“I am the possibility of communal transformation”, a simple sentence – such profound effects. The story of this possibility all started when I attended Peter Block’s Community Building workshop hosted by Symphonia in Johannesburg in the beginning of March 2010. During this time Peter and I started conversing about our different fields and how we can enable communities to start writing a new collective narrative. The possibility has now taken on a new dimension as I will be flying to the USA tonight to learn from Peter and his colleagues as well as share my expertise within the Narrative therapy field. I will be sharing my learnings on this blog every day and am looking forward to the transformation in my own life and those that will be sharing the journey with me in various ways.

In the beginning of Ben and Roz’s book, the Art of possibility, Ben tells the story of a little girl enrolling into a perfect day. Living in the new South Africa, I can hear some of our friends and family now living abroad giggling about us having a perfect day over here.  I might be described as one of those positive thinkers or in serious denial of some sort. In my own reflection of this short story, I came under the impression of how the mere uttering of the words, perfect day, evokes the voices of doubt and so-called reality competing in my head. The story then ends with the following words: “And with that, she sailed out into a universe of possibility”. On this beautiful Sunday, I can think of various reasons for it to not be a perfect day. Having tried the latter for most of my life, I am engaging into a beautiful perfect day today, expecting and inventing a life of possibility.

Today, I again had the privilege of journeying with a person through the meaning that he has constructed of a particular story of his life. I was struck how problems latch onto our lives and make themselves so comfortable that we come to believe that that is the way life is or sometimes always has been. And then as easy as it came, problems can lose their power… What a privilege to share in the relief and sometimes tears, seeing transformation happen right in front of your eyes. And being a co-journeyer I am filled with hope as I am also forever changed….   

We are all aware that we can never escape the impact of power and therefore it is a given that during team building sessions power also comes along to play. I have been contemplating through many teambuilding sessions how I can deconstruct power so that everybody can have the safety to participate as equals. Recently I facilitated a session at Lesedi cultural village (http://www.hartbeespoortdam.com/lesedi/ ) and we made use of the Moroccan style setting where everybody sat or lay on cushions as we had our conversations. This proved to be a very meaningful two days and a learning curve as to how we can deconstruct power in the way that we construct the atmosphere of the conference rooms we use.

This week I have been journeying with the E-traffic team. As always it was surprising to see how my own assumptions about IT teams came into play. What a vibrant and passionate team, focused on quality!