,

Miki Kashtan

Reweaving Our Human Fabric  

Imagine: A future world in which we all value people and life and participate in a flow of generosity. 

In her new book, Miki weaves together vivid social science fiction stories that bring that world to life with compelling nonfiction about how to get there. 

Read three of the stories for free, starting here!

Start a book reading group and give copies to the group. OK, you do have to buy them first, but at 40% off for 5 or more from us!