The future of monolingual storytelling in a multilingual world:Toward a more inclusive approach to storytelling research

Proposal for the Storytelling Conference of 2020: Virtual and Embodied Storytelling

Betty Beeler, GEM&L (Groupe d’études en management et langage)

Retired professor of Cross-Cultural ManagementSaint-Etienne, France

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, antenarrative research has contributed to a finer-grained picture of organizational life, one which takes into account the messier, non-linear character of corporate reality. At the heart of antenarrative inquiry is the idea that collective stories are co-produced through the dialogical confrontation of multiple, competing visions, rather than constructed monologically by corporate management (Boje, 2001, 2018). As a result, the analysis of antenarratives provides insight into organizational phenomena such as resistance to change and strategic decision-making that traditional methods might miss.

While most work on antenarratives explores the way story fragments shape the collective story, in this paper I seek to advance our understanding of the way the storybuilding process can be constrained or threatened under certain conditions. In particular, I look into the threat to storybuilding posed by the domination of English in increasingly multilingual organizational settings. Research on the impact of asymmetrical speaking skills on company performance reveals that less proficient English speakers often find it difficult to speak up in an environment dominated by English speakers. This results in a power imbalance that can lead to the marginalization or withdrawal of weaker speakers (Hinds, Neeley, & Cramton, 2013; Neeley, 2012), hindering their ability to contribute to a collective story. This is all the more problematic as stories shaped by speakers of the dominant language, like monological narratives mentioned earlier, can provide a distorted picture of organizational life.

This study takes the form of a qualitative case study involving twenty-nine junior managers at the headquarters of an international company located in France. The participants came from nine different countries and spoke the corporate language, English, to different degrees. As the paper will show, incidents of language-based marginalization and power imbalances did indeed constitute a barrier to storybuilding in several cases, but in a few cases, the tolerance and open-mindedness of the more proficient speakers prevailed, allowing the weaker speakers to fully contribute to the collective narrative. In the conclusion I point to the lessons for storytelling research that can be learned from my analysis. I will also ask the attendees of the storytelling conference to reflect on ways English speakers can embrace speakers of other languages, and on the benefits of a more linguistically-diverse world of storytelling, less shaped by dominant languages and dominant speakers.

Keywords: antenarratives, storytelling research, multilingual settings, linguistic hegemony, marginalization

References for this abstract

Boje, D.M. (Boje, D.M. (2001). Narrative Methods for Organizational & Communication Research. London: Sage Publications.

Boje, D.M. (2018). Organizational Research: Storytelling in Action. New York: Routledge.

Hinds, P. J., Neeley, T. B., & Cramton, C. D. (2013). Language as a lightning rod: Power contests, emotion regulation, and subgroup dynamics in global teams. Journal of International Business Studies, online December 2012.

Neeley, T. B. (2013). Language matters: Status loss and achieved status distinctions in global organizations. Organization Science, 24, 476–497.

Zooming in the Quantum Storytelling Spectacle

David M. Boje, Aalborg University

For the 2020 Quantum Storytelling Conference, Dec 16 to 19, 2020 on Zoom

Abstract

What would Guy Debord and Walter Benjamin say about the Zooming a storytelling conference. Debord might say, “the Society of the Spectacle has morphed into something more menacing.” Debord wrote his book in 1967 before the invention of Internet, smart phones, laptops, and before Zoom social media platform. Benjamin writing in 1937, thrown into the turbulence of World War II, might say, “Storytelling has now come to an end.” Benjamin pronounced the end to storytelling with advent of industrial capitalism, the rise of information news headlines displacing, and with yet another world war machine, returning veterans who were silent, and their communicative abilities shut down. I will invite discussion of the Quantum Storytelling Conference about the how last year, we met in a physical place, and in 2020, year of the COVID-19 epidemic, we meet in virtual space of Zoom platform. My intention is to inquire about going virtual with our storytelling as a way to explore the shifting nature of quantum storytelling. Quantum storytelling, communicative action, at a distance, the vibrant mattering energy of spacetimemattering at a distance, in the Spectacle, and the pronouncement of Storytelling coming to an end, has a silver lining. It seems, now, and again, there are glimpses of Benjamin’s living storyteller, in the overarching Zoom platform technology-apparatus, mostly in the intimacy of the breakout rooms, where people answer the question, ‘what’s your story?’ and do communicate experience, old school.

Mike Bonifer mike.bonifer@21daystory.com Co-Founder and Quantum Storyteller, 21 Day Story

Game, Improvisation, Story, Organizational Storytelling, Co-creation, Agile, Community,

Multiculturalism

AbstractOrganizations stumble and fail for many reasons. One is that a dominant narrative, in the form of a story a company

tells itself, one it shares with its audience/market, or both, does not jibe with lived experiences of a significant number

of its employees and/or customers. This article is predicated on the idea that co-created stories are a way communities

and organizations can ease or eliminate the negative impacts of dominant narratives. I propose that the basis for

structured co-creation is what I call ‘game,’ and that a definition of game that can be applied to any co-created

endeavor is ERGO, an acronym for Environment / Roles / Guidelines / Objective. To explain the concept and its

genesis, I take the reader through a community storytelling workshop I conducted in 2013, in which participants

applied ERGO game structures to co-create and or agree on changes to community stories of drug abuse and

addiction.

Rachel Brandon-Hopper

Green Washing and the Heterotopia: A Co-Constructed Autoethnography of “Terra Step”

The heterotopia – a place apart where alternative ideas can be discussed and innovation can occur (Hjorth, 2005). It is a place where the rigid boundaries of a bureaucracy can be broken and an ideal state can be achieved (Pelly, 2016; Pelly and Boje, 2019). Sadly, in today’s hyper-capitalist economy, one major theme appears to be ignored – that of the importance of the environment (Hayden, 2020). Anything that does not have a monetary value must be worthless, and so we can justify exploiting the environment (Steiner & Steiner, 1994). In the rebellion against capitalism, could a heterotopia be formed where a type of shared value (Kramer and Porter, 2019) or integration (Follett, 1977) between capitalism and the environment is born? If so, what would this heterotopia look like?

This paper will explore how our second author worked as an employee at a heterotopia that created a counter narrative to generate a store that was an environmentalist’s dream heterotopia. It was a space within a mall, but a place where capitalist consumer culture could be used for the good of the environment. Consumers and employees alike were adherents to this shared narrative – or were they?

We will use a co-constructed layered account autoethnography (Pelly, 2017, Fernando et al, 2019) to explore how this story used its narrative, how employees were indoctrinated into this story, how colleagues became disillusioned with the recit, and how it impacted the outside world. Our first author will provide a theoretical underpinning for this paper based upon the concepts of the heterotopia (Foucault, 1967a, 1967b, 1967c; Topinka, 2010) and narratives (Boje 2001, Boje and Rosile, 2019; Rosile et al., 2013) to explain our second author’s autoethnographic encounter working as an employee of Terra Step. Terra Step is a typical store in a mall that sold products with a sense of corporate social responsibility. In other words, their products made a profit with a conscience. By patronizing this store, individuals could purchase expensive products to achieve a desirable environmental outcome – such as removing trash from the oceans. But all was not as it seemed, as this paper will illustrate.

Following the introduction, we will explore the methodology, the co-constructed layered account autoethnography. After the methodology, we will describe heterotopias in the literature review and explain how this concept describes Terra Step. We will then delve into the interweaving theoretical vignettes. Vignette titles in bold indicate post hoc theoretical explanations and vignette titles in italics indicate portions of the story. After the vignettes, we will include final thoughts in the discussion and conclusion.

This article is of interest to scholars in entrepreneurship, storytelling, environmental sustainability, and heterotopias. This paper’s main contribution is to explore how heterotopias can create a tension between narratives of environmental sustainability and capitalism.

References

Boje, D. M. (2001). Narrative methods for organizational & communication research. Sage.

Boje, D. M., & Rosile, G. A. (2019). Conversational storytelling research methods: cats, dogs, and humans in pet capitalism. Communication Research and Practice, 1-18.

Hayden, J. (2020) Gaia Dialogues. Princess Gaia Publishing: Berlin, Germany.

Hjorth, D. (2005). Organizational entrepreneurship: With de Certeau on creating heterotopias (or spaces for play). Journal of management inquiry, 14(4), 386-398.

Fernando, M., Reveley, J., & Learmonth, M. (2020). Identity work by a non-white immigrant business scholar: Autoethnographic vignettes of covering and accenting. Human Relations, 73(6), 765-788.

Follett, M. P. (1977). Dynamic administration: the collected papers of Mary Parker Follett. Buccaneer Books.

Foucault, M. (1967a). Of Other Spaces. Diacritics 16(1): 22-27.

Foucault, M. (1967b). Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Lotus 48(9): 9-17.

Foucault, M. (1967c). Different Space. in Faubion, J. (ed.) Michel Foucault: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology. New York: New Press.

Foucault, M. (1994). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Vintage Books: New York.

Pelly, R. D. M. (2016). A bureaucrat’s journey from technocrat to entrepreneur through the creation of adhocracies. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 28(7-8), 487-513.\

Pelly, R. D. M. (2017). The story of captain baby face and the coffee maker: An entrepreneurial narrative perspective on corruption. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(4), 390-405.

Pelly, R. D. M., & Boje, D. (2019a). A case for folletian interventions in public universities. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education.

Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2019). Creating shared value. In Managing sustainable business (pp. 323-346). Springer, Dordrecht.

Rosile, G. A., Boje, D. M., Carlon, D. M., Downs, A., & Saylors, R. (2013). Storytelling diamond: An antenarrative integration of the six facets of storytelling in organization research design. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 557-580.

Steiner, G. A., Steiner, J. F., & Steiner, G. A. (1994). Business, government, and society: a managerial perspective: text and cases. McGraw-Hill.

Topinka, R. (2010). Foucault, Borges, heterotopia: Producing knowledge in other spaces. Foucault Studies, 9, 54-70.

RAGNAROCK. By Lena Bruun Jensen- The making of One of The World Best Museums. How True Storytelling made a Dream Come True.

When the new Museum of Rock, Pop and Youth Culture opened in Roskilde, Denmark in 2016 it was awarded as one of the best museums in the World. Hear about how True Storytelling and the 7 principles made the making of the museum a success : the process, the funding, the exhibitions, the stakeholders, the audience participation and a lot more.

By Lena Bruun, former CEO Ragnarock and co-author of the book True Storytelling - Seven Principles For An Ethical and Sustainable Change-Management Strategy.

Bio sketch : Lena Bruun has 25 years of professional experience as a manager, advisor and consultant within the public and private sector; including Roskilde Municipality, The Museum of Rock, Pop and Youth culture RAGNAROCK and a communication consultancy. Lena is co-founder of the True Storytelling Institute® and is working as an independent consultant in concept development and fundraising. She holds a Master in economics and communication, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Lena Bruun Jensen, Forretningsudvikling og fundraising, BRUUN Communication,

Konsulent, Old Friends Industries lenabruunjensen@gmail.com M: +45 5359 1966 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-bruun-832b374/ https://true-storytelling.com/ https://truestorytellinginstitute.com/https://www.amazon.com/author/lenabruun

Human communities are ever unfolding stories…By Gregory A. Cajete, Emeritus Professor

The University of New MexicoCommunities can also be thought of as a complex of shared stories. So the nature and function of story

within human culture and community become another lens through which we may come understand the nature of creating healthy, sustainable communities. When one looks at communities that have been able to survive and sustain themselves through time, one finds that there is a deep and nurturing story which guides a community. In indigenous societies, this was the function of origin stories and stories of creation. These stories, along with a complex of other stories guided and taught the people. These stories helped them to understand their place in the world and formed the foundation for long-term sustainability. These stories form what could be called a shared or guiding vision of a community. The creation of communication of a healthy story of community becomes one of the basic principles for building community in healthy and sustainable ways. The guiding story of a community reflects its vision of itself and of its future. The guiding story is based on the understanding of patterns in the world which give meaning to and sustain the psychological fabric of a community. If this story becomes dysfunctional then the community reflects that dysfunction. Therefore, the health of the community, both present and future is very dependent on the functionality of its story. Today, we need positive stories and positive visions of the future, which provide a hopeful perspective. Unfortunately, many of the stories of communities today are stories of violence cynicism and despair and powerlessness. These stories are many times reinforced by the nature of contemporary music, movies and other sources of stories, which reflect dysfunctionality rather than health. How then can you create new stories and new visions of community that are not only healthy and functional but engage members in constructing a creative and sustainable future? This is the task of pedagogy of community.

Organizational Leadership: What Could Be Learned from Tribal Models in Overcoming the Trauma of Natural Disasters in Becoming a Sustainable Community CultureBy Dr. Wanda Cousar AbstractGiven the impact of traumas imposed by unforeseen events it has forced organizations and leaders to adapt strategic plans to overcome traumatic events and evolve. Tribal models may contribute solutions and options to closure, lack of funding support to businesses, and devastations resulting from layoffs, illness, and demise of the ecosystem. This may be more of a challenge in western civilization given the dependence on technology and inaccessibility to the marginalized due to lack of income and resources. What aspects of tribal models serve to give insight into strategic planning for what might be considered an asset contrary to the western perspective of disruptors? In this paper, tribal models will be discussed and proposed aspects as solutions to recover, connect to the ecosystem, and resolve disruptors identified as a source to be engaged, instead of being insignificant to organizational culture. The purpose of this paper is to first discuss the organization in the context of the ecosystem in the norm before disaster strikes implicitly impacting operations. Subsequently, the impact of the disasters will be identified as disruptors and elucidate some of the contemporary solutions to resolution. Moreover, once these solutions have been analyzed identify what some of the impacts have been. Moreover, reflecting on the impacts and outcomes will be included in the discussion. Subsequently, discussing tribal models that draw on sustainable practices and wisdom passed down through generations will be revealed. These sustainable practices will be compared to theories in western literature and hence interpreted using these frameworks and what may be missing. Henceforth, newly adapted constructs to inclusively capture

cultural norms from an organizational perspective will be achieved. These new constructs will be considered for concepts to be further researched using primary and secondary sources. Survey questions for each breakout group using open ended questions will be provided. The narratives from the question responses will be deconstructed for this newly adapted constructs proposed that will contribute to new theoretical implications while reflecting classical and contemporary theories.

Claudine Desrosiers

(NOTE : 3 pictures are included in the full submission in the proceedings.)

Série Imaginaire Bas-Laurentien en quarantaine 2020 Imaginaire Bas-Laurentien en quarantaine Série de dessins acrylique et feutres sur papier aquarelle pur coto...   

Biosketch

 I practice several mediums, including those of writing and painting, but also those of printmaking, collage and drawing. I design environments that combine words and images in the form of poetic texts, drawings / paintings or artist books. I tell stories, mine in connection with that of others and the world.

More particularly, I wonder about the notions of interbreeding, individual and collective memories and their transmission. How do we pass on what we know? From one canvas to another, there are frequently repetitions, variations, fragments, contaminations, because often I transport traces, trimmings and rejects from one work to use them in another so as not to lose the passage of time, so as not to lose my trace, the memory of my journey. Triggered by a quest for meaning in which I activate a process of collecting images, texts and various materials that feeds the story or the narrative that looms over my creation. I navigate the uncertain territory between fiction and reality.

Big hugs xxx

Claudine DesrosiersArtiste visuelle et auteurehttps://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fclaudinedesrosiers-rimouski.blogspot.com%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cgarosile%40nmsu.edu%7Ce3d6691d45d44904611208d8a0720e1e%7Ca3ec87a89fb84158ba8ff11bace1ebaa%7C1%7C0%7C637435759019561038%7CUnknown

%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=0FJ8ssx%2B3GvYq9QDJ8CHcWiVg%2FmHaq%2FGwRGA74uLKMA%3D&reserved=0

Noosphere, infosphere and quantum field: we're planes walkers in complexity !

Michel Fortier, Titular professor, UQAR

Paul Gauguin, D'où venons-nous ? que sommes-nous ? où allons-nous ? (1897-1898)

Where do we come from ? What are we ? Where are we going ? These are deep questions for some, although for others the answers are obvious already. Pondering the possibilities, it's imaginable to see countless perspectives and ways to look at them. So let me count the ways…

In this text, I will invite you to sail with me on the oceans of being from my frail vantage point and my life experiences. My path was sometimes messy and still is. At other times, I have gone sideways to explore an inlet or enjoy myself in discovery. Maybe at other times, I have dived in the waves to see underwater and marvel at the deep and the abyss. Light and dark, all sides seem to be equally fascinating. It's also possible that I’ll end up in a dead end. Maybe we must backtrack on our road, maybe not. True storytelling healed me and false and nefarious lies wounded me. I’m still not always sure how to make the difference. Intuitions I guess. The road goes on ever!

Virtual and embodied situations in life are closely related experiences. Even if consciousness does next cover all the dimensions and intricacies of being, you follow my words to grasp what I’m talking about at a conscious level. I want to expose, as I understand it now, our creations, the web we have sown in an already complex quantum web. The starting point is our ability to tell stories to each other. We will set the needle of our compass in the gentle water of Teilhard de Chardin (1922) Noosphere (a concept not far from the «critical zone» of Latour, 2018) to reach the Infosphere of Luciano Floridi (2002, 2010). With inspiration from Edgar Morin (1986, 1991 and 2017) and our life experiences, I want to share with you the music, the smell, the voice of water, air, fire and earth (Serres Biogea) with our spiritual ties in the web of being. In that sense, we are all planes walkers either as sleepwalkers or enlightened ones. Let’s journey together…ReferencesFloridi, L. (2002). «Ethics in the Infosphere, » Blesok, No. 24.Floridi, L. (ed.) (2010). The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, Cambridge, Cambridge Press.

Latour, B. (2018). Down to Earth, London, Polity.

Morin, E. (1986). La connaissance de la connaissance, La méthode 3, Paris, Seuil.

Morin, E. (1991). Les idées. La méthode 4, Paris, Seuil.

Morin, E. (2017). Connaissance, ignorance, mystère, Paris, Seuil.

Serres, M. (2010). Biogée, Éditions-dialogues.fr/Le Pommier, Brest/Paris [translation (2012), Biogea, Univocal Publishing].

Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1955). Le phénomène humain, Paris, Seuil [translation (2003). The Human Phenomenon, Sussex University Press]

Gladstone, Joe (PhD)

On behalf of NABSWASAI colleagues Dan Stewart (Gonzaga University), Amy Klemm Verbos (U. Wisconsin-Whitewater), and Deanna Kennedy (U. Washington-Bothell), I invite you to become reviewers for the newly launchedIndigenous Business and Public Administration Journal (IBAPA). The IBAPAis a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles in the fields of Indigenous business and public administration. Our mission promotes scholarship that advances our understanding about the creation and management of Indigenous (Native American, First Nation, Maori, Aboriginal) organizations with the intent to enhance economic development in these communities.

I especially want to thank Dan, for all the incredible work he did to get this journal off the ground, and Amy and Deanna's help with Dan's work.

Indigenous Business and Public Administration, is a new academic journal focusing on original scholarship that increases our understanding of private businesses and public organizations within Indigenous communities. Its mission is to increase the efficacy of Indigenous economic development by disseminating new peer-reviewed knowledge for scholars, practitioners, and students interested in indigenous organizations.

Although IBAPA's primary audience is the academic community, it encourages and welcomes scholarly contributions that have the potential to directly impact practitioners, students, and leaders in the Indigenous private and public sectors. We encourage contributions from multiple academic fields including, but not limited to: business, entrepreneurship, economics, public policy, and the social sciences. Empirical, qualitative, and theory-building studies are all encouraged. 

In addition to original research articles, IBAPAalso encourages contributions that highlight best practices from Indigenous organizations as well as pedagogical contributions that focus on best teaching practices for students studying indigenous business and public administration.

At this time we are building a cadre of reviewers for this new journal, it will be an honor to have you accept our offer to be a reviewer. Thank you.

Additional information about the journal and reviewer registration is available at this link:https://ibapa.org/about/. Feel free to respond to me or Dan with any questions you may have about the journal.

Out of courtesy, I've BCC'd your addresses to limit "reply all" bombs. However, please share this announcement so that IBAPA may grow its peer network.

Joe

Joseph Scott Gladstone, PhD, MPH

(Kainai / Piikani / Níímipuu)Business Management Scholar-Native American Enterprises

-Tribal and Urban Public Administration Organizations

-Indigenous Management Education

Editorial Board Member, Indigenous Business and Public Administration JournalCo-Chair Elect, Native Research NetworkChair, Communications Committee, Native Research NetworkFounder and Past-Chair, AOM Native, Aboriginal & Indigenous Peoples Caucus

joe.gladstone.phd@icloud.com Google Scholar Profile LinkedIn Profile

GRACIOUS SPACE: CONVERASTIONS THAT TRANSFORM THE HUMAN HEARTBy Dr. Kevin Grant

The purpose of this paper is to introduce gracious space which leads to great conversations that transforms the human heart, groups of people and organizations. The Center for Ethical Leadership defines Gracious Space as a “spirit” and a setting where we invite the stranger and learn in public (Hughes, 2018). The ability for gracious space is because of transforming conversations in a safe environment with very little risk leading to innovation and creative discussions.

Many times, conversations take place because of contentious issues. People are getting together and “drawing a line in the sand,” because they are taking a position. Most of these difficult conversations come as a result of significant change that is occurring in the individual’s working environment. This type of change is called adaptive change, which is addressed through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties (Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky, 2009). Heifetz (2009) uses a model that can be incorporated in the Gracious Space conversation which is observe, interrupt, and intervene. These activities occur during the conversation which will be discussed in the paper to bring about better understanding of getting to the “real purpose” of the conversation. Today we see more than ever in our society the need for gracious space to create conversations that will heal the human heart. We see the difficulty and suffering in people's lives and feel it in our own lives. Parker (2020) argues you can’t feel it yourself; you probably can't see it in others. There seems to me to be a decline of empathy in our society, where people are not translating their own suffering into an openhearted conversation and awareness of other people's suffering. One of the big problems of our time is that people are being encouraged by manipulative leaders to turn their heartbreak into anger. The question is, how do I keep my heart from becoming so brittle that it becomes one of those exploding fragment grenades (Parker, 2020). Instead as leaders we need to generate a supple heart that is exercised on a daily basis through our conversations. Unfortunately, our heart is too hard to let those words in when we talk. Through gracious space our heart will break open, and if the words are laid upon our heart, they will then fall into the heart of others.

When people and groups get together to have conversations, they are each bringing their own story based on their perspective of what is happening and why (Hughes, 2018). These stories generate emotionally charged conversations and the idea of Gracious Spacious is to bring a collaborative “spirit” where people start working together better. In this paper stories shared begin to bring about new solutions which leads to an alternative future that people and organizations begin to accept and move forward without being paralyzed. The idea is not to be “stuck” in time and revert to our comfort zones, but open new creative ways to adapt to change.Hughes (2018) argues, when dealing solely with ideas and opinions, it is very easy to remain at a level of abstraction which leads to disengagement, or to move into judgment. Telling stories about shared experiences leaves less room for judgment because the truth is in the story itself. As you can see storytelling is the most powerful means to inspire, teach and influence others. As a leader you can change organizations, communities and society. When engaging with others through story a there is a dynamic with the ability to

connect. Storytelling is what unites us as humans. It connects us to one another, and it distinguishes our species from other species.

In summary, Stories not only create a sense of connection it creates what I call gracious space where others feel safe and low risk. This space allows the listener to enter the story and soon it builds familiarity and trust. Soon others begin to learn, have new knowledge and suddenly they have been influenced. They connect us intimately to one another. They bring us the closest we can get to another’s plight or joy. Stories are authentic human experiences. When we share those experiences, and others listen, we feel heard, trusted, and most of all of, that we belong to something bigger than us.References: Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., Linsky, M., 2009. The Theory Behind the Practice A Brief Introduction to the Adaptive Leadership Framework. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.Hughes, P., 2018. Creating Gracious Space in the Workplace. Professional &Organizational Development, University of Washinton Parker, P., Burger, A. (June 09, 2020). Turning to Face the Dark. syndicated from globalonenessproject.org, Jun 09, 2020

Annual Storytelling Conference 2020, New MexicoThe Sociomateriality of Design, Aesthetics and Performative Routines in Haute Cuisine

byUsha Haley, David Boje and Marc Steirand

AbstractBuilding on an in-depth ethnographic study of Michelin-star chefs, we show how innovations

permeate society through mediating technological apparatuses, ordinary and creative ecologies. Situated, dynamic ecologies permeate haute cuisine routines (Sele & Grand 2016). Drawing on actor-network theory (Latour 2005) and design as communication, we study how performance practices are mediated by (1) creation of innovative cuisine outcomes, (2) adaptation of existing performance routines, (3) emergence of new performance routines and (4)consumption through society. Actants mediate the interplay between different aspects of routines, to play important roles as generative sources.

Our propositions incorporate various activities of social discourse, materiality, process flow and risk-taking. Specifically, we argue that Michelin star chefs serve as symbols and metaphors that capture various aspects of creativity, risk taking, technology and rhetoric in haute cuisine. The sociomaterial perspective enables us to locate aesthetics and design around consumption, or the individuals who we imagine act upon the imperative to consume (Miller & Rose, 1997, p. 1) as well as around a multitude of materials. We highlight human exceptionalism, but not to restrict the heterogeneity of the formed arrangements. We also use traditions of practice theory, by viewing chefs as principal carriers of practices that contain routine mental and bodily activities not as the chefs’ qualities but as qualities of their practices (Reckwitz, 2002).

Our data consists of in-depth analyses of 14 Michelin star chefs’ routines and practices from which we build our ecologies of design and aesthetics. A survey of a smaller sample of 6 Michelin star chefs validated our categorizations. We will use an an archival analysis and larger survey of 100 chefs in the haute-cuisine sector to identify consumption of aesthetics and design.

“Death and Life”: A Story of Grief, Creative Expression, and Interconnection By Elizabeth Harvey, MA, LMHC

[Content warning: animal death—Full paper in proceedings contains photos.]

Last winter I found a horse in the desert. Or I should say, the remains of a horse. Next to a pile of full garbage bags, spilling trash onto the sand, I saw ribs and a backbone with dried hide holding together some of what was left. Hoof, pastern, and metacarpal were lying nearby at a sad angle. And a face looked up: a skull in two parts, lower jaw lying aside as empty eye sockets peered. A hawk circled overhead.

It’s impossible to know how the horse arrived at this fate, but the scene gave a sense of dumping, the dismembered pile of skin and bones next to an illegally deposited trash-heap. The scene indicated an ignoble end for a noble creature. Scavengers had dismembered what was left of the horse and the elements had been at work, all part of the natural process of a once-living body returning to earth. At the same time, I could not shake the feeling that this horse, even at this stage, deserved a more caring end than to be left with a pile of trash.

I picked up the skull, reuniting it with the lower jaw. Red dirt crumbled off and I had to take care to keep the teeth in place. Strips of dried skin still curled off the bone and desiccated insects tumbled from the recesses. I held the skull to my chest as I walked through the winter desert. Dirt, bone shards, bits of hide crumbled into the back of

my Jeep. I wondered if I was doing the right thing but followed the impulse to find a way to memorialize the horse in a caring way. It was the start of considering what in my own life had been unmourned, and in a larger sense, what goes unmourned in our society, and what that means.

At home I began to clean the skull carefully. I soaked off the remaining hide. A small desert of red dirt and dead insects settled into the bottom of the bucket. While the wet skull appeared cleaner, there was a new development: it smelled of decay. Of death. The work was a tangible, sensory approximation to the physical death process. It took place in stages over a period of weeks. I gently scrubbed away all that was not bone. A hawk again circled overhead.

I placed the skull on the roof deck to dry and receive the sun’s cleansing rays. After several weeks, I went up and spent some time with the horse. I reassembled the skull, placing the lower jaw under the upper, noticing anew its surprisingly large size. I sat down next to the skull, placed my hand on the horse’s forehead, and just stayed there in quiet. In my mind’s eye I experienced the horse joyfully tossing his head up and down in greeting. He was sorrel with a white blaze and he was so happy to see me. Tears came, and these words also, from me to the horse:

Your head to my heart, I feel you: soft neck, smell of sweat.I sense with my inner eyewhat the elements have swept away, leaving lonely bones.

Loved now in death, your spirit remains.Head tossed in greeting,light in your eyes,forgiving those who could not give you what you needed.

I clean your bones with tearsyet you are all joy and giddy recognition.May all lost horses be so loved:please show us the way. 

Body Whisperer Speaks

By Hayden, Julia

What I have in mind, I would like to travel through the Koshas with you, if there still is a space for me on the Conference. Yet, on the 16th at night I will enter in a KAYA KALPA darkroom, so best would be for me to have my slot the day before.

As I am called the BODYWHISPERER here in Berlin and we do STORYTELLING on the level from our physical body all the way into the body, which we call (on the outside) ANANDAMAYA KOSHA and (on the inside) ATMAN or just THE ESSENCE, LIGHT or GOD.

So, what I like to introduce is the idea of ALL IS IN ME, I AM IN ALL, GOD IS IN ME, I AM GOD, I AM YOU, YOU ARE GOD, ALL IS ONE in terms of the bodies we are.

So, I will shortly explain the Physical body (ANNAMAYA KOSHA): Our outermost body shell is our movement apparatus. The Energy Body (PRANAMAYA KOSHA): Our energy body is what surrounds our solid body, inside and outside. As Chi, or as blood, as bodily fluids or as aura or Prana. And as emotion. (EMOTION = energy in motion). The

Psycho-Mental Body (MANOMAYA KOSHA): Psychosomatic chains of experiencing the world, Mind and Heart. The Subtle Body (VIJNANAMAYA KOSHA): This is the Philosophical Us, the Visionary, the Dreamer, The Inner Healer, And the Causal Body (ANANDAMAYA KOSHA): the Light.

And then I would like to talk about FLOW and explain how we can listen to all of the bodies and that we then understand, that everything we do to the other, we do to ourselves, like in AIKIDO, the enemy we choose is us. Everything that encounters us the way it does we create from within…

Memento Mori: Toward a Rhetoric of Co-Conspiracy

By Richard Herder

Abstract:

Bettina Love is among those calling for white folks to become co-conspirators rather than allies with oppressed people in the fight to dismantle systems of racial oppression (Love, 2019, p. 178). In this essay I recount a true story about how my students were racially harassed this past summer and about how, when I failed to respond well, they helped set me on the road to understanding the need for what I call a rhetoric of co-conspiracy. The notion of co-conspiracy, I will argue, implies the prioritization of praxis and collaboration over dispassionate inquiry. To adopt a rhetoric of co-conspiracy, then, will always entail significant risk to one’s reputation, body, or possessions. Michele Foucault suggests as much in his work on parrhesia (speaking the truth with courage) (Foucault, 2012). To understand the need for adopting such a rhetoric, I contend, requires an understanding of the stoic concept memento mori, where it refers to an injunction to develop an appreciation for rich possibilities of life by meditating on the possibility of one’s death. The concept of mement mori became salient for me and my students during a summer I was struggling to help students make sense of a series of racist incidents, including the killing of George Floyd less than three hours away from our campus.

Down to Earth: Gaia Storytelling and the Learning organization. (Full paper in the proceedings)Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Malmö University, kmolbjerg@gmail.comAnete M. Camille Strand, Aalborg University, astrand@hum.aau.dkJulia Hayden, Gaia Storytelling Lab, contact@princess-gaia.comMogens Sparre, Aalborg University, sparre@hum.aau.dkJens Larsen, OldFriendsIndustries, info@oldfriendsindustries.com2Abstract‘Gaia storytelling’ is used in this paper to get the learning organization (LO) ‘down toearth’. Following Latour, Gaia is a reorientation from globalized to localized matters of theworld and towards sustainable worldly practice. Gaia is understood through the notion ofcritical zones, which foregrounds the local, differentiated, porous and permeable terrestrialconditions in which life on earth is embedded. Gaia takes the multiplicity of agencies seriouson the expense of global and anthropocentric out-of-this-world-attitude that has dominated thepost-war period. A Gaia LO is understood as part of a gaiagraphy of entangled life cycles ofwhat Latour calls ‘Terrestrials’. We use storytelling to reconstruct, reconfigure and revitalizethe learning organization to the agencies of Gaia. Gaia storytelling implies perceiving the

learning organization as an assemblage of story practices led by adventurers, explorers, artists,artisans, craftsmen, poets, writers, seafarers and any other unique creative citizens. Such anorganization sustains and grows through a number of intra-active storytelling cycles thatallow Gaia to shape the organization and in turn allow organizations to partake in the ongoingco-creation of Gaia. We distinguish five different storytelling cycles, which is vital here: thecontemplation cycle, the creative cycle, the explorative cycle, the theatre cycle and the truthtelling cycle. These five cycles replace the five anthropocentric disciplines of the original LO.Keywords: storytelling, Gaia, learning organization, critical zone, storytelling cycles

Thomas E. Kleiner, Ph.D., Webster University, National Capitol Region, Washington, D.C.

AbstractAs entrepreneurs, the professional money launders who work to clean illicit proceeds (dirty money),

it’s a lucrative business and they are very well paid. However, the risk to reward ratio is dramatic on either end of the equation. Devoting their professional efforts to concealing the source of the money, and especially so in their methodologies to make the illegally gotten gains (illicit proceeds) appear legitimate to authorities of the state, we tend to address the phenomena of money laundering in the context of public policy or international economic theories (Tanzi, 1996). As a research specialist in the international political economy, we saw how professional money launderers were constantly evolving and improving upon their work with emergent techniques and methods in the global economy. They are continuing this to this day – it’s a lucrative but dangerous profession – but there’s money in it. Perhaps by delving into the ontology applying the subjective and individual components of entrepreneurship, perhaps we can make sense of and learn about the entrepreneurial aspects of money laundering as it’s applied to illicit financial activity – money laundering (Louis, 2008).

How Conversational Storytelling in virtual meetings heal in time of Covid-19

by Jens Larsen, storytelling researcher

The lockdown and isolation of the last 8 months of the pandemic seems to hit people hard with a feeling og lonliness, anxiety and depression. Surveys from the health sector stress these challenges. This presentation present two cases from Denmark where conversational storytelling in zoommeetiings has been used to bring people together across generation, geography and social status. It explore the project Denmark Tells Stories which is a national project. The Project is both about creating community and mentalt health for people across Denmark but it is also use to collect stories for a theatreplay for the oldest theatre in Copenhagen and the archieves in the National Museum of Denmark for research in how people lived under the pandemic. The presentation will use the concept of Conversational Storytelling and True Storytelling to explore the cases.

Lastest publication“True Storytelling – Seven Principles for an Ethical and Sustainable Change-management Strategy”, Routledge 2020.Jens Larsen, David Boje, Lena Bruun,

A Personal and Professional Journey through True StorytellingBy Dr Kenneth E Long, Date: Nov 28, 2020

This paper will be a multi-layered story that relates my personal and professional journey through the principles and application of True Storytelling in the Boje tradition during the year of the pandemic, 2020. It will begin with my background in the professional use of narrative inquiry and OD storytelling in my roles as a professional OD practitioner, college professor, small business owner and executive coach, and head coach of a youth premier soccer team.

I will describe my journey through the modules of true story, my efforts in developing personal and professional application tools in the spirit of the Boje teaching, results of my engagement in the world with the true story principles both personally and professionally, and a description of some of the most useful and effective tools I’ve developed along the way that I believe may be useful and interesting to others following a similar path. I will share powerful metaphors that apply across all of the domains of my personal and professional engagement combined with specific practical teachable techniques that bring theory and practice into a useful unity.

Examples of powerful visual imagery created during true story engagements will illustrate the creative, critical and practical ways of thinking and being in the world that are typical for true storyteller practitioners, while rare in the world of traditional organizational development practice.

Finally, I will summarize four ongoing projects where I facilitate and curate the propagation of True Storytelling in the world in four separate but representative ecosystems and demographics which include a global alumni of True Storytelling workshop attendees, a cadre of professional military officers exploring their inner space in a professional setting, a youth soccer team examining what it means to be a good person, player and teammate as the explore their own identity and with a global clientele of market traders and asset allocators who are looking to go beyond their technical proficiency and into the world of integrated honorable work in the world.

A time perspective autoethnography on Academic Intrapreneurship

Oscar Javier Montiel Méndez, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, México, oscar.montiel@uacj.mx

Autoethnography is a recognized research method used broadly in the social sciences, particularly in storytelling. Not only its use within the area of entrepreneurship has been scarce, but also specifically on intrapreneurship processes, and those applied on academic university environments. Departing from my experience as the leader of the university’s entrepreneurship teachers’s transversal academy and former director of the university’s business incubator, where the aim was to promote entrepreneurship as the engine of a paradigm shift within the university (located in Mexico), and using analytical generalization following Chang (2008), the results suggest a broad reflection on organizational, social and cultural aspects, which are immersed in the processes of change in every institution, where intrapreneurship can be view and analyze under a chronological, karyological and aionological time process, a novel view on both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship studies.

The stories told fostering intrapreneurship included elements regarding the discovery, creation, exploitation (Alvarez and Barney, 2007), and articulation (Pelly, 2017, Hernes, 2014) of opportunities, with a juxtaposition on the time processes involved. A theme recently beginning to gain attention, drawing attention to time to advance entrepreneurship research by focusing on two aspects of time—time perspective and time management (Lévesque & Stephan, 2020). My perspective (see fig. 1) it is not that so much of the organization and operational perspective as Levesque & Stephan, strongly related to its outcomes, but philosophically, more oriented to revisiting the ancients Greeks notion of time, and how this might support entrepreneurship process studies as a life vision and within the entrepreneur itself.

REFERENCES:Alvarez, S. A., & Barney, J. B. (2007). Discovery and creation: Alternative theories of entrepreneurial action. Strategic

entrepreneurship journal, 1(1‐2), 11-26.Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as Method (Developing Qualitative Inquiry). London: Routledge.Engstrom, C. (2012). An autoethnography account of prosaic entrepreneurship. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry,

10(1).Hernes, T. (2014). A process theory of organization. OUP Oxford.Lévesque, M., & Stephan, U. (2020). It’s Time We Talk About Time in Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice , 44(2),

163–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719839711 Pelly, R. D. M. (2017). The Story of Captain Baby Face and the Coffee Maker: An Entrepreneurial Narrative Perspective on

Corruption. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(4), 390-405.Fig. 1 A Dynamic Model of Time in Entrepreneurship

Action Action

Opportunities Success Beliefs Time Mgt

Abduction Renewal EV Models Success

Kairos

(atemporal)

Kronos

(temporalist))

Consciousness New Assumptions

Learn behaviors

Success

Time Perspective

Action Habits

Original Love by Glenn Parry (Original Love book forthcoming)

When a police officer kept his foot on George Floyd’s neck, causing him to die, but giving birth to a renewed social justice movement, it occurred to me then that this was a metaphor for what humanity had been doing to the Earth. We had been keeping our foot on her neck, paving over the natural world to pursue our short-sighted economic interests. It was Mother Earth that could not breathe. If we did not change, much of the natural world would die.

It is always a challenge to fully grasp the moment we are living in. Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards, according to Kierkegaard. We have never lived through a time exactly like this. But we have lived through crises before. We know from experience that every crisis presents both danger and opportunity. The opportunity now seems clear.

Sounding the alarm about climate change has not worked; but the people will protect what they love. This is the moment to rekindle love for each other and for Mother Earth. There is no time to waste. The ancestors and spirits of this land are aware of the urgency. This is why they whisper messages to us or our loved ones: “do this now: save this pond, river, old growth forest, frog, or bird—rebuild the soil, plant this garden, buy this farm, write this book.” It is up to all of us to listen and do our own part.

Entrepreneurship

*Sense Experience

*Learning Process

*Elan Vital (EV)

Aion

(eternalist)

I realize now that, in the deepest recesses of my heart, there has always been a memory of how we humans came to be, how we are connected to all things, and where we are heading. This is the time to tell that story: the story of original love.

Mag.art. Dr. phil. Renate C.-Z.-Quehenberger, office@qc-L.eu, http://quantumcinema.uni-ak.ac.at, http://vimeo.com/quehenberger /AND Dipl.ing. Mag.pol. Claus Seibt, email: claus.seibt79@gmail.comAbstract: Schrödingers quote of 2400 years of Quantum Information (full paper in proceedings)

Our quantum storytelling sequence is starting with a reference to Plato’s description1* of the „5th element“ as 3D representation of the Penrose Kites & Darts. This concept implies that the ideal world is built from a five-dimensional perspective. Hence the ancient theory of everything finds its confirmation in Henri Poincaré’s 4-dimensional dodecahedron2 as model of the Universe and is with that related to modern unified theories of physics (Kaluza 1919, de Broglie 1927, SU(5), SU(10) Grand Unified Theories, spin-foam models, etc.).

The philosophical concept behind Plato’s term ideas (εἶδος (eidos), what means kind of, idea, shape, set) includes a theory of form. According to Plato form (forma) represents different groups of symmetries and is the center-piece of mathematical formalism, applied as major method for description and analysis in physics. Pythagoras’ mathematics as visualized by Plato can only be understood in its higher dimensional geometric form which (re)presents quantum information3 - more than 2 millennia before modern time. What the Pythagorean discovered was group theory in symmetry4.

Therefor we may acknowledge as well ancient neolithic researchers, who already developed regular shapes as very early precursors to present quantum information. Hence regarding the mathematical achievements by Pythagoreans, -- including the »Heroids, or Pythagorean women« 5, we can speak of at least 2400 years of research as applied to quantum information and quantum computation science today. And such a conceptualization is even based on earlier inventions of dyadic mathematics at the loom6. Ancient Greek developments of higher-dimensional geometry are rooted in ancient Egypt as conveyed in the mythology of this time7. With taking the origami riddle in the »Isis & Osiris« myth, dating back to the 3rd Millennium BC), and the quantum geometry of qubit in to account, we will proceed our narrative.

The next sequence of our storytelling leads us to Copenhagen and Zurich in 1927. The Austrian quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger invented wave mechanics referring back to 2400 years of quantum theory”8 while his German colleague Werner Heisenberg appraised in his Matrix mechanics the »atomists« in the minor east region of the 6th century BC.9 Both found remarkable similarities to the modern interpretation of quantum mechanics in the "spontaneous attacks of the mechanically foreseeable pathways" that Lucretius already described in his tractatus about the atoms. Schrödinger was impressed by the „relentlessness" of the causal claim in ancient scientific thinking. He found as well inspiration for his wave mechanics theory in ancient texts like the Vedanta.

The neolithic idea of a 'living intelligent pattern of the world' as conveyed by Plato can be understood only by perceiving all matter as wave phenomenon from a modern physics point of view. Also the philosophy of the physicist David Bohm, who developed inspired by the Fourier Analysis, a causal and non-local interpretation of quantum mechanics, expresses the „unity of being“ due to a interconnected wave-field, which „subscends all reality.“10 This finds equivalent concepts in Indian mythology, for example the Sanskrit term Nada means “sound”, but also “electricity”. "Brahma" was originally an Indian magic formula, which was later used to phrase the „living" as primal force of the cosmos. The term Brahma expresses the indivisible unity of beings and is related to Indian spirituality. You can find as well very tangent expressions in Indian classical music.11

1 Plato (2003) [c. 360 BC]. Timaios, Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., p.107.2 RCZQ; A new visualization of the homology sphere, ICM 2014, International Congress of Mathematicians, Seoul (KR) Poster presentation, und Film, IMAGINARY Seoul, https://imagi’nary.org/film/the-epita-dodecahedron-visualizing-poincares-dodecahedral-space3 RCZQ.: A proposal for a psi-ontological model based on 5-dimensional Geometry“, QCQMB Workshop: Quantum Contextuality in Quantum Mechanics and Beyond, Prag (CR) June 2017, LINK4 Alan L. Mackay (1990) Crystals and fivefold symmetry. In: Quasicrystals, Networks, and Molecules of Fivefold symmetry, (Ed.) Istvàn Hargittai, VCH, New York. Erwin Schrödinger (1948): 2400 Jahre Quantentheorie, Annalen der Physik 438, vol.3, pp. 43 - 48.5 Lost book of Philarchos quoted in: Poestion, Griechische Philosophinnen [Greek female Philosophers], Vienna, 1876, 71.6 Ellen Harlizius-Klück (2004) Weberei als episteme und die Genese der deduktiven Mathematik. In vier Umschweifen entwickelt aus Platons Dialog Politikos., Berlin: edition ebersbach 20047 R.CZ. Quehenberger (2013): Quantum Information Traced back to Ancient Egyptian Mysteries', Techno ethics andArts, 11:3, Bristol: Intellect, http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals../view-Article,id=17295/8 Erwin Schrödinger (1948): 2400 Jahre Quantentheorie, Annalen der Physik 438, vol.3, pp. 43 - 48.9 Werner Heisenberg (2011): Quantenphysik und Philosophie, Stuttgart: Philip Reclam jun. Verlag (reprint from 1979), p.13.10 David Bohm (1980): Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge, London.11 Joachim-Ernst Berendt (1983) Nada Brahma: The world is sound, Frankfurt am Main, Insel Verlag.

Our contribution to quantum storytelling will review on ontological- and cosmology concepts by particularly recounting to equivalences between ancient mythological- and modern unified theories in physics emphasizing on higher-dimensional perceptions of the world. Some speculations about particularly female neolithic contributions such as the alleged development of ‚Euclidean postulates' and the golden ratio approach in the Balkans regions (near and middle east) in the 5th millennium BC will be in addition reported.12 Dr. Debra Pearl Salsi, pearlbhs@gmail.com

Although science has proven we are all energy, and many people believe this spiritually, there seems to be a lack of decision-making that uses a method of energy and vibration to resolve problems and concerns. Problem-solving, historically, and more specifically in the workplace, tends to utilize a linear process that includes subconscious elements and material outcomes. Alchemists incorporated a more ultraliminal approach, balancing heaven and earth, or the unseen, intangible and unheard with the grounding elements of the material world. This presentation will explore and compare the ultraliminal view with more traditional decision-making process, exposing the missing pieces of using a linear thought process.

12 R.C.Z.Q.(2018): Dark Grounds’ of Science: Golden ratio and other Geometric Elements connoted with (hyper) Euclidean Geometry on Macedonian Artifacts, in: Neolithic in Macedonia. Challenges for new discoveries (Hrg.) Ljubo Fidanoski und Goce Naumov; Proceedings of the Neolithic Macedonia Conference 2017, Skopje: Center for Prehistoric Research, pp. 201-211

Cheating – losers, winners, and who walks away with the prize by Dr. James SibelWhat is cheating? To behave dishonestly, or to not obey the rules, to do something that is not correct but makes it easier to succeed. To treat someone dishonestly.Is it ok to cheat? Is cheating like lying, with white lies being acceptable and black lies never ok? Are there similar forms of cheating, some are ok, and others are just never acceptable? Is cheating ok if it is ‘for a higher cause’?

Ex. JFK’s senate election in MA – he won his senate election against Henry Cabot Lodge because his father (enriched by a rum-running family fortune) arranged a loan for $500,000 to the Boston Post newspaper that was on the verge of bankruptcy to endorse him. He won by a very narrow margin attributed to that endorsement.13

Ex. Washington cheated his men in a land grab to enrich himself and his officers at the close of the French and Indian War. In 1754, as Britain and France prepared to go to war in the Ohio River Valley, the Virginia House of Burgesses voted to form a full-time provincial regiment. The officer corps was easily staffed, and Washington took over the regiment as colonel. But Governor Robert Dinwiddie anticipated difficulty signing up common soldiers, so he offered an enlistment bonus: Once Britain won control of the Ohio Valley, 200,000 acres of conquered territory was to be divided up among the troops. Dinwiddie made it clear that the land should only be given to common soldiers, not to officers. The following year, the executive council distributed 170,000 acres of the land, holding the rest in reserve for future claimants. Fifty-two enlisted men got a total of 20,800 acres, 400 acres each. But 150,000 acres went to Washington and his fellow officers.14

So, a closer examination of history shows us that Washington and JFK were both cheaters and gained their fame and fortunes through nefarious means – cheating. Yet they each became American Saints, revered in our national consciousness.

I ask again, is it ok to cheat? As a child, we are taught that “cheaters never win” - the problem with that is that cheaters do win. They win at a lot of things including the ascension to the American presidency. So, do cheaters win? Yes. Have you ever cheated on a test? Have you ever given a friend the answers to a test? Have you ever cheated on your taxes in order to pay ‘just a little less’?Do you work at your full level of efficiency for the entire day at your job or do you drift, chat with collogues, surf the web, answer your personal emails, - that’s cheating your company of valuable hours of productivity – cheating. Is it right to profit by buying stocks of corporations that profit from tax evasion by offshoring billions in taxable income? Is it cheating for you to buy inexpensive shoes made in sweatshops by children or should you pay more by supporting fair-trade organizations? How about the cheap gasoline we all buy that is sourced in foreign countries that supports oppressive dictatorships held in power by our military alliances or the ones fracking by injecting toxins into the water tables beneath us, poisoning our water for countless generations to come so we can get the cheap gas or oil now? That’s cheating right?

13 Leamer, Laurence (2001). The Kennedy Men: 1901-1963. HarperCollins. pp. 304–305. ISBN 0-688-16315-7.

14 Woody Holton is a professor of history and American studies at the University of Richmond. Originally published in the February 2012 issue of American History

Are you a cheater? When asking that question of yourself are you exercising what some Brothers I am acquainted with call a “self-evasion of mind”?I put forth the proposition that we are all cheaters – some where, some time, we all cheat, or we benefit from the rewards of others cheating. Cheating can be marvelously advantageous – it makes winning easy, and its empowering, often leading to more successes.

Decolonizing Doctoral Education: Creating Stories of Love While in the Lion’s DenOr

How An Old Crone Is Learning Compassionate BadasseryJulia Storberg-Walker

Before Now (Then)

“You are ready” was the message I received that morning; ready for what I did not know. There was a mix of excited anticipation and concern—it felt good to know, in some sense, that the early morning meditation practice was bearing fruit. I also fretted a bit, in the far back of my mind, about the kinds of challenges that might lie ahead. I had read about the dark night of the soul; of the suffering and anguish of many women mystic ancestors; and I personally knew of an anguish and sorrow much greater than human. But that one morning I knew this new Truth, and I willingly stepped in to Life as an energy for justice, love, and compassion.

The new tests and struggles began. Or, perhaps more realistically, I started to relate differently to the tests and struggles that have always been. I saw myself become more able to open and to listen to the silence, and I began to reorient myself to myself, to others, and to the world (seen and unseen). I also noticed—and still notice—habits, patterns, and ways of being that continue to get in the way of justice, love, and compassion.

One day Buddy needed a walk outside, so outside we went. There is a big, old tree in the front yard, and Buddy started to pee at its roots. I found myself just standing in front of the tree, with an empty mind, gazing silently, when I heard—and CLEARLY heard but with no sound, the word “SURRENDER.” I looked up at the tree, shocked to stillness. That was the first time a tree spoke to me. It was quite disorienting! Was I going mad? The thought did cross my mind. Now, not so much…and I am learning the language of plants, animals, Earth, and other energy beings. I am grateful for the many messages of love, justice, and compassion from the many beings I am coming to know.

Before Now (But After Then)

Then—then—then….back then the lessons were mostly internal, about learning to love myself, learning about myself. Healing old wounds. Humility. Service. Noticing ego, attachment, fear. Knowing with certitude and watching truth expand over time into other ways of knowing and being. Voracious reading, talking to Friends on the path, drawing, writing; hours of meditating, being brave, curious, expansive. But I was still protected, because the lessons were internal. I was growing into what I always was but forgot.

Now

The lessons are external, and my University work is my learning lab. Mistakes are frequent, and all are public. Unskilled yet passionate words, actions, and decisions are made in front of friendly and not-so-friendly colleagues. This is the space of decolonizing my workplace; this is the space where I struggle to bring in justice, love, and compassion; and this is the lion’s den of hierarchy, fear, patriarchy, white supremacy, economic rationality, and separation from nature.

Session Overview

I will offer auto-ethnographic stories about the real human/divine struggle involved in decolonizing doctoral education WITH love, justice, and compassion. I will share lessons learned, mistakes made, flashes of wholeness and integration, and true, living stories of one woman’s journey into compassionate badassery.

A WONDER-FULL ANTIDOTE TO ANXIETY: A VIRTUAL EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCESStormy C. Sweitzer, PhD Candidate

Department of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Business, Case Western Reserve UniversityStormy.sweitzer@case.edu

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated transitions in the way we work, meet, learn and communicate, with much of the transition requiring digitally-mediated interaction with one another. Due to the sheer quantity of online meetings taking place since March 2020, many people have reported experiencing web meeting—or “Zoom”—fatigue (Fosslein & Duffy, 2020), as well as social isolation, feelings of dissonance (Entis, 2020), and difficulty recognizing, embodying and mirroring emotion, all of which are essential to empathy and connection (Murphy, 2020). These feelings can add a level of more-acute anxiety (Degges-White, 2020) to what is, arguably for many, already an anxiety-inducing time in history.

To help counter feelings of anxiety within the context of a web-based conference, I propose an activity in which participants are invited to briefly share experiences of wonder they have had during the pandemic…stories of connecting with, noticing and attending to the world (or themselves) in ways that, perhaps, eluded them prior to the pandemic or which were evoked by an unsettling sense of curiosity or surprise. It is the aim of this session to elevate such moments, orient the participants to a disposition of wonder—e.g., a greater awareness of it (Schinkel, 2019), and establish a connection between participants through a conversational exchange of experiences (Benjamin, 2006). To foster a sense of audible intimacy and enable participants to dedicate attention to what is spoken and how—rather than on potentially-faulty visual perceptions of emotion (Murphy, 2020), participants will be asked to turn off their video cameras and look away from their screens.

ReferencesBenjamin, W. (2006,) " The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov" in The Novel: An

Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900-2000, ed. D.J. Hale, Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing, New York, pp. Pp.361-378.

Degges-White, S. (2020, April 13). Dealing With Zoom Anxiety. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lifetime-connections/202004/dealing-zoom-anxiety/

Entis, L. (2020, May 26). The stark loneliness of digital togetherness. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/5/26/21256190/zoom-facetime-skype-coronavirus-loneliness

Fosslien. L., & Duffy, M. W. (2020, April 29). How to Combat Zoom Fatigue. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-combat-zoom-fatigue

Murphy, K. (2020, April 29). Why Zoom Is Terrible. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/sunday-review/zoom-video-conference.html

Schinkel, A. (2019) Wonder, Mystery, and Meaning, Philosophical Papers, 48:2, 293-319, DOI: 10.1080/05568641.2018.1462667